Black Shiver is the best caving trip I have done. It very narrowly beats Juniper Gulf I would say, but both are cracking days out.
My caving brother Dave and I had made a short recce earlier in the year down to the head of Black Dub pitch. We were both desperate to complete it and with the unbelievably dry weather this summer, we had no excuses.
Monday 15th August was the planned date but to our horror thunderstorms were predicted that afternoon. Dave insisted we drive up from his pad in Warwick early on the morning of Sunday 14th and go for it. Weather was hot and sunny - a sweaty walk in was expected.
We parked up at the usual Chapel Le Dale layby in glorious sunshine. I was armed with two tackle sacs, Dave with my humungous mountain equipment duffle bag filled with kit and plenty of water bottles. There was no way we were doing the walk in dressed in our under and oversuits - we’d melt. Walk in took about 40 minutes - it was a slog and were both sweating big time. Nevertheless it was great to be out in the Dales on such a glorious day.
I always use my Garmin GPS to navigate and we went straight to the entrance pitch, passing the now dry Mere Gill stream en route.
I rigged the entrance pitch using a sling and dropped down to the entrance crawl. The entrance stream was just a trickle.
Entrance is a flat out crawl, it looks intimidating to say the least but it’s fairly short. A few rocks had to be shifted to the side but I was quickly into the longer section requiring hand and knees crawling. I had one large tackle bag, Dave had our two smaller bags filled mainly with Spelenium Gold rope. Thank goodness we had invested in Spelenium Gold.
We quickly arrived at the first pitch which is straightforward. I rigged and dropped down the first pitch onto a flat section before a very narrow section at the head of the next drop. I re-belayed from a single anchor before traversing through the narrowing to another single anchor re-belay There is a very convenient ledge for your feet at the narrow section which makes rigging easy.
Blood pot came next. I rigged a “Y” hang followed by a single anchor re-belay just around the corner, a very short way down. This drops down onto a very large shelf. A further single anchor re-belay completed the pitch which is also straightforward.
Dave was up next for Black Dub pitch. He climbed up into the roof to rig a “Y” hang, dropped the rope down, then climbed back down to the starting point. As the pitch is hour-glass shaped Dave felt it was easier to pass a short squeeze at stream level to re-join the rope lower down - avoiding an even narrower squeeze just below the “Y”. It looked very cramped at the head of the pitch and as Dave is shorter than me, I wasn’t going to argue. He was quickly down into the Black Dub and rigging the rope to multiple actors along the left hand wall. I followed him past the short squeeze to get my first look at Black Dub - just as Dave lost his balance and fell backwards into it. Priceless.
Selected Caves guidebook describes a sense of foreboding at the Black Dub. I didn’t feel this