Our first SRT weekend trip to Yorkshire...

After our long journey up the very busy M6 we finally arrived at the Marton Arms for a well needed pint, we met up with our leaders Mark and Jess and a few other cavers, Mark had already sank a few so we had some catching up to do! After a chin wag and sinking a few drinks ourselves we decided to head to the YSS where we would be stopping. We carefully crept in trying not to wake anyone, which didn’t last long after crawling into our bunks Tony decided to make as much noise as possible by dropping his phone after the first, second and third trip to the bathroom. With our alarms waking us in the morning, we met the women who we were sharing a room with, which we apologised profusely for our drunken bumps in the early hours of the night before.

 Day 1:

Saturday Myself, Mark, Jess and Tony started our day with a full English at Inglesports, which seems to be the traditional way to start a caving trip. After a satisfactory filling we headed towards Bullpot farm, Red Rose caving and potholing club and had a steady walk over the moor to county pot entrance, we got our srt kits on and climbed down the entrance shaft of the cave. We walked through a very narrow winding passage, me being super careful because it was a brand new srt kit and I didn’t want to scratch it – which didn’t last long clanging it through the tight canyon. We then came to the first pitch, with Mark in front he started rigging and made the decent look effortless, I was to follow. Despite the large breakfast I had earlier shovelled into my mouth, turns out the descent wouldn’t be so easy for me. With a mixture of an old, thick rope and a new descender, Jess watched as I did my checks, I dangled over the first pitch, yet I still failed to move. They all thought it quite comical, a feather could of gotten to the bottom quicker, all 7 and a half stone of me was going nowhere fast! After a few meters Mark was able to grab my feet to pull me down, which still wasn’t an easy descent.. I got to the bottom eventually, just not as graceful as I thought! With one more pitch to do, we carried on through the cave. Mark climbed up Poetic Justice seemingly effortlessly, I gave it a shot but failed, then Tony went for it. I could just see his wellies disappear up the chimney, with a few grunts that followed he made it to the top too. Mark rigged a line and me and Jess climbed up to join them and then we did the crawl to the final pitch, which proved just as difficult for me as the first! We got as far as Eureka Junction in the main drain, past the Wretched Rabbit passage and then headed back. Thankfully, me being the weight I am – going back up the rope was far more pleasant! All in good time, Mark took some photographs and then we headed for the surface. The day ended the same as it had began, stuffing our faces only this time with a curry, Chloe and her partner Mark had joined us for the feast, ready for tomorrows adventure.

 Day 2:

