Lathkill Head Cave Top Entrance

Pete Wagstaff had sent an email saying he was taking a prospective Orpheus member called Alice on a caving trip today and Karen and I joined them as well as Ashleigh Richardson.
The two of us started the day with breakfast in the Old Smithy café in Monyash and the arrived at the Orpheus hut at 10:00 where we met the others.
After the rope, etc. was sorted out we drove over again to Monyash to park in a layby near the start of Lathkill Dale where we got changed into caving gear and then walked across to the lidded entrance of Lathkill Head Cave in a field above the dale.
Pete chucked me a collection of karabiners after tying the rope to the back-up anchor which is a metal stake in the ground near the shaft and I descended first rigging as I went, glad to get into the cool atmosphere of the cave after the warm walk over in caving gear.
I clambered down the short entrance shaft and dropped through the constriction into the small chamber below and to the side.
After rigging the Y hang formed by a short calcite column and a section of iron bar stuck tightly in a hole on the opposite side, I abseiled down to the next rebelay formed again as a Y hang but this time using two “P” hangers.
There is a deviation here to keep the rope away from the sides of the smaller hole beneath which drops down into the large chamber below called “The Waiting Room” and usually it is difficult to spot the small piton to which the deviation sling or cord is attached, but luckily someone had left a long sling from a previous trip, so it was easy to find.
I dropped down the final section of rope passing some very nice bits of calcite formations and after landing on the steep floor of the chamber and detaching my descender from the rope and shouting “rope free” to Pete who was following me above, I walked down the slope to sit on a boulder and wait for the others to arrive.
Soon the rest of our group were down in the chamber and while the rest planned to make their way as far as they could into Lathkill Cave, Karen and I decided to forgo the pleasure or the long, low crawling this would involve and started to head back to the surface.
Karen prusiked up first and waited in the small chamber at the foot of the entrance shaft. After I ha joined here, I took off my SRT gear and placed it out of the way and with help from Karen to provide somewhere for my feet, I passed through the small and awkward constriction to the foot of the shaft. I always find this awkward due to the size of my upper body and the length of my legs, but with someone below me providing a foothold, I usually get through fairly quickly.
Karen pass through my SRT gear and also hers and I hooked this to short length of cord hanging from the lid frame. I waited while Karen started to get through the constriction in case she also need a bit if assistance, but she managed it by herself fine.
I clambered up to the lid and opened it and climbed out into the warm sunshine and pulled the gear hanging below out onto the surface , shortly followed by Karen.

We re-closed the lid, collected up our gear and walked back to the car to get changed. As usual, again returned to the café for a snack and brew of tea and then left for home.

DCRO at Tideswell Carnival

I met Bill Whitehouse in the morning at the DCRO base in Buxton and we drove to Tideswell to park outside the church as part of the carnival during Tidza Wakes.

Karen had gone shopping in Derby in the morning and joined us later in the afternoon and also Katie Eavis, before we joined the procession around the village with floats and other vehicles.

DCRO Search Practice at Stoney Middleton

Karen was spending the day at a DCA meeting in Monyash while I was at a search exercise with DCRO at Stoney Middleton, which I had organised. Luckily it wasn't a bad day with a few showers and also cool so there was less of a tendency to overheat while walking through the undergrowth to find cave and mine entrances.

White Scar Cave

Pete Wagstaff had said that it had been suggested at White Scar yesterday that we try again today, so it was another early breakfast. We hadn't brought enough food for a second self-cooked breakfast so we hoped Bernies was open at 08:00 as Karen, Keith and I headed for Ingleton.
We arrived there at about 08:20 and saw on the door that Bernies opens at 09:00. Rats. I looked at the door on Inglesport and it said they opened at 08:30, so we should be alright if we had breakfast there. Alan Steele saw me at the door and opened it even though it was only 08:20 and said we could go ahead and go upstairs and wait in the café as it would open shortly.
Soon we had our breakfasts and then again drove to White Scar car park where we found it was partly full with vehicles having something to do with filming.
Soon we asked the man we saw yesterday about our trip and he let us know it was on. Excellent!
Unfortunately Simon and Phil were only up for the day yesterday so it was a reduced party of 8 who headed in through the show cave. For some reason the pace was very rapid and Chris and I who were last re-joined the others in Battle Chamber where we stopped to have a look at this large and impressive chamber.
Having warmed up going up the steps to Battle Chamber and back down, we were soon quickly cooled off in the next section just beyond the show cave in deep water.
Soon we arrived ta Big Bertha, a huge boulder and the boulder choke. The route through the choke is marked by a bright orange thin cord and we were soon past this obstacle with a couple of awkward little squeezes.
Then it was the remaining streamway which is quite well decorated. I had though from previous two trips to this cave that there weren't that many decorations, when using an Oldhams lamp, but now with the combination of my Scurion light and the others, especially Karen's recent birthday present of a top of the range Scurion (VERY Bright!), you could see a lot more.
We stopped at a climb up to a small side passage and I decided to not continue to the very end and let the others pass.
Continuing down the main passage, Keith, Karen, Jo and I eventually reached a chamber where a squat in the water allowed you to follow the stream onwards. The rest of the party were coming up behind.
Keith and I followed the water by swimming the deeper sections or floating along and pushing on the floor where the water depth allowed this.
I had continued on to the eventual sump on my own on a previous trip and I wasn't desperate it see it again. Keith agreed that he wasn't desperate to see it either and as Karen and Jo had turned back where the roof had lowered to a foot or less above the water, we turned around and went to catch them up.
We met some of the others where they were looking at large side passage where there was a dig with a nifty shelter made from a builder's rubble sack and then continued on back along the streamway to eventually arrive at the boulder choke again.
There was on awkward bit where it was easiest to go through legs first and wriggle through first sitting then on your back as you poked your legs over a small boulder but after that we were sonn back at Big Bertha.
Another section of streamway which was deep in parts and progress was made either by swimming or by holding on to rocky projections on one wall. Soon we were back at the railings at the furthest reaches of the show cave section and then following the show cave path back to the entrance passing two guided groups of tourists en route who gave us very curious looks.

