Arlans first trip down the underground canyon as we call it. It was quite wet and sporting and foam not only in the crawls to the master cave, but also in the roof of KMC above the pitch.

Joined late, spent about an hour shifting buckets round corner before heading out to the pub. The dig does not look to be connecting with the existing passage and instead heading off on it's own direction into unknown territory, it could go on for ever lol.

What a fantastic trip, though hard. I was definitely nervous the day before, it's been a while since I had done anything grade 5, unless you count Mossdale, but even that was a year ago before my injury (ruptured achillies tendon). Okay, I had done an 8 hours trip in Southwales (aggy) a few weeks ago, though it's not as arduous, no rope bags! In King there's quite a bit of rope to share between two people though I tried to reduce the weight using my light-weight grade 5 rope (8mm).

Anyway it was a glorious sunny day and it felt a right shame to spend this underground, and which was why I was having so much trouble to try and find a 3rd pretty much everyone I asked was climbing! We passed the farmer and his 1 door tractor to let him know where we were going and to expect to see is probbably in the dark, so he knows we are not sheep russlers or something.

Once through the farm there was a grade 5 walk up a steep hill, just a few months ago I would have struggled with this alone, due to my injury! But up we went and walked straight to the entrance using modern tech to find it.

Down the entrance and through the hole onto the first pitch/climb, which was easy enough on the way down (a theme here). I rigged the climb and the pitch with 1 rope so at-least there was backup to the main hang. I started descending and realised there was another anchor and went back up again to rig it (another theme here!). Really nice descent, down a flouted shaft into a big chamber. A crawl leads past a boulder, where an important note for anyone who reads this, is look up as soon as you can stand up. That's the way on, thankfully I remembered this, guides don't mention how easy it is to carry on in a tight horrible passage.

We were soon at the rope traverse where I bravely just hung off it on my cows tails as I was feeling lazy and then an awkward crawl to the top of the 2nd pitch in a boulder choke. I rigged the re-belay and missed it was y-hang, oh well rope rub was minimal.

A bit of crawling and akward climb we reached the traverse, it did not seem that bad and bag was easily retrievable when is slid in getting to the end I dropped down the hole to stand up, not advisable on the way out. I looked over the lip on the way you are meant to go, and thought feck that, I grabbed the knotted rope and dropped straight down, tight at first but it opened out and I flew down the rope to a knot stopping me basically on the floor, still far less scary and easier than the way you are meant to go, you just can't go back up this way. Pete followed me.

Onwards from here I will keep details light, there's lots of walking passage mixed with crawls, formations, a pitch and climbs/scrambles and we were soon at the boulder choke just before King Henry hall. To get through, go through the hole on the left and climb down, then down the hole on the right the higher one, onto a rather scary drop, the other hole is tighter and a massive loose boulder, so don't go that way. Anyway, after passing the second hole , which dropped on perched boulders a few meters above the floor. Pete passed the bags through I carefully put them on ledge, one rolled of. Bang, bash, slither bash. Feck bag down a hole out of sight, bugger!

I looked where it went, hmm not going to fit down that hole, thankfully there was another slightly bigger hole further down which allowed me to slither down between the boulders, tight though, SRT off required. I could see the bag, now but everything moved, I don't think anyone had been here before. Scariest 2 minutes of my life as climbed down and back out with everything moving, ready to bury me alive!

Back out and thankfully alive and important gear retrieved we carried on to the bottom, some fantastic airey pitches and 160m crawl (thankfully easy and bag draggable). We dumped gear at Jane's pitch and went down some large decorated passages until yet more crawling, 165m in total this time (according to NC) lead to the main stream where we checked out the duck and the sumps, the duck had less than 5cm of airspace and I was not wearing neoprene, feck that it's 4 hours to get out. The passage here reminds me very much of the master cave on the other side of the valley.

After going back up the bottom 20m high pitch (Elizibeth) was when I started to feel tired and by the time we had gone back up all the pitches and climbs before T-shaped rift doubly so. Getting back in is way harder than leaving. Climb up the knotted rope but not up the hole, you have to lie on-top of a rock pinnacle and straddle it. At this point you pull the bag up the rope and shove it in the passage in-front of you - Pete's idea. I had the bag on a cord and had a mild bit of panic here as its very easy to slip into the rift I had now pushed myself into it, but the bag was blocking my path and I could not move it far ahead due to the cord, so I just had to try and wedge myself and move it slowly forward nudging the bag with my head, before I eventually got through. Hardest bit done, but not out yet, it was then a case of pushing the bag along until it slipped down later, where it took me 10 minutes to get the bugger back out, Pete told me to control my breathing I was panting like a stream-train due to the physical effort of this.

Finally out, but bits of me really tired by this point, especially my shoulders and arms were, I was not flagging completely as I have really been working on my fitness over the last few months. On the traverse I knew I might struggle pulling myself back up though, so I just had to do the splits to get across the hole.

Rest of the way was slow but nothing was really hard now except for that hole at the top of Rope pitch (tip: don't be lasy like me and try and prussic it) - Pete flew through it. Anyway, we then exited to a beautiful sunset after 8 hours underground! Pity the walk back was spoiled by the fact the straps had broke on my tackle bag, I should I left it down the hole lol!

We had planned to go elsewhete but having driven there we were denied permission, so having wasted time doing that we returned to the hut and did what we could in the time and explored this cave to the bitter end (almost). That drafting dig goes on for a while. Christian (Marcus's bf) loved all the low crawls and squeezes and eventhough the cave is a bit crap he enjoyed himself. Like duck to water!

Byron and Rob also entered with us but did thier own short trip. This was a trip to the courtisan, prob the longest trip I have run so far for the club (Link to county the only one that come close). We were initially quite slow through the entrance series but picked up pace in Southern stream. Despite the ardorous nature of the passage no one complained. We dropped down the waterfall and on into easier passage. Route finding and food breaks slowed us down a bit as well as lots of photos at camp etc.

The hardedt bit was ills inlet leading to the courtisan consisting of I think 10 squeezes, oncluding a tricky double bend one. Marcus who is broadshoyldered should have struggled but he did not, I was very impressed, infact I was inpressed by everyone. We reached the nice formations, but could not find the Coutisan itself which was hidden in a side passage. We realised time was moving on after all the photo taking it had taken us 5 hours to get here. However going on we pressed on much quicker making the exit in a little over 3 with bags.

Impressive trip I hope to run more like this next year or later this year grand circle perhaps or maybe that new cave in the forest of Dean.

A quick trip for the evening we went as far as tinkle passage with some nice gours. I managed to keep my gear dry for the next day.

A dig in the fly over route to adamason pot. There's a lot of passages beyond there I have not been in before after a 20m drop. We dug in sand calcite in clay, until I unfortunately had a migraine and had to make a quick exit.

An easy trip to see one of the very few existing waterwheels, still in good condition despite how easy it is to access. We then went up a short pitch/climb 4m (we hauled Byron up it as he was feeling ill). This led to a large "kibble" and some weird formations.

Easy slate mine, leads to ladder dropping down 20m, a short passage leads to another 20m drop with no ladders so is rigged by SRT. This pitch is awesome as it's a free-hang down into an open stope.

From there a bit of scrambing leads us to some lift cages which descend further down, into now flooded levels deep below.

This trip saw us explore all the bottom level before we ran out of routes and had to find a way up, which consisted of dodgey ladders. We managed to patch one bit (me and Rob) and Rob did a fine job of attaching it, which overlayed a proper broken bit. It carried on up and by the time we got up another ladder it was decidedly dodgy. There was a rope so I donned my SRT kit and carefully made my way up, to find there was no ladder at all near the top. Not wanting to risk a rope and rigging of unknown vintage I came back down.

Dropped in via Bar, Robs SRT setup caused him to have trouble as the rope would not slip through the crab as it was pressed against his body.

Anyway we carried on down the Whitehall pitch causing us no issues, decided to come back the other way after the squeeze though I think we both would have been fine. Dropped down the main pitch Rob a little nervous about the re-ascent. We then headed the the main chamber with super hand-held light, lighting the whole place up making it so we can take some amazing shots. We then did the same in Mud hall with me on the traverse to give the place scale awesome shot.

We headed out up Bar (Rob took a while due to scareing himself on previous ascent, caused by the rope slipping out of the jammer). We carried on out the trade route and de-rigged the top of whiteahall pitch. (It can do with a backup anchor for the climb down to it, which is akward to reverse). Rob did not want to do anymore ascending and I felt like and adventure so we went out Stile, well attempted to.

I attempted it first, and found I could not get very far, without Rob pushing my feet as there's nothing for your feet and you have to be quite fresh to drag yourself up the knotted line up a tight passage. Rob tried next but had no one to push him, we tried it with SRT, I tried pulling him up through my mini traxxon, but was not strong enough (Might had worked if I put my SRT kit on too and sat down on my jammer, or even a Z-rig) but we decided to forget this and go out Small Mammal, only there was no rope.

As I was on the otherside, I could continue out Stile, which I did and was a right struggle getting the bag up the 5m entrance climb. I then reach Stile, rigged the pitch (using a deviation rather than that stupid long y-hang) and then went and de-rigged bar while Rob was prussicing this. Rob had no issue going up the 20m pitch.

This is my first cave on Scalesmoor, and it has a pitch though an easy ladder. Only takes 10 minutes to reach the start of the dragging and another 5 minutes of crawling to the final crawl at the front. (I did not go right to the front) In the end I Pulled 34 trays 20m (680m) . Then filled up more for Emma to pull for 22 trips, making a total of 56 trays dragged. No idea how the front is getting on. Pete and everyone except me and Emma were still keen on digging and are likely still down there as I write this.

Decided to drop the holes below Hospital level to see what's there. First was the two holes just inside the entrance. I hoped that this may connect to Deep level and possibly even a through trip. I was also not sure if we even had enough rope as references put this drop at anywhere up to 210ft. Well it turned out to be about 40m (at most) landing in a large chamber full of loose rocks. We went left first (back under the entrance) and was stopped by another pitch of about 10m. If we had a through bolt nut we would have been able to descend this. It looked like there may not be a way on.

In the other direction a scrambe down boulders - some of them quite large and all of the loose, led us to the bottom of Hospital shaft and a blank wall. The way on machinery buried under many tons of rocks. We would estimate it's about 50m back up to the level at this point.

We prussiced back up and met 2 people from CATMAS, who told us about the many holes. From this conversation we decided the next to drop the hole with the railway lines poking out over the top. We were adviced to use both ropes as it's a long way down.

We dropped down the slope and drops you could see with some dodgey old bolts and an even more dodgey old rope. Lots of 10mm through bolts so I really brought the wrong stuff spits (know for next time). From the point you can see from the top, there's about 30m drop onto a wide ledge, with another 10m drop past some very loose stuff. Unfortunately we could go no further as we ran out of gear to rig with by only having a few hangers that fit, and that last bit was just too dogey to abseil down far. Thus marking the end of our trip.

In an area that is being revamped but the barrier being open. There's an entrance right in the corner, which I tried to climb up to as I noticed it first, but failed and injured my leg a bit (a few shallow gashes).

However on retreat, I noticed another entrance, which looked easier to get to. A scramble up a slope leads into a tunnel just about standing height if my height, this is not part of the tourist stuff, but it's not closed off or sign posted no-entry, anywhere.

This tunnel led into a small maze of chambers and corridors and a couple of collapses. Most of these chambers were completely empty except for one which contained an old bed-frame. There was several bats maybe about 6 or 7, they looked like lesser horseshoe, we were quite and avoided shining light at them to not disturb them. Eventually the corridor ends at the other entrance. Not wanting to try and tackle the climb again (about 8m broken) we went back the way we came.