Sunday we awoke to a bit of drama, Chloe and Mark were already outside and told us a vehicle had got stuck on the far car park. I was expecting a car in a pot hole, what I wasn't expecting is a Mitsubishi 4x4 camper van to have completely nose dived into ditch with just the back wheels and boot popping out! Unsure how the owners did manage to get out in the end, seeing the pictures on Chloe's phone, getting the vehicle in must have been an special achievement in itself! After having a giggle at someone else's misfortune, myself and the group headed to Inglesports, you guessed it – for breakfast! The group gained another 2 cavers, Keith and Kay who were already there tucking in! We ordered, ate and pondered around Inglesport. Me and Tony treated ourselves to new under suits, which we tested out later that day. We all collected outside, and headed for our cars to make the trip to Alum Pot. Mark and Jess went ahead to get permission from the farm nearby so we could park on their land. Once we all parked up, we started to get ready and put our kit on, me being the first to be dressed, I was so eager to do this trip! There was a lot of equipment to carry between us, so we all got together and took a bag each. They weren't light! I must have looked like a little donkey, with an srt bag on my back and a rope bag on my front to balance myself out, we made the 15 minute walk to the cave. When we got there we split into 2 groups. Our leader Mark, Keith and Tony stayed at the head of Alum Pot, Keith wanted to get some video footage of Mark doing the 80m pitch – the brave man! Tony stayed behind with them to help. That left our other leader Jess, myself, Kay, Chloe and Mark to head towards the entrance up the hill via Dolly Tubs. We got into the cave, paddling through the passages and dunking into pools of water before reaching the Cheese Press in Long Churn, where Jess and Kay both insisted I give it a go as it was my first visit. So, I awkwardly lifted myself into the tight squeeze, only to find out it wasn't as tight as I had imagined, I slid through it like a knife through butter – this is where my slight, petite build did me justice, making up for my poor descent efforts the previous day on the rope! I joined the others round the corner as they bypassed this route, we then put our srt kits on ready for the first pitch. Kay headed off first followed by Jess to do the rigging, whilst myself, Chloe and Mark waited patiently. I was very nervous about this pitch, I knew it was the highest one Id done so far being 15m in length. By then Mark, Keith and Tony had caught us up, I felt better knowing Mark would be talking me through it as Jess was already at the bottom of the pitch. Both leaders have filled me with confidence on previous trips and I feel safer knowing I'm with them. There aren't many people who I can say that I trust my life in their hands, but Mark and Jess are 2 of them and I feel I'm progressing as a caver through their help and support. I got to the top of the pitch accompanied by Mark, I hooked in my cows tails and took the rope I’d be descending on. I threaded in my descender, tested it by leaning back and locked off. Mark was slapping my hands, telling me to take my hands off the rope and to trust the kit, which is easier said than done being a newbie and dangling over a drop. I did as he said and leaned back, he then instructed me to take the lock off and make sure its clear where I'm going, thankfully it was kinder rope than yesterday, I travelled down it far more easier. I got to the bottom of the pitch where Jess was waiting for me and took over. I hooked my cows tails in once again and did the final pitch with confidence, got my feet on solid ground and shouted the all clear “Rope free!” I turned around and I was not prepared for what was in front of me, I was stood on the balcony pitch looking down into Alum Pot. The pictures on Google do not do it justice, it was breath taking! I was stood in sheer amazement, In ore of the view. We descended once again, this time passing a re-belay where I got a little stuck because my foot loop was shorter than my cows tails. But Jess was to the rescue, she lent me her hand ascender and I was free to move further down the rope. I got as far as the bridge, Tony, Mark and Kay went on to the bottom of Alum Pot, the rest of us started to move back towards the balcony and they caught us back up again after their deeper exploration. We travelled back through the cave, hauling the bags still, only this time they were full of water and wet rope. After climbing the 2 pitches, myself, Tony, Chloe and Mark were free and safe to carry on through the cave to reach the surface, I came out of the entrance with wellies full of water and huge grin on my face with what I had just seen. I already can't wait to go back and explore another entrance, I can’t put into words how I felt about this trip, but proud is perhaps the most fitting.

 To top the weekend off, we had the long drive down the M6 back towards Dudley HQ shortly after having a coffee with our club mates. With a Motown cd quietly playing in the back ground we headed through the winding Yorkshire roads towards a more populated civilisation – the dreaded M6. I don't think we had been on the M6 15 minutes, when flashing blues pulled us over onto the hard shoulder. The police officer approached the side of the car where I was passenger, I wound down the window. He had said the reason he had pulled us was because the vehicle was registered to a female owner and the concern was a male was driving. I pointed to the rear of the car and said “Officer, this is my car. We’ve had a weekend in Yorkshire caving and my legs have had it, so Tony has kindly offered to drive us home”. He looked at us and in the back of my car, I think he felt sorry for us, we did look a little worse for wear! – We possibly smelt a little too. He checked our details and said we were braver than him for caving, we could of chatted his ear off about our events that day, but we both kept quiet so he could continue his day. He waved us off and we continued our journey home.

Tony on the first pitch in County Pot

Liz on the 2nd pitch County Pot

Alum Pot

Trip Report: Liz Leavesley

Photos: Mark Burkey

Present Saturday: Liz, Tony, Mark & Jess

Present Sunday: Mark, Jess, Chloe, Mark Burgess, Keith, Kay, Liz & Tony

A County Round Trip via The Battle Of Britain Series

Saturday we took the day off and just had a quick photographic play in Yordas Cave, and were met later in the day by Loz. As the weather was forecast a little grim and wet we changed plans for the Sunday from Gaping Gill to County Pot.

