Telford Trio in Splinter Group Complete Exchange Trip In the Peaks - Oxlow Caverns to Maskhill Mine

I had offered to rig Oxlow Cavern for Andy G who was leading a novice SRT trip into the cave and was soon joined by two sherpas with large rope bags in the guise of Rob and Tony. We headed into the main cavern and rigged the final pitch into Pool Chamber and then waited for two larger groups to arrive and then DCC had 13 members underground in the passage linking Oxlow and Maskhill.

I had spent some time on the descent showing Rob and Tony some rigging techniques and when we were all together it was decided that the Telford Trio (Me, Rob & Tony) would head out of Maskhill making the exchange trip and everyone else would exit Oxlow Cavern. This would help both of them understand more of the techniques used in rigging so we didn’t waste any time heading off up the Maskhill chamber.

I let Tony and Rob de-rig every pitch and played the role of rope bag hauler. Once we filled the first bag I took it up and out of the shaft and then headed back down to help with the work as there is a lot of rope and rigging to take out from Maskhill.

We were the first DCC cavers out and moved to the top of Oxlow to see if everyone was okay. There were lights moving down the shaft so we waited until we had communication with the others before heading down to the vehicles with all of our rope bags. We got changed and waited for the first few cavers to join us before heading to the Wanted Inn for a drink. I didn’t join Rob and Tony in the pub as I was on my motorbike and wanted to get back to Brum before it got too dark.

Trip Report: Andy Kempster

Members Present: Andy Kempster, Rob Campbell and Tony Ferrun.

Off On The Crusades Before going Off on Holiday!

As Mr Grimes was arranging a novice SRT trip in to Oxlow I decided a through trip from Maskhill would be good practice for cavers going to Mallorca at the beginning of October. After having been to Hidden Earth I also fancied a poke around in ‘New Oxlow’.

After parking up, changing and paying our fees to the farmer we were about to head off up the hill when I realised I had neglected to bring a memory card for my camera, so after some faffing Helen came to my rescue with an SD card from her camera.

We trotted up the hill with a tackle sack each weighing us down and were soon jumping like lemmings down the entrance pitch. Chloe wanted some practice and took over the rigging between the 2nd and 3rd pitches and we all made swift progress down to the connection with Oxlow.

Here we met up with the other group and posed for a quick group shot before continuing up the pull through in to Pilgrims Way. Here we dumped our SRT kits and after a reasonable amount of crawling we passed the Giant’s connection and were rewarded with larger passage way. We continued on exploring all leads until we came upon a pitch up and a pitch down. Unfortunately none of us had any SRT kit as we hadn’t expected to need it so we did the 20 min’s of crawling again in both directions to retrieve it. Chloe and Jess went up toward the new Crusader extensions and I began setting up a camera shot only to find out I was out of battery….Doh!

Instead I headed down the pitch and into the crawls and ducks that continued through the New Oxlow Extensions. Upon returning to the foot of the pitch we all re-joined and headed back to the elusive connection to Giants. We had taken a look at the horrid looking tight, flat out, wet way in to the chamber of horrors a few times in the past. Helen began taking the lead before deciding it wasn’t looking very pleasant. I encouraged Chloe to give it another go and with a little digging and with me wedged in the tight corner she managed to push through the tight squeeze. Turning around she actually found it easier to push back through. Feeling a little hypothermic we regrouped and headed out via Oxlow.

A great trip and a few places now to revisit!

Present: Helen Nightingale, Chloe Burney, Jess Burkey and Mark Burkey

Maskhill/Oxlow Exchange for a Major Miner!

After receiving a request from Andy Kempster for an SRT trip for his first outing with Dudley, and having found out Alum Pot was his first SRT outing, we realised we’d need something a little tastier than a normal novice trip for him. Carl, Grant and Chloe had also expressed an interest so as there would be sufficient bodies available a Maskhill/Oxlow exchange was decided upon.

Jess and I picked up Chloe on the way and met up with Andy, Carl and Grant at 9am (Carl would like a special shout out to point out they were actually 15 minutes early!)

Carl and Grant were to rig Oxlow whilst Andy, Jess Chloe and I would go in to Maskhill. As we anticipated taking longer going in Maskhill it was decided that we would set off ahead of the lads to give us a head start.

Although the weather was far kinder than our recent trips to these mines I decided to head up the hill and get the entrance pitches rigged whilst the others finished changing so there wouldn’t be too much standing around in the cold. Everyone made short work of the pitches and within a couple of hours we were heading through to the West Chamber to meet up with the lads. Unfortunately the lads had given us a bit more of a head start than I’d anticipated and we had an hour wait for them to join us.

