Water Icicle Close Cavern

The plan for today was for Keith and Pete to have a trip in Water Icicle Close Cavern to show Robbie Shown and others the recently discovered Elevator Pitch. Karen and I went to Monyash Cafe in the morning to meet the others and Robbie along with Kev Drakeley plus Tom and Sarah arrived. Tom and Sarah were up from Mendip for Simon Brooks' 50th Birthday “Offal Chomp” in the evening.
Once Keith and Pete had also turned up and had breakfast, we set off for Derby Lane with Keith and Pete coming with me in my Nissan X-Trail as there was still plenty of snow around despite the milder weather and overnight rain. The others were in Robbie's Land Rover so they should have been OK.
Part way along the track near the last farmyard, we found a large snowdrift blocking the way. So, I reversed back to the farmyard, turned around and parked back towards Monyash where there was a widening of the track. Robbie managed to find a spot to park the other side of the farmyard on the track.
Keith and I started to get our caving gear on and Pete decided that as he was still having problems with his back, he wouldn't go caving after all. Karen decided to walk back to Monyash with Pete (where he had left his car) as she didn't fancy getting changed in the cold and snow.
After changing we started walking towards the Cavern and passed Robbie, etc. as they began to get their caving gear on. Soon we were at the shaft lid and Keith tied on the rope and abseiled down and I followed.
I wasn't planning on dropping down Elevator Pitch as it would be crowded today and it was still fairly loose so I left my SRT gear at the foot of the entrance shaft.
The two of us headed up North-West Passage and Keith unlocked the chain around the ladder and I helped him place the ladder in position, after which he climbed up and I followed. We realise the we had left the tackle bag with the rope for the pitch at the bottom of the ladder. D'oh! So Keith climbed bag down to fetch it.
We were soon at Three Way Chamber and Keith wanted to first take a look at the boulder choke at the end of Cherty-Two Passage since none of us had been in the Cavern since Christmas time and some of the boulders may have shifted in the meantime.
After a quick look, we found that there was no change since the last visit, so we returned to Three-Way Chamber and made our way to the top of Elevator Pitch. Keith rigged the pitch and abseiled down, and I heard the others arriving.
They all had a look at the choke at the end of this passage: Urchin Passage. After returning, Robbie abseiled down and joined Keith followed by Kev and Tom while Sarah waited until they returned.
Keith and Robbie had a look at the rift in the chamber below and decided it was a digging possibility.
Once they had all returned, we made our way back to the surface; Keith and I pausing on the way to re-fix the scaffold to help prevent entry and removing and locking up the ladder.
We all changed back out of caving gear and headed back to Monyash for a brew of teas at the cafe. In the meantime I received a text message from Karen say that she and Pete were just leaving Bakewell after visiting various shops!