Sprained my ankle so a deck chair was lowered down so I could sunbathe in the main chamber

Kids trip for the 65th anniversary of Matienzo Caves Project

Espeleologica visit to El Soplao. Beyond the show cave into some galleries with guides Laura and Oscar. The helectites were amazing.

Altamira Neocave. Showcase. Art recreations were incredible.

Went in top entrance. Quite overgrown. An easy trip into Reñada with the Wires. Unable to use my right wrist so a bit tricky on the rope climbs. Quite muddy, the children’s wellies came off a few times in the mud and we had to excavate them. Liz fell over backwards in the mud trying to free Seb from the mud. Made it to the start of the nice stuff before running out of time and having to turn back. Came out bottom entrance. Andrew joined for last bit.

A trip to look at the resurgence. Jim Lister’s van at car park.

Marshalling shift - incredibly wet. Had to stop winching all morning as water overflowing the dam. Rachel and Glen’s tent blew down and flooded while they were underground.

Top gun Tuesday. Moustache photography trip

Photography trip

Marshalling shift

To bottom of first pitch. Rigging practice for Issi and SRT practice for Kate. It was really wet, and we all got drenched coming down the first pitch. The second pitch was too wet to descend. Water was cascading down from the ceiling so that no matter which side you rigged from you got wet. Due to the placement of the bolts any descent of the pitch would have been in the water.

To bottom and out. George rigged all the climbs as pitches.

To main chamber and back

A return trip to survey 5411 and bolt the short pitch. My first time bolting and the rock was a bit dodgy, with a lot of it just peeling off the wall. All went well, there were two ways on at the bottom. The left way went up 3m through a tight squeeze with lots of loose stuff and choked after 10m. The right way went up a rift for 4m, with a possible way on spotted through a squeeze and lots of gardening required to make it less dodgy. Possibly a way straight on under all the rocks and boulders at the far end of the floor where it slopes down, but would likely require capping.

Jungle bashing into another shakehole. Two holes, both choked. Found a numberplate down one of the holes.

Jungle bashing into a shakehole, lots of limestone but all choked.

Such a fun, wet trip. Mostly in the water, swimming, about an hour and a half each way. Some really nice formations at the end, and an archaeological wall dated to 10-35kya. James let me borrow his neofleece which made the trip a lot more pleasant. Some awkward climbs on the way back due to how fast the water was flowing. Tiff slipped and sprained her thumb. Those without any neoprene were freezing.

Went up the pitch Andrew bolt climbed at Easter to have a look round the upper levels.

A trip to 2930 to look at draughting dig 180m above an aven in toad in the hole. Made good progress but needs shoring to be safe. Sam ran there and ran back.

Very hungover after the meal, we went to Codisera so Sam could take some photos.

More bolt climbing. Dan had to stop 4m from the top due to cramp.

To the lakes and back

Firstly we went up a pitch Dan had previously bolt climbed into a higher level, to descend an undescended pitch, this went nowhere. We also checked out some open leads which led into known passage. Then Dan started another bolt climb and got about 1/3rd of the way up before we had to leave. Sam took lots of photos.

A trip to derig Stream Passage Pot for the end of GG winch meet.

There was no Marshall for 19:00-20:00 and I was down for chawaller so I said I'd do it. I also showed Nicola how to do it as she'd not done it before. I ended up staying until around 20:45 as I didn't want to leave Glen down there alone and people were cold waiting to come up.

We were supposed to leave earlier around 9 but I was so tired from little sleep and Dave Ryall had the GG lurgey so we both went back to sleep for a bit.

A quick trip down stream, before my marshalling shift, with Pete (the caving whore) and Dave Ryall. Took some photos at the bottom of stream in the shower area. Got very wet and cold. Dave kept asking me to kneel down in awkward places which was rather uncomfortable with my ingrown toenail. Rushed to the T junction and got there very early (12:45). Decided to go to the traverse in South east pot and take some more photos. This time Pete was the model. He looked a bit grumpy in the photos.

At some point my elbow pad fell off. Never to be found again, probably has fallen down a hole somewhere between stream and the T junction.

