Dudley Peaks Weekend: Peak Cavern to Titan....and back!

As Jess and I had to work on the Saturday we arranged to meet the gang in Castleton early evening for a meal.
The others had been in Bagshawe Cavern earlier that day with a good turn out of: Ian, Mike, Lucy, Kay and our latest recruit Ollie.
For a surprise Brendan managed to get over for the meal, but was far too sensible to be persuaded to join us for any caving.

This would be the first day off Jess and I had managed since getting back from Meghalaya and I was looking forward to a nice Sunday pootle around Peak Cavern and have a play with my new flash gun set up. Mike and Kay however had other plans and wanted to visit the bottom of Titan.

As we reached the cave Jess begun putting on her belt and knee pads only to find that the knee pads had self destructed at some point since their last use and so I insisted she take mine. We made our way through the show cave and were soon wading through the mucky ducks and on to The Treasury. As we made our way up the ladder and in to the trenches Mike took a turn with the extra box of flash guns and stormed ahead up the muddy passage and on to Colostomy Crawl. We were soon washing the mud off ourselves as we made our way upstream toward The Bung. This was flowing at full force and any remains of mud were well and truly gone by the time we got in the upper streamway. 

The awkward ladders up to JH were ascended next and we were soon at the connecting duck. After going through and pulling the boxes through it took a minute to convince the others that it was actually the way and that I wasn't kidding. I did remind them that it was their idea for the trip ;)

Our last obstacle was the awkward squeeze up through the boulders to Titan itself. We had made excellent time and were stood gazing up the impressive shaft in just under 3 hrs. 

Mike, Kay and Jess had taken it in turns to haul my extra camera box through all this way so it seemed a shame to not take a few photo's as we exited :0)

Colostomy Crawl seemed even longer on the way out and my knees were really starting to feel it by the time we were climbing back down the Faulty Towers ladders.

We exited at just before 5pm to sunshine and quickly changed before grabbing ice creams and fudge from the local shops before saying our good byes and heading home.

Jess in the Lower Bung Streamy

Mike on the impressive Bung Ladder Climb

Kay at the foot of Titan

Present: Mike Bonner, Kay Wood, Mark Burkey and Jessica Burkey

Peak Cavern.......A Dudley CC Trip In To The Devil's Arse

Those that hadn't stayed at the TSG met up with the others Sunday Morning.

After bacon sandwiches all round washed down with a couple of cups of tea we headed up the hill to the impressive Peak Cavern entrance.

We arrived just as the show cave was being opened and made our way in. 

There were the usual squeals as we made our way through the chilly Mucky Ducks and then along Upper Gallery. 

At the climb up to Pickerings Passage Keith began filming the gang as they navigated the crawls, squeezes and contortions on their journey to the sobering but beautiful Moss Chamber.

After making our way back to Upper Gallery we headed down Surprise View for a look at Buxton Water Sump.

Keith and Ian accompanied Mike and Loz as far as Squaw's Junction, then Mike and Loz continued on to take a look at Lake sump. 

Meanwhile Jess, Lucy and myself had a play with the camera at Surprise View. 

Re-grouped we made our way out, giving each other the customary scrub down as we exited. 

Back at the TSG it was time for tea and the biggest slice of chocolate cake you've ever seen compliments of Mr Edwards.

Peak Main Stream Way

Peak Main Stream Way

Surprise View

The Video

Present: Lucy Collins, Mike Bonner, Loz Appleby, Ian Millward, Keith Edwards, Mark Burkey & Jess Burkey

Peaking at Titan & out in time for Turkey!

After hearing that the TSG were having their Christmas get together this weekend and were rigging Titan, Jess thought she'd be cheeky and ask if there was any chance of tagging along. Not only were we warmly welcomed to have a limited group join them, but we were even offered Christmas dinner as well!
There were only a couple of bunks available at the TSG, but as Jess and I were stopping in our van that meant there would be space for 2 further people to join the team. Chloe and Loz were the first to show interest so their places were secured.
We all arrived at the Chapel for 8.30am and were soon changed and ready. There were a few large groups on the board going to Water Icicle, one doing Peak and out through Titan, and another doing The White River series. We introduced ourselves and explained that we'd contacted about joining the Titan through trip to come out of Peak Cavern. Excellent was the reply and a key and bag of rope were thrust at us.
"Aren't we joining anyone?" I enquired, but it turned out that they wanted us to rig the entrance shaft and we would be the only group doing the through trip from that end.
As we had never been to Titan before we asked around for directions and were given some vague hand gestures.
Loz drove us up the lane and after questioning a couple of times if I was sure that we were going the right way, gently coaxed her car up the rough boulder strewn track.
It turned out that the vague hand gestures were sufficient to find the entrance after all and I was soon rigging the shaft to enter.
The 45m entrance shaft dropped to piece of passage with pools of water and rounded a corner to the very impressive head of the 141.5M head of Titan itself. I have to say even though I abseil every day for a living this was still something of a knee trembler as you get on the rope. I looked around with my Scurrion on full power and was met by a void of darkness below. As I descended toward the Event Horizon my light pierced the darkness and I begun to appreciate the scale of Titan itself. I whooped like a kid at Christmas as I reached the Event Horizon and the hanging re-belay. I had heard tales of Wal getting hung up here and was careful to ensure I didn't make the same mistake. I was soon at the base of the pitch on the boulder pile and waiting for the others to reach me. As each descended they were backlit by the next persons light as they reached the Event Horizon and the view was amazing. After just over an hour everyone was at the base of the pitch. We made our way through the boulder choke and to JH without any problem. As we exited I couldn't remember which way we turned. I knew we'd be going down The Bung though so figured down stream. I turned left and was met by the water flowing upstream so begun to head the other way. Jess was heading toward me and said that the stream was flowing upstream as well. Odd I thought, Oh well we'd try my way first then and see if the stream way split. We eventually hit a sump and had to retrace back only to find Jess's water had mysteriously changed direction and was in fact flowing downstream. There were no other navigational blips fortunately and we progressed through the various obstacles, traverses, ladders, canals and the infamous Colostomy crawl to the show cave in good time, exiting before the Christmas Concert which was due to start around 4pm.
The TSG did us proud with a fantastic 3 course Christmas dinner and wine flowing aplenty!

Loz and Chloe at the Titan entrance shaft

Loz at the Event Horizon

Jess reaches the bottom of the 141.5M pitch

Ummmmmm where are we?!?!

The girls exit Colostomy Crawl

Present: Jess Burkey, Chloe Burney, Loz Appleby & Mark Burkey