Hammer pot via bottom of stemple rift

This was one hell of a day, a scary day one of two times in my entire caving career where the rescue services have had to be called out, the other was Ireby Fell caverns in flooding.

I wrote at the time:

I awoke to this trip feeling a bit of anxiety; I had not felt anxiety like this for a long time. I did not get much sleep in the night just passed. Shortly after I awoke, the whining of the alarm reminded me that I actually have to get up.

Well I headed down old Ingey and made sure I had the full breakfast not just the mini one as I knew this trip was not going to be easy. Dunc had cancelled (I don’t blame him) so it was left for the four of us to brave the perils of Devils hammer pot (actually known as Hammer pot). We headed to the cave in the glorious sunshine and after a little bit of bad luck on my part (I found the entrance) we set off through the first trial of the cave; the long entrance crawl. Although it was very rocky and bruising the crawl did not go on for too long and soon deposited us after a short squeeze at the top of the first pitch. Pete couldn’t be bothered to put his SRT kit on so he treated it as a hand-line climb while the rest of us donned our descending gear.

Once at the bottom, we were greeted by the yawning chasm of Stemple Rift, cautiously we progressed onwards into the rift. This rift starts off easy and lulls you into a false sense of security with plenty of ledges and stemples to stand on along the way until you are forced up higher into the rift. Near the end of the rift where there are no hand holds or ledges I could no longer grip my tackle sack and keep my self from slipping so it was bye bye tackle sack. Mercifully there was a climb down which I’d seen before I dropped it so I got it back without much fuss and was able to carry on at lower level bypassing the top half of the second pitch. Once the others had caught up and tackle sacks passed though we all free climbed the 3rd pitch landing in splash chamber. Splash chamber was the roomiest part of the cave so far despite being rather small. A quick shuffle through the following passage leads to the 4th pitch. For once this pitch was an inspiring one and had a descent hang down the main pitch. Down this pitch we went. We next tackled the few climbs that look more awkward then they are. The 5th pitch was next with its slightly tight pitch head.

Down that and another climb we reached the dank crawl of Sludge Crawl. The crawl started off rather pleasant containing sand not grit and very little water, but the further we progressed the more water filled the passage and the more the roof lowered. Eventually the passage relented slightly at which point we met the master cave streamway.

I attempted at this point to take a picture of near by formations however I was foiled in the attempt by an inexplicable fog that not only blocked my camera’s vision but I realised it was blocking mine too. I was unable to see more then 10 or 15ft in front of me, a strange underground mist had descended on us or maybe we were just breathing too hard. The others shot off while I was taking photos, leaving me to find the holes in the floor that make up most of the streamway my self. I caught up to the others at the pitch head to the final pitch. We rigged the traverse, well it was more an abseil and then went down the pitch proper, gazing at the calcite flow as we went. Shortly after some easy walking then crawling we were at the sump. It was now 2:10pm. We headed out with no issue and soon reached the top of 4th pitch by 3:30pm, we were doing well. The third pitch/climb went by with no real problems except I went way too high on the third pitch and wondered where the heck the way on was. Finding my we met the others and we headed up the second pitch/climb with a bit of struggling from all of us except Rob. We had now reached the infamous Stemple Rift.

Well this was where the trouble began, I was behind Dan in the rift where he was having a breather. I was close to him owing to the fact I wanted to be out of the bloody rift. Before I knew it forced to stop in a less than satisfactory position and had managed to slip a couple of inches or into the rift being such skinny bugger, no big deal right? At this point I was not stuck just unable to go forwards or up. I decided to reverse a bit hoping to find something behind me to push off of to get up. Problem was however there was not and I had backed up over empty space in a slightly wider bit of the rift and my legs swung below me leaving me in a standing position with my waist firmly wedged. Now I was really getting stuck, my waist was in the tightest bit and the more I struggled to free myself the more I slipped downwards until at last it was now my chest that wedged me into rock, like the filling in a rock sandwich.

I was stuck like this for around 20 minutes, until Rob, being able to see behind guided me to where to swing my legs and managed to get back to a horizontal position. By this point I had lost a grip on my tackle and had used it as a stepping stone at one point dropping it down to the stream level.

I managed to push my self forwards past the tight bit that blocked me earlier however I was still too low in the rift but I didn’t care I just wanted out of it. This however caused me to be in the wrong position to tackle the rest of the rift. I was also quite tired and stressed from the previous point of being stuck so when I reached the wooden stemple I had no purchase and my legs again slipped back down into the rift and the rest of me followed.

I was now in the streamway glad to have solid ground beneath me at least. It did not seem possible to get back onto the stemple at least not bloody easy. So it seemed to me that the best option would be to try and get to the end of the rift at stream level and climb out at a wider point.

What followed was 20 minutes of moving rocks and thrutching while being assisted from above by Rob’s foot, until I eventually reached a point that was just too narrow. This narrow bit was blocking my freedom I was literally a couple of feet from the end of the tight rift known as hesitation corner, so close I could touch Robs legs as he stood in the stream way just beyond the impossible tight bit. However the distance may had well been forever as I was not getting through this last bit.

It was at this point Rob decided to get help and left Dan to keep me company. As I knew help was coming and I was so near too freedom me and Dan thought it would be best to wait where I was rather then to get stuck somewhere even worse. After an hour or so passed I realised that they would actually have a lot of trouble getting me out from my current position, so the best thing to actually do is get back to the stemple where I came down they would at least be able to get a rope around me and pull me out.

Crawling backwards was much harder then going forwards was as I had to contend with the most awkward double bend tight backwards crawl imaginable with rocks and discarded wellies blocking my way. Some how through various wriggling and maneuvering I managed to back my self slowly but surely backwards. Eventually I reached the stemple where I originally slid down. I knew at this point if I was going to get my self out this is the only sure way because if I could fit down it I can fit back up it. Now I needed to stand up. I will attempt to describe how awkward a move this was. I was lying on my right hand side on the floor a piece of wood is approximate 4 feet above my head. My legs were around the corner to my right.

The rift is only wide enough to bring one leg slightly back and was still tight everywhere else. I managed it by basically pushing with all my might into my left leg while at the same time pushing with all my might on my right and once high enough pulling my self up left arm on the stemple. A primal roar later and I was stood up next to the stemple still holding onto it, as if I let go now I would fall into a nameless void. I made a few attempts to climb up onto the stemple with little success and thought it would be best if don’t waste what little is probably left of my energy as rescue is near here. After 20 minutes or so I heard movement, Rob had come back into the cave. Him arriving actually spurred me on to give it one last go.

I chucked my left leg directly up in the rift so my foot was actually higher then my head onto a ledge I spotted. With my leg high above my head and my hands pushing off the stemple I was able to use my leg as giant leaver to pull the rest of me up and onto the stemple. I was back where I should be in the rift. I simply stood up and walked out of the rift at traverse level with no issue except I had no wellies.

I met the others who were probably surprised to see me at the bottom of the first pitch. Rob lent me his SRT kit and I made my way up the pitch. At the top the nice people of CRO met me. After a quick chat we all headed out of the cave and onto the surface where the nice people of CRO probably owing to the fact I had no footwear gave us a lift to the cars. Rest assured I donated to CRO after this event, as I and everyone else is safe we can all have a good laugh about it only problem is what can be done about my £400 of stuff lying somewhere in Stemple Rif