Our original plan was to head to 'The Palace' but as we made our way through county we decided on a slightly more sedate but no less interesting route.
The girls had some fun at Poetic Justice and Loz practiced her rigging at the head of the final pitch. After this we backtracked to Spout Hall and made our way in to Battle of Britain Hall and the upper Trident Series for a good explore. Eventually we found our way on under a slab and to a 6m climb down to the Lower Trident Stream way. After a quick look upstream at the twin avens in White Line Chamber we returned via the oxbow. We took a quick look at water levels at Eureka Junction before completing our short round trip back up the pitch Loz had earlier rigged.

Jess admires formations in the oxbow above the stream way

Loz at Eureka Junction

Present: Mark, Jess & Loz

New Toys, Tears and Tantrums in Easegill

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With a long weekend in Yorkshire on the cards, we had two objectives – to link up the parts of the Easegill through trip and for Brendan to try out his new flashguns and electronic controller, which promised to revolutionize photoshoots.

The plan was to go in via Top Sink and either work our way through to County Pot, which Brendan assured us would be pre-rigged, or go back out of Top Sink to retrieve the ropes. Mark and Brendan were hoping to take photos at Easter Grotto, a beautifully decorated part of the cave.  We got changed in bright sunshine and joked about avoiding sunburn by getting underground.

None of us had ever been into Top Sink but it was easy to find. A rusty scaffolded entrance led shortly into a narrow ‘crabwalk’ type rift which at points proved a bit too snug for any of us to stay upright. We had with us two ropes, three SRT kits, two camera boxes and a bag full of tripods and other accessories, and found this rift hard going to say the least! We were relieved to reach the first pitch, Walrus Pot, where there was only room for one at a time to put on their SRT kits.

Once down the pitch we found ourselves back in the same kind of rift. Struggling with all our baggage, our spirits fell as we contemplated either returning the same way or coming out of County Pot and doing the long walk overland (plus the two rifts) at the end of the trip to get the ropes. I came up with the idea of having an ‘easy Monday trip’ - leaving the ropes in situ until then, using it as an ideal excuse for a pitch photo while we retrieved the ropes, and this suggestion was happily accepted.

Once we were down Penknife pitch we made good progress following the various descriptions which we had printed out. With no major problems we arrived at Easter Grotto, which has a roof absolutely covered with straws, and many strange ‘wasps nest’ formations. The boys opened their camera boxes. Disaster! Brendan’s camera box was full of water, and all his new flashguns were swimming. With one of the objectives of our trip foiled already, we still had to see if we could find our way through to County Pot.

We investigated a flat out crawl leading to the Palace, but decided against it as we were not sure how tight it would get, and the seams on Mark’s oversuit had already decided to part company. He spent the rest of the trip trying to hold the front of his suit together as it had come apart where I had taken the zip out. Deciding to take the route through the Assembly Hall, we eventually made our way via Stop Pot to the stream way, which we then followed.

En route to County Pot, Brendan pointed out the turning off to Wretched Rabbit. “Good job we’re not going that way with all this kit!” he said. “County Pot will be a lot easier”.  Well it didn’t seem overly easy, and when we finally arrived at the foot of the pitch, Brendan looked like he was ready to give up. “It’s not rigged!’ he exclaimed, ‘There’s no rope!”  He stared up the pitch, waving his arms around as if he expected a rope to miraculously appear from above, but to no avail.

With no choice now, we had to retrace our steps and go out of Wretched Rabbit. Wriggling through the tight passages and up the various climbs, we passed bags and boxes from one to another until at last the end was in sight. As I approached the entrance opening I was surprised how light it was outside, considering the time of day. Little did we expect to find snow falling!

A long, slow walk back to the van was alleviated by a few snowballs but it was three tired, hungry, cold cavers that eventually got back to the Bradford hut for a late dinner. 

