AKA Hole - new entrance to Ireby 2

[georgenorth]

A bit of breaking news from Leck Fell yesterday. The Misty Mountain Mud Miners (a loose collection of Three Counties diggers) have connected their AKA Hole dig on Leck Fell to Blissful Creek in Ireby 2.

AKA Hole has been dug over the last 18 months and is approximately 300m long and 80m deep to the connection with Ireby. The first through trips were completed yesterday and in my opinion it’s one of the best in the Dales (although with Ireby being my favourite cave I may be biased!). It’s a long and challenging trip only suitable for experienced cavers. AKA Hole provides a quicker route to the upper levels of Ireby 2, but is absolutely not an ‘easy’ route in!

Before making the cave publicly accessible we have a bit of work to re-bolt the pitches, as well as remove some serious hazards in Blissful Creek. In the mean time please stay away!

Full details, photos and survey to follow in a future issue of Descent.

Cheers,

George.

 

[andys]

Super stuff George - what length has been added to the Three Counties?

 

[georgenorth]

Super stuff George - what length has been added to the Three Counties?

About 350m Andy. There’s a promising lead or two though, so I’m hopeful for more. I don’t want to say too much ahead of the Descent article though…

 

[langcliffe]

Congratulations! The 56th entrance!

 

[ChrisB]

I don’t want to say too much ahead of the Descent article though…

That's a very good point. I was reading the Descent article about the 300th issue and the future, thinking that much of what I read in the magazine I already knew about from UKC, and wondering how print publications will survive.

 

[paul]

That's a very good point. I was reading the Descent article about the 300th issue and the future, thinking that much of what I read in the magazine I already knew about from UKC, and wondering how print publications will survive.

I have a lot of old copies of Descent and often have a look at articles from year ago and would definitely miss this. News gets updated more quickly online but it isn't easy to go back and read about things in the past.

 

[Tritim230]

Publications like Descent are timeless. Personally I much prefer print and have in the past been lost for hours in the BCRA (as it was) library. Maybe I'm just showing my age!

 

[JAA]

Good effort George and co. Look forward to reading about it and visiting

 

[thehungrytroglobite]

What particular obstacles make it a hard trip? Just curious

 

[Alex]

Its quite awkward and tight, but not "really" tight. The Blissful creek hazards are very loose rocks dangling there like death.

 

[Samouse1]

Well done to the diggers, one I was following closely! Guess I’ll have to go and do the Masongill traverse again!

 

[Badlad]

AKA pot to Low Douk pull through?

 

[georgenorth]

AKA pot to Low Douk pull through?

Yep, we just need to install the chains

 

[Loki]

Yep, we just need to install the chains

Has anyone pulled thru large, rift or ireby yet???

 

[georgenorth]

Just an update from today - the passage/ boulder choke from Trippple Creek chamber to Blissful Creek is currently not (sanely) passable. 20 tons (plus) of passage ‘wall’ and boulders are currently on the move and are held up by very little. I’m hoping that it will all have collapsed of its own accord by the time we return, but until this section’s made safe, please, please stay away!

Cheers,

George.

 

[georgenorth]

The extremely loose section of passage was discovered by Tom Clayton and myself in 2008 (described in RRCPC Journal 10, page 320). There’s been a tiny number of trips in the last 16 years (probably less than 10 people!). Hopefully it will soon be seeing a bit more traffic, which is why we’re putting the effort into making it safer!

 

[georgenorth]

Now that the rigging topo and location of AKA Hole have been published in Descent, we’re happy for people to go and enjoy it.

The cave is currently rigged as far as Jupiter Cavern with our ropes, and the Escalator Rift pitches are still rigged with the big fat blue ropes. We’ve got no plans to remove our ropes in the near future - we’re happy for people to use them, but you do so entirely at your own risk!

Route finding through AKA is pretty obvious, but the section of cave between the 3rd and 4th pitches is pretty gnarly. If it ever gets really tight then you’re probably going the wrong way! In terms of old school grading, rigging in and out from AKA entrance to the Ireby II sump and back would be worthy of grade V.

It’s an active stream cave so stay well away if heavy rain is forecast! There’s a few short sections which are known to flood to the roof.

There’s a significant amount of loose rock between Trippple Creek Chamber and Blissful Creek. Please be extremely careful in this section because rescue would be truly ‘epic’.

The through trip to Ireby takes 5-8 hrs with the cave rigged. We really strongly advise against doing it as an exchange trip. If you can’t get out of AKA Hole then it’s a very long way back to Ireby. It makes sense to do the through trip in the AKA to Ireby direction so that the most strenuous section of cave is done first.

Having now done the through trip three times, I’m still of the opinion that it’s one of the best trips of its type in the Dales - the variety of caving is superb, with a bit of almost everything. We hope you enjoy it - please let us know how you get on…