I parted ways with Pete and Dave here. I went solo back to main chamber. I ran into two cavers during the crawl back. Stuart something. He was a bit sexist as the first thing he asked me was whose wife are you 🙄. I plodded on to main chamber and arrived 40 minutes early for my shift. I had to wait around in the cold and ended up seriously cold by the end of my shift.

First Marshalling shift

Marshalling shift. Water levels were crazy. Everyone was freezing.

I had a marshalling shift from 3-4 in the Main Chamber, putting members of the public in and out the winch chair. John and I planned a short trip afterwards, as neither of us had caved with each other for a few days! I got changed in the main chamber out of my marshalling clothes (basically as many thermal layers as I owned and my waterproofs, as otherwise I'd get really cold down there in the spray).

John came down on the winch after his shift and we started making our way to Bar Pot. I was a bit hesitant as I'd not prussiked out of Bar Pot yet, I'd only descended it. I'd heard stories of people getting a bit stuck and didn't want to be one of them.

On the way to Bar we ran into another BPC group, and after chatting for a few minutes we heard another group approaching (Will and Jess). We turned all our lights off and ducked under the sides of the passage, hoping to scare them. Unfortunately our giggling and shuffling was rather loud and our hiding places were terrible so it wasn't much of a surprise.

This was my first trip using my extra thick knee pads, and they were fantastic for the crawls back from main chamber. They were a bit annoying while prussiking, kept falling down my knees, and managed to get in the way of the rope during every prussik.

We explored far south east passage to the end before going out of Bar, it was all rather loose and quite muddy in parts, but featured some nice passages. The ascent out of Bar went completely smoothly and I'm not sure what I was worried about, as long as you don't go too high up the pitch head you can easily step up and off with the help of a perfectly placed ledge. Someone had done a wee at the top of the 2nd pitch of Bar and it really stank.

Went down Dihedral with John Worden, replaced the rope protector on the first rebelay. The others got the winch down. Took our srt kits off and made our way to Glover’s. Took some photos for two hours, got very very muddy. The formations are pristine. A bit of an awkward muddy climb back up but not too bad. Lay around chatting for a bit while we waited for the winch people to come back. Very painful crawling after three days of caving. Got winched back out.

It was supposed to be an easy trip as I was bruised after doing 4 entrances yesterday. Kevin suggested we do Marilyn to take some photos and come out the winch, which sounded easy enough.

The first pitches are a little snug, and then it opens up. They have been rebolted in different places, which Kevin did not like at all. We made our way to the bottom of disappointment, stopping to pose a few times along the way. Kevin kept pointing out things to me, most of which I’ve already forgotten.

We took some photos with people going up the ladder, which was a bit scary as the ladder looks rather old. We then went to the blowhole, which is a very small hole with a draft leading to far reaches of the system, far country and far waters. I crawled into it so Kevin could take some photos, the water was high until I bailed it. The crawl to the blowhole hurt.

I asked Kevin if there were any better routes to main chamber that were softer on the knees. Kevin suggested Mud Henslers, with an evil smile on his face. I soon found out why.

We arrived at the bottom of the Hensler’s pitches, and the others continued on into mud hanslers while I had a quick wee. This then meant I had to do it alone, it was very wet and very muddy, but was still harsh on the knees. Flat out at points, mostly crawling. At one point I thought I must have done the wrong way as the air space reduced a lot, I shouted ahead and Matt wasn’t far up ahead, he confirmed it was the right way indeed. I somehow had caught up with them. I tilted my head sideways and awkwardly shuffled through trying to keep my face out the water. I hadn’t tested the waterproof phone case that my phone was in around my neck yet, but I would find out soon it was indeed waterproof. It was horribly muddy. Finally after what felt like ages we emerged. I was knackered.

Mud hall is massive! I asked Matt if I needed cowstails and he said no. I wish I’d not listened to him as it was a muddy and slippery handline traverse around what looked like a massive black hole, but what was around a 30m drop. I got down on my knees and they kept slipping down towards the hole as I clung onto the rope cursing Matt.

Soon it was over and eventually after some more up and down, crawling and short climbs, we arrived back at the main chamber. Just in time for my 4pm chawaller shift (tea/coffee/soup maker for the winch operators). I was so muddy and I had a shower under the main chamber waterfall, and then again while on the surface under the warm winch engine water. It was lovely, and I managed to wash all the mud out of my hair.