Easter Grotto

Easter Grotto

Present: Jess Burkey, Mark Burkey, Brendan Marris

A Day At The Palace. Navigational Adventure Fit For A King In County Pot

For our second days caving we headed off to County Pot. I had joined Brendan on a previous trip in to Wretched Rabbit and up Stop Pot so was eager to 'join the dots' and link this entrance to Eureka Junction.
Although we had taken a line just in case, we found the pitches rigged and quickly made our way down them and the various climbs. We were soon in a chamber where Brendan challenged me to find the way on. Unfortunately for him I'd heard about the awkward Poetic Justice climb and soon found myself thrutching up the smooth calcite. Puffing and panting I awaited Brendan to join me, which after one attempt facing the wrong way he did. Whilst Brendan caught his breath I took a quick snap in the crawls before we continued on.
We were quickly in familiar passage and popping out at the foot of the boulder slope at Stop Pot. On our previous visit we had headed up the fixed ladder and on to Monster Cavern, so this time we headed in the opposite direction and we soon confronted by decorated passage in Gypsum Cavern. We continued on to The Palace where we spent a good time taking photo's before retracing our steps to Holbeck Junction. I stayed high and popped to take a quick look at Straw Chamber before rejoining Brendan. We headed up the boulders at Stop Pot looking for an alternative route Brendan recalled from his Uni days and soon found the low crawl that would exit at Four Ways Chamber. From here we followed the winding passage to the rope climbs to exit out of Wretched Rabbit.
As we walked back in the sunshine to Red Rose we planned our next navigational trips in to the system. We look forward to returning and possibly making it a club trip as it certainly has something for everyone.

Brendan in the crawl after Poetic Justice

Brendan in Gypsum Cavern

Mark in The Palace

Brendan in The Palace

Present: Mark Burkey and Brendan Marris

County Pot to Wretched Rabbit - Easegill Trip

The non-SRT plan for Sunday was a County Pot to Wretched Rabbit through trip. This would allow us to sort out the navigation around this area of the cave and open up longer trips and through trips in the future. We met up in the Clapham carpark at 10am, the later start being a relief after the previous day. We then headed off to Bullpot Farm, where we changed and headed off for our separate trips. The plan was for a through trip, but rigged with ladders so if we failed to find our way through we could return the way we went in. A 40 minute walk over the fell took us to the entrance to County Pot where we descended and we soon found ourselves at the top of the first pitch. This was already rigged for SRT, we rigged our ladder as we would need to return if we could not find our way through. After rigging the ladder for a possible return we abseiled down and then reached the climb down into Broadway, from here we headed right into Showerbath passage and then headed downstream to eventually emerge in Spout Hall, another landmark I had remembered. From here we headed downstream with a short section of crawling in the stream to emerge in a wider taller passage with Poetic Justice cunningly hidden on the right. This provided half an hour of entertainment as one by one we fought our way up it. Once all past this obstacle we followed the bedding plane crawl to reach the top of the next pitch. This was rigged already for SRT and again we rigged our ladder just in case we failed to complete our planned route. Again we abseiled down and we found ourselves in a good sized passage. We headed downstream and quickly at a point where we recognised Wretched Rabbit coming in from the right, we now knew we could complete the through trip and felt a little happier. A short section of crawling brought us down to Eureka Junction where we decided to briefly split up. Chloe and Lucy headed to Stop Pot while Mike and Brendan returned the short distance to derig the second ladder. The derigging was completed quickly and the ladder and lifeline packed in the bag, which was dropped off at the end of Wretched Rabbit. We then headed to meet the girls just emerging from the Stop Pot choke. Time now dictated that we make our exit and so we headed up the unrelenting rifty Wretched Rabbit Passage. The tackle bag proved to be a bit of a pain, but was shared around and within no time we were at the bottom of the roped climbs. These were all climbed quickly and we emerged into brilliant sunshine a couple of hundred metres upstream of County Pot. All that remained was for Mike and Brendan to whizz down the first section of County Pot to de-rig the ladder and then head back to Bullpot Farm.

Present: Chloe Burney, Mike Bonner, Lucy Collins and Brendan Marris.