11th April 2013 - Tactical nuclear penguin

First of all this was a light and lucky, fast and free trip so you'll need to have someone read the following to you, while you close your eyes and imagine the trip...

To go caving you need your caving gear and having had a great few days away, Dick offered to take me
 home to pick up my stuff on his motorbike.  Spending most of my time driving a heavily laden van, acceleration isn't something I'm used to and so it was with slightly fraid nerves we arrived at our house.  For some reason my key had let me lock the door behind me when we left, but it was not for being unlocked.  I've now a strong feeling that some of the things you see in films aren't actually true.  Whereas in most films, locked doors fly open with one kick, this just doesn't seem to be the case in reality, or perhaps it was just the tight leather trousers I was wearing.  Finally having gained entry and picked up my gear we headed back to Dick's.  Despite all the protective clothing, I still felt very exposed in the outside lane of the M6, though the available acceleration does make joining the motorway north of Lancaster slightly less fraught.

A chill wind was blowing as we headed over the moors from Bull Pot Farm, where a couple of tents in the garden signalled the presence of a few hardy folk.  The gill was dry as we dropped down to the County pot entrance and only a couple of short sections further up stream, had water flowing.  A great set of instructions from Descent soon saw us at the surprisingly snowy entrance to Boundary pot and for the first few metres we could make like penguins and slide on our tummies over the snow floored passage, so much better than crawling.  A daylight shaft brought a change to more conventional caving techniques, but the excellent guide continued to allow us to find the way on without any difficulty.

Fortunately the last few weeks of dry weather meant the passges of the entrance series were almost completely dry and the first real water encountered was in the impressive chamber, just before Fusion cavern.  Stepping across in front of the cascasde is quite exhilerating and the climb down into the chamber that follows maintains the interest.  After Fusion cavern the way on became slightly more aqueous before we imerged into the dry, silent, vastness of Hiroshima.  Crossing this, we soon arrived at the very impressively built Manhattan connection and the way through to the main Easegill system.

The short traverse and walk through Far East Passage led to our only navigational glitch on the whole trip, with me first beginning the scramble up to Nagasaki to early and then when we got there turning to speak to Dick and futilely arguing that "left" was in the opposite to his "left".  The description really is incredibly clear and you have to be a bit of a muppet to make either of these mistakes.

With each passing footstep now the route became more familiar, Easter grotto, the Assembly Hall, the White Way, Thackray's passage, Holbeck Junction and finally Stop Pot.  Now we just needed to return to the surface by Wretched Rabbit.  No matter how fit I'm feeling, this always seems hard work and I always head up the wrong inlet, so it's great when the smell of fresh air reaches your nostrils and today this was accompanied by the glow of daylight too.

Caving in the day definitely has it's downsides.  First of all the walk over the moor seems to be longer when you can see what you're doing and secondly it was too early for a pint.

Huge thanks to Sam Allshorn, Mike Cooper and the others involved for making this trip possible through their digging efforts and also for the truly excellent description.

15th March 2013 - Kerplunk with added spiders

After the failure of Petzl to design and build a caving suit that fits a six foot bloke there was nothing for it but to repair the old one.   Following the advice of Dave in Inglesport a tube of Sikaflex was obtained and the old Meander suit repaired.  

So here, in true Inglesports pose is the outcome of the repair!

Come on Petzl, this is what a six foot caver looks like, design an over suit that fits or Meander start making them again!

So, today's trip was down Kerplunk with Kate and Joe and Sharon making their second appearance of the season.  This is a better meet attendance than TNC members Phillips, Garner, Whiting and Jardine by 2 trips!

Kate thought that the climb down the Kerplunk shaft was one of the most exciting things she had done in a while!  On arrival at the main stream way we were unsure what to expect as the rain had been falling heavily right up to when we started to get changed when suddenly the sun came out!  As it was, although swollen the water level was OK.

Sharon enjoying the experience

Kate and Joe threatened by Vlad the Impaler .  The water was freezing due to snow melt.  Time to head out.

