Yorkshire - SRT training, rain and plenty of mud!

SWCC Team: Derek Cousins, George Linnane, Helen Hooper, Duncan Hornby, Mark Rees, Lee Smith, Claire Vivian

Dates: 12th October - 14th

---

A smaller team of SWCC cavers descend upon the YSS for a weekend of SRT training and trips. Very wet weather limited our trip options to known “dry” entrances whilst Mark and George attended an SRT training session run by Helen using the excellent YSS indoor facilities.

---

Saturday

Helen arrived early Saturday for SRT training with Mark and George at the YSS.

George looking confused at the start of the SRT weekend. He was a pro by the end!

Due to the poor weather the rest of us took several cups of tea before deciding to visit Lancaster Hole and explore the immediate surroundings including the Colonnades and the Wilf Taylor’s passage of the Ease Gill system.

A Josh White was staying at the YSS and asked to join our trip as he had never visited the system, little did he know he had also unconditionally agreed to rig the entrance… ;)

Arriving at Bull Pot Farm it was clear how serious the issue of flooding in the system would be as what is normally a muddy but dry foot path had turned into a full on stream...

The footpath from Bull pot farm had turned into a stream rushing into the nearby Bull pot of the witches cave!

Arriving at the entrance we discovered another team was also using the same entrance so we had to rig over their rigging. Whilst standing around on the surface we could not get over how mild the weather was which made for entering the system less inviting. The draft coming from the cave was particularly cold.

Team preparing to enter Lancaster Hole, we needed to rig over another teams rigging.

The main pitch was quite wet, you could keep out of the spray for most of the descent until the last few metres then you got a face full!

With the team collected at the bottom of the pitch we went in search of the Colonnades. After a few wrong turns we found our way to them. I took a few photos and accidentally captured an Alice in Wonderland moment where Claire the smallest in the team grew to an enormous size whilst Lee shrank in size!

The Colonnades. Claire ate some cake whilst Lee drank from a bottle with “Drink me” written on it...

We then went in search of the Wilf Taylor’s passage, stopping to admire any pretties.

Josh admiring a section of pretties.

We found our way to the section of passage that leads you to a sump to Bull Pot of the Witches. A stream was thundering through this section stopping us from progressing any further. We took the opportunity to grab a team photo as the air was relatively free of mist.

The team (Claire, Duncan, Derek and Lee) with Josh providing back lighting.

Returning back to the entrance we stopped to grab a couple of photos, Lee next to a curtain and Claire next to the shower bath.

Lee and some curtains.

Claire at an inlet.

We returned to Lancaster Hole main pitch (30m) and then it got all a bit complex. As our team were attempting to exit the other team came down the entrance to collect their rope (they’d done the traverse to Country pot via Manchester Bypass). A third team had rigged over our ropes and used a slightly different route so when they arrived, to exit the system, it all got a bit “busy” at the constricted entrance with three people all trying to exit at the same time.

Trip time: 5 hours 30 mins

We returned to the YSS, cleaned up then meeting the others headed over to the Helwith bridge pub for a night of food and beer!

Harvey joins us at the pub.

---

Sunday

Mark and George left quite early to meet with Helen and put into practise the SRT skills they had learned on Saturday by visiting Jingling Pot. The rest of us had a lazy start with sore heads from too much beer…

Mark testing out his new found SRT skills.

George on his first Yorkshire pitch.

Mark finding vertical caving fun.

Abseiling with style.

Derek, Claire and I (Duncan) went back to Bull Pot Farm and visited Mistral Hole, another system that can be accessed in wet weather conditions. We bumped into some freshers from SUSS at the car park and determined that they were heading to the same cave. It was then a race over the moor as to who got to cave first…

Neither Claire nor I had visited this cave before and our visit to the system was based on Derek’s memories from 21 years ago! Amazingly he could remember key junctions and was able to guide us to key locations. Nice one Derek!

We passed Hall of the Ten where Duncan and Claire had a look at the exit from Pipikin pot- wet and foamy. Our next stop was Hall of the Mountain King which has some glorious mud. On leaving the Hall we bumped into the SUSS group who were about to enter the Hall for a mud fight. We continued into the cave towards Gour Hall.