Explored the old closed show cave, it was nothing special and suprisingly involved crawling which is weird for a so-called ex showcave. It consisted of about 3 chambers connected by crawls and leads to a final crawl to a choke.

Once out a quick inspection of the area revealed another hole in the floor next to the clift, about 20m from the entrance. A careful traverse round and then climb down leads to a chamber about 4x4x2, there's squeeze down leads to a lower chamber with no way on (3x2x1). However, across on the other side there's a further drop which we used a hand-line to descend a climb of about 4-5m. At the bottom although wide (5x3x7) there was no way on except a slope up on the other side which lead to a small chamber (2x1x1.5) and a choke.

This second cave is not mentioned anywhere, and appears to be formed by the clift breaking away under the large boulder pile, very similar to Dingli caves on Malta itself, but much smaller about 30m long.

Attempted through trip but failure around true narrows, I could not fit through the true narrows anymore, well I might do if those rocks in the middle are essentially the end, but I knew Don was not following me and I was worried about reversing it all. It's certainly not as easy especially with quite a bit of water going through. Bypass 1 4-6m up, Don did not like the no-holds traverse, so he did not follow me. Don also did not have SRT kit despite my advice to take it so getting to the top of the 60ft rift, for the other bypass was also not an option.

I think I will fit through the squeeze at the end of the traverse, so when I go back I will go that way, or I might try the true narrows in lower water condition.

Also Don's light failed on way out, so good job I did not carry on the trip without him!

Fun cave, description vauge making me think the first climb down was the putch only to find it round the corner forcing a return to surface for gear. Rigged on in-situ hangers.

Large passage degenerated to crawl some wet, some flat out. John turned back about half way along. I reckon the crawl is 100m.

Gets walking height and decorated and quite fun due to climbs. Final cascade I did not go down, and instead went to old chamber with graffiti before returning.

In via short drop, we lowered the gavel ropes down the Gavel pot entrance and left it rigged (Arlan rigging) for those who wanted an earlier exit. Progress through short drop was steady, there's a real low wet bit, but that can be avoided by a tight bit, though not ideal with tackle.

The rest of the cave was fine streamways, I forget just how big some of the passages are in this cave. There was a moment we thought the famous boulder bridge had collapsed but it was there around the corner, yay. We geared up and dropped the short pitch, it's possible by rigging the y-hang to the right to avoid it dropping down into the waterfall. I managed to climb up the otherside and get great footage of Jason descending, though I needed spotting back down. I spotted a few bits of rock to rig a traverse if we wanted avoiding the waterfall, though you have to pass through another.

Onto the traverse, I rigged this. It was a lot further down the stream then I remembered. Once rigging the hardest bit is climbing up there, the rest is quite easy to rig as you can reach each bolt from the last without abseiling. The thread at the corner is optional as literally (thought out of sight) just up and to the left by less than a foot is another P-anchor.

We then entered gavel (the rope hanging down was handy to finish the traverse as I could just put my jammers on it). Arlan took up rigging and chose the high route (low route has an insitu rope on it). We also rigged the climb down and entered the lower streamway that was far better decorated than I remembered. We entered Gusford's chambers and the others were reluctant to follow until my echoy singing enticed them through. Lots of photos.

Finally we went downstream to the difficult climb (just before the pitches) and then back up a decorated inlet. We exited with Arlan de-rigging up to the end of the traverse, where he and Rob exited Gavel. Me and Jason carried on through short drop de-rigging the pitch as we went. We only had one bag as we gave the other two the rest.

Nice easy trip to check out cave and see if its bolted. Everything is pretty straightfoward, with maybe the exception of the wet 5m ladder. Someone has put SRT rope on here to make safe, pity we did not have our SRT kit.

Well decorated passage led to aven with double rope from 30 years ago. It woukd need rebolting or scaling.

Considering this is grade 2, it was far more interesting than I thought it would. Originally I planned it as a side trip it was instead the main event. First there's an entrance squeeze that I now call santa's chimney, which leads onto a steep boulder slope over a 4m drop. Down at stream level it looks like you have to climb into tight passage and get seriously wet, however there's a scetchy climb up leading to an even more sketchy traverse 6m above the stream. From there it's easy traversing/walking in the stream until a large chamber. We were then forced to the roof again when it came too tight before a difficult traverse/climb followed by another straight after marking the crux of the cave. From here nice formations led to deepening watef and sump. Exiting proved to be much easier.

Was a slot trip with 6 as most were not super slick with SRT, also lots to photo on the way. Colonnades, Diamond hall, Manchester bypass etc.

I also rigged stake pot as I don't like the state of the rigging there.

I got up the climbs okay in Wretched okay this time managed to not put too much weight on my foot. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Went in Wretched rabbit, the loose path was fun for my leg. Rigged 2 of the climbs with SRT to make things easier on my leg, glad I did as I was knackard afterwards. This is the first time I have been moving underground at this speed, but glad I can still do it.

The destination was diamond hall (a little bit beyond the Minarets). There was lots of low crawls and flat out bits which my first job was to excavate a bit. Afterwards I went into the loft, which I explored a little before moving the rocks into a dead-end crawl ready for more. Moved tons of rocks and my arms were pretty tired. Glad I rigged the entrance now. Anyway eventually the rocks stopped coming and Andrew slipped through, only to find well more rocks lower down and no chamber in-sight. Whether it goes anywhere I don't know but it's going to need more scaff.

Leaving the cave my leg was getting tired and it didn't help when I fell over on a rock crossing the stream, so the walk back was a bit slow.

A nice Sunday trip most were not up for much. It had rained a lot so the dungeon was flooded to a depth of 3m and the passage leading to the main stream was sumped near the end.

Still we went up the Glory hole, though was only 140m me and Jason were only one's feeling adventurous to go through it, and explored a little taking lots of photos. We then went past the other gate into easier passage but it's no where near as decorated before existing.

Another trip to Sallot hole. This time it was far wetter making for some amazing streamways in the mine. The collapses don't seem any worse and we explored a couple of new sections beyond the choke. My foot is now handling the uneven terrain and hidden rocks much better now, though I am still not jumping from rock to rock.

We explored up the ladders which I missed last time, which although has the most artifacts, it's also what I think is the most dodgey bits especially the series of 5 ladders as each platform consisted of rotten wood and or loose rocks you could knock down onto your companions.

Down the dry root first to the bottom. Met a large party on the way in on the way out. I rigged pitch 1 and 2, Arlan pitch 3. Simon had a few issues being new to SRT.

Me and Arlen went down the large inlet off the first pitch.

Then down Goblin, with ots interesting rigging and down a free-hang and a slide in through the gap. Unfortunately, the second bag with the rest of the rope was left on the surface. That did not stop Arlen, as they wanted to get to the bottom and used another parties rope. Good trip and I was suprised what my foot lets me do now, including weighing my foot on my toes now.

UWFRA practice to check test the feasibility of setting up camps to wait out floods, comms and filtration kits. I went on the Gypson traverse but no further as my leg's not fully healed yet and I am still restricted to easier cave trips. Still managed to get up a climb near the start okay.

My first proper cave trip after injury, it largely held up okay, though I felt I stretched it a bit a few times. We went down the side passage to across from the last pitch, until a couple of climbs that looked very hard to get back up especially if you have an injured leg and can't put your full weight on it.

Longest trip underground since my injury. Lots to explore, including Ladywash, which had a few fun climbs which were challenging for me. Lots of modern stuff as well as old workings, which was surprising given how deep we were.

We descended 60m of ladders, yes my foot was okay with this and played about with some boats in the silted level, though the silt was too close to the ceiling to allow the boat through.

We went back up and went into Ladywash via a lower adit, and explored up to the handline which continues the through trip, which won't be possible soon :(. I had a bit of a scare on the way out with my injury by standing on a stone which caused plantarflexion. We then had a non-injury related scare at the entrance.

Through trip, we walked down from the Peak, and started the steeo descent which eas fin with my injury. The cave was mainly walking, cintueing the steep theme with many interconnected chambers. The cave was quite drippy throughout. Eventually we exited via a crawl/stoop and continued the hike to a lower train station

Back underground, first cave in a couple of months and first SRT in 3 months. Still injured but out of boot day to day. I went with my protective NHS boot. Went down the pitch, after rigging the easy way for Byron. We went upstream to Swinsto/Simpsons waterfall. I suggested the round trip, but Byron did not want to go down the climb for some reason, barely 2m drop.

We went upstream as far as the chest deep bit before heading out. Byron needs to stick close to the rope. For me, my foot felt fine even when prussicking and I got up there quickly. I don't know how long the NHS boot will last but I hope it's not too long before I don't need it for caving anymore.

Wanted a trip without too much steep hills after yesterdays scare. Still no real pain but used walking sticks to get up the hill.

Went and explored all the usual stuff until Ann's light and backup started to fail so we left. Cold water was especially cold, I avoided the Sulphur acid area as I did not want to stain/dissolve my boot!

First waddled my way up to Taylors, the walk up been the hardest in my vacopod. Once inside I found how cold the water is without a wetsock on my injured leg. Made way through wheely bin yes you read that correct into stope workings where SRT would be needed to continue, it would be too hard for me to continue in my current state.

Cobblers mine was a lovely short level with a coffin style workings towards the end from the 17th century. In-between I felt a kick in my leg after the cold water on the hill may have fecked it a little more, though I hope not!

Finally ventured into deep level where Jason tackled the choke and went past the squeeze into the further workings, so of course I had to follow! Will have to explore more when well decided not to on the day due to my leg.

Bored one evening so decided to explore and old colvert I found earlier. It was quite verticle to start with and even had a climb before easy going led to daylight at the bottom.

RESCON - Many sessions in an out of the cave. Coms - Looking at the replacement for the Cavelink as it seems we can't get Cavelinks repaired anymore. Also we used surface digital sets which had a surprising long reach down the passages even around corners and with a re-bro even further. I found out the issue what might have scuppered us at UWFRA was people disrupt the signals, as several people were trying to repair the entrance to Gillifields at the time.

Stretcher handling - Rick, showed us simple techniques using body belays to drag stretches through passages when there's a minimum of people, this would be useful when you simply can't fit many people around the stretcher at a time.

Highline rigging - using a secondary line when the stretcher is on a tensioned line to control where the stretcher goes.

Damn building - The CRO have a specific damn setup to block a specific part of the passage which today was quite exciting as there was a lot of water. This damn that consists of 6 planks a few hessian bags, 4 scaffold poles and some clamps diverts water into lower longchurns making Diccan dry.

Medical - Based on a real surface scenario the CRO had where someone had a first time fit and a bleed on the brain where rapid evacuation would be needed as there's a good chance of deuteriation.

Was originally meant to be a short trip up some ladders, however, we found we could pass the collapses a place Byron had not been for almost 20 years (when things were a lot more stable).

We got throough and explored east for 500m to a choke and then west downhill which kept going forever until it finally silted up. I pushed a muddy section solo, which took longer than I expected, I found Ollies sigantaure at the end.

Byron had gotton cold and left, but I did not know where he went so spent some time searching for him. I found him outside and then went back in to explore something else spotted beyond the collapses again, finding an old mess.

Dropped down this excellent shaft from the viewing platform. Massive chamber but unfortunately the passages get very wet in both directions, chest to neck deep, with very little air space. The passage is passable but I needed full neoprene for it.

Had a bit of explore of this mine, apparantly there's a traverse near the end, but there mist had been a collapse as we could no longer find it.

After a bit of exploration and a traverse over a hole we managed to find another entrance with a gate which thankfully we were able to unlock from the inside

Got landowners permission infact he was keen to show us. Originally thought to be collapsed it wasen't and just needed a huge flagstone moving.