Once back at the car park, we changed out of caving gear and again a return to Bernies.

Sell Gill Holes

The weather yesterday had been wet most of yesterday in the Yorkshire Dales and today's forecast was for showers so as we were planning a trip into White Scar Cave, which has an active streamway and a show cave, Karen, Geoff McDonnel (an Australian-based caver who had come with us on a trip to County Clare a few years ago and was back visiting the UK), Chris Jackson, Ash, Jo and myself had discussed “Plan B” last night when we met in the New Inn in Clapham after driving up to the Dales. Pete Wagstaff had gone for an evening walk up Ingleborough and joined us later.
Still, we had to drive to White Scar cave to check if the trip was still on and as we had to be there ready to enter the cave at 10:00, Karen and I brought some extra food to cook breakfast at Greenclose, where we were staying, due to the early start.
Keith arrived just before 8:30 and after breakfast, we drove to meet in the White Scar car park where Simon Wynne and Phil Walker also arrived.
As we thought, we weren't at all surprised when we were told the trip wasn't on due to the recent rain and the forecast. So we headed to Ingleton for a brew in Bernies while we discussed our options.
We had to choose a couple of caves which would be OK with respect to the weather and also split our rather large group of 10 across a couple of caves. So Karen, Keith, myself, Geoff and Chris opted for the Fossil Route in Sell Gill Holes while the rest chose Jingling Pot. Luckily Karen and I had stopped off at the Orpheus hut to collect some ropes last night.
We found the route from Ribblehead to Horton in Ribblesdale crowded with walkers obviously taking part in some “3 Peaks” event and that Horton in Ribblesdale was busy with parked cars. Luckily the layby we usually use for this cave on the small road leading to Calf Holes wasn't being used so we parked there and got changed.
After walking across the fields to join the track form Horton, we spotted some other cavers who were part of a group also descending Sell Gill Holes by the dry route. They said the pitches were already rigged. As they weren't ready, they allowed us to go in front.
Keith sett off and rigged the entrance pitch using our rope. Then he started on the short traverse on the next pitch. I noticed that the rope he was using was marked a s 20 metres in length which was much too short. This was the rope for the entrance pitch: he had taken the wrong tackle bag! D'oh!
So, he went back to the foot of the entrance pitch to tray and swap ropes but the other party said that they were leaving their ropes rigged afterwards. So we decided to just use their ropes.
I set off across the traverse on the ledge. The rope on this pitch is usually rigged with a deviation at the top to hold the rope out from the ledge but it had been rigged as a “Y hang” from the ledge to the wall opposite instead. This looked like it would be awkward and I managed to get my descender on the rope and my weight on it only because of the length of my long cows tail and my long reach. I told Keith it would be best to rig the pitch using our rope as well and with a deviation so that the others wouldn't have a struggle.
I dropped down the pitch and waited for Kith and the others to follow. I clipped my descender onto the rope at the beginning of the next (and final) pitch and dropped down to the ledge beneath, which is next to a rebelay. Although there are two P-bolts here, it had been rigged from only one instead of as a “Y hang” as intended.
Anyway, once down we all had a quick look at the impressive waterfall dropping down from the Wet Route (or Goblin Route) and then followed down the large chamber to where the stream flows through a small opening in flowstone which fills the remainder of the chamber.
We soon arrived at a low duck. Keith had a look and decided to give that a miss. I lay on my back and poked myself feet-first into the duck. The stream was flowing with quite a current and was backing up behind me, which would make the return journey “interesting”. So, I quickly also decided to give it a miss.
We retuned back to the top of the chamber and started re-ascending the pitches. For some reason the other party had attached the rope to a bolt which they hadn't used before and made it a lot more awkward to get off the top of the pitch at the ledge.
When Keith got to the top of the second pitch, he shouted down that the other rope had been re-rigged to use a deviation like ours instead of a “Y hang”.
We met another couple of cavers starting to descend the entrance pitch as we arrived so we waited for them to pass before we climbed back to the surface.

