12th December 2013 - Bull Pot of the Witches

It has been dry for ages and so we thought we were definitely on for the Magic Roundabout, but a pesky weather front was forecast to move in at just the wrong time and an alternative was required.

Most of the entries in the CNCC rigging guide have a warning about being an "active pothole, responding quickly to wet weather", but Bull Pot of the Witches doesn't.  (NB while the pitches may be dry, the lower reaches of the cave definitely DO respond to rain).

BPotW also has the advantage that the walk in is pretty short, handy for a late start.  Over the stile and the path round the open pot was carefully followed to the short entrance tunnel.  While the pitches are all free climbable, they also proved perfect for a bit of early season rigging practice.

Tom at the bottom of the first pitch

At the bottom of the first pitch, a large but short tunnel soon leads to the open pot.

Tom making his way to the open pot

Turning back on yourself then leads, almost immediately to the next pitch, which gave Dick a useful chance to practice his rerigging of my rigging to make it somewhat more user friendly.

Dick and Tom rerigging the rigging

The last pitch was rigged, though Tom took the opportunity to isolate the more worn sections of the rope.  At the foot of the pitch a short climb down lead to stream level and a short climb up to the aptly named Long Gallery.  This gives a  less aqueous route to the further reaches of the cave, which are much more considerable than I thought.

Thought this would be a dry underwear trip, it wasn't.

We first visited the downstream sump and its in situ dive line, leading into the depths before Tom managed to pull the route to the monolithic towers from somewhere in his memory.

The monolithic towers

While Dick and I took photos Tom disappeared to do a bit of ratching around and found himself at a couple of scaffold bars, the reason for which we unsure of, but:

http://www.blackrosecc.org.uk/reports/pdf-north/BullPotOTW.pdf

offers an explanation.
On our return to the pitches we managed to miss the climb up from the stream on the first pass, but raising water and a lowering roof soon convinced us we'd gone to far.
It was quite late by the time we reached the pub, there's  lot more to Bull Pot of the Witches than you may initially think and probably a fair bit more still to be found.

6th December 2013 - Ropeless in Easegill

Alistair promised lots, post trip steak and beer, a group of Thursday Night Club cavers re-united after a long lay off, and an exciting new round trip, but in the end it was just him and me trudging across the bleak moorland towards the upper reached of Easegill. In fairness to Alistair he didn't say there would not be any of the following

• The need to swim/crawl through water with a temperature of about 5C
• Continuous crawling for long sections
• Very low sections of flat out caving
• Semi blocked passages where large gritstone blocks had to be pushed aside to make progress
• Hanging death blocks 

The list could go on but I don't want to be too negative! It was actually a great caving trip and unique we decided in that it was an Easegill "through trip" without the need for any ropes at all. There are we think another two through trips in this system where you don't need to carry ropes underground, submit a comment below if you think you can name them! (the prize would be something very disappointing so don't even ask!)

The initial entrance series is steady going, quite physical and varied, but never desperate. Alistair's description from Descent magazine seemed quite accurate, and after a few free climbed pitches we arrived at "The Manhattan Project". An impressive dig that connects this previously unconnected part of the system with the continuously increasing kilometres of passages.

Metres of scaffolding and wire fencing have been dragged through quite arduous passages to this remote location, and then used to bury through rocks and gravel, what must have taken 100's of hours to dig through just takes a few seconds to climb down! And after this short climb you arrive in the main Easegill system! THen on Through Hiroshima and Nagasaki chambers to the assembly room and then further on to eventually arrive at the master cave and Thackeray's passage before the none to easy escape via Depot Passages and Wretched Rabbit.

We took a few nice photos, but were still out the cave before 7pm so plenty of time to go and grab a comfy seat at the Barbon Inn. Too late for that we found out, and also we just made do with a beer and crisps due to the no show by those other TNC no-shows!

Unusual purple stalactites in Boundary Pot

Alastair climbing up to the grotto in Boundary Pot

Superb unspoilt calcite formations 

29th November 2013 - Return to the Borehole

With the weather having been dry for the last couple of weeks and with unfinished business from last season, Dick and I set off back to Easegill and the Borehole.