This wet passage went for 200m and had considerable flow. Mainly mined it had a few natural chambers and a side passage or two.

Went down the slope, through the fence and into the very large main workings via a steep slope. This led onto another steep slope with a handline. We spiraled down some more before reaching a drop where we took a shortcut into a level.

We then followed 3 ladders with a dodgey platform part way down (too dodgey for Byron) who remained above before exploring the lower levels. There's a huge open working here, but unless you take a ladder ftom elsewhere in the mine, you won't be able get up a sheer wall of dirt.

We then exited and investigated another ladderway on the surface, which was a bit too dodgey so we roped. This led onto concrete platforms in daylight. Spits if we had any would have let us descend further (it looked a long way down). Finally we descended a ladder way whilst roped in the other direction, which connected with the top of the steep slope, allowing a through trip.

Had some company this time. We returned throgh the duck and reached the boulder that stopped me Tuesday. Well it was indeed a chamber beyond that rock after the duck, after some stuggling I eventually moved it and after a few of its brothers were moved, we were through, into a chamber about 3x 3m and 1m high with 3 ways out. To the right it closed down after a few meters in a far too small passage. Straight on the water was bubbling out of a too small flooded rift. To the left was a crawl over boulders after 8m, this descended past twist and turns to where it got narrower but still passible about 20m on. At this point I stopped as I was concerned about reversing "are you sure you can reverse that, said Sam". So I did it was not too bad, it may continue it was not too tight to be impossible and I could here water ahead, the main downside was its heading back towards the main passage.

Visisted my dig, while Pete solo'd Hyperthermia!

Digging deep in the cave, lots of rocks moved.

It had been over a decade since I had been to high-level mud-caverns, the slippery slope above a 5m drop and the thought of a protracted rescue from this point really putting me off going back up there, but Pete really wanted to do it and get to the far end which is Anniversery chamber.

With just the two of us we set of on a very cold walk for May, single figure temps and a strong wind dropping the air temperature to less than 5C. We arrived at the cave and did not hang around in getting changed. Squirming through the entrance choke, we both felt our previous days activities. Pete had done massive scramble and I had done Hagg gill with Out on Rock and pushed a new cave near where we parked whilst topless - a story for another time.

We arrived in Fossil chambers and I realised how annoying my bag is going to be for this cave, it contained 4 pepperamis, 1 litre of water and 10m of rope to help with the climb and a small 2 man survival bag. I think for this cave it might be better to go a bit underequipped, it is how I got to steam end cave and back in about 3 hours once, I was younger too!

Despite this bag we were still flying along and were soon at Blackpool sands, the water here was clear, cold and full of fish. White 6-9 inch long with red spots. After admiring the fish for a short while we pressed on and were soon in drown or glorys. The water levels were that low, I did not even have to remove my helmet to get through. Boulder hall was awe inspiring as always and we were hop skipping and jumping down Easy street, passing in Ouroboros (Simon's dig) on the way.

Once at rough chamber we knew from here on until the climb up to High-level mud caverns some half a km away, it's essentially all crawling, There was lots of fish, here too and in the smaller puddles Pete even managed to catch one, perhaps he was hungry? This let us get a good look at one, before we gently put it down in a larger pool.

We quickly made it through the crawls leading to Knee wrecker junction, already our knees a little sore. Into marathon crawl and that passage certainly lives up to it's name, it's unrelenting! The squeezes on route were easy enough and the final crawl was tiring, it certainly seemed to outlive it's welcome. We finally emerged into larger passage beyond and dug the cobble slope, which almost always seems to need digging. We noticed throughout the cave there had been no sign of foot prints of other disturbances and with the cobble slope being impassible until we dug it, it means we were almost certainly the first people to come here this year.

The climb up into mud caverns was not too bad, except for the climb up the mud at the top, which was tackled by slithering up backwards on your bum, digging your fingers into the mud and kicking in steps, until you got onto flatter sandy ground at the top. You don't want to mess up here though as it's a long way down. The rope I had turned out to pointless as there was bugger all to rig from.

So, I decided to leave my bag here but fished out a pepperami, incase I got hungry and we made our way along High level mud caverns south. Even this passage is not easy, it starts off walking but you are soon slithering and climbing over slippery mud banks which when donned in neo-fleeces is hard work. Things got properly grade 5 at the chokes, first there was some awkward climbs bypassing the first choke and then there are 3 squeezes, which I found pretty darn tight. The first squeeze at the top a climb really dug into my chest, until I slightly rotated to get at the right angle.

The next down a hole was tighter still and a more technical one requiring you to twist your body as you get into it. The passage enlarged slightly here, and we found a battery just before lowering again, having read the RRCPC newsletter volume 32 from 1995, we believe it belongs to Beardy, one of the original explorers of this section. The other interesting thing here, is we noticed a pretty strong draft, the cave definitely continues somewhere around here.

The next and final was squeeze was in the bedding which was unfortunately was too much for me, I mean I was getting wedged in the bedding plane before I even got to it and if I pushed through that as there's a drop down over a nodule I did not want to get stuck between this and the actual squeeze, I find my chest is too deep for these kind of squeezes nowadays, perhaps I should give up bouldering? Anyway I did not want a repeat of the Ireby Fell connection issue from a few months ago with all that caving to do to get out from here, so I gave it a miss.

Pete went through saying it was bloody tight and went to visit Anniversery chamber and after only 5 minutes or so he was back, so I was bloody close, but there's no way I will fit through that thing. Pete really struggled coming back through too and he's a lot smaller than me.

On the out I struggled more with squeeze number 2 as I had nothing to get purchase on, but thankfully there's a way by an even narrower looking rift which I thankfully did fit through, with the help of gravity on the other side. I must had kicked the roof as spontaneously rocks started dropping out of the roof as Pete came through!

Coming back out, I was certainly starting to feel it as even the highlevel mud caverns are tiring due to all the scaling of mud banks. Going back down the 5m climb was not too scary and Pete was very helpful in spotting me.

Once we got into Marathon crawl, we knew we were going the right way as pepperami no. 2 made an appearance (It had escaped) which I promptly ate, we slogged our way through Marathon crawls, we were both feeling it by this point and pepperami 3 was welcome appearance just beyond the squeeze. We would not come across number 4 until the end of the swims which had floated out of my bag. We also both thought the wet sections were really cold, was it because we were tired? Maybe, but more likely it was because my over suit velcro stopped working and my neo-fleece zip was down to my waste, so was Pete's as he had forgot to do his back up again after all the dry(ish) crawling.

Nothing else of note happened on the way out and we exited at 10 to 5 (4:50), having entered at sometime just after 11, meaning our trip took about 5 and a half hours. I reckon without my bag we could have cut off 30 - 45 minutes from the trip and I would have been a lot less tired,

It took us most of the walk back to warm up, when the sun finally made an appearance.

Excellent trip - it's a shame I don't fit through the last bit, with a draft stonking through here, it's certainly worth another look.

Unfortunately Byron was feeling too ill to come down.

Me and Rob first went upstream, up several climbs into a nice straw chamber at the top, up a steep rope climb. We avoided using the rope for the lower bit as it was easier to climb the calcite.

We then returned and went downstream to the sump which was crystal clear, almost inviting.

Upstream downstream went and visited the sump with the pipes, the sythhon would need to be restarted before going through the easy sideways tube that is scary for some.

We then went up the big rift where Rob said it was very stope like. Beyond a difficult climb up gains the top of the rift, as the stream gets too tight, Rob has not learned the jamming himself in a rift technique so stuggled a bit, and did not like the top of the climb which was open over quite a large drop (neither did I).

We then continued traversing and basically energetic caving, to near the end, we turned back just before a small calcited side passage.

We exited the cave and explored a few other caves nearby, one being a really horrible dig, before getting changed at the car. Afterwards we sat enjoying the sun, in the almost dry riverbed, where I heard roaring water, so I dug some cobbles out took my t-shirt off so it did not get muddy and pushed my way in, finding a small waterfall and 30m of undocumented/undiscovered cave. This is likely created by the river sinking underground about 50m upstream, but the side passage which continues under the road away from the river was interesting, though currently it don't go and not just because my skoda would have been parked directly above it lol.

Decided to go down the new entrance opened last time. Most of the rope is directly tied in but some is not and the mallons used are extreemle rusty. The entrance is open enough SRT can be worn through it, the pitches themseleves are weirdly rigged with cery long loops between each.

From the bottom of these pitches I followed the normal route to the bottom via the "ninety", where I met up with the others.

Most of the time was spent pulling the drag tray along, when it was quite I went and visited the downstream sump, where I have not been before. More intense drag tray pulling until 3pm, where I left for the surface oweing to the fact I was visiting my parents later. Took me an hour to exit.

Resurveyed entrance and big stuff added some side bits in this awesome large cave near Dingle view

Decided to look at the upper stuff. Before getting there a quick dig led into a large rift chamber, where there may be climbs up into the upper passage.

We then went up the rope ladder climb. We explored around here which had not been surveyed but we could see it all just linked back.

After a discussion we headed for wedding cake passage, finding a short passage leading to undescended pitch.

We then spent time exploring some passage that had already been surveyed, due to a cickup, this included me free climbing what turned out to be a 8m pitch.

Sam took some photos

Billed as a photoshoot, I took the opportunity to join the trip to look at something that has been nagging me for a few years and Phil Pappard for 45 years (probbably), that is to look at the dashed line drawn on the survey at the end of Rocky horror.

I convinced Pete Hall to come with me and we split off at the slope going up to the Trident series.

Going through the boulders is difficult, both slippery and loose, but it's easiest to descend only when you need to (reach a wall of boulders) and then invariably find the way through on the left. You will come to larger river passage (well the passage is the same size just not as bouldery) from here we followed a slope up on the left.

Following seldom travelled sandy banks where I stopped just short last time, we scaled yet more boulders to reach the objective.

At the top, all the crawls seemed to close down and the cave looked very unstable here (shale, lots of undergood movement and sideways stals). However, there was space on the left-hand side exactly as shown on the survey.

This starts off dogey but after 5m of crawling through dubious rocks we were in a tall rift about 5m high and up to 2m across.

We began surveying and it continued round a slight corner on the right after a wedged boulder and seemed to continue further still. It lowered to a crawl under yet more boulders before unfortunately coming to a halt in a complete choke.

We surveyed out to the main chamber, there's no kerns or survey points to tie into, but we hope it should be obvious where it is on the survey.

We then headed out and came across the photoshoot, where Pete joined them. Noticing it was now 7:30pm, I thought I better get a move on, or risk being locked out of my apartment as John would have gone to bed.

Solo exiting, I made it out by 9:15, which was the right choice as the others exited at 11:30ish too late for Pablos as it would be midnight at the bar and more like 1am for me, meaning John would have gone to bed.

Dropped down the excellent entrance pitch and enjoyed the continental style caving down hige tunnels. The second pitch is fun as you have to drop down a steep slope to it before getting on the traverseline.

Down that we looked at Edge of the world which although big it's not as big as swirl chamber. A bit of route finding through boulders got us into the decorated stuff (La Fantasmos?)

There's lots of holes in the ground, making the passage a bit tretpurous, then we had a 6m climb right up a wall with good handholes but a slimey finish.

We then explored the firmations here and its some of the best I have seen! We must have spent several hours here modelling for Sam's photoshoot.

Finally it was time for out, I ferretted in a couple of crawls (which was our secondary objective) and side passages, nothing more than 10m long. We exited too late for me to do my shopping so another meal at Pablos.

Taken into this wonderful cave for the first time by Jim and Mark. Jim explained how horrid his dives were and how this entrance got dug.

The main aim of this trip was to callibrate the disto and then use it down this "open" lead.

