Victoria Aven and Echo Chamber

Today's trip was originally planned to the White River Series in Peak Cavern, however due to an event taking place in the showcave we opted for a shorter trip to ensure we exited on time. Keen to do an SRT trip, I suggested Victoria Aven to Echo Chamber, a plan which Loz, George and Anne all seemed happy with.

Unfortunately, Anne had to drop out as childcare plans fell through at the last minute (she’s booked onto a trip on Monday, though, so won’t have to wait too long for her caving fix). The second problem was that someone (not mentioning any names, but it wasn't George or myself!) forgot their SRT kit. Fortunately, Anne's had been packed before childcare plans fell through, so the person in question could scale the heights of Victoria Aven.

On entering the showcave, we charged through to Five Arches Passage where I thought how lovely and sandy the ground was. I was expecting sticky and slippery mud, but evidently it was a long time since the passage had flooded and I could stride out secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't slip. At least, I could until I found the only patch of mud in the whole passage and went flying, landing face down. Somewhat sheepishly I picked myself up, only to go flying again on the same patch of mud. George and Loz were both very tactful and didn't say anything; or perhaps they were wondering whether caving with me was such a good idea!

In any case, Victoria Aven itself is very impressive. I've never really noticed it before, and it's easy to stomp past it on the way to the Mucky Ducks. It's full of natural false floors and miners’ deads about twenty metres up, so its full height isn't appreciated until you've passed these. About thirty metres up, there's a choice of two routes. We choose the left hand route to Elephant's Head Chamber, which involved a bit of an airy pendulum off the ledge and then another decent ascent to a traverse with staples in the rock. (There was an even airier pendulum here onto the other route, but we left this for another time).

Following the traverse, we arrived at a climb (assisted by SRT kit as a slip here would lead to a very quick descent of the entire aven!) which topped out at Elephant’s Head chamber. Here Loz found the crawl to the Victoria Line which before long arrived at the head of George Cooper’s Aven and a striking twenty-five metre pitch I made a bit of a pig’s ear of rigging this, by not leaving enough slack before the y-hang (a mistake I would make repeatedly for the remainder of the trip!). My excuse is that I haven't rigged for a long time and everything was made much harder by having to use maillons not carabiners due to the resin anchors being very small.

Anyway, another couple of pitches led us to Echo Chamber which was covered in mud. While this included some interesting formations, it was impossible not to get coated in the stuff, and as the chamber sloped downward, climbing back up it was tiring work. In fact, Loz got more than she bargained for when she made a rather quick descent of the chamber, this imitating my earlier slide of the day.

Well after seeing Echo Chamber, all that remained was to make the return journey. This was made more interesting due to a few incidents which were the result of kit being covered in mud. These included jammers that kept slipping (this was a little unnerving!), maillons that were virtually impossible to open (nice one for sorting those, George) and twistlock carabiners that wouldn't shut properly (mine worked fine, Loz!).

By the time we reached the top of George Cooper’s Aven we only had an hour before we needed to be out. Fortunately, it's much easier abseiling sixty-odd metres than it is prussiking the same distance, so we ended up whizzing down Victoria Aven at speed. In fact, there was almost no time to enjoy the spectacular void beneath our feet and before long we arrived at Buxton Water Sump. After the obligatory wash-off, we exited the cave exactly on time (phew!) and trudged back to the TSG, where there was some disagreement about whether the trip had been a good one. It turns out some people aren't fans of mud!

Cavers: Loz, George & Dave