United we set the pull through to Pilgrim’s way so I could take another look at the route to the Chamber of Horrors. Grant elected to take a break whilst we went to explore. The crawls went on quite a bit longer than I’d remembered and it was 20 minutes before we reached the flat out crawls in a very cold stream way.  Carl decided to head back to keep Grant company (probably the most intelligent of us). I headed in first and was soon at the tight s-bend. This time with helmet off I managed to get my chest around the corner only to find the passage continue to tighten. Worried that I wouldn’t be able to reverse if I got too stuck, Chloe volunteered to lead the way (well maybe ‘volunteer’ is a bit strong ;) To avoid drowning she went through on her back, but finding her nose was touching the rock roof, she too was a little nervous of getting stuck with her legs contorted around the corner. With no one smaller to send in to see if it would be do-able, or dig-able we headed back to continue the trip.

We swiftly rigged the Waterfall Chamber. Andy and myself then descended Pool Chamber before, very cold and wet, we began the long climb out.

Andy, Jess and Chloe continued with the exchange while, to help with the de-rig, I exited out Maskhill with Grant and Carl.

Grant wasn’t feeling too good on the way out, so Carl and I were left to haul out the heavy rope bags between the two of us. Even so we still managed to exit before the other group and managed to call Mr Grimes (our call out) with only minutes to spare.  Half an hour later and the other team joined us. The Oxlow pitches had proven somewhat wetter than usual, and everyone was glad to get warm and dry.

Andy had no problems with this big exchange trip, other than the fact Jess had decided to tie on a bag to his rope before he exited the head of a pitch and nearly pulled him off! Even so he seemed very happy with the trip and even eager to join us on a future outing…..the crazy fool!

 

Andy on the abseil traverse above Waterfall Chamber

Present: Grant Wilkes, Carl Knot, Chloe Burney, Jess Burkey, Mark Burkey and Andy Kempster

Oxlow and Pilgrim's Way

Sunday saw my second trip to Derbyshire, this time for an SRT trip in to Oxlow. Arriving at around half nine, Andy, Mel and I took a final look at the route from the West Antechamber before dishing out the tackle and heading up the hill.
We swiftly made our way down the 4 pitches to the pull through up to Pilgrims way where we paused to remove our SRT kit before continuing. Andy led the way down the hands and knee's crawl through to Mecca Aven and then on to the flat out wet crawls. Not far in, the passage became very tight, silted with gravel. After having a bit of a dig we managed to get a few feet further till a tight bend closed down again. Andy was happy that we'd achieved what he'd wanted and found our way to connect to the chamber of horror's and Mel said that she was far too intelligent to push on any further, so a wet and happy trio made our way back out to find another group coming in.
Mel was the first up the entrance shaft to find the group had put the cover back on and she had to struggle by herself to lift the steel lid.

Again another great trip, although I may have to leave the actual connection through to the slimmer members of the club!

Present: Andy Grimes, Mel Wakeman & Mark Burkey

Srt day in Oxlow cavern

Since attending a SRT training day and managing to not kill or injure myself, Mark and Jess had agreed to take me on a novice trip. So as promised, Mark Jess Phil and I met up at Morrison’s in Buxton and headed towards Oxlow Cavern. Andy, Carl and Grant had gone on ahead to start rigging.

When we arrived at the parking spaces, Mark managed to once again get the van stuck in the mud and took great joy in splattering us as we pushed him back out. Jess and I decided it was far too cold to get changed outside so we commandeered the back of the van. I got all my shiny new bits of SRT kit out of their packaging and with a little help from Jess managed to put it all on. We battled knee deep drifts of snow and gale force winds to reach the cave opening, leaving us all wishing we had stayed in bed. One by one we dropped into the entrance shaft, leaving Mark to get cold in the snow as retaliation for the mud spraying incident. As we were preparing to drop down the second pitch we could hear an abundance of swearing coming from the darkness ahead, indicating we were closing in on the boys. We descended down the pitch without issue and found Andy waiting at the head of pitch 3. This pitch involved a diversion which, despite Mark and Andy making it sound complicated, Phil and I passed smoothly. After going down another short pitch we turned around, Grant de-rigged, and we began the long haul back out of the cave. The entrance shaft seemed like it was a mile long and the excitement of reaching the top was soon quashed as I realised there was close to a blizzard blowing on the surface. With numb and painfully cold hands, we each headed back off the hill as quickly as possible.
After using the back of the van in relay to get changed again, we headed to a pub to warm our toes by the open fire.

Report by Chloe Burney

Present: Chloe Burney, Phil Lester, Carl knott, Grant Wilkes, Andy Grimes, Mark Burkey & Jessica Harding

Oxlow Caverns, Near Castleton, Derbyshire

This was the third attempt to bottom Oxlow for Peter and myself, so this time we took extra people to ease the burden of carrying the tackle, and slow but steady progress was made down to West Chamber where the decision was made to start our way back out with only a few members entering Waterfall Chamber. Exiting took longer than expected as we had to wait for another party to leave, unfortunately one of their members had became wedged in the entrance shaft (tackle bag on his back). 

The Team : PeAn, AnCr, AnGr, MiNo, MeWa & StWa