Saturday 26 April 2008 Rescue Practice P8

I was with a group in to rig the alternative 2nd pitch while a second group rigged the first pitch for hauling a stretcher. Afte this we swapped over. Afterwards was the DCRO AGM at Sparrowpit Village Hall which only took 1 and a half hours.

Sunday 20 April 2008 Caving Yorkshire

All except for Boyd, who had to be back home for early evening, planned on a pull-through trip down Swinsto Cavern. As I couldn't face the long entrance crawl, I volunteered to rig the short pitch at the Valley Entrance end. After rigging the pitch (there was a good in-situ rope on the more awkward alternative) I dropped down and had a mooch around upstream until it got to low crawling size. After exiting Valley Entrance and getting changed had a cake and coffee in Bernies then had a mooch around. When I got bored I drove over to Kingsdale to meet the others but we passed each other in Ingleton without knowing and I found they had gone. Returned to Bernies to find them there.

Saturday 19 April 2008 Caving Yorkshire

Drove up Friday night to meet Jim and Boyd in the New Inn, Clapham - we were staying at Greenclose. We met Andy there with his family. Jim knew him from work sessions at Bagshawe Cavern while Boyd had introduced his father to caving through the Orpheus!
Keith and Phil arrived in the morning while we were at Bernies. As Jim had not been down Alum Pot, and nor had Phil, we all had a trip down via the Dolly Tubs. I was finding the traverse part way down the Dolly Tubs pitch a pain due to my sore shoulder when carrying a tackle bag so I pulled the rope up and lowered the bag down. As it was then a lot easier, I continued on and met the others below the Greasy Slab. Karen wasn't feeling well so decided to head out and after getting to the top of the Bridge, I followed her out. Luckily we met a family group about to rig a rope on the short climb near the Cheese Press as I found it difficult to manage the climb with my sore shoulder.

Saturday 12th April 2008 Walking on Kinder Scout

Karen joined Keith and Chris Jackson for a trip down Nettle Pot and I planned on a walk on Kinder Scout. I parked near Nether Booth and noticed the hill tops were white with snow.
I walked up the road past the farm on the Pennine Way and then followed the path towards Crowden Brook. As I gained height I started to find the snow laying on the ground and reached the start of low cloud. The nice little scramble at the top if Crowden Brook was interesting with the snow covering the holds so I put on some light-weight gloves and swept the snow off.

When I reached the edge of the Kinder plateau, I followed the edge-side path and after a while sheltered behind a gritstone outcrop to have a sandwich and a bit of coffee from my flask. After the short break, I continued onwards following around the edge of the plateau with another short break for lunch, again sheltering by a gritstone outcrop.
Eventually I reached the path leading down towards Grindsbrook Booth below Ringing Roger. After finishing off my coffee while sitting on a bench opposite the primary school, I followed the path leading back to Upper Booth and the car park.

Sunday 6 April 2008 Caving South Wales

As my shoulder was a bit sore I decided to have a rest day and waited in the car as Karen, Keith, Waggy, Dave, Mike and Simon had a trip into Craig a Ffynnon as far as the Hall of the Mountain King.

Saturday April 5 2008 Caving South Wales

Karen and I arrived at the the Chelsea SS hut "Whitewalls" after only a 3 hour drive from home. We met others already there amongst them "Mad Fi" and Fay. Matt and Nikki arrived not long afterwards along with Chris and Paul C.
We were up at 0830 and had breakfast as Pete W, Keith, Dave and Simon W arrived plus Mike C and lastly Doug H. Matt and Nikki joined Fay for a trip in Ogof Draenen while the rest of us headed for Agen Allwedd. The intention was for Karen, me and Paul C to have an easy trip to the Cliffs of Dover while the rest did a round trip via Southern Stream Passage. We met a couple (Martin Grass and A.N. Other) who were CSS members who knew Kev Drakely and Mick Phipps and they were at the boulder choke looking for a way through. We soon joined them and Pete W and the rest dropped down a hole which was well polished at the end of the boulders near a third Bat warning sign (we had seen quite a few bats) and just before a blockage which was taped off.
Doug followed down as I was there and I waited for Karen and Paul to arrive. Karen dropped down followed by Paul awkwardly. I looked at the climb and it was short and easy enough to drop down, with another hole directly beneath but easily avoided, but looked very awkward to get up again so I decided to not follow down in case I re-injured my left shoulder which was healing well and told the other two to continue while I waited. We agreed for them to go on for half an hour then return. I waited for a while then got bored and had a look around and clambered down an easy climb to the low streamway which was little used as it was covered with dry sediment. I crawled a short distance to a blockage with a climb up about 3 metres through a hole which seemed to be about where the hole below the other well-used climb down was. I climbed up fairly easily and it was that hole! So I was at the bottom of the awkward climb. I decided to follow the others and wasn't sure of the way to go as there were choices. Anyway, I continued on to a short crawl and down through boulders that lead to more streamway but quite low and narrow and also a low crawl with mud. This was obviously not the way.
I returned to the bottom of the awkward climb and after a few attempts at climbing it I decided not to risk injuring my shoulder and waited for the others. Not long afterwards I heard them approaching and let them know about the easier alternative and we returned that way then after a short rest for the other two headed out.
We reach the surface just after 1500 after entering the cave at around midday.

Swaledale - Easter Sunday 23 March 2008

Again we were among the last to rise for breakfast and after this, some of the others planned on a trip to Sir Francis Level (with its neck-deep water) while Karen and I decided on another walk. This time we drove and even shorter distance back towards Reeth to Healaugh and follow a circular route based on a Bridleway marked on the map. This started by following up a drive to a private house but we went slightly wrong for a short distance following the wrong path. After retracing our steps, we continued on the correct route through snow-covered fields until we reached a drop down into an open area. As we were sheltered from the wind and the sun was out, we had a short tea/coffee break.
Continuing onwards we followed a minor road for a short distance to follow an obvious track soon reaching the remains of Surrender Smelting Mill. After a quick look around and continuing along the track next to Old Gang Beck, passing patches of frog spawn in water at the sides, until we reached the remains of Old Gang Smelting Mills which were surprisingly extensive with an associated flue beneath the ground following up the hillside for about 800 meters!
Here we had a lunch break in the shelter of two walls at right-angles with the sun making it a nice spot to stop. Afterwards we continue onwards following the track until we came to two obvious arched openings to sloping parallel levels between two fords crossing the track. These turned out to be the entrance to Brandy Bottle Mine where the others had walked to the day before yesterday! After a quick nose around we followed on the track following a right hand turn at Level House Bridge following more indistinct ground made of small stones with wide-reaching views and the way now marked by cairns in an area called Surrender Ground.
Soon we were back on moorland with an obvious track eventually dropping down to a section of road which we followed for 300 metres to a ford where there were several cars parked and people milling noisily about. We crossed a footbridge then cut across a bend in the road to leave via a gate into more moorland. Following the track for some distance we reach a section of dry stone walling with a right-angle section just at the right time for a tea/coffee stop in the shelter of the wall while a heavy snow shower started. After the short break, we continued on in the heavy snow watching grouse fly around to get out of our way as they called "Go Back, Go Back, Go Back!".
After a while the snow stopped and I soon spotted a village below. We should have been following a track leading to a small road to drop back into Healaugh but somehow missed the bit where the road started and continued on an obvious track nearly passing the village. I check with my GPS and we had definitely missed the road so headed back along the track. I spotted the road below a very short distance away (about 30 metres!) so we dropped down to it and followed it back to the village to arrive exactly where we had parked earlier.
Back to the Bunkhouse fo another meal - a rare event! We hadn't eaten out at all for the whole trip.