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

In Search of the Dragon

Our grandchildren (Ian and Keith that is) like caving. However, it's getting increasingly difficult to find new places to take them. They are now getting quite experienced so we need trips that will challenge them but don't involve anything too hazardous. We have done Goatchurch, Eglwys Faen, OFD (to the Trident and Judge) and Aggy. Ian suggested Ogof Craig A Ffynnon but I thought the pitch could over face them so I suggested we tackle North West Inlet.

Now those of you who have done this trip will know that the water is numbingly cold and one is in the water for quite some time, so we made sure everyone was wearing a wetsuit. To tempt our young explorers through this moist passage, I told them that the cave was home to a rare breed a caving-dwelling dragon.

This short film tells the story of the trip.

OFD Through Trip

Faced with the onset of the hottest week of the year, the only sane course of action was to seek respite underground. We'd been hoping to do the OFD through trip (bottom to top entrance) for a couple of years, but never quite got around to it. However, a quick email later, and we had Bartek and Paulina on board. Their stories about the Ario expedition made the trip seem incredibly tame, but also a much nicer (read less tight and committing) experience!

Water levels in the streamway were well below The Step, and Anne appreciated being able to make progress without falling over or fighting for balance (short people problems!). After stomping up the streamway and going through the choke into the Connection, Bartek decided it was time for a spot of photography and took several snaps of the impressive mini formations in the passage. We then remembered the right-hand turn by an obvious formation, and popped out into a chamber with a few options for ways on.

Here our satisfaction at remembering the nav ended, and Bartek had to come to the rescue by sniffing out the tube that was the way on. After this we made quick progress to the Letterbox, with only one further nav mistake, that Bartek and Paulina again corrected. At this point, Bartek shot off ahead, and we waited a while for him to return. This not happening, Dave decided to climb up to the Letterbox and yell for him to come back. Bartek, however, had other ideas. Pretending to be a vampire, he had perched out of sight just before the Letterbox and thought it great fun to make Dave jump as he climbed upwards. His cruelty continued, as on arrival at the streamway in OFD 2, he forced Dave to jump in and out of potholes so he could take photos. This was under pain of not telling him how to find his way out of the cave. Justice was done, however, as Paulina quietly filled his wellies with stones whilst he was engrossed in taking more photographs near top entrance. What was most impressive was the fact that he walked halfway back to the cottage before realising and emptying a handful of large rocks out of his boot (then discovering even more later).

The biggest highlight of the trip was definitely Marble Showers, where the combination of black limestone and calcite veins / swirls was stunning. Overall this trip was well worth waiting for and is definitely one to repeat before too long.

Cavers: Bartek, Paulina, Dave & Anne
Trip Report: Dave
Photos: Bartek

DRAENAN ENTRANCE IV – A NEW HOPE

DRAENAN ENTRANCE IV – A NEW HOPE

Part One - “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny,

consume you it will”

A long time ago in a cave passage far, far away…

A group of cavers

including Keith and Jess

endeavored to reach a beautifully decorated chamber

in the far reaches of Ogof Draenan…The trip entailed light years of

stumbling over greasy boulders…millenniae of thrutching, over sticky mud floors…many

tears and groans of agony and vain attempts to use the force…This mission was completed

in no less than 13 HOURS by the intrepid explorers, making it the longest caving trip and

hardest physical feat EVER in the life of poor Jess…

A few lightyears passed…

Lulled into a false sense of security by Mark,

(Who said he found our lack of faith disturbing)

Jess, Mel and Joe agreed to embark on a little “routefinding trip” into Draenan.

Some gentle exploring around the entrance, we thought! Tucking a choc bar and a capri sun

into our suits, we set off. 16 HOURS LATER we emerged into early morning daylight, with

broken bodies, bleeding knees and murder in our hearts. Mark had failed to mention that

the “routefinding” was to the Gerion – pretty much the same trip that Jess had done a few

years before (and sworn never to attempt again). Unprepared as we were, without any

dihydrogen monoxide, we had been reduced to drinking sludgy cave water, and eating some

weird thing made of sugar and peanuts, that Mel had brought back from some foreign

planet, just… to… survive.