Fortunately the trip to have a look at the pitch earlier in the year was still fairly clear in our minds, so while navigation wasn't a problem, tackle sacks definitely made the trip harder than before.

At an "over or under" decision point I went under despite Dick's misgivings and soon arrived at the pitch with one small problem, the bar to rig the rope from had gone.  I tried continuing, but the way on is blocked.  Returning the way we had come seemed the only option.  Wriggling around to reverse I looked up and there lay the bar, a few feet above, "over" in hind sight would have been the best option.

At the bottom of the pitch we double checked the description and our memories before pulling the rope and heading down the rift following the calcite band in its bottom.  For a short section this becomes almost tubelike, before popping out into a larger piece of passage.

Dick exiting the tube leading from the bottom of the pitch

Feeling pretty smug that I'd managed to get ahead of Dick and unpack camera and flash in order to capture the moment he came round the corner, I pressed the shutter.  Nothing from the camera flash but a sickly whining sound.  A few minutes of faff and it was back to the old open the shutter and fire the flash manually routine.  Not the best way of capturing any "moment", especially not helped when, perhaps to make up for the camera flash not firing, the slave flash decided it was going to flash twice when fired.

With Dick released from modelling duties we continued down the passageway ticking off landmarks both in our memories and in the description.  After another brief photo stop to see some beautiful stal growing from what looked like a bed of straw, it was on to the final piece of crawling before arriving at the foot of the well leading up to Green and Smelly.

Pretties on the way back to Spiral Stairs

With just one set of SRT gear between us, we opted for the free climbable route up into Spiral Staircase which brought us surprisingly quickly to the superbly built dry stone wall at the beginning of the pitches out of Wretched Rabbit.

The haul out of Easegill and up onto the moor felt like hard work, really hope it's a case of not being cave fit at the beginning of the season.

John, Tom, Phil, it's worth noting that Friday night in the Barbon Inn is steak night and it looks pretty good.  It has the added benefit that we'd have to be at the pub by 9!

9th August 2013 - Journey through the mountain

After a quick lunch we started packing in the car park.  SRT kit, pulleys, buoyancy aid, puncture repair kit, bicycle pump...  This wasn't going to be just any old trip.

A short section along the road and we soon began the slow but steady rise up the incline from Croesor village to its namesake slate mine.

Leaving the Croesor car park

Nestled within the ruined buildings lay the entrance adit and with a quick change of clothes we were ready to head underground.

The entrance adit to Croesor

This was mining on a scale I'd never seen before and after walking for around 400m along the adit from the portal we arrived in a huge marshalling yard with a flooded incline leading to lower levels.  Our route lay up another incline but a short side trip lead to a flooded stope, possibly one of the eeriest places I've ever visited.

At the top of the incline a short walk lead to the top of the first abseil.  With the rope carefully checked and found to be in excellent condition, Dick set off down.  It's at this point you start to realise the amount of work someone has put into making this trip a possibility.  Thick plastic sheeting was bolted over any sharp edge that may damage the rope and precisely the right length deviations keep the rope in place.

The first abseil

Inspecting the rope at the top of the first abseil

It's after the second abseil that the fun begins.  Back in the day the mine wagons would have trundled through mined out chambers, perched on bridges hung from the ceiling.  While this must have been quite a sight, time has taken its toll on the bridge supports and now a number of ingenious solutions have been found to cross each chamber.

The zip wire

The zip wire would be great even if it were above ground. Underground though and over a deep blue pool of water, with reflections from your head torch beamed onto the roof above, it's absolutely fantastic.  It's no wonder that some have worked hard to get back across, just to have another go.

The suspension bridge

Next up is a suspension bridge, engineered perfectly so you skim the water at the central point of your crossing. 

Tyrolleans and traverse lines then follow, the variety maintaining interest constantly.

The tyrolean traverse over one of the collapsed bridges

As with many of the best things in life, the best is saved till last and the final abseil lands you in a canadian canoe, complete with rubber dinghy tender.

