Walk around Wensleydale, Peak District

After a breakfast at Monyash Cafe after which I was feeling a bit more energetic after last night's excesses, I joined Karen, Keith and Pete C. to park at Oker the walk up Wensleydale to Mount Pleasant to see various shafts we had past on an evening walk a few weeks ago then returned via Old Ash Mine entrance to have an ice cream at Winster shop.

Maskhill Mine / OCC BBQ, Peak District

A group of us met in the drizzle at the OCC Hut - as expected since it was BBQ day! Dawn joined me and Karen while Chris J. joined Pete C. and Keith to have a trip down Maskhill Mine. Keith rigged and we followed down. At Murmuring Churn I waited in last place to see Dawn could cope OK with the awkward pitch-head and she got past this without a problem. I then got to the pitch-head and after removing my descender I realised the loop from the upper rope seemed quite short and getting back up from the Y hang on the ascent would be a bit of a struggle. In order to avoid damage to my weak shoulder I decided to stop there. Rats! I waited for some time in case anyone else turned back then got bored and made my way out slowly which was enjoyable.
I got to the surface after 4:30pm and sat in the mist and drizzle. After some time I thought I might drop down the entrance pitch and was just unlocking my descender and noticed a light further down! So I got back onto the surface and after a time Dawn arrived. All had got to Oxlow Cavern and were returning with Pete and Chris arriving next followed by Karen and Keith bringing up the rear.
Returning back to the hut we stood in the light rain as the main BBQ was busy and Karen and I used a disposable BBQ set up by the tackle store. Eventually after some 6 pints of Pedigree (Boyd had paid for on of the two barrels to celebrate his recent 70th birthday so it was £1 per pint) I noticed Karen and Pete had retired to bed so I did the same. In the morning I was lucky as I didn't have the hangover I might have had - but was a little "delicate"!

Titan, Peak Cavern, Peak District

A mass trip for Orpheus CC with a Titan / JH exchange trip. Paul T., Phil W., Chris J. (rigging) and Dave P. went down JH and came out via Titan. Karen, Dawn, Keith (rigging), Larry, Aaron, Boyd and Paul T. plus me dropped down Titan entrance with Paul, Boyd, Larry, Keith and Aaron dropping all the way down and out JH while Karen and Dawn went down to the Event Horizon and back. I stopped at the balcony overlooking Titan deciding to wait until my shoulder is 100% before doing a 200+ foot pitch.

Water Icicle Close Cavern, Peak Disrict

Originally Karen and I had planned to have a practice abseiling and prusiking up Whalf Pipe Engine Shaft and arranged with Pete and Keith for them to bring an 80m rope and meet at Monyash Cafe at 9:30. They eventually turned up at nearly 10:00! After breakfast we decided to join Pete and Keith down Water Icicle Close Cavern anyway.
After driving to the end of Derby Lane and getting changed, Pete abseiled down and Keith lowered some pre-cut scaffolding tubes down. Then the three of us abseiled down. We got the scaffolding to the dig and Keith pulled them up to the top. Karen and I left Pete and Keith to their scaffold installation and while Karen tidied up some of the deads in the passage, I prusiked up the entrance shaft and then abseiled down again. Karen arrived and she also prusiked up and abseiled back down. I went up for a second time thinking that would be enough and opened the lid and sat in the sun after shouting down "rope free". As Karen came up, I decided on a third prusik so told Karen and she went straight down again. When she had shouted "rope free" I abseiled back down and set off again as Karen was still hot from her prusik. As I was getting to the narrow, top section of the shaft, Keith and Pete arrived and were on their way out. So Karen and I ended up prusiking up the entrance shaft three times.
After changing it was only 13:20 so we stopped off at Monyash Cafe again for ice creams.

Eldon Hole, Peak District

After meeting at the Orpheus hut as usual, Pete, Keith, Karen, Boyd and myself first had breakfast at Monyash Cafe. We then drove to Eldon Hole and on the way Karen had a text mesage from Larry saying he and Lara were on the way. So, after getting changed Karen and I headed down the South Gully which I rigged, while Keith rigged the North Gully with Pete following. Boyd sorted out Larry's membership paperwork and he then followed Pete down North Gully while Larry and Lara got changed and followed down the South Gully. Keith, Pete, Larry and Laura headed on to sort out the rope up to Millers Chamber and Damocles Rift while Boyd headed back up the South Gully and Karen and I headed up the North Gully. We saw some frogs, big and small, at the bottom of Eldon Hole as well.

Streaks Pot, Stoney Middleton

Karen and I met Pete and Keith at the Orpheus hut and then drove to Outside cafe at Calver crossroads for breakfast. After driving up and down Middleton Dale looking for a place to park we changed and walked up to Streaks Pot top entrance. Keith went in first and rigged the first pitch and we followed and I went last. It was a short crawl to the pitch head then a short drop to a ledge. I decided to stop here as I knew there were awkward places and I didn't want to risk injuring my shoulder again which was now much improved. So I said goodbye to the others and headed for the car to drop off my SRT kit and then return to the bottom entrance.
This was an easy clamber down about 8 feet in an oil drum which was concreted in. The continuation was low, so I squatted down and poked my legs through. This released a cloud of flying insects with big wings! I quickly stood up and clambered out again. I decided to wait for the others but when they didn't appear after 2 hours, I returned to the car and got changed. The three of them appeared not long afterwards: they had got a bit lost and took longer than expected.

Monday 26 May 2008 Giants Hole

Karen and I were about to go in the village shop when a car pulled up with Jim in it. After making our purchases, we headed off to the OCC cottage and met Chris with his friend Duncan. They joined us, along with Dawn, for a trip into Giants Hole doing the Round Trip using a ladder for Garlands Pot. An excellent trip as usual with Karen bringing a short rope to protect the handline climb up towards Maggins Rift. Also the water level in the Giant's Windpipe wasn't very high. We returned to the surface after a 3 and a half hours trip.