Despite concerns from certain members about the climb out, it went quickly and soon people were popping out of the entrance.  The references to cave dwelling spiders that are 'mildly venomous' while   climbing out gave Kate some added impetus to ascend quickly!

Waiting for the last members to exit.  A quick walk back to the car and change saw us sitting in front of the fire at the Snooty Fox enjoying a pint of Landlord.

15th February 2013 - Wetter than last week

Tom back at the van.

Incredibly it hasn't rained for a couple of days and some blue sky has allegedly been seen over Lancashire.  Having had a great trip last week in Yordas and needing a short and exciting adventure for my brother-in-law, I thought a pull-through trip would be perfect.

Driving up Kingsdale, I was quite surprised to see the river running relatively high despite having had a couple of dry days.  The remains of the snow on the flanks of the valley gave a clue to its source and potential temperature though.

A five minute uphill plod, made slightly more difficult than usual by the neoprene/PVC combo, soon saw us at the Middle entrance.  The two short entrance pitches were soon negotiated and we set off along the streamway. 

Arriving at the final pitch the waterfall looked and sounded awesome.  Descending first to make sure the rope ran clear, I tried to sneak my way down the side of the main fall.  Though this was partially successful, there was no avoiding a couple of refreshing showers, the biggest being saved for the last couple of feet into the plunge pool.

Waving my lamp at Tom, he began his descent through the maelstrom, again trying hard to avoid the main fall, and again receiving the biggest soaking just before the bottom.  Signalling to him to climb through the window, with fingers crossed, I began to pull on the abseil rope.  Fortunately it came through easily and we were both soon in the impressive hall of Yordas.

I pointed out the line of foam about 5 foot up the wall and told Tom that this indicated how high the recent flood waters must have been.  He then asked about the line of foam about 11 foot up!  It must be a truly incredible sight when it's in flood.

Two minutes later we were back at the van and not much later, sat in the warmth of the Marton Arms, the noise and power of the rushing water a distant dream.

1st February - Back down to earth

The rain had fallen steadily all day in Lancaster, while this is the usual state of affairs, it hadn't been forecast and so as the afternoon approached we decided to change our original plans.  A quick flick through the rigging guide and Dick decided we should go and have a look at Yordas pot.  

First though we needed to head to Ingleton, as the word on the street was that Inglesport had some of the long awaited Meander suit replacements.  The bush telegraph was indeed accurate, but Lyon's sizing wasn't and while Dick was able to adopt the customary Inglesport oversuit pose (see here and here), further movement wasn't going to be possible even in their largest suit.  (If anyone from Lyon's reading Dick is more than happy to lend his dimensions to help with the production of a new sized suit as, given the rave reviews, he'd very much like one still).  So with his old, leaky Meander we set off, at least this wasn't going to be a wet trip.

Road side caves are fantastic and within a few minutes we were descending down the first entrance pitch and shortly after the second, which brought us to a lovely streamway.

While I tried taking a couple of photos, Dick started off, rigging the traverse over a roaring waterfall.  With having taken the kids into Yordas, I had wrongly assumed that this would be a very simple trip, but the third pitch is very good fun as it first traverses out, before heading down to the waterfall plunge pool.

Pretending that daylight wasn't but a short walk away, we looked round the impressive main chamber, before once again stepping back through the window to the waterfall chamber.

Starting the climb back up, some strange force propelled you into the waterfall, before the force of the water spat you back out.  These are the type of conditions when a fully waterproof, PVC suit comes in handy.

Returning along the traverse we soon swapped the verticallity of the waterfall, for the pleasant stream way and began making our way back out.

Once again the road side nature of the cave came up trumps and we were soon back at the van and shortly after in the warm environs of the Marton Arms.  Worth visiting for the very good beer and also to contemplate the price of a steak dinner.

