Oxlow Cavern and Maskhill Mine

Karen had a sore knee after yesterdays walk so decided to stay at home while Keith and I were joining an Orpheus Oxlow Cavern / Maskhill Mine exchange trip.

The day got off to a bad start. After loading up our caving gear in my car with a cold wind and drizzle, I found I had a flat tyre! Typical.

We soon had the tyre swapped with the spare and were on our way to Monyash for breakfast. Now the second bit of bad luck: the café was closed!

So, we went straight to the Orpheus Hut to meet Waggy and the others.

Paul and Maz were there having arrived the night before to go walking and weren't impressed with the wind and rain. After Alan H., Waggy and Jason B. had arrived and ropes were packed, we set off for Oxlow Farm with the wind buffeting the car and frequent bouts of heavy rain with light rain in between.

On the way I stopped off at the Tesco Express in Buxton so Keith and I could buy sandwiches for breakfast.

Passing the P8 layby and the farm where you park for Giants Hole we saw no cars parked: not surprising considering the foul weather. But as we approached the Oxlow layby, we saw several cars parked there. Typical!

One of the cars belonged to Tim and Darren who were part of the Thursday Night Orpheus crew were joining us plus Waggy's and Jason's.But there were still other cavers parked there.

Keith and I parked by the farmyard as usual at Oxlow Farm and after eating our sandwiches, got changed in the barn which was draughty and wet but infinitely better than outside!

We found everyone else had chosen to descend Maskhill Mine so Keith and I made our way to Oxlow Cavern entrance shaft to find a rope already rigged. Rats!

Keith went down first rigging with our ropes and I followed. We found some of the other party below at the top of the pitch dropping down to the col above East Chamber and followed them down.

Because of our later start after eating our sandwiches and having further to walk, plus having to wait for the other party, Keith and I arrived at the West Chamber just as Waggy was appearing on the final pitches of Maskhill Mine where it joins Oxlow Cavern. This was our first bit of luck as we didn't have to wait too long.

Keith joined the others to exit via Maskhill Mine while I, together with Alan and Darren started back to the surface via Oxlow Cavern with me at the front, Alan in the middle and Darren taking up the rear de-rigging.

We set off up the pitch leading to the ramp of West Swirl Passage and then up the ramp. At the col I found one of the other group and our rope going up the pitch tight like piano wire. The guy from the other group explained that the caver above was hung up and could get off the head of the pitch after getting into a tangle with our rope while the remainder of their party had buggered off!

He prusiked up to help and I waited at the top of the col for ages while their rope went up and down and up and down. Eventually he abseiled down and said “His footloop is all tangled up and I need to cut it. I have a knife... but it's back in the car.”

I had had enough of hanging around and the others were probably starting to get cold, so I asked if I could prusik up their rope, which had no deviation. I reached the stuck caver who was just below the "Y" hang. After examining the tangle, I saw that he had our rope from below the deviation through his safety link and that was why it was tight like piano wire. He was nearly at the Y hang but couldn't remove his jammers as there was no slack to allow them to be unlocked.

His mate had said he wasn't familiar with deviations and he had prusiked up our rope by mistake and when he reached the deviation he had removed each jammer in turn and clipped it back on above the deviation karabiner! Unfortunately he had managed to tangle the rope in doing so with his safety link.

So, after making sure I had the right piece of rope (especially as we were still dangling above the drop to the floor of the East Chamber), I cut through his safety link thus freeing him and after giving him a shove, he was able to get off the rope and release his jammers.

After I then also got off the top of the pitch, I shouted down “rope free” and his mate prusiked up again and joined us and began de-rigging their ropes.

Once they were out of the way, Alan and Darren came up and we began heading for the next pitches.

When I arrived at the foot of the entrance shaft, I was puzzled to see only our rope there, as expected, but it was being pulled up and released continuously. Surely the other pair must be out by now!

I looked up the shaft and saw a loop of the other lot's rope tangled with our rope on the lower rebelay! I shouted up “Wait a minute and I'll release the rebelay”, which I did. I did the same at the one above that as well and as I reached the top of the pitch, the pair which had been ahead of us had been joined by two or three more of their group who had already got changed out of caving gear and they were still struggling to disentangle their rope from ours. I pointed out it would be easier to just let go of one end of their rope so that it wasn't in a loop!

So they did that and soon had pulled up their rope and packed it away and set off to get changed while Alan and Darren started to come up.

By now it was after 17:00, dark and just as windy as before with short showers.

I waited in the shelter of the hollow where the shaft is located as Alan prusiked up. As we were waiting for quite a while for Darren to join us, I shouted down to just release the karabiners and we would pull the rope up afterwards.

Eventually all three if us were on the surface by about 17:45 (having gone down at about Noon) and had the rope packed away and began making our way back to the cars. As soon as we were out of the hollow we met the full force of the very, very cold wind.

We arrived back at the layby and found the Maskhill Mine party had been out for ages, thanks to all our delays.

I explained to Waggy what happened and made my way back to the farm and was very thankful of the shelter of the barn when I arrived and found Keith, who had been waiting for over an hour and a quarter and had been walking around in circles to keep warm! Of course he hadn't been able to get changed out of caving gear as his clothes were in my car.

Soon, we were changed and in the car and headed for home after dropping off a rope and tackle bag at the hut while the others went to the Wanted Inn for a chip butty. It was well past 19:00 by the time we got back to Winster and a welcome hot meal and beer in the Miners Standard.