So …

you can imagine my trepidation

when, after months of almost no caving at all,

my foray back into this dark world was to be another trip into Draenan…

I HAD A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS…

Part Two - “These are not the entrances you’re looking for”

Jedi masters,

Bartek and Paulina

came up with a plan to find the new entrance,

(Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du) mentioned in Descent Magazine,

go into the main cave, then go out via the traditional entrance. Maps were consulted and

terrain was surveyed. Teams were chosen and soon we were heading to parts unknown.

“This is the Way” called Mark,

and descended down a steep ravine, through dense vegetation,

only to be met at the cave entrance by those with a GPS and an obvious path.

Once inside, there were crawls – but nothing too terrible, and soon we were in bigger

passage, with conservation tape. Obviously we were in known passage…but just where?

Bartek, Paulina and Dino were in Draenan for the first time, and Loz, Joe and I had been

there only a few times. Out came the surveys, descriptions and compass, but to no avail. But

the force was strong with Mark, and indeed, this WAS the Way. To T Junction, anyway.

Greasy boulders to the left of us, greasy boulders to the right of us, stretching into the

distance. The potential for hours and hours of type 2 fun lay ahead. But all was not lost - An

early call-out had been set, so we could head out of the original entrance with heads held

high. The mission had been accomplished!

Draenan Entrance IV – A New Hope

CREDITS

Directed by Paulina and Bartek

Written by Jess

Locations Mark

Associate producer Dino

Soundtrack Loz

Archive material Joe

Photography Mark and Bartek

Starring Paulina, Jess, Dino, Loz, Joe

Dranen entrance passages. Photos Bartek Biela

White arch chamber. Photo Mark Burkey

Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du entrance ladder. Photo Mark Burkey

Caving Trip to Agen Allwedd in South Wales

Before embarking on our caving adventure to Agen Allwedd, also known as ''Aggy'', a renowned cave in South Wales, we spent days planning and deciding which section to do. There was six of us with mixed level of experience, including a novice on his 3 rd. caving trip ever! Equipped with appropriate gear, food and drinks we were ready for the underground adventure. 

For a change, the weather was clear and sunny. The entrance to Aggy was reached after 20 minutes’ walk, luckily for us the key worked at first try and we descended into the darkness. 

The first section of the cave, Entrance Series, was relatively straightforward in terms of navigation, consisting of collection narrow rifts, crawls to squeeze through, climbs and boulders to hop over. We navigated through the initial passages with relative ease, the thrill of exploration driving us forward. We quickly reached the Baron’s Chamber and continue down Main Passage. We soon reached a right-hand side turn onto Main Stream Passage. Once again we navigated crawling under boulders or climbing over another. The passage seemed to go on forever. Soon we reached Turkey Pool where couple of us decided to cool down a bit and unintentionally jump in up to our chests, brrrr. The Selenite Needle Passage was another noticeable place where lots words of amazement were heard. 

Turkey Pool

Selenite Passage

We continued to complete our objective of Inner Circle, through Eastern Avenu and St Paul’s Passage with its amazing Dome of St Paul’s. Soon after we were on our way back retracing our steps, carefully navigating the tricky sections once more, our fatigue counterbalanced by the exhilaration of our adventure. Emerging into the daylight, we were greeted by the warmth of the sun, vibrant green of the surrounding landscape and midges. 

Inner Circle Chamber

St Paul's Dome

Our caving trip to Agen Allwedd was an unforgettable adventure. It tested our limits, rewarded our curiosity, and left us with memories that will last a lifetime.

Report: Paulina

Photos: Bartek

Cavers:Bartek, Paulina, George T, Becca K, Dino, Loz

Craig a Ffynnon

We started our day with a breakfast at Greggs. To ready ourselves for a days caving. We decided that our aim for the trip was to reach helictite passage.