The end of our canoe journey

At the end of one of the most surreal paddles I've ever enjoyed, a short jummar leads back up to the continuation passage.

Saying goodbye to the canoe

From here we waved good bye to our trusty vessel before continuing on to meet a demolished wall with curled back reinforcing bars.  This is the connection point between the Creosor and Rhosydd mines.

Entering Rhosydd mine

Rhosydd has a very different feel to it with a bit more scrambling around than in Croesor.  Before long though daylight is seen filtering from the huge opening on the hillside, the West Twll.

First daylight from the West Twll

Counter intuitively the route heads back down into the mine, away from daylight, down a long incline which leads in turn to the 9 adit.  600m away a bright spot of light indicated the portal to day and the end of our trip.

Light at the end of the number 9 adit

As at Croesor the portal is surrounded by ruined mine buildings, giving an indication of the sheer size of the operation in its hey day.

The exit from Rhosydd

While I've been told that spending your birthday underground isn't the best way of celebrating, Dick from deep in his tackle sack produced one of the finest birthday teas I've ever had.  Ham sandwiches and Smartie cake all washed down with a can of Black Sheep.

Fantastic birthday party

From the exit, it was a pleasant half mile or so walk back to the Croesor entrance and our bikes.  While pushing our bikes up had taken 50 minutes we were back at the road in 5 and the pub in 10, a terrific ending to a truly superb trip.

Back at the pub

Cheers to all the people who have put in hard work to make this such a sporting trip, installing the rigging and rope protectors.  Your work is very much appreciated.

A few video clips...

17th May 2013 - Beware the ghostly witch

Legend has it that an unwary traveller passing Ibbeth Peril may be dragged into a cave under the waterfall by a ghostly witch.  Given the amount of flood debris blocking the entrance though, I don't think this has happened in a while.

Spot the cave entrance

Once Dick had cleared the entrance a short crawl led through to an unexpectedly large chamber.  Though we had a survey, we realised almost immediately that things have changed in Ibbeth Peril since the 1960s and we set off exploring what looked like a fairly active dig.  A muddy tube soon led via a puddle and a corner to the dig face, so reverse gear was engaged and we set off, continuing our exploration of the main chamber.

Next up was a very pretty grotto, which had it been in Easegill or one of the more popular Dales caves would surely have been surrounded by tape.

We then made our way down through the boulders that make up the floor of the main chamber until a streamway was met which we explored until it sumped.  A detour on the return led to what looked like another dig site which led to open cave but I had too much in my pockets (this is my excuse anyway) to squeeze through.  Climbing up a bit further, Dick found yet another muddy tunnel, but this one was quite enjoyable, curving round in a big loop to join the main chamber once again.  Here another inlet led to yet another dig and a classic at that.  Sinking into a few inches of aqueous mud, I carried on until the water began to get a bit close to the roof for comfort and, not for the first time this evening, found myself wriggling backwards out of a muddy tube.
A more comfortable sized passage then led down to a proper Yorkshire streamway which in turn led to a pair of ominous static sumps, fly trap in nature, surrounded by steep mud sides.
Once again back in the main chamber, the final obvious way on took us up a great little waterfall into a fantastically sculpted streamway.  Once again though, not far along this, we found ourselves at a sump.

Returning to day light we went in search of the entrance to Ibbeth II, found under what seemed like a giant Beaver dam of debris.  Not familiar with the pubs in these here parts we found ourselves in The Sun, the only reason being it had a car park.  It's worth knowing they serve a very good pint.

Friends reunited - May 10th 2013

Dah Dah Dah-Dah-Dah/Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah ... so went the tune in my head as we stared out of the car window at the torrential rain.  Ten minutes earlier in sunshine I had driven up to Bull Pot Farm to meet Al but no sooner had he got in my car the heavens opened and the April shower (wait a minute this is May!) poured down around us as it had done all day. ' The return through trip of the Borehole is out then I suppose', I said hoping that Al's reply was going to be similar to my thoughts of 'low airspace in heavy rain'!

Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah/Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah ... so what should we do then?  'Well, what else did your history books have in them,' asks Al?
' Funny you should ask,' I reply, 'I have a tune in my head that would make a good re-exploration'

Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah ... etc  

ok click the link above if you have not guessed the tune or if you are just fed up with repetition!

and so with the shower passed over we changed into our kit and headed off to Lancaster Hole.

The pitch rigged soon saw us heading through familiar passages towards Fall Pot where the sound of falling water from Cow Pot gave us an indication that there may be some water in the Easegill system.  Up in the high level series the number of placed hangers and in-situ handlines gave us food for thought as to why it was thought OK to place these fixed aids in this system but not leave a piece of rope dangling in Kingsdale Master Cave?

On 8th January 1999 Phil and I made a chance discovery while looking for the entrance Stake Pot Inlet, a window in the south wall of the upper series passage that was not so obvious from the main way up to Bob's Boss.  Through this window a 12mm rope headed off up a massive shaft, which on further research turned out to be the Arson Shaft,  recently rebolted in order to survey the cave system it led into.   As we didn't have our SRT gear at the time, we explored the passages below Bob's Boss and found the way into the main drain. This trip in 2013 the entrance window was easier to spot due to the wear in the area.  Is this due to increasing numbers of people doing the round trip (although a web search only mentions three trips) or just people going to look into the shaft?  Today, the rope diameter was slightly less (replaced in 2007 my online research suggests) but still leads up via some rather ancient looking 8mm spits to the entrance to ...

The Magic Roundabout Series!

On 29th January 1999 Tom, Bruce, Phil and I had climbed the Arson Shaft and once we had worked out the way on at the top through an unlikely looking tight bit (which opens quickly beyond) we had reached the top of the 11m pitch and explored the Pristine Way then returned the way we had come, foiled by no rope on the 11m pitch..  This trip we quickly arrived at this pitch to find a fixed rope in place.  To my surprise, when looking through the mud, caking the 10mm  rope the pink colour was still there.  It was my old climbing rope, placed by me on our round trip on 5th February 1999!  (We think that this was probably one of the earlier round trips following the replacing of the rope in the Arson Shaft.  The original trip was done sometime in the 1970s we think). 

NB.  Be aware if doing this pitch today that this rope is over 20 years old having had a career as a climbing rope before being sacrificed to support our round trip, more of the rope being used to rig the pull through at the top of Aquarius Pitch and the rest fixed at the bottom of this pitch to gain the stream passage.

As we worked our way towards the head of the Aquarius Pitch the roar of water got louder and louder until the rope (mine from 1999 has been replaced I am pleased to note) at the head of the pitch came into view and a large spout of water cascaded down the pitch.  The water spouting down the pitch was brown, peaty and frothy and the abseil line was straight down the spout.  No way on this time.  Using the tackle bag to temporarily dam the head of the pitch the water built up quickly and the explosion of sound as the flood pulse hit the bottom of the pitch 18m below when we released the water was enough for us to realise that we didn't want to be there if another heavy rain shower was taking place above us.  We headed back to the Arson Shaft and descended back to the High Level Series.

As we had gone as far as Aquarius, we now decided to go and explore to the bottom section of stream coming from the Aquarius pitch; a passage called Brass Monkey.  On 22nd Jan 1999 Tom, Phil Bruce and I had done the same exploration and today 14 years later we squeezed down through the muddy boulders below Bob's Boss to slip and slide down to the Brass Monkey Streamway.  To this point we had been dry but we now waded and crawled upstream to where the ropes hung down from the 9m pitch and the way on to the bottom of the Aquarius. Once again as we had done with the Borehole, Al and I had made the connection from bottom to top and would have to wait for lower water levels to make the through trip .

Back down the streamway we continued, until finally we broke out into the main drain where we headed out via Stake Pot and the high level series.

A later than usual arrival at the Barbon Inn saw us enjoying a pint of Barbarian Ale when three cavers came in after their evenings digging in Crystal Cave, with whom we enjoyed a chat and comparison of our exploits.