The third trip of the day and I was a bit tired, but excited to get another trip in.

The walk over to the entrance was stunning, and we ran into the NPC members we had seen underground earlier in the day. Stream is a fantastic cave, and has some really nice pitches. Some of the pitch heads are a bit awkward, and look awkward to rig. We were very quickly down. We made our way through to sand caverns and John only went slightly wrong once. He pointed out a wrong way he had previously taken, when he had intended to take someone on what was supposed to have been an easy trip and instead ended up in a grovelly passage for ages, before realising they had gone the wrong way back up on the surface while in the pub.

The passages started off nice and clean washed, and then got rather muddy. With some quite slippy sections. We climbed up a few wrong sandy slopes in sand cavern, and soon we were back at the T junction, left to main chamber or onwards to bar, etc.

We made very good speed through the cobbly crawls, practically running through them. John is surprisingly good at stooping passages, for being tall. We stopped at the bottom of south east pitch to catch our breaths and chatted about our stories involving the pitch.

I wasn’t so fast prussiking out as I was knackered. I had to attach my jammers for the greasy slab as it was so greasy, and progress was slow and not very graceful. There is a bedding plane crawl back through to the pitch at small mammal and John went the tighter route, I followed him until I realised there was an easier way. Honestly bar pot would probably have been nicer. Our poor SRT kits screeched as they dragged against the rock.

The sunshine was glorious as we exited.

There were some sheep at the entrance of Baaar pot which we found comical. Some members of Hades were just going down, which was a bit inconvenient as it was supposed to be a quick trip while waiting for John to finish his Planking shift. The first pitch is a bit tight, and very slippery, I was very glad we could get the winch back up. Ran into Pete Sykes and Andy? Something at the bottom of the pitches who were just coming out and had come down Stream.

Made our way to Main chamber, ran into some NPC members (Lumens, Findles, her bf and Toby Buxton) who had just come out of Henslers which was nice to catch up. They were going out of stream but went to the main chamber first. We followed them to start with and then they left us to crawl faster. My knees were already hurting a bit at this point, from all the cobbles. We then ran into Dave Ryall’s photography trip group, including Carol Lawrence and Jean Brooksbank, and a few others. Brian the craven mascot was also down there. After some epic photos, we hurried to main chamber as it was only supposed to be a quick trip, poor John was waiting at the top for us.

We had to wait a while in the winch crew but I had a nice chat to some of the Hades lot who had never heard of the Petzl death harness slippage issue, and seemed rather amused by it. Had a nice conversation with a member of the public while waiting in the queue, about caving and mountaineering, high altitude stuff, cold water shock. The winch is super fast to start with, a bit scary. Scarier than doing SRT as you don’t feel in control.

I emerged to find John waiting at the top, “finally!”. The others decided not to come down stream with us as it was later than planned and they wanted to start drinking beer and cider, so the next trip was just John and I.

A lovely introduction to the Gaping gill winch meet. I went down last and it was quite hard to hear the rope free call when it came, luckily Matt had a whistle. There were four deviations before first rebelay at the ledge, I swung about for a bit and waved to people coming up and down the winch while Matt took some photos. Matt went down and I couldn’t hear his rope free, and he for some reason didn’t use his whistle. So, I was stuck waiting for probably 10-15 minutes until Pete Sykes came up the winch and halfway up shouted to me that Matt was down.

The main chamber looks magnificent all lit up, and a member of the public got a nice video of me descending the final rebelay, which I got them to airdrop to me while in the cave! The commentary was funny as they were pretending it was their mate coming down the rope to send to his wife to scare her. We wandered around and took some photos and then got winched back up.

We had packed the rope the night before which turned out to be a very clever idea as none of us were feeling particularly fresh in the morning. We set off only 20 minutes later than originally planned. It was a long walk up and thank god for GPS as we would otherwise probably never have found it. It was quite a steep walk and the last stretch was over very saturated swampy ground.

We found the correct hole, and with no one else wanting to rig, I made my way down the awkward entrance climb. The first pitch head is a bit tight and awkward to rig, with spiders conveniently chilling at head height around you. Down the Tonga trench we went, and arrived at another fairly restricted pitch head. We made quick progress and soon we had reached the five ways junction. A fairly nicely decorated passage leads to another pitch head, and this drops into scalloped trench. The way on is an awkward traverse to the right keeping high and then dropping down through a narrow rift to quickly reach the next pitch head. This is where Jean turned round as she wasn't feeling very well. This was unfortunate as after this the cave becomes less tight and the pitches, all short and sweet, follow in quick succession. There wasn't much of interest at the bottom, a low bedding crawl which leads nowhere.

We swiftly made our way back up, with Neil derigging. I massively overheated on all the pitches. I waited at the Tonga trench climb for them to pass the bags up as it was a big wet and awkward. We met Jean at the top of the first pitch, and we saved a frog that was one jump away from hurtling down the pitch. The visibility was horrific while walking down, but the lower down we walked the more clear the skies became and it was a rather beautiful afternoon.

Lancaster to Wretched. RIP the entrance cover.

Through trip. In situ rope up Lyle cavern is in very good condition.

The day began by me being rudely awoken around 10am by Paul, only around five hours after having gone to bed, who shook me violently and said "Wow, you are a deep sleeper, this is the third time I've tried to wake you. Get up, we are going caving soon". I swiftly got out of bed and sorted my caving kit out, filled my pot of Huel, loaded my kit into Alex's landy and we hit the road. Turns out, eating food while hungover on a very bumpy drive is not a good idea and is not a recommended future activity. 

We arrived at the layby and got changed, with Alex soon realising he had brought two wellies of different sizes. Luckily, Olly somehow managed to dig out a pair of the right size from his van. The walk began in lovely sunshine and the cave entrance was soon reached. Paul had given me the heaviest bag and this, combined with my jelly legs from a night of dancing, sobered me up quickly as I moved throughout the cave. Climbing down, and continuing ahead, the way on was left through a short squeeze and crawl. Following the passage we climbed down a lovely naturally stepped climb and waited for the others. Turns out Olly's light hadn't turned on at the entrance and so they had quickly gone back to fetch another one. While waiting we discussed clubs, and Nick said he was in the Craven. I informed him I had just applied to join the Bradford and he was not impressed - ♫Balls to Craven Pothole Club♫.

We continued, through some crawls and down some climbs, until we reached the Bridge. We traversed around the Main Chamber, and Paul pointed out some nice helictites above our heads. We quickly arrived at the Ladder Dig pitch and Olly set to climbing with some ladders in hand. One by one we were belayed up and I was glad to have rid of the bag. Some short crawling ensued after which helictite chamber was reached. We rigged another ladder off a natural as a means of getting up an awkward climb, and were soon thrutching up into the Great Chamber. A lovely, large, well decorated chamber, approximately 40m at its widest point with 25m of height gained by climbing up boulders. I explored while Paul, Olly and Nick took some nice photos. Alex opted for a short nap on a surprisingly comfortable rock and after he woke up we shared a flapjack together. Paul took at least 30 minutes, maybe more, to take some photos and then we were ready to leave for Bat Passage. Paul remarked that he remembered a different way down from the Great Chamber and so we squeezed down some holes in search of it. After finding the chimney-like squeeze, and slotting ourselves through it, we bumped into Nottingham Uni who were also on a trip into GB. Oli Brain (Nottingham) and I celebrated our first time being underground together, and then we continued on to Bat Passage. Not quite knowing the correct way to reach it, we scrambled up and down, probably rather inefficiently, before Alex found some bat shit and, subsequently, the way on. Bat Passage is finely decorated, and Paul took some nice snaps of us all together. We continued to the end of the passage for completion and then began our journey out. We ran into another uni group (Southampton?) on the way out. Instead of traversing the Bridge, Paul took us up the waterfall climb, which was taped off due to a collapse some years ago. The climb was rather sporting and I believe a waterfall to the face while climbing was the moment I well and truly sobered up. We swiftly left the cave and emerged into glorious sunshine, skipping back through the fields to the cars with glee, ready for the festivities of bonfire night at the BEC. On the drive back Alex and I thought it would be fun to see if we could go and get the landrover stuck up a muddy track up passed the Wessex.

A link to the survey: http://www.ubss.org.uk/resources/proceedings/vol12/UBSS_Proc_12_1_126-0.pdf

Cow Pot. Andrew took some nice photos