The trip started with a steady walk through to the first bolder choke where we climbed up the waterfall. We then progressed through gasoline alley with a crawl through some low water. Then the climb up through the corkscrew.

Then come the second choke which me and Dave battled our way through with the dry sack wedging on every rock. A great crawl with some level changes.

Travertine passage was our first photo stop with Mark, taking some excellent photos throughout the trip.

We carried on along to Hall of the Mountain King which was something special to see with some beautiful formations. This is where Keith and Mark left us.

We were down to three. George,Dave and Jas.

We had a long crawl (about 20minutes) through the third choke, which was great fun, and hard work. Along the Severn tunnel and into the fourth choke. We found our way through after going into a few dead ends and a little bit of searching we found our way on.

We then carried onto helictite passage taking in the beautiful formations before stopping for some lunch and a little rest.

Dave couldn’t resist taking me and Jas to the fifth bolder choke which we had a little look around before turning around and heading for the exit.

On the way back we couldn’t resist getting very wet and cold. In things to come which was a great opportunity to clean down our oversuits from a very muddy trip.

A great trip. Thanks all.

Trip Report: George
Phots: Mark
Cavers: George, Mark, Keith, Dave & Jas

Heron Pot

After several days of hill-walking, climbing, and some aborted mountaineering in the Cuillin (thanks to Scottish weather), Anne and I decided we had to finish off our active streak with some caving. Being in Yorkshire, we were spoilt for choice, and having been taught the basics of rigging by none other than rope aficionado Mr Bartek Biela, I picked Heron Pot as a relatively easy cave to rig unsupervised.

After the short entrance crawl we met the stream and followed this for 10-15 minutes to the head of the first pitch. From here I shimmied up to the start of the High Level Route and began rigging the traverse. I quickly found out why the description said that having long legs was helpful. So too did Anne, who discovered a hitherto unknown talent for doing the splits. Before long (in distance terms, not in time terms as I was pretty slow!) I reached the bolts for the Y-hang. After rigging this, I swung out over the darkness and enjoyed the great pitch (maybe 20ish metres) to the bottom of the cave.

Anne soon joined me, and instead of completing the through trip (and then coming back to de-rig), we decided to crack on with prussiking back up and derigging. Part of me was a little worried about how Anne would manage going back along the traverse with her little legs, but she managed fine and I thoroughly enjoyed working out how to de-rig the traverse while keeping myself safe.

With lots of time remaining, I rigged the first of the wet pitches and dropped down to the head of the second. A grunt from above made me look up to find Anne dangling from her cows’ tails, with her legs waggling in thin air. Apparently the tiny traverse to a nice ledge was just the wrong shape for her, so a controlled lower onto her cows’ tails was in order. After another couple of goes she had it sussed and soon joined me at the bottom of the pitch.

The second pitch had me completely baffled. Unless I was missing something, it involved an easy but very exposed traverse right across the pitch head to the second anchor. The anchor was quite high, meaning that when I arrived at it, I would have had to lean out over the pitch to clip into it and rig it. Risking a big fall and swing on a long piece of rope didn't seem a great idea to me, so I decided that caution was the best part of valour and retreated. (I later checked the topo again, and could see all the anchors marked on it in the cave, so I can't see that I missed anything

All that remained was for us to prussik back up the first pitch, and for Anne to struggle with the mini traverse before I derigged and we headed out of the cave. Once back at the car, we nipped into Yordas where we did the (very mini) through trip, before driving to Valley Entrance and going to the pitch down into the master cave. Being late in the day, we didn't go further and explore, but I'm looking forward to doing a through trip from Swinsto at some point.

This was a great day of caving: three fun caves, a great challenge and lots of variety. We shall have to come back and complete the Heron Pot through trip at some point.

Cavers: Dave & Anne
Trip Report & Photos: Dave