After breakfast, Boyd Potts, Jo White and Pete Wagstaff headed for a return to Easegill while myself, Karen Slatcher, Keith Slatcher, Simon Wynne and Phil Wall had a trip in Ireby Fell Cavern.
Luckily, unlike yesterday, we had the cave to ourselves as we made our way in the concrete pipe at the entrance. Nowadays getting back out of the pipe is much easier as there is a short iron ladder inside.
There was much evidence of stabilisation work on the rocky slope leading down to the head of the first pitch where Keith set off rigging the pitch. This pitch has the name “Ding” and is followed immediately by two more pitches: “Dong” and “Bell”. Finally the short pitch called “Pussy” drops down to a section of cave with quite a bit of “pretties” if you take your time and have a look around as you make your way along the cave.
Soon we arrived at the next pitch, called “Well”, in keeping with the nursery rhyme theme. Finally, the last remaining pitch, which is quite short, has the rather unimaginative name of “Rope”.
Steady progress along winding passage passing the odd junction brought a change in the floor with the stream having disappeared and the floor now made of dry sand mud which announced the proximity of the large phreatic passage known as “Duke Street”.
We made our way along this large and wide passage with occasional lower sections until we arrived at the sump, which was quite low, but still remained as a sump.
After a quick Mars Bar break while sitting on a mud bank, we returned the same way back to reach the surface again just after 14:00 having entered the cave at 11:30.
So, we had a very enjoyable three and a half hour trip in a very pleasant cave.
All that remained was to return to Bernies for a snack!
No comments:
Post a Comment