Jim seems to have a different meaning to mine of open. Anyway after an hour or so of frantic digging, where I sliced my nose open, we were through. I was all excited as the passage reached stooping height, only for it to close down to flat out crawling again and then too tight. Digging this with my feet netted further progress but it did not seem to be getting much bigger, so we called it a day.

After putting the survey data on it looks to be heading to known cave as an additional sump bypass.

Back to Vallinia. First we went down the hole I found with John, it turned out to just go into that chamber I clambered into from the other route, though we surveyed it nonetheless.

We then went and looked at some question marks on the passage on the left before you get to Swirl chamber. This passage actually connects to Swirl chamber again part way along (not shown). The first 2 leads went nowhere, the rest we could not get to as it required some very sketchy leap of faith over some very deep holes. Needs rope and SRT to go beyond and drop down.

We then scurried around a few other bits off of swirl before going back down the walking passage finding we need SRT to continue here, while I climbed down into lower passages which had already been done unfortunately.

Back to Vallinia. First we went down the hole I found with John, it turned out to just go into that chamber I clambered into from the other route, though we surveyed it nonetheless.

We then went and looked at some question marks on the passage on the left before you get to Swirl chamber. This passage actually connects to Swirl chamber again part way along (not shown). The first 2 leads went nowhere, the rest we could not get to as it required some very sketchy leap of faith over some very deep holes. Needs rope and SRT to go beyond and drop down.

We then scurried around a few other bits off of swirl before going back down the walking passage finding we need SRT to continue here, while I climbed down into lower passages which had already been done unfortunately.

Dig at far end, carried too much up the hill.

Made about 5m of progress on the far left, stopped by a stal grill.

We had 3 things to look at today.

First we looked at a few of the question marks immidiately on the otherside of the canyon. Both led back into the main passage so they were ticked off. The aven here looked to have big space at the top, so worth climbing.

The second thing we looked at was the drafting boulder choke. We could tell it had been looked at a lot before with foot prints everywhere, there was even a rope hanging down a slippery horrible climb. We figured if there's a rope hanging down that then it all would have been looked at, so we poked about elsewhere. We eventually found our way through the boulderchoke to where the main passage just ended rather suddenly at a sand choke. We think the drawn survey is a little wrong as it should be more of a turn, if they don't match as suggested by the survey.

The third thing we were to look at was a possible shortcut connection. Only issue is Phil forgot to mention to us an 8m pitch (Man Trap) and as we had neither rope or SRT kits we could go no further. However a passage simply marked as climb looks promising, it may bypass the pitch but the bottom 2m is in open space and will need a ladder. Should go back and survey it.

Trip plan was to survey the further upstream extremities from our last inlet we pushed.

James had invited the Lawton family so we gave, Emily, Liz and Toby a tour as far as the sandy cavern. Liz (the mother) took the kids back while we continued to our destination.

The passage was large, but we only found 1 inlet wirth surveying. Eventually we got to the end with a large slope leading up into a breakdown chamber (large) with spaces seen in the roof indicating something higher up. With roots hanging down we must not be far from the surface but not as close as the end of the inlet we discovered/reduscovered last year.

Within walking distance of our accomodation, will be worth exploring properly.

Good simple trip through to Swirl chamber, with navigation being done on John's phone (loaded with the survey) for confirmation.

Due to 112 callout procedure we did not leave ourselves with time to explore some of the question marks.

Sam led this trip as he wanted to take us an esoteric route. We dropped down County and left our ropes attached to the bottom to pull up later, well most of us did!

We then headed the usual route you normally take to battle of Britain, but continued downstream past the spout hall and onwards to the start of Sam's esoteric route (I think was called dismal bypass) to a passage near platypus by several high level small passages passing a group coming the other way as we did, we headed downstream to Eureka, before following the main stream along until we reached the junction with Spiral staircase, where we had lunch.

It's been a while since I had been down Spiral so glad Sam was leading as I would probbably had missed the first climb up, though it's probbably because I don't normally climb up there. We then went up the rocks before eventually emerging in the said Spiral staircase. At this point we were met by Swaledale and the illustrious Chris Sharman, a man of many words lol.

We emerged to a very sunny day. But we had to go back underground to collect the SRT kits. Me and Sam entered count and moved all 5 of the SRT kits. Only Sam noticed it was actually 4 and a half as Marcus had forgot to attach his to the rope forcing Sam to re-rig it and go back down to get it.

Another good trip, although shorter it made for a good Sunday trip.

Was originally planning to go from Lancaster hole to Link but due to quite a bit of rain forcased in the later day.

We pulled through Link pot, if the insitu rope was missing from the 88ft pitch we figured we could still get out of Mistral. No one had issues with the tight Link pot pitch which boded well for the rest of the trip. We then ventured through the crawls under the boulders to reach Echo pitch, which was in a good condition, though very stiff rope. A few minor issues at the top for some, such as John abseiling the wrong rope but all was fine.

We were soon through the crawls and going back up the other other pitch well before any flooding was due. While I was waiting for others I checked out the alternative pitch series, which was rigged but the SRT rope? was full of knots for some reason. Yes the lower drop was more of a climb, but not the upper ones. Anyway I abandoned that route as I was not sure what was going on with it and had no idea how well it was rigged or in what condition and rejoined everyone going up the 88ft pitch. Getting off the traverse at the top was difficult for some and prob the crux of the trip, I made myself a "person" belay to help John up, got a nice bruise on my thy for that one.

We then had a look at cape Kennedy and took photos of the formations before returning and continuing the trip through all the chambers and crawls which seemed to take some time before dropping down a ladder (Cannuk climb) and followed the thin stream passage to Stake pot. The rope in stake pot has seen better days!

We headed along the high level traverses, going down and up fall pot, before coming throgh to Bridge hall. Another side trip was made to the colonnades first and then exited Lanc hole to torrential rain! There was no evidence of rain underground, but we did not really hang around at the top. The trip took so long mainly due to photos and the fact there was 5 of us to pass the many obsticles.

Was a steep walk up the hill to the second to top level. We passed Gilbarts level, with the ruins of a guardhouse to stop the theft of graffine and continued up to what I think is called Harrisons? Mark had me rig the traverse over the pipe and drop down for some reason, though he descended first as he knew where to get off.

We explored this level for a bit including the coffin and the old adit level. We also saw a collapse which now blocks one route that happened in 2020, showing these places are never that stable.

We then went down a level before doing a short round trip back up again via a moving slope of scree created by the a-forementioned collapse. We then had to decide where to go next and it was decided to do the through trip. The rope Mark left in, was in good quality so we dropped the next 35m down a stope, followed by another 30m pitch past several levels and exited at Gilbarts level. All previous attempts the last pitch had been too wet.

Once out, I volunteered to go back up the hill and de-rig, I also had a look at the workings up at that level.

A digging trip down this fine cave. I first had a look at the rather pointless dig at the top, looks to be basically though.

We then descended with Pete in-front. I remembered the way on was not down the obvious slope but it was to double back on myself down the easy climbs.

I had lost Pete by this point so took a little to figure out where to go next and traversed over several holes before going down a short pitch. The tight pitch was not tight and although I put my stop on my cows tail as it's akward to use otherwise it was prob not needed. The 90ft was akward to get onto, until you realise you just need to sit on the edge and fall off with your cows tails on of course, same for the last pitch.

The actual digging - First moved loads of rocks from the last round of capping which was blocking the way, before going to the front and almost getting stuck as I needed to reverse a drop uphill. The shoring looked okay but they have got a job at the front, it looks like they need mine engineering work to get through that! Dragged more rocks back to make a ramp for the tray and eventually swapped with Andy Warner.

As there as not much to do now and George had dropped down, I decided to tag out and made an uneventful exit, checking out side passages as I went.

Another trip down Maenoffern, this time with John. I showed him all the delights I seen from last time. We entered by the quarry entrance and explored as far as we could get on the top level which was not far, we then descended down the slope I climbed up last time and showed John all the machinery before continuing along that level for what seemed like a km reaching the adit we climbed up last time. We dropped down that, which seemed to go on forever until we reached the flooded level. We carried on along this past were we got to last time and passed several large lakes, until we could go no further.

However, there was an obvious path going up which brought us to the level above, only there was a 4m chain climb to go up. I was a little cautious at first, but the climb was not that difficult, but we probbably would not get Byron up if he was with us. In the next chamber was a zig zagging manway and even larger lakes but after a few more chambers we could go no further as there was no tunnel out we could see.

We went back up the zig zags and carried on along this level, this must had gone on for another 500m and included a squeeze through a choke before we finally stopped by a brick wall. All that was left was to head out, which we did along the lowest level and coming up the steps, before scrambling up the steep inclines.

Entered this somewhat dogey mine after trying to find the lower adit, as we were thinking of doing a through trip to it. We entered on level which starts off with a gate and an awkward climb to get over it before the entrance adit leads through to the main lode with a deep hole in the floor, which had traverse lines. Holes in the floor would become a theme of this mine, with holes of various widths appearing on the right, most of which anywhere from 10m to 60m deep/bottomless! As we went on through we reached collapses which forced us a bit too close for comfort to these holes. Part way along we went up 10m or so of ladders to an upper level taking in a daylight shaft to the surface which we estimated to be 80m deep.

We passed a giant large gimble and pump rod kind of device before finding a pitch to a higher level about 15m high. This led to a chamber and a slope up to even higher workings. As I was the only one with SRT kit I was the only one to go up, so did not go too far.

Back down we continued along the dogey main level passing even more holes, before a short traverse which was thankfully roped across some rails where Byron left us. After some short flat out crawls through collapses we reached a ladder way, which later we climbed down for 30m or so before we got bored. Straight on eventually led to a short 5m ladder up and a section where the floor was completely missing and there was no rope, or even anchors that had their nuts intact.

We headed out and unfortunately decided against the through trip as time was getting on and we did not know how long it would take or even if it would be possible to get through, though I was happy to find out, I was not driving.

Very large place with deep inclines a long hike underground. Dont require caving gear except for helmet and wellies. We went in via the manway, then went along the bottom level for a while, before a large incline with machinery tempted us back up. Lots of poking around before we went up another level to look at a tipper. I then solod up a slope to find a different way around before crossing over the surface and dropping back in again to meet Rob and Byron at the bottom before doing iit again.

Well this is the 3rd attempt at this trip. The first time, the silt was too think so I could not get through, the second time (2016) I managed to squeeze my way though only to loose my bottle beyond as I was solo on the other-side in the low mud bit. But this time we would be doing it in the other direction, that would be easier right?

An easy descent on in-situ ropes down Ireby via Bubbles had us to the connection junction in about an hour. We then left our back for a quick detour to Duke street as it was Pete's first ever time in this cave. We returned and had a snack ready for the what we thought would be a moderately difficult traverse. We started of by taking the short bypass to the duck/sump. Looking down the passage we could see lots of foam and the water appeared near the roof. I was glad we were not going that way as I did not have my hood, remembering only one duck near the end, why would I need it, my neo-fleece was probably overkill too (it wasn't).

The continuing passage was flat out for a bit, but was not too bad or mucky and we were soon sliding along a narrow rift with a few awkward climbs to avoid obstacles but nothing desperate. The passage again lowered and the muddy wallows ensued. They definitely got rather low, but it was not tight, and we were soon in passage I recognised from the Rift side. I was not sure why I had turned back coming the other way last time.

Wow this should be easy, I stupidly thought, already past the bit I turned around last time. At the back of my mind I knew the silt might be a problem, but I also knew that Todd Rye (and his mates) had been through so it should be fine? The first silt blockage thankfully had a bypass climb to it, as it would require quite a bit of work to dig out. Okay, as long as the second one was not like that then it's going to be fine... well it wasn't, it was worse than I remembered because this time rather than just being wet silt squeeze there was also now several inches of water on-top of it with about 3 inches of airspace, bugger! I tried a couple of times on my front and backed out each time, would this be a 3rd fail of this trip?

