Before I knew better I used an alloy D maillon which never gave any trouble for at least 15 years until I found myself dangling on one leg loop at a rebelay near the top of Diccan 1st pitch. After years of use the threads had worn to the extent that it opened by sliding. I bought a D triact and...

I think you would be surprised how many active cavers have been regular visitors there.

The screw or bolt shanks that form the hinge pins of the inner lid of the engine shaft were well worn last time I looked (probably pre-pandemic) and could also do with replacing. I imagine that would be a grinder job.

There are lots of other ungated places where people can do themselves or their kids in. Why the anxiety about this one? If it's because the landowner might permanently block it if DCA doesn't keep banging it's head against a wall replacing padlocks/inventing new gating methods then let that...

On a couple of occasions I remember very big lumps of compacted mud peeling off the LH wall, facing towards Peak. Anyone caught would certainly have been in trouble. The consensus at the time was that the (then) new air movement was drying it out.

Terrible place. You do right.

Memory plays tricks, but I don't remember the worms or the farmyard smell in the first 5 years or so of trips through from Titan, and I was doing that a few times a year. Perhaps I was lucky. After it started it seemed to be a regular problem. I wonder if the people who dug open the route...

Rigged the gin entrance??

About 30 years ago we were granted access to a cave beneath a quarry above Bradwell, on the way up to Bradwell Moor. Just a short pitch led into what had obviously once been a well decorated passage, but all the stal was in bits on the floor. We understood this was due to blasting, but it really...

Now THAT'S inclusive!!!😂

IF the incoming air is noticeably colder than cave air, AND it only happens in winter, doesn't that mean there is another connection to the surface that is lower than the one you used (and not too far away)? If either of those conditions is not met I have no idea.

And of course there is the jug handle about 20m upstream of the pull through. You can rig it for lowering with an easy controlled slide for the last person if they don't want to risk pulling through on it. Although the deep rope groove suggests that has been done many times.

Seems harmless as these things go. Although someone should explain to him that white bread doesn't do waterfowl any good.

That rift was the only awkward part of the whole place, but worth struggling with for the sake of a couple of lovely pitches.

It's possible to argue that if people's minds hadn't been softened by that unspeakable filth they would have forseen and avoided things like a couple of world wars, global warming and Brexit.