R
RM
Guest
We (Me, Rob, BenM and JeffW) woke up bright and breezy at 5am yesterday, far too early, and headed off to the peaks. After changing at the TSG we headed for maskhill mine, the first of our objectives.
At 7.00am I headed underground to rig, and half and our later via some less than textbook rigging myself and rob reached the pull through up to pilgrims way. We waited a while for ben and jeff, then headed onwards to our goal. After a long and tedious crawl, with some nasty tight bits (at least for me) we reached the chamber of horrors. Unfortunsatly, it had been raining in the peaks for the last few days, and the water was much higher than normal. Instead of the usual spacious (cough) ducks, we were faced with in effect 3 small sumps with air bells. The helmets came off and the wetsuit hoods went on as Jeff led off through. After some unusual noises and splashing we heard a shout of OK and rob set off. Rob followed with still more splashing, and appears to have hit his head on route, being unable to remember much of the experience. I followed slowly after, and ben decided to return out of maskhill, deciding having never done the chamber before, that a day when it was a sump was not a good day to learn.
When i arrived on the other side it became clear rob had not enjoyed the experience, as he was dazed and shivering, so we set about getting him moving and warmed up, and headed off down to geology. On route rob was none too well, and we were contemplating turning round, though he was keen to continue. Geology was rigged so we shot off down, and reached the far curtian looking very frothy. The mud was high above on the wall at it was obvious that it had sumped previously, though it was open. After a quick group huddle we decided to go for it and bombed through to the east canal at 10.00. We returned back, and rob decided he did not want to repeat his chamber of horrors experience (the original plan) so we headed instead up the crabwalk, to 'climb' garlands. I kitted up and belayed from the resin anchor high on the left hand side looking up was able to climb out, with the aid of a foot loop, and rig a rope for the other two. We reached the surface at 11.45am. Ben headed home as he had a prior engagement, so we continued as a trio.
Unfortunatly the plan was a little in tatters, as myself and jeff had to return down maskhill to derig before we could proceed. We reached the surface at 2pm by which time rob was much more like his usual self, so headed set off to rig nettle. This proved much easier than our previous epic, and we reached the entrance of hell in just over an hour. We headed off down these final constricted in situ ladder pitches, the first of which we belayed as its bolt was nearly out, and followed the awkward squeezes reached the end of Frank Browns dig at 3.30pm. 2 out of 3 complete. We headed out with rob, then myself derigging, though unfortunatly my foot jammer decided to break making the narrows particularly 'fun', and arrived on the surface at 5.30pm
We wandered over to Titan, where the wonderful dave (caverholic) and special clare, who had been our running callout all day, had left us some awesome food. We re-energized for a while and chatted, before dave and clare turned up and suggested that we leave our tacklebags of rope with them, rather than taking them through peak as planned. A quick glance around the party together with my personal gut feeling suggested that this was a very good idea, so we abandoned the bags and headed down titan, with a callout of if we dont turn up in 4 hours, come back and open the lid for us. We left the surface at 6.45pm
Now titan is an awesome cave and really seemed to regalvenise us, and we bombed though the far sump extensions, only pausing to pass some unusual slurry in the jh connection crawl (probably due to it having been sumped recently), and were all very pleased to see the speedwell streamway a little high but passable. The bung as ever was fun, and so we headed off merily, until that monotiny of colostomy. The other two seemed less fazed by this but it would be fair to say i was not having much fun. Still it didnt take too long and we all reached treasury feeling happy and reinvigorated. At 8.30pm we reached the gates and were released.
I turn 21 this week so to 'celebrate' the plan was to complete the 3 deepest caves in the peak district in a day. Despite some slight issues early on we managed this successfully in a time of 13.5 hours and would recommend this day to any feeling stupid enough
We would like to thank all those who helped us in the planning and execution of the day, especially Dave Harley, Clare Youens, Ann Soulsbry, and Peak Cavern for allowing us to leave after hours.
It was an amazing experience, though we are all a little bruized today.
At 7.00am I headed underground to rig, and half and our later via some less than textbook rigging myself and rob reached the pull through up to pilgrims way. We waited a while for ben and jeff, then headed onwards to our goal. After a long and tedious crawl, with some nasty tight bits (at least for me) we reached the chamber of horrors. Unfortunsatly, it had been raining in the peaks for the last few days, and the water was much higher than normal. Instead of the usual spacious (cough) ducks, we were faced with in effect 3 small sumps with air bells. The helmets came off and the wetsuit hoods went on as Jeff led off through. After some unusual noises and splashing we heard a shout of OK and rob set off. Rob followed with still more splashing, and appears to have hit his head on route, being unable to remember much of the experience. I followed slowly after, and ben decided to return out of maskhill, deciding having never done the chamber before, that a day when it was a sump was not a good day to learn.
When i arrived on the other side it became clear rob had not enjoyed the experience, as he was dazed and shivering, so we set about getting him moving and warmed up, and headed off down to geology. On route rob was none too well, and we were contemplating turning round, though he was keen to continue. Geology was rigged so we shot off down, and reached the far curtian looking very frothy. The mud was high above on the wall at it was obvious that it had sumped previously, though it was open. After a quick group huddle we decided to go for it and bombed through to the east canal at 10.00. We returned back, and rob decided he did not want to repeat his chamber of horrors experience (the original plan) so we headed instead up the crabwalk, to 'climb' garlands. I kitted up and belayed from the resin anchor high on the left hand side looking up was able to climb out, with the aid of a foot loop, and rig a rope for the other two. We reached the surface at 11.45am. Ben headed home as he had a prior engagement, so we continued as a trio.
Unfortunatly the plan was a little in tatters, as myself and jeff had to return down maskhill to derig before we could proceed. We reached the surface at 2pm by which time rob was much more like his usual self, so headed set off to rig nettle. This proved much easier than our previous epic, and we reached the entrance of hell in just over an hour. We headed off down these final constricted in situ ladder pitches, the first of which we belayed as its bolt was nearly out, and followed the awkward squeezes reached the end of Frank Browns dig at 3.30pm. 2 out of 3 complete. We headed out with rob, then myself derigging, though unfortunatly my foot jammer decided to break making the narrows particularly 'fun', and arrived on the surface at 5.30pm
We wandered over to Titan, where the wonderful dave (caverholic) and special clare, who had been our running callout all day, had left us some awesome food. We re-energized for a while and chatted, before dave and clare turned up and suggested that we leave our tacklebags of rope with them, rather than taking them through peak as planned. A quick glance around the party together with my personal gut feeling suggested that this was a very good idea, so we abandoned the bags and headed down titan, with a callout of if we dont turn up in 4 hours, come back and open the lid for us. We left the surface at 6.45pm
Now titan is an awesome cave and really seemed to regalvenise us, and we bombed though the far sump extensions, only pausing to pass some unusual slurry in the jh connection crawl (probably due to it having been sumped recently), and were all very pleased to see the speedwell streamway a little high but passable. The bung as ever was fun, and so we headed off merily, until that monotiny of colostomy. The other two seemed less fazed by this but it would be fair to say i was not having much fun. Still it didnt take too long and we all reached treasury feeling happy and reinvigorated. At 8.30pm we reached the gates and were released.
I turn 21 this week so to 'celebrate' the plan was to complete the 3 deepest caves in the peak district in a day. Despite some slight issues early on we managed this successfully in a time of 13.5 hours and would recommend this day to any feeling stupid enough
We would like to thank all those who helped us in the planning and execution of the day, especially Dave Harley, Clare Youens, Ann Soulsbry, and Peak Cavern for allowing us to leave after hours.
It was an amazing experience, though we are all a little bruized today.
