Peak Cavern: White River Series - Attempted

Today's trip was meant to be to the White River Series. On the roster were Mark, Jess, Mel, Johnny and Dave and after setting off we soon find ourselves deep in the bowels of the Devil's Arse. Jess chose to emphasise each hop, skip and jump between boulders in the Upper Gallery with a dainty “ooh”, which added some amusement, as I had visions of her dancing between the boulders like a ballerina. Before long, we were into the trenches which were thick with mud and very slippy. Here Jess’ dainty “oohs” were replaced with a less dainty “phwurgh” (you're not meant to drink the mud, Jess!) before we squeezed through a constriction to arrive at the start of Colostomy Crawl.

While this by no means lived up to the “colostomy” part of its name, it certainly lived up to the “crawl” part! Here bags that were being dragged got stuck in various rocks and in various crevices, and it was with great relief that we arrived at the fixed ladders leading down Egnaro Aven. Having all arrived at the Lower Bung streamway, we made quick progress via the bypass to the start of the White River Series.

First up the initial pitch was Mark, followed by Mel and then Jess, while Jonny and myself waited at the bottom. After a while, we saw people coming down again; unfortunately Mel's mind had decided (not unreasonably!) that dangling from a piece of string, over a huge void, several hundred metres underground was not a particularly sensible thing to do. This was a good thing in the end. While we may not have seen the White River Series, we did manage to be out of the cave in time by turning back, and this definitely wouldn't have happened had we pushed on.

However, we now had the delights of Colostomy Crawl to repeat! Fortunately, it was much easier in reverse as it sloped downhill, making dragging the bags much easier. Before long we were through the Trenches, Upper Gallery, Mucky Ducks and the Wallows, and back at Buxton Water Sump. Here the obligatory wash and scrub down saw us fit to exit the cave, and a quick trudge back to the TSG led to showers and then a pub meal. Both of these were a welcome end to a muddy, tiring trip, but one that was well worth it nonetheless!

Cavers: Mark, Jess, Mel, Johnny, & Dave
Trip Report: Dave