Advice on Caves

tim.rose2

tim.rose2

Active member
Hi,

Myself and 3 others (Mendip cavers) are heading to Derbyshire for Easter weekend.  We're staying in Millers Dale.  My only experience of Peak caves is one trip last summer to Giants (thanks Ric).  We're looking for short trips for Friday and Monday and longer ones for Saturday and Sunday, all non-srt.  Having looked through CoPD I've come up with the following:
Friday - Owl hole
Sat - P8
Sun - Carlswark (through  trip from Eyam dale to Gin + look around other parts of the cave)
Mon - Either Brightgate or Jugholes

Looks like no access restrictions for all (is this still correct?).
In terms of kit looks like Owl hole needs one 10 m ladder & line, P8 needs two 10m ladders & line, Carlwark needs 20m rope to ab into Eyam dale & jugholes might need a handline.
Presumably Eyam dale to Gin is easy to navigate if we take the survey & text in CoPD or would it be sensible to have some emergency srt kit or rig a ladder incase we need to go back out the way we came in?

Would appreciate any advice or corrections to the above / alternative suggestions if mine sound like a load of rubbish.  Also any advice regarding water levels.

Cheers in advance
 
Correct with your assumptions for Owl and P8.

Carlswark Eyam shaft can be done easily with 35'/12m worth of ladders and lifeline. There is now a tight connection into Gimli's Dream - Merlins from Carlswark if you wish to extend your trip slightly.

You can leave the ladder in Eyam shaft and walk back over the hill from Gin to retreive it - obvious footpath to right of Gin entrance as you come out.

Route finding in Carlswark is easy, after the crawl from bottom of Eyam shaft into Northwest passage, its the last tube on the right before Northwest passage turns left and gets smaller.

Crawl into Noughts and Crosses, navigate a couple of pools of water and more or less straight run to Gin. Take kneepads as Carlswark has a tendency to bugger up your knees!

Brightgate and JugHoles can be done back to back as they're only a mile or so apart.

No gear required for Brightgate, 8m ladder useful for JugHoles, both the drop into lower series and the small shaft for upper series.

Have fun.
 
Don't be too quick to restrict yourself to 'caves' in T' peak,
there are some  awesome mies to look at see gentlewomans/ youds. :thumbsup:
Owd Git, (Ric')
 
Well said Ric, Gentlewoman shaft exiting through Youds Level is a brilliant trip (thanks for showing me it  :clap2:)

Graham
 
Incidents 308 and 276 would seem to suggest otherwise!
[/quote]
Unfair!, Two callouts from badly organised groups in 8 years is not a good precident.
 
owd git said:
Nah! just an abseil, (with local 'back up.)  :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I suppose. They could get away with just a sling as a harness + a biner for descent!!!!  Lol.  :tease:
 
Cheers for the advice.  Will have a read up on Bagshawe & Youds.  Would you recommend these over my suggestions and if so which do you reckon I should swap?  Or are they just other equally good trips?  I've partly chosen the ones I did as they're not all that far from where we're staying, apart from Jugholes which is conveniently on the way home.
In terms of vertical caving - we're very used to abseiling 10 - 20m mendip pitches just tend to climb back out on ladders rather than srt as two of the group don't own srt kits.  Probably not the most common or modern of practices but its what we do, works for us and is safe.     
 
Well mate, Masson to Youd's is a great little trip. Can last up to 3 or 4 hours, depending who you guide is...  I'd ask Owd Git to be your guide here, very sure he's done it many times before. Mind you, he may try to get you digging somewhere on the way!!  :thumbsup:
I've never been into baggy so couldn't comment. Although I hear good stuff.
 
I'd say Bagshawe has a little more to offer than Carlswark, but if your a rare visitor to Derbyshire, then your list is fine, save bagshawe/youds for next time.

P8 is head and shoulders above the others two and will be the highlight of your weekend (probably)

Plenty of others to go at in the future too.
 
Imho Bagshawe over Carlswark/Merlin's any day.

P8 at the moment might be tedious as we've had easily 2 weeks of dry weather. However it's bound to change for the Easter weekend and heavy rain would make it sporting.

Then, of course, there's Peak Cavern. A tourist trip to the Main stream Passage and up to the downstream end of Far Sump may prove more interesting than any of the others above.
 
tim.rose2 said:
Hi,

Myself and 3 others (Mendip cavers) are heading to Derbyshire for Easter weekend.  We're staying in Millers Dale.  My only experience of Peak caves is one trip last summer to Giants (thanks Ric).  We're looking for short trips for Friday and Monday and longer ones for Saturday and Sunday, all non-srt.  Having looked through CoPD I've come up with the following:
Friday - Owl hole
Sat - P8
Sun - Carlswark (through  trip from Eyam dale to Gin + look around other parts of the cave)
Mon - Either Brightgate or Jugholes

Looks like no access restrictions for all (is this still correct?).
In terms of kit looks like Owl hole needs one 10 m ladder & line, P8 needs two 10m ladders & line, Carlwark needs 20m rope to ab into Eyam dale & jugholes might need a handline.
Presumably Eyam dale to Gin is easy to navigate if we take the survey & text in CoPD or would it be sensible to have some emergency srt kit or rig a ladder incase we need to go back out the way we came in?

Would appreciate any advice or corrections to the above / alternative suggestions if mine sound like a load of rubbish.  Also any advice regarding water levels.

Cheers in advance
Click to expand...
Your choice is good, although I don't know enough about Brightgate, this was one of my "Potentials" in the 70's, opened up since. Jug Holes has lots of play offerings (used to be 5 entrances in the main chamber!).
A few people have been posting their pet systems on here and I think they should be looking at the area as a whole, rather than "I know this cave so its the best" , I know that the first time I went to Mendip (Before I met the bats in the Belfry) I was looking for a cross section of what the area had to offer, (Swildons - Rhino - Stoke Lane etc.) and we had an excellent weekend, go by your own judgement and do your own thing. P8 is just a  further North version of Swildons,but not as good, consider Gautries and have a good look round, it might show you a bit about dry development akin to actve streams. Only water problem you are likely to meet with your list is P8, if youve met Swildons in spate, you will be able to handle this.
 
Brightgate, although small, one can very easily get disoriented and lost. You will find your way out eventually, but more down to a process of elimination rather than great navigating.  Again, best man to guide you would probably be Owr Git.    :thumbsup:
 
I recently did Brightgate and loved it, have a look at the trip report I posted.  As for getting lost, its not that big and if you keep looking back on the way in its not a problem!
 
Mrs Trellis said:
Imho Bagshawe over Carlswark/Merlin's any day.

P8 at the moment might be tedious as we've had easily 2 weeks of dry weather. However it's bound to change for the Easter weekend and heavy rain would make it sporting.

Then, of course, there's Peak Cavern. A tourist trip to the Main stream Passage and up to the downstream end of Far Sump may prove more interesting than any of the others above.
Click to expand...
Heard of a very sporting do in bagshaw after rain last year, Matt??! Fill in.
O.G.
 
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