Someone had deliberately placed a saucepan on a stal boss which was being dripped upon. It produced an eerie tapping sound as we approached Gour Hall, something out of a horror film…

Click on video to hear the tapping sound.

Derek in Gour Hall.

Derek in a section of Mistral which had many stalagmites.

On the way back we stopped a couple of times to photograph the stalagmites that had grown along the passage.

Claire in Stalagmite section.

We made it out to wonderful evening sunshine a stark contrast to the previous days weather.

Mistral team at entrance after a very muddy trip!

Trip time: ~5 hours

Red Rose Social Weekend and Yorkshire Caving

Red Rose Caving Club were holding a social weekend and BBQ over the first weekend in September. SWCC were invited as they have a reciprocal arrangement with the two clubs. On hearing of the

event we enquired if we could join them and were extended a warm welcome.

Unfortunately straight after the Bank Holiday, it was only Mark and Brendan who could attend, but we planned to make it a recce weekend for future trips.
We arrived on Friday night via a nice Italian Restaurant in Kirby Lonsdale before continuing on to Red Rose to find Beer had been laid on for the weekend so we joined a few of the members for a nightcap.....well it would be rude not to!
Two teams from Red Rose were doing various trips in to Notts2, but Brendan and I were hoping to spend some time over the weekend getting to grips with navigation in the Ease Gill Cave System starting with a trip in to Lancaster Hole. Red Rose were kind enough to supply some rope and we were soon making our way across Casterton Fell to the entrance.
After dropping the impressive 30m pitch we had been advised to take a look in Slug World so headed off here to find some impressive formations and unusual helictites. We then continued up the climb at Bridge Chamber to Colonade Hall where we took a couple of photos before continuing down an 8m fixed rope down to Montague East and on to Stake Pot. Here we were unsure if the next rope section required SRT kit (Which we had left at the base of the entrance pitch) and so returned to Fall Pot where the sound of the stream way enticed us to climb down the choke at the bottom of the pot. We were soon making our way up the impressive Lancaster Main Drain where rich peaty water flowed through deep pots and brown scalloped walls reflected our headlights beautifully. We turned around at what we believe to be a choke approaching Oxbow Corner and look forward to linking this section on a return visit.
Blue sky welcomed us back on to the surface and we were soon enjoying the BBQ laid on by the club and washing a burger or two down with a couple of beers.

Mark at The Colonades

For our second days caving we headed off to County Pot. I had joined Brendan on a previous trip in to Wretched Rabbit and up Stop Pot so was eager to 'join the dots' and link this entrance to Eureka Junction.
Although we had taken a line just in case, we found the pitches rigged and quickly made our way down them and the various climbs. We were soon in a chamber where Brendan challenged me to find the way on. Unfortunately for him I'd heard about the awkward Poetic Justice climb and soon found myself thrutching up the smooth calcite. Puffing and panting I awaited Brendan to join me, which after one attempt facing the wrong way he did. Whilst Brendan caught his breath I took a quick snap in the crawls before we continued on.
We were quickly in familiar passage and popping out at the foot of the boulder slope at Stop Pot. On our previous visit we had headed up the fixed ladder and on to Monster Cavern, so this time we headed in the opposite direction and we soon confronted by decorated passage in Gypsum Cavern. We continued on to The Palace where we spent a good time taking photo's before retracing our steps to Holbeck Junction. I stayed high and popped to take a quick look at Straw Chamber before rejoining Brendan. We headed up the boulders at Stop Pot looking for an alternative route Brendan recalled from his Uni days and soon found the low crawl that would exit at Four Ways Chamber. From here we followed the winding passage to the rope climbs to exit out of Wretched Rabbit.
As we walked back in the sunshine to Red Rose we planned our next navigational trips in to the system.

Brendan recovers after Poetic Justice

Brendan in Gyupsum Cavern

Mark in The Palace

Present Mark Burkey & Brendan Marris