We tried digging a trench to lower the water but it just did not seem to want to go anywhere, before I knew it Pete, who I should say is a racing snake compared to me squirmed through on his back without much of an issue, well yes back is the way forward. I must say I hate going on my back, I get disorientated and dizzy so generally rather counter intuitively I do ducks on my front with my head to the side, only there was no room, so my back it was.

The good news is the water was shallow enough that I could rest my head on the floor without water flowing into my mouth, the bad news was the passage was badly silted up and progress was very slow and very unpleasant for someone of average size. I was not happy and soon I felt like I was stuck in this duck, a dangerous place to be and my breathing rate increased. With Pete's calming words I slowly shimmied my way along the floor even-though at times it felt like I was going nowhere, dragging the bag was not helping either! It seemed to take an age before I was able to right myself, my back of my head was almost completely numb and the cave passage was spinning round to my eyes, but I was out. After composing myself I went back in part way to retrieve my beanie hat from the muddy water. (remember I stupidly decided against a hood!)

Well that was that, and it's all easy from here right? Yeh, there's some squeezes but I fit through them 9 years ago after-all, I don't "remember" them being that difficult. First was the infamous triangular squeeze, dit id not look too bad but Pete struggled when he got his hip stuck for a bit and he's thinner than me, would I have an issue? Well time to find out within 30 seconds I was wedged quite painfully by my shoulder but there's no way I was going back through that duck/squeeze we came through now. "Come on Alex, you have done this before" I thought, then I remembered/figured out the grab technique, where one reaches past your head in the rift, to grab a rib of rock. This both gives much needed pulling power and more importantly manipulates your shoulder so it fits. Yay, though it, though it sure seemed it was harder than I remember, must had been in the thing for 5 minutes at-least.

I remembered there was a calcite squeeze ahead somewhere, but after that I knew we were home free. The passage went flat-out other calcite and I wriggled through and okay that was not too bad at-all just a bit of arduous crawling and we are out. After a deep puddle came the real thing!

It looked tight and Pete almost effortless wriggled through it on the left, so I tried to follow. Slowly but surely I wriggled forward, then slower and then even slower still, the calcite was forming quicker than I was moving. Then at 1 inch high lip in the floor stopped all progress completely. I was not going anywhere, even when I relaxed and had Pete pull me, my upper back was firmly wedged against the roof and floor. Some 15 minutes we tried determined to not have to return the way we had come, but I was not going anywhere. I felt one with the cave and not in a good way. Once again my breathing rate was up, but it was not panic, it was just it was that tight I could barely breath and any effort soon had me out of breath. Okay then time to reverse and have a re-think... the first few inches were okay, but then I hit that damn lip on the other-side and bugger, I am not going anywhere. I guess I need to change my address to 1 Calcite squeeze, Rift pot!

With an almost herculean amount of effort and not fancying the long wait for rescue I was finally out, only on the wrong side of the bugger, all that effort for no results! Right then, still determined not to come back off comes my over-suit, my arms protesting after the struggle even this was awkward.

Okay let's study this and try again slightly higher up. Pretty-much the same result, I got stuck at the same point, only about 3 inches to the right. It felt wider to the left, but was that not where got stuck there last time? "Feck it" I thought. "Go where it feels the least tight" This actually worked as my body was on a slightly different angle where it was less tight by about 1cm. It was enough and that combined with being sans over-suit allowed slow and painful progress. The rock was now jabbing into my almost unprotected lower back, but that's good it's my lower back not my upper back, progress! Unassisted (as pulling me would just pull me in the wrong angle) I wriggled using my elbows and after another few minutes with a sigh of relief I said simply "I'm through". This had been half an hour's battle and Pete was almost shivering as I re-kitted up.

The rest was a blur, basically crawl chamber, crawl chamber, some of it tight some of it not, we just kept going, even Pete was starting to feel tired and did not bother with the side trip to the big chamber in Rift. The duck in Low duke was as I remembered and I thankfully could do it on my front with my helmet off. I told Pete to do the same be he either ignored or did not hear this advice and so therefor sounded like a cave diver with all the bubbles he was generating, as he seemed to be breathing the water. I never knew Pete had gills!

More flat out wriggling brought us into the main part of Low duke and some climbs in some beautiful limestone lead us out to daylight. Despite me being stuck for some time in places the whole trip took less than 5 hours. Pete had also done 3 new caves in one day also, having never been in Ireby, Rift or Low Duke. So was a good trip and my first hard one I would class as grade 5 for several years (I think Mossdale is not grade 5, so I don't really count that one).

Learning points: I need to remember I am not as thin as I used to be especially around my chest, black book days over with? Bring a neo-fleece hood with me for these sorts of trips, it's not like they weigh much! Finally, maybe spend more time digging the silt out before going through a stupidly tight duck!

A wander around ribblehead to nurse hangovers after the Blackrose do, and provide some entertainment for the kids. I first ventured down Gunnerfleet cave solo, but did not venture far in my normal clothes, it's rather tight and rifty without proper gear. We then did upper Thistle?, until the water got too deep for everyone's non-caving footwear. Though I did walk across the fell and do a through trip in the other direction.

We then did Runscar 2 to 3, Daz , Daz of daughter and JP left early, due to not wanting to get wet. Where as me, Carol (carrying Oscar most of the way) and Scaife did the through trip, I somehow kept my feet dry.

Chris was the only one available for the annual club trip. We descended Little Hull pot, making quite good time. I rigged the first 2 pitch, on the second pitch avoiding the traverse in the ceiling as the water levels were low. Chris took over rigging and rigged the 3rd pitch which is an easy free-climb in low water (plenty of good handholds). We did not fancy the duck, so took our SRT kits off and did the bypass squeeze, which is easy on the way in if you just kind of sky dive it, but on the way out is quite awkward as it requires you to go at a funny angle. Chris rigged the last pitch and we found our way to the sump after only 2 hours underground.

On the way out the only thing of note was I forgot to clip the second bag to me at the bottom of the 1st so had to go down and up it again to retrive it. Out by 4:30 a little tiring as it was 3 bags between 2 people, but we now know unless it's wet we can skip the rope for the 3rd pitch, as it's climbable and not doing the ceiling traverse gives you enough rope for it anyway.

A joint trip with Out On Rock and BSCC. I rigged the way in as Olly wanted a trip where he was not thinking and leading. The duck was quite waterlogged, but once through I was able to dig out the floor and lower it by about 6 inches, so the other 2 did not get as wet as me. Further downstream, I then followed a passage on the left near North Branch inlet to a miserable duck. We went as far as the last pitch that don't really go anywhere. On the way out Jason got tired and spent some time under the waterfall on the 4th pitch, there's no deviation or anything to keep you out of the water here, unless you make use of spits! Anyway heading out Ally slipped coming off the second pitch badly jarring his knee and needed help getting off the pitch. Thankfully it did not swell too much, other was we would have to drag him out and even harder down the hill.

Went down to have a look at the passage seen last time above the 5th pitch/traverse, it did not go. Events of note: James knocked a rock off on said traverse and the van sized boulder I was basically sat on, moved an inch. I found once over the traverse just before the calcite sections its an easy climb down the rift which will bypass the pitch down (hence why there's less descent recorded on this one), but gotta be careful of all the rocks that are semi wedged, but aleast we are not going to get crushed by the boulder. Other than that, it was basically straightforward a few times the rope tangled with my bag especially on the 4th pitch but I sorted it out. I was about 15% less tired than last time and found Bubbles a lot easier (I took my SRT gear off above the climb, this time), but this was shorter than last time too for some reason (less people?).

After a lot of reasearch we found the cave quite easily, recongnising the climb down to get below the upper clifts. Getting here required several busses and an hour long walk. Before we had even got here we found a cave not too far from the car park that extended 30m which consisted of dusty crawls some of which were flat out. Anyway at Dingli we entered by the harder west entrance. This consisted of several easy squeezes and crawls between boulders before the cave grew in size after we traversed the pitch? to chamber (H) lower. We passed the east entrance and continued down lofty rift passages. We think the whole cave was formed in a rift where the bench is breaking away from the clifts and then boulders fell in making the roof, at least partially the case. There was also a lot of archeology found in this cave. Anyway after exploring a flat out bit that was not even on the survey (which drafted) went the correct way through a challenging riggle of a squeeze (from chamber N to O). This led to the pitch. The spits likely installed in the 80s were useless but thankfully a jammed rock in the floor provided a good belay. John had not brought his SRT kit underground so it left me to descend this solo. This chamber P as it's known on the survey, was huge 15m high about 50m lomg and 5m wide. There was some side passages leading off but these all closed down in collapses. An excellent trip on an island largely devoid of significant long caves. We exited by the East entrance.

An unusual cave consideringing its in the middle of an urban centre. A 3m climb down from the road leads to a fence where one can easily crawl under it. The entrance is man made steps that drop down about 5m to the water level, into a large natural chamber about 20m x 15m and about 10 high. The chamber is flooded and there appears to be passages leading off underwater, not certain if cave divers have explored. The only section non-divers can access is a rock pile in the corner accessed by stepping stones.

We accessed this cave by first swimming across the bay from Comino to Cominotto, about 200m. We then swam through the obvious cave (not named either) about 70m long lit by day light. This got us onto the west coast. We then turned right before hitting dry land and the cave proper. I entered this cave alone while John explored another cave. There was about 40m of dry walking passage about 3-4m high led to a step down of 1.5m. (Light now needed) From here a 5m long flat out crawl in sand led to a scratchy rifty section relatively tight for another 5m before the passage enlarged to stooping height for 15m at the end this emerged back onto the east coast about 30m north of the swimming cave, I then headed back through to meet John, who had come as far as the step down. Being tight and rifty in places I might be the first person to do the through trip, the big swimming cave however would be often frequented.

First went under the south part of the complex before going into two engine rooms, one with a dogey ladder not really attached. We then went outside into the main complex, a very small window allowed me access to this but it looked like it was inhabited/naughty to be there so I left. We then explored side passages off the main moat? most ending in dead end passages, but there were a couple of exceptions. One had a fantastic spiral staircase descending deep into the earth with some very rotted ladders going back up to a blocked entrance. The other went into some high and vaulted chambers with a large tunnel leading to blocked entrances. Fun trip.

Went in via county up to whiteline chamber and down the whiteline chamber bypass pitch. Up stop and into Monster cavern before taking the passage towards Easegill aven. Lots of crawling and a slightly dodgy climb up before a 10m descent. A bit of a maze later and some very muddy crawling brought us to a hole, we free climbed down last time, but this time as we had rope I rigged a pull through not wanting to risk a fall as it was extremely slippery. From here we then went up to Dismal junction and followed the stream up eventually reaching climb down just below the entrance pitch.

Did the through trip to the window and the eastern entrance, investigated a coulple of cavers and a small mine adit, with hole in the floor. Also managed to climb up onto the gantry next to the conveyor belt for fantastic photos.

First he was afraid, then he was petrified lalala. Nice formations.

A straightforward trip down link, found a new stop on cows tail technique, clicking short cows tail and clipped stop to the loop. Sam led way in and Becka rigged. We went to the sump had a look at a few inlets which were certainly low, I remembered the inlet once we got there. Back out was straightforward.