27th January - Carrock Fell Mine

So, what do you on on a weekend where heavy snow is forecast on Friday with a serious thaw on Saturday night, Sunday?  You reverse the weekend's activities and do a headtorch ascent of Galeforth Gill on Friday night (think http://www.gerrish.info/2013/01/galeforth-ghyll-january-2013.html but in the dark!) then go underground when it is raining on Sunday.  So, excited by some research online, memories of exploration 30 years ago and having seen those brave selfless members of CATMHS excavating the entrance to Carrock Fell Mine we decided that it was the target of our next trip.

First there was the little matter of finding the correct key to get in.  Farmers  Supplies had one for £1.52

Carrock Fell Tungsten Mine

The history of this mine spans a long time, finally shutting in 1982 when the price of Tungsten fell.  It was just after it shut that I went down it the first time when all the mining equipment, including the train was still in place!   See the history of Carrock Mine here

The vein of quartz that the adits followed were where the Tungsten was found

Al looks at some minerals forming on the wall

The purple mineral is Fluorspar

And this is a lead oxide waterfall

Exploring a ladder heading off up the stope

and on up it went for at least 30m

The quartz vein becomes huge in places.

Looking down from the stope into the passage below

.  Al missing Yorkshire caving ...  actually ... the lengths Al goes to to get a good photo

The amazing quartz vein

Ore chutes.  there were over 40 in the whole mine

So where was the main one we asked?

More ladders to ascend to the higher levels of ore extraction.

Up in the quartz vein

Ore hoppers in a row down the passage, a train truck apart.

Waterfall showing that we can't be too far from the surface! 

Back at the entrance

The superb entrance rebuilt by CATMHS.

What do you do with an English/French caver who won't get his wellies wet? - January 12th 2013

New Year has passed and the 2012/13 caving season has yet to get going properly due to illness and prior commitments of the dwindling members of TNC.  The visit from France of guest susperstar caver and TNC member Paul Mackrill  promised to liven things up but due to the fact that his left hand has been badly damaged big caves were not on the agenda.  What to do ... a visit to Coniston Copper Mine!

Once in the Hospital Level of the mine we arrived at the first intersection.  The draft blew strongly to the left so we decided to go down the right adit first.  Not long after we had set off Paul announced that the water was getting deep and was threatening to go over his wellies (this is the man who in 2012 completed the first descent of the Culiembro - Xitu traverse, the world's deepest diving traverse and third deepest through trip in the world .)   A few minutes later his whinning that the water was getting critically near the top of his wellies forced a turnaround and retreat back to the left adit, which luckily was dry.  With the danger of wet feet avoided an exploration of the mine followed ; -

The rat gnawed rope is not getting any better. 

Where does this shaft go to?  No water so it must drain.  Where are the bolts to fix the rope?

There must be copper down here somewhere.

The same pretties as the last time we did this trip!

Unusually it was still light outside and Paul's feet are still dry!

22nd December - Jingling all the way...

Our First Experience Potholing by James and Sarah
Dec 2012

So the Clothing?

I wrestled into my thick yellow suit which appears to be the standard caving attire! Another car of fellow cavers pulled up whilst we were changing and they were rather taken with my red wellie boots!

The Walk In

The sky was heavy with low lying cloud and as we walked up the sodden hill even the light drizzle did little to stop me overheating. My onesie fleece undergarment and caving harness equipment felt a little claustrophobic to begin with but that feeling disappeared when we came across this opening in the ground!

The Decent

A quick lesson from Mr Dick Gerrish using the descender, we found ourselves leaping across and down this traverse whilst Alastair was rigging the route ahead! More down, down and passing a deviation we found ourselves clipping in and out with more ease. 

The Bottom and The Ascent

There was the remains of a sheep that had come to an unfortunate end and the realisation that what we had just come down required climbing back up! Bouncing a little, I was able to establish a nice rhythm gradually moving up the rope in 6" increments!

Arriving at the top and traversing the tricky top section which was now under the cover of darkness we had come to the end of our trip.

A massive thank you to Dick Gerrish and Alastair Shawcross for a totally exhilarating experience! 

Guest editors James (Honey Bear) Outram (sitting in the middle) and Sarah Gerrish back at the van after their debut potholing trip.