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!