We walked back to the cars on a lovely sunny afternoon and after getting changed, drove back to Bernies for chip butties!

Parkhouse Hill

Karen was going to be busy delivering leaflets about “Winster's Secret Gardens” and I was planning on a short walk as I was going t be helping out with the DCRO at the Emergency Services Open Day in Buxton from 14:00.
I first drove to Monyash to meet Keith and Pete Collins, who were in Derbyshire for the day for a digging session in Water Icicle Close Cavern, at the café in Monyash. It was very busy at the café when I arrived at 09:30 and I had to wait a little longer than usual to get served.
About 10 minutes after Keith and Pete left, Julie from DCRO arrived to have breakfast before going digging on Bonsall Moor.
After my eggs on toast, I drove to Earl Sterndale and parked by the church and after getting my boots on, I followed the path from The Quiet Woman pub up and over a ridge to drop down near Glutton Bridge.
I passed the small building housing the British Caving Association Library and the grey-painted telephone kiosk and followed the road leading by the ancient limestone reef remnants of Parkhouse Hill and Chrome Hill as it leads to Dowel Dale.
As time was short I decided to traverse Parkhouse Hill and return to Earl Sterndale, which was interesting as I hadn't climbed Parkhouse Hill before although I have traversed Chrome Hill a few times.
I followed a steep well-worn path, in places very steep, which rose up the near end of the hill and was soon at the pointy top. I sat there for a while taking in the views and eating a Mars Bar then dropped down the far side which is steep and broader than the side I had followed up, but nowhere is it as steep as the other side gets in places.
At the bottom of the hill I crossed a field following a public footpath and then crossed the minor road and then the continuing public footpath on the other side which soon joined the path I had taken earlier by the pub back in Earl Sterndale.

After a quick visit home to have a wash and pick up some stuff, I drove to Buxton to join some others at the DCRO stand at Pavilion Gardens for Emergency Services Open Day.

A Walk in Lathkill Dale

I needed to replace the broken “Pelican Case” holding the Log Book recording visits to Lathkill Cave Top Entrance. Since the box was dangling from the shaft lid at the surface and as the weather was sunny, Karen and I decided to combine this with a short walk in the area of Lathkill Dale as the job could be done without caving gear.
So first we drove to Buxton to get a Daren Drum to replace the broken box at Caving Cupplies. The sign on the door said “Closed” and there was an asterisk next to the Saturday opening times with a note saying they don't always open on Saturdays so it is best to phone first. Rats.
Plan “B” was to drive to Hitch'n'Hike in Bamford to get the Daren Drum.
Returning to Lathkill Dale near Monyash, we parked where the Dale starts by the road from Bakewell and set off on our way.
We arrived at the shaft entrance and I got the adjustable spanner out of my rucksack and loosened the nut holding down the lid and opened the lid. There was no sign of a box. Rats, again.
I climbed down to the bottom of the shaft (only about 3 and a half meters) to see if the box had been left in the small alcove above the hold leading into the cave where the log book used to be kept, but there was no sign of a box. Karen dropped down her Petzl headtorch to me. I shone the light through the hole and soon spotted the box on the other side of the small chamber.
Since I had no caving gear and didn't want to get dirty clambering into the chamber, plus I always find it very awkward getting out again – I decide to leave the box where it was as others would be able to see it and it was protected from the rain, which is why I was replacing the cracked box in the first place.
So, we continued on our walk following the nearby public footpath leading to One Ash Grange Farm and then down into Cales Dale.
As we passed Lower Cales Dale Cave, we saw there was no water flowing out of the entrance, as we expected as we haven't had any real rain for quite a while.
After reaching Lathkill Dale, we crossed the footbridge and then followed the path rising up the other side to reach the top of the Dale.
We then made our way along the top of the Dale which is always better than following the path in the bottom as firstly it is very quiet with hardly anyone else and also the views across and down into the Dale are much better.

Soon we were back at our starting point and from there we drove up the road to have a snack at the Old Smithy Cafe in Monyash.

Return from Doolin

After a quick breakfast, Karen, Keith and myself set off from Doolin to make our way back to Dun Laoghaire and the ferry back to the UK after another excellent week caving (and everything else!) in County Clare.