Tuesday 27 December 2011

Maskhill Mine

This trip was 2 years in the planning.  A Maskhill/Oxlow exchange trip was the proposed Christmas trip for 2009, but on arriving in Buxton it started to snow heavily and we only just managed to escape home before the roads became impassible.
This time 10 members, or was it 11, signed up for the experience, but on the day the excuses came thick and fast and no better excuses had been heard since the infamous Jim Durr came up with the, "I can't go caving because I have to hang up a plate rack", excuse.  So the 10, or was it 11, became a mere 5.  The exchange was abandoned and the Maskhill only trip was agreed.
The videos tell the story.

Video Trailer

The Complete Video

The Team: Mark Burkey, Keith Edwards, Jessica Harding, Graham Smith and Steve Wallis.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Moss Chamber Peak Cavern

Moss chamber sunday 4th of December

Earlier in the year (January) we had a club trip into peak cavern but due to illness i wasnt able to go to moss chamber and had to do one of the easier trips, so this time i was adament i was going to go and see where poor neil moss was entoomed, even if it ment i may of had to go solo.
Now poor mark and jess had decided that thay wouldnt be coming to Moss chamber as some body had told them it was tight (i think some one was exaggerating) as in my opinion there was plenty of room.
In the end Steve,Mell and myself set off to find Moss Chamber, now bear in mind that Steve and Mell had been to the chamber earlier in the year so navigation should of been quit simple, Steve led the way with a nice easy hands and knees crawl to a large boulder wich was easy to hop over, closley followed by a junction where we where sopost to turn off somewhere on the right, but we missed the turn and ended up in a wet muddy flat out crawl wich took us to cohesion sump (not a nice place) so we backtracked to the boulder and consulted the survey, and Mell quickly found the right way on, wich was quit nice after that crawl up to cohesion sump as there was very little crawling if any and Moss Chamber was soon reached, now the awkward bit was on the way back out through the eye hole, as there is a bit off a drop to the hand holds, and as you come through it head first you think your going to slide through and miss the holds, if you did you would end up droping about 10 feet head first, now that would be painfull, but we all managed it without any problem, and a steady exit was made from the cave back to the caving club for a nice shower and to await the other groups who had gone on different routes in peak cavern

Present : Andy G, Mell and Steve