A through trip to take out old gear and bash in through bolts. This is quite a long and difficult trip. AKA hole is not the easiest of places especially between the 3rd and 4th pitches with some narrow thrutching. We got past the collapse from last time, with a lot of SRT over the top, it would require 50m rope but thankfully George said it would be left in situ. Gear taken to the dig including a shovel, there's some nice steam passage here. The duck was just a puddle really but it was flat out in the puddle. We reached the rope ladder up, where we found that one of the P-anchors had fallen out (I think it was the backup one). Thankfully we could still rig it. The old rope ladder was removed (it was in a poor state) and stayed as my friend for the rest of the trip. Out we went, down all the esculator rifts and through the long crawl between Duke street 2 and 1. The exit was sportingly wet, but not the wettest I have seen it, it did mean all the mud got cleaned off. Bubbles proves to be quite difficult with bags and tiredness. In all I counted 15 pitches, for the through trip.

Mainly walking day, but went in with normal clothes before it would necessitate getting wet. Interesting place with pink limestone and lots of strange rocks mixed in. Worth coming back to finish this (exits into the river so summer might be better. Angel drainpipe nearby also looks interesting, I did not get in due to it being wet.

Still recovering from surgery so this trip was more of a hike following turbary road past various cave entrances and a few possible digs. The first time we got underground was Rowton, where we freeclimbed the slippery in 1 spot first “pitch” to get into the shakehole. We then ventured into Rowton cave as far as the waterfall (normal clothes did not want to get wet). We exited and continued the walk passing several active digs near Yordas, looking down the upper pitch before going into the lower cave and noodling around as well as taking pictures of the waterfall.

My last caving trip probably for a while, before my opp. It was meant to be a trip to Irebyfell caverns, as it has been broken-through However George decided to some rocks needed trundling, making the whole place very unstable including 2 20ton blocks that shifted after this, so we aborted. I guess this is Irebyfell caverns at this point so one could say we made it into there, but not the through trip as George broke the cave! I did not have an enjoyable trip out, harness round my leg, tight rift trapping my bag every meter or so, so much so I wanted to compose a poem on why I hate caving lol.

I rigged the gully, skipped the first climb due to rope length. That got us down to the second last drop and Rob rigged the very atmospheric near waterfall pitch with 4 or 5 re-belays around the corner making a fun descent. We then took the bypass to pitch 3 awkward climbs and a sketchy traverse over 15m deep pitch. We left the cave and were treated to an excellent show of the northern lights.

We first went down New Goyden, where I rigged the SRT route for practice for me as I had not rigged in a while and for Byron who is generally scared of rope. But thankfully he happily absailed. We then gawked at the large river passage, before going into the Planetarium meeting the BSD at their dig there, hopefully making a flood escape route. We then header out, but Byron had a poor up setup, with only space for a foot and very short prussicing rope, so I took him out Gusset. We then wandered over to Manchester hole, more big passage to gork at. I did find what I think is the connection (a sqeeze and crawl over calcite on the left) but found it very wet at the bottom, it needed neo-prene/sumped. We then went down Goyden down the sump before I led the way through the maze, up the ladder and then up cap left tunnel which thankfully was not blocked by wood at the end.

Cas was in labyrinth, so it was a case of getting them up a short climb, which we body belayed them up and the manhandled them through the passage. We then lowered the stretched down the other 3 pitches without too much bother.

Getting to the end is getting more arderous and quite fun. It was a 2 man job exploding a very tight squeeze near the end using snappers. We had to go several times in and out of akward passage leading to it, to set off the snappers, replace drill battery, bring the drill in and out and re-insert the wires. It was a slow journey out, but trip time 3.5 hours

Don did a well making it through all 3 squeezes, we were soon past the bit where I tried to drown myself last time. The rift on the left not being as tight as it looked, after passing another stream we were in easyish passages but it was still mainly crawling and stooping. Not the stomping rift passage I was expecting. It was also dry up here though evidence of flooding, very muddy too, like high level mud caverns. In-fact the whole cave reminded me of Mossdale. We got to the “1990” choke but had to turn back as the only way though seemed blocked at-least partially and would require digging. I was not sure what the big block was resting on so I did not try and dig out underneath. I should go back there one more time when the river is really low and see if I can push that passage where all the water goes down.

Crossed the swim section with buoyancy aids, though most of it's quite easy as you can just jam yourself against the walls. Got the climb up, but none of use could actually climb it. Luckily slug had left a rope, so me and Rob went back out to collect SRT kits, using inflated dry bags to float them across. We then prussicted up the pitch and went upstream through all mainly large and walking height passage. Rising mirth passage to the left was indeed well decorated but mainly with black chert bands, much better condition than the ones in Black Reef. The final chamber was quite awesome with a small lake and a pitch black wall on the far side. We returned and I had a quick venture upstream, finding the ducks were just canals, as my head did not get wet (I don't count them as ducks if I don't get my head wet). Was a great cave. As it was sunny we then wandered to Black reef and Byron took loads of photos in there. We then went up to Katnot to see the awesome main stream. I pushed on following the water inlet, but found it was too low with the amount of water going through it being forced up my face. I then went the non-flowing upstream route which was 200m of wet crawling, I may have gotten to the last chamber I am not sure, I basically got bored. I tested turning off my light on the return to see how far I would get but when I got stuck in a deep corner I turned it back on again, I probably would have realised eventually if this was a real light failure to turn right.

Was just a fun trip, explored upper passage then went downstream. I explored the upstream inlet past were dug earlier and got to the end of it after 40m.

We decided to use rope rather than a ladder as everyone had an SRT kit. Byron was not too scared of this but was of the holes one crawls over a little further on, he was visibly shaking for a while. We then continued to go downstream first, where I guess we probably should have stopped at the main chamber but, I thought that would be too boring. I had forgotten about most of the climbs but everyone did fine. However, only me and Jason went through the squeezes to get as far as the bottom pitch, Jason is pretty hard. We then went upstream, through nice passage. Me and Jason bypassed the so-called up pitch by a squeeze in the stream. I then returned and put a hand-line down for Rob who more likes climbing than squeezes. Byron waited as tired, though had a few goes at the stream level route apparently We then went as far upstream as the ducks.

Went into the huge entrance to Birkwith cave, to avoid the pitch entrance in Calf Holes, that I figured would be too scary for Byron. Everyone enjoyed the sights and we went right to the very back of the cave. We then went to Old Ing to do the through trip to Dismil hill, however, only me and Jason were up for the flat out crawl connection. We went as far as the traverse over the water as we had left our cows-tails behind.

Barely counts as a trip but got out of daylight so it counts. We free climbed the traverse that leads in (20m up!). We then walked down the ramp for 80m until we reached a pitch, we did not check it was climbable.

Was not fully recovered and could only safely go with someone who already had Covid so I took Mike. The objective was to try and connect to the other passage making a loop possible and potentially easier way. This we failed to do, the most promising passage closing down after a mere 20m. We then finished the survey of the main inlet and explored the various nucks and crannys as well as the final crawl to confirm there was no way on.

We split into two groups with so much to go at. Me and Sam, took on the maze being harder to survey, where as Gracie, Chloe and James took on the long inlet. We finished most of the maze, there's a few odds and ends. We then caught up with the rest of the crew and explored the inlet to near it's end taking photo's in the final chamber but not fully exploring.

Tidied up what we found yesterday, by linking the passage we found to the main passage. We then went upstream and found some more passage. We then went and explored the main question mark and the passage kept going and going with lots of passages. Unfortunately this had been entered though not the side passages as arrows were found returning.

Found a few inlets an upstream maze and a chamber we thought was not new, but was.

We are now down another pitch beyond the muddy crawl now, the passage again being too tight, which George capped as I looked on. It's becoming a significant trip to the end now.

Was feeling ill on the day, as coming down with Johns cold, but I fought it off with drugs, don't think I was infectious yet. Anyway have Richard had done some capping to make it bigger for him, I was able to get past him and down the new pitch. Below here is large passage and a boulder pile leading up. On the otherside was a traverse that George rigged and this led into muddy high level passage, after 10m or so it was blocked by rocks and mud

Explored many mine levels with some with nice formations, the last one was the most interesting, however there was bad air. We were then going to look at the caves, but me and Jason ended up having to rescue a stranded teenagers on steep terrain lowering them down the hill Buxden call out 43? 2024.

Explored this huge place with massive canyon like chambers. Was mainly walking with a few climbs here and there, the place was huge. I unfortunately left my helmet at the car so was on backup lights with no head protection.

Ian's first trip for a while and John's first trip down this cave, so we took it easy spending over hours exploring upstream and downstream. Ian did not like the little sideways crawl though was fine it, he kept worrying about it, inwards and outwards. We did not get all the way to the waterfall as was hungry and thirsty (I left my bag in the bridge cavern).

Recovering from a virus and looking for a bimble, I took these guys down these very simplistic but nice caves. We had no gear as this was not pre-planned and just went in with head torches passing kids going the other way.

This cave eats rope, we packed 150m in total for this place, despite it only having 4/5 pitches. We entered the dig with Don rigging, took forever to find the drilled thread, can do with some yellow paint or something, we then got to the bottom of the hole and found no way on, the way on was 6m up the second pitch into the rift. After a short pitch/climb, I took over rigging and began down a steep boulderslope over a deep hole, it was very airy rigging. I then dropped down a 35m? Shaft. My 45m rope barely reached the floor (unless I rigged the drop with the 35m rope). The passage after a small pitch (3m) requiring 25m for some reason, comes out near the duck leading to collossos and as I was on my own only explored a little bit taking photos (I had been there before) before heading out the way I came.

Continued capping passage below first pitch, I built a rock wall whilst George capped.

Did several workstations, including hypothermia, rigging (various kinds) and a rescue scenario with collapse. Me and Sam then did a short round trip Stone cloght

Dropped the new pitch was best decorated place I have seen in a while, large 2.5m stals and lots of flow stone. Unfortunately the way on was narrow, too narrow and will need yet more capping. We then landscaped the dirt piles by putting grass on it.

The 4 of us carried large rucksacks full of caving and climbing gear, trying our best to keep it dry in the wet entrance crawl. We noticed a lot of the water actually does not come from the waterfall but infact comes from a unexplored passage on the left (may sump after 5m). John Climbed the pitch, first with trad but found it too dodgy so we grabbed the drill and John climbed using a combination of trad and bolting, placing 3 before we got up there. We explored all the way to the boulder choke which was mainly crawling not walking like the guide said. There's is a possible way on through the boulders, but it was vert loose and moving. We found no significant inlets to explore up here. We rerigged for SRT placing a bolt at head height and left the rope in there in-case anyone else wants to take a look.

Shifted 30 bags along entrance and out onto the surface, as capping continues along tight rift, looks to be another Lamb trap thought the cave does seem to be more developed

On a rather stormy day we went down this pot and explored every nuck and cranny including the lower pitch, the tight streamway (only me and Scaife) and traversed the pit. We exited in a thunderstorm which thankfully had stopped by the time I exited.

Me and Scaife went down Small mammal while the rest went down Bar, we then went down the alternative whitehall pitch which we brough rope for, but found it was rigged. I then dropped down Bar main as there was no Queue where Scaife dropped down SE avon. We rejoined everyone in the main chamber before everyone else headed out of Bar and me and Scaife went up Flood and exited by OBJ which was an interesting entrance with a section part way up the pitch that necessitated dekitting (thankfully, it was not section where you could easily fall to the bottom). The tighest bit was the entrance rift which also required the removal of your helmet!

A trip to caskergill extensions, up all those lovely climbs. We ferreted around in the boulder choke but could not find a way though. We explored the mine works and entered bits I don't remember. Was a good trip and what I needed after missing out on caving the weekend just gone.

Investigate Deep level, Hospital level I took Anna and Jason into deep level first, and took a closer look at the collapse dig at the end. This time I stood up at the end ignoring the looseness on the floor, but this looked even worse, was a stonking draft but it was all rocks and bits of rotted wood that you have to squeeze past, looked deadly!. We then went into Hospital level where we came out yesterday (crossing the holes) and took a look at the orange sludge at the end. It looks like both passages there are blind, there was a too low crawl going off though the sulfur covered rocks. Anne enjoyed her time undergound.

The day started with me teaching Jason various SRT techniques on the tree next to the cottage. Eventually Rob and Byron came up having walked from the other side of coniston. We got to the first big pitch before Byron was too petrified to descend, Rob left with him. Me and Jason had a look at the side bit below the first big pitch and this time ascended the rope at the end, Jason's first time going up. Was not much we could explore up there except for a steep slope with a big drop if we slipped. We then continued with the normal through trip. Jason had no trouble with the SRT given it was hist first time using it.

Went into the lower entrance and explored a couple of inlets. John got the idea that we should run an out on rock trip and he can lead climb the 8m pitch in climbing shoes and wetsuit. We then walked to the upper entrance and found it collapsed behind a shale bank. Middle entrance is not where NC says it is, as the survey indicates it's in a stream. I then solod the moon rising cave, but had limited time so did not pass beyond point of exploration, at tight corner.

Took ages to find well hidden entrance. It was behind some flood debris in a corner about 10m upstream of the main sink. Once in, I passed several easy squeezes and followed a wire for a while before taking several tiring wrong turns, the last one being extremely wet making me very unhappy as it was scary (water backing up). The way on I think was in a tight-ish looking rift above, but by then I had, had enough.

Tried to get into upper dovergill but found it partially collapsed after digging for a while and almost getting through I became unhappy with the looseness, a crowbar would be needed to dig away more of it, it had obviously slumped a bit on the surface. I then dropped down Primrose which was nice but did not do the connection rift, looked very tight. Then entered Dover gill lower cave until apparent sump or very low airspace duck blocked my way. Getting out proved problematic!

Practice to learn the system for several peeps. The ducks in my view were very high, and I was not happy with the second one so came back. Was waiting around and cold, so worked on the stretcher in being a cas. Once we released I did a small trip in the near reaches, before going back through with Ian, this time in the right frame of mind and took Ian to rough chamber. Dan hartley had me film sections before Rich convinced him to come through the ducks.

Repeated the same trip I did with Scaife, went far north looked at Mario land before coming back south though missed the other entrance and looked at formations and drift

We took Rohan this time so he could film the extensions and help us with exploring the new passage with a lump hammer. After another 10m, we thankfully found a way up into larger passage, which was pleasant exploration of about 80m until we were forced to stop at a calcite blockage. We dug our way down to stream level but progress here was horrible and muddy and tight, and continued this way for at-least another 50m (Rohan and James took a look ahead). With me worrying about dehydration I headed back to drink some water and met them half way. Dave said the big stuff in this cave is really nice and worth a visit.

James persuaded me to come down this one as I was meant to be having an off day. We first pushed past what was meant to be a sump, although it was not it still drowned my phone. From here was tight, very bruising tight yorkshire style passage where we were forced to stop at a too tight corner. We returned back through the duck and took a look at a side passage and got to where we meant to be which was an upstream low bit (the passage here was a lot easier). This was meant to be too tight but we easily got through into a large chamber which had us in awe. There were many side passages but we have not pushed them due to no survey gear. We need to come back.

Dave took Rohan this time in his learning of the cave. Me and james continued our survey finishing off a few leads, upstream sumped. Our biggest find was the upstream rift that was very tight and akward for about 20m before breaking out into a much wider rift. A sandy section temporarily stopped progress but James dug through this as it was drafting a lot. This entered a big chamber and we thought we had hit big stuff. The passages from hear led upstream very small and downstream, a bit bigger, but it soon got very tight in places thanks to lot's of shelves so we called it here.

We went down this cave with two purposes. 1) Dave wanted to learn the cave and he took John with him 2) James wanted to look at inlets. When we got to the inlet in question we parted ways and we stared exploring. The inlet unexpectedly went big, and it just kept going. We eventually called it a day when things got a bit more gnarly and wet at a chamber with a small waterfall coming in.

We re-explored this shaft with lots of bolting practice from me. I can confirm it's too tight even for skinnys unless children, would be akward capping. The description says it's 100m deep, but given it's 30m deep to the tight point, and stones only drop another 10 or 15m at most it can be 50m deep. Other thing of note is we got to the pass to find I had left the drill behind!

Soon left the others as I took my 55m? Rope to rig a pitch not far from the main pitch, William accompanied me for this one. This drop used a 10m for a tie in and almost all of the 55m rope for the Y-hang and drop, meaning it must be atleast 50m drop. We tried to find our way back to the others but could not, and ended up doing all the small bits of SRT towards the lakes instead, excellent passages all huge canyons/decorated walking passages, both me and William loved it. JP and the rest did the tourist side of the cave doing all the excellent formations I had seen last year.

It's been a while since I was in this cave, last time was with Daz back in 2015. This time we explored an off shoot passage off the main rift, which I bolted and then Sam descnded, it did not go, so we surveyed out, prob about 20m of new stuff. The other 3 m pitch on the survey had been free-climbed before as was boot prints down there. The cave has apparently collapsed a lot since first entry with the main chamber being very different.

4937 – tried chainsawing tree out of hole. Progress was made and I was inserted however the tight lower passage seemed un-enterable. We then went to 1231, where Gracie hacked away at the brambles before I climbed down. The passage lower down was opened up to a earth roof chamber, which ends at a draft-less dig 4m below the surface.

Tourist recovery trip, the cave gets really large, it's 99% walking passage. We went to swirl chamber and passages near by. Sabastian who was only 9 looks to be fantastic future caver. Took lot's of photos. 3.5 hours

Surveyed extensions found from last time using Andrew's disto x. Brought rope and drop that 40m pitch, it was too tight only 5m down, but good draft and lot's of water below somewhere, also on the correct side of sump. May be worth exploring some other drops down. Total surveyed 60m + 80m from earlier survey. Had a migrain so need to drink more underground. 8 hours

Entered through the new entrance, the first time since it collapsed and we all made it down the climbs fine. We took the wretched rabbit passage and followed it until it dumped us out in the stream, avoiding the additional crawls. We then followed it upstream through Stop pot, before I took the guys to the Minnerets. We then returned and had a look at the formations in Manchester bypass before taking everyone through the squeezes etc (they had fun with that) and out to Battle of Britain, then out County which I pre-rigged. I used my additional rope to make a knotted handline for the lower climb.

We are finally getting towards some open passage, about 3 hours of capping opened up passage I could fit through and go round the corner, to where it widened at an alcove, almost standing height the continuing passage looks to be almost comfortable size, but looks can be deceiving, a breakthrough could be imminent, but I will prob come back and laugh at these words in 6 months time.

These are two mines near Stoney middleton. We went in Redrake first, quite a dodgey place as it's all pretty-much ore workings in shale. It has several levels and 20m pitch or boat crossing to get into the further workings. I was the only one to go down the pitch but did use the boat on the way back. Unfortunately Byron got freaked out by the SRT as even the boat way required a little bit of SRT so me and Rob explored the rest of the workings. A short up pitch brought us into the largest area where another pitch up of unknown vintage went right up into the massive stope. (As Byron was waiting we left that for later). We then explored a side passage which was partially flooded this went on for a while passing smaller stopes before finally ending in a too small rift, where mining had ended. We then went into Northcliff and explored this place it's basically 3 separate mined passages the most interesting being to the left where it slopes downwards for quite some distance with pararell stopes (with false floor in places) on the right. There was a hole needing SRT part way along, which rejoined the passage. Eventually the slop ended at a sump.

A bit more pushing with Richard capping at this never-ending mine (the route to the end is getting a lot longer now), at least with it just being me and Rich I had enough to do which is breaking rocks which kept me warm and tired me out a little, trip time 5 hours.

Called out at 4am, headed up to hut for 7am. Got changed and carried the slix to the entrance (with caving gear on) though never actually got underground, so am cheating a bit by calling this a trip.

Was quite wet so rigged all the drops, the second pitch was quite interesting to rig. The first drop was still climbable. Once down pitch 4, we went up the new rope and explored a the two passages. The first was a tall rift leading to about a 6m (broken) climb into a short crawl leading to a rift, this is meant to be the bypass route but the rift was about 6inches wide, not certain if one could fit through it,or maybe I was feeling fat. When Dan and John were going up the 4th pitch I explored the other series and after and easish squeeze got through to the second pitch. The spiral thing I think is below (so a 3rd pitch) but the description is not clear.

Explored the right-hand side climbing up various avens, mainly blind but was an interesting one with a decent draft, last right and then second climb up. Up here is a 6ft verticle, then steep slope and 5 ft then a difficult steep slope led to a squeeze with lots of passages going off (some natural), I was on my own here as Ron had helped me climb up, I pushed along a low crawl until I reached another shaft, the passage looking almost natural carried on from here, the traverse looked easy enough but a return is needed with a handline for the climb up some people can join me and one for the traverse possibly.

Trip time 3 hours

Trip time 6.5 hours

This was the longest cave we did, it starts off as a large abandoned sea cave about 20m altitude before shrinking down into smaller passage. There are several flat out squeezes, one of which was rather tight and John struggled a bit with this. This then broke out into walking phreatic passage with formations. We navigated by the draft that was cooling things down, but this suddenly disappeared as it was going up an old shaft that was dug as a well apparantly. We continued to follow varied and at times muddy passage, in stifling heat. Eventually it went into a high vadose passage which thankfully for John (he was way too hot) terminated. Though there was a tight squeeze onwards which I passed this led to an even smaller squeeze where I turned around given the stifling heat. If I ever cave in a more major cave like this in Sicily I need to bring water with me. Trip time about 2.5 hours.

Tried to find it in the rain but the point on Google was in the wrong place meaning the walk we did from the hotel in the pouring rain was for nothing. However, afterwards after a bit of reasearch we found the appropriate cave and I made a solo descent into this short but sweek lava cave, which consisted of a large chamber just beyond the entrance that then slowely shrunk down to a small choke.

Corroccio was a short cave near the road with two entrances, could almost be explored without a torch, it was large in width. Lamponi – This was an hour's walk away which started with a large easy walking passage in both directions, uphill was large flat-floored walking passage passing another entrance and a few fay light shafts above it ended suddenly. Downsteam seemed to go further, steeply downhill. Then we started hitting breakdown stuff where it broke out in a very large chamber completely full of breakdown. An easy squeeze at the end led to another chamber that was choked. Femmine – A shorter cave on the way back, entered by an easy climb leading to walking passage, followed by some stooping to a harder climb up where the passage soon went flat out over lava and closed down.

Having tried the major cave in the area and found it needed gear we then ventured into this cave, again finding several holes that were pitches we were dejected until we came across one we could climb down via several drops and a sneaky back and foot climb before a final descent down a wall. We could then explore the cave, which turned out to not be too long, as it just ended after a boulder choke.

Just two of use so did not have full gear to the bottom, went down to East chamber, in fairly wet conditions, then found that swirl passage slope was rigged so went down to the 4th pitch but found 20m rope was not enough. John dropped the spanner down the entrance pitch which was good as I had also found my pully at the bottom which must had fallen off of me on the way up.

Had originally planned Link to wretched, but Pete was ill and Ed had work later. So we settled on Heron, water levels were high and the duck at the end looked to be very wet, Ed was not happy with it and I did not have my hood, so we hard rigged cave, taking the high level route with me rigging and Ed de-rigging. Finally, got to take a look at a decorated inlet downstream, which has some nice formations and is actually quite large so worth the climb to get up to it.

A very wet weekend meant this cave was perfect. We did the nearest caves first and I belayed everyone down the "pitch" on a ladder before absailing myself. We had met another group who borrowed my spanner for the lower entrance so they had opened it for us and left my spanner in the pipe. We completed that through trip and went to the end of the other Jug hole section with active streamway, which showed recent signs of flooding, with foam up the walls indicating about 20ft of passage was recently sumped off. We then returned and me and Jason had a quick look around the mine-works before heading out, catching up with the others as they got lost on the way back.

It was a cold walk up in the frost and small amount of snow. There were a few new anchors on the first couple of pitches but none afterwards. Its quite an annoying cave in places but also has some more interesting formations elsewhere. However, the last two pitches anchors were unusable so decided to not descend the very last pitch, Rich also did not fit around the corner.

It was a cold walk up, but thankfully John got us a slightly closer parting, there was snow on the ground. We got into the cave, the entrance looking looser than ever and proceeded through the blasted crawl. It was this point John turned back as he lost his belt and spent ages searching for it and me and Rob carried on. I showed Rob the comms point in the palace and then we went down and I showed him the sump and the exit as it was a common place to lost and where a cas could be located here. We then made it all the way to bridge hall and to the end of it before turning back. He was rather tired on the way out but was happy with the trip, wish more had turned up.

As it had finally stopped raining we thought it would be a good idea to go down Mag. The entrance was a bit drippy but waterlevels were okay. We got through the wet wallows quickly, Carol (who's trip idea it was) didn't seem to mind it too much. The dry crawl was a bit wet and there was some amazing passages leading us to Caton hall. Only me and Rob continued to the Whale. I was quite tired by time I got to the wet wallows and I hope it's just because I have not done harder trips in a while and not an age thing.

Was a very wet day and had to get help John to help me put in a P-anchor, the pitch was still wet despite rigging it away from the water. We then went down stream but it was rather wet. Finally we reached a point with a waterfall over a squeeze and John could not get through easily. Not wanting to torture him more with not being able to see due to the water we turned back at this point.

Was meant to be giants but was too wet, so we went down Carlswalk, only to find there's a powerful stream in there. However, no rain forcast meant we could push down stream as far as the cascade. Upstream through Dynamite passage was too wet, without wetsuits, was air space but was low. So then headed south towards the connection, but the second crawl was a lot tighter than I remember only me Dan and Jason went through. After that we headed out prob about 3 hours underground.

After speaking to John Helm we grabbed the key to this cave. A 17m rope just reached but there's a rub point about 5m which would need some bolts being placed to fix. Once down the pitch I went down the hole to continue, John had a bit of trouble until I showed him how to do it (the ball grabbing technique). We then explored, first downstream the pitch to the sump appeared to have been blocked by a mud fall. The area this way was moderately decorated with the last chamber being the best. We then went the other way and went via the highlevel route, which ended in a 4.4m greasy pitch that John down climbed. I did not like the looks of it so went around and met him 5 minutes later. We carried on down the decorated passage until we found it too blocked by the same clay-like mud. Trip time 2.5 hours.

Mark dropped out early. The rest of us continued on, first into Gour hall, where everyone fit through the vertical squeeze and then along the muddy passages to hall of the 59. Upon exiting I asked if everyone was up for a second cave, so after lunch the 4 of us headed over to Mystral, where Steve told me after all the crawls he was a bit tired and did not want to be knackered on the way out (though with him I was only going to go as far as HOTMK). Anyway I led him back out through the entrance squeezes before meeting the other 2 in the Hobbit. We then went all the way to Gour chamber at a fast pace as Jason seemed happy with a faster speed.

We decided to rig some of the pitches this time, though free climbed two. We got to the 50ft pitch, which stopped us last time with no gear and got down another short pitch. The ducks followed and Don left me at the second one. I pushed through and through some tight passage until a too tight right-hand bend stopped me progressing (it also looked too tight beyond). This was prob the end of the description.

Straightforward fast trip with Pete, recorded but footage was prob not good. We did the trip in 3 hours but it was rigged.

The cave was easy consiting of mainly walking passage until a pitch up was reached. However, the 3.5 hours walk in each direction through the gorge was not as no real path, uneven terrain and short climbing sections.

Derigging trip down to -140m (ish) took a large bag out of the cave was very heavy. Was underground for about 3 hours, returned down the hill after walking via a lift in a cheese truck.

I surveyed with Chris down to the new end of the cave at -62m, we were expecting it to be -100m plus. I was very hungry at this point as our camp was poorly supplied. I then volunteered to gather water again, another 20m of SRT.

At camp went down the first 2 pitches to check and collect water.

Went the non-SRT route to boxhead, via connection to Lost Johns, turn right in Lyle caverns and then descend the roped climb before making our way through the passages and flat out section to emerge in Boxhead, it was too wet to continue down to the tube.

Tourist trip to see formations, was loads of novices around (as it was a Saturday) so mooched around the upper series, before finally getting down and taking all the photos. My phone then somehow lost them and I had to use a recovery app to get them back.

A trip to see if Dave's back was better, we dropped down to Rocky horror, trying to look at the lead Phil talked about, we followed the stream and eventually wormed our way through the rocks into large passage. (It would be possible to get here from above, but it would require a 20m pitch). However, this was known and what we were meant to be looking at was at the end of the large passage.

Took the divers down to both tie in the existing survey and explore the sump. Unforunately the disto did not work so no more surveying was done. The sump proved to be too dangerous for Mark's liking due to undercuts and no belay points so he turned around where the air space ran out. We then looked at the upstream climb, finding larger passage with some red and white tape, which must had fallen down from above (an easier way down?). The passage ended at a short drop (rope required) into a small chamber and a very deep slot in the floor with distant rumbling below.

Tourist trip, where I mainly led the way through memory to the stuffed monk, though we could not agree which formation it actually was. Then went towards the downstream sump but turned around where it got dodgey over a big drop, there was a traverse line, but a few of us including me did not have cows tails. Trip time 5 hours.

Took em down this pretty cave, Sam and Amanda found the entrance series rather tough but Sam has hardly done any SRT before. Dave came with me down the new pitch I found in Easter, that went to a stream passage. We surveyed about 60m, but there's probbably another 60m unsurveyed. Unfortunately due to time constrains we could no tie it in. Upstream finished at a duck/sump and an inlet at a too tight aven. Downstream, blocked but window above. Amanda really struggled on way out and I gave her an assisted haul. Trip time was 9 hours.

Tried to get to shaft but too much jungle. Then a quick trip into Aqua until the deep stuff and I explored a dogey climb which was hard to get back down. Finally back down 0089 and exploring side bits.

Quick photogenic trip including an excellent shaft of light.

Was hard to find as the location in NC is wrong and it's actually another 100m away towards Ingleborough in a different large shake hole. The first pitch was not rigged and the anchors were spits! Thankfully, there was a natural to use and that got us down this one. It was rather wet going especially the climb down. We found the next pitch rigged so we left our heavy rope bags. This pitch was damp but not massively wet. The rest of the trip was much drier and was relatively straightforward, the majority of the water both from this pitch and an inlet taking a different route.

The original trip idea of simply walking into the mines was abandoned as we no longer had a novice. We did the first mine and I looked at the dig at the end, it looks like it's blocked or at-least unstable. We then hiked up and did the through trip, but did the extensions off the bottom of the pitch, that we did not push last time. The crawl broke through into many more passages, we only stopped exploring here when the only way on was an up pitch on rope from 1991 which Dan pointed out was as old as him. We then returned and continued the through trip as normal. We exited and as it had been raining quite a bit enjoyed a waterslide (road drain).

Lancaster hole - Cape Kennedy - County

Rigged Lanc hole and headed across the very slippery (swear it's getting worse) passage to Stake pot. Turned off on the other-side and after some navigation using phone and a very necky traverse (I went the wrong way) we reached the 88ft pitch, where we turned right. After about 50m or so a hidden hole in the roof led through to cape Kennedy and the decorated passages beyond including the fire hydrant. We returned to Stake pot, where Yanis and Phil went back out Lanc and we went out County passing 6 other YSS cavers not far ahead, slowly making there way out. Even though we exited County and walked across the others still had yet to make it out and took well over another hour to exit.

Took Dan down the normal route to Bar, it's actually been quite a while since I went in that way. Weather was wet but not really bad. Showed Dan the usual i.e. Mud caverns and Sand caverns and had a look at that pitch to the North east (near where pool traverse comes out) of the main chamber. It was a 20 - 25m pitch with a stream at the bottom. I tried following it but it was very loose and wet, may be worth trying again in drought.

Dropped down the first pitch to explore the upstream sump that Chris had reported drained on his trip on Tues. We surveyed through the low but dry passage coming across a canal which then led through to an aven chamber. We dug out the way on underneath exploring another 20m of passage until it finished in a small standing height "chamber" down a small drop, blocked with rocks. Back in the aven chamber we used combined tactics with me on top and I managed to climb up onto a ledge 7m up. This excitingly had a stooping passage leading off, which unfortunately turned out to be known passage and I was soon in the main streamway in Pegleg (Entered where the large kern is, at station 8 upstream of the large rock). We had managed to connect what's normally a flooded well, down the 7m pitch beyond suprise hall to the bottom of the 15m pitch, you normally traverse over.

A sporting trip with an excellent streamway. Dave could not fit through the original squeeze but the rest of us had a wonderful trip down the main streamway, including a climb down over a very deep pool and some impressive slanting cascades. All too quickly we reached sump 3 which had no bypass so started looking at side passages. Not far back from the sump I pushed a well trodden flat out passage uphill that must had gone for 50m into large stomping South wales like passages, when the others eventually joined me. We then headed out and down Rana hole and the black rift which put us on the other-side of sump 3, we then went down stream for some distance to arrive and the Great northern time machine, the largest chamber in Scotland, it really felt like we were abroad or somewhere, so much so I started driving on the right the next day!

Cnoc was a sporting slanting streamway cave reminding me of a mine but with lots of water flowing down. Too quickly we arrived at a sump. However, upstream was extensive with large chambers and lots of passages and even offered a few round trips and a through trip, Including Rift cave which was partially blocked and needed digging out, once done I did not force it too far as I was worried about getting back out. Lower Traigill cave, I managed to do the round trip, with the first half being rather horrible and low (going down) apparently this is normally sumped to some depth. Tree cave, I pushed upstream into what I thought was new territory but it's not in the new book and downstream through a tight slot into a waterfall chamber which was quite loose.

First time down this pot nice and fun. Crawly with an easy split pitch. We went and dug a side passage but it looks to be going the wrong way. Got absolutely savaged by swarms of midges on exit.

Due to thunderstorms forcasted further south though none where we were we decided it should probably be a quick trip, so Mick decided to his own shorter trip to Rough chamber I believe and we headed on to Stream end cave and high speed. The low bit in marathon was draining but we got to Stream end cave after 1 hr 40, took some video and high-tailed it back out, completing the trip in 3 hours 30. I was quite tired near the very end that climb up taking strength out of me. Forecast was correct there was no rain so we did not need to rush but I am glad to see I can still get to the back of Mossdale in less than 2 hours.

A passage beyond red line chamber in the streamway was surveyed by me si and di. It was all crawling with tight bits and went on for 100m (surveyed) until it got really low where we called it a day. It probably continues, but would likely need cobbles clearing, drafts.

While at the ODL big spring event I fancied some underground work so I hit up UCET via Facebook and did these two mines. The first was an SRT into a steep adit with lots of side passages, one leading down to a lower passage, and then a step across to a passage back out to the surface, entered from surface higher up and exited again via entrance rope. The second mine visited after a drive had a walk in level, where after a while a SRT route dropped down 3 pitches (second very loose) into a deep level where I braved the deep chest deep water to reach a blockage very close to the surface, which had some spectacular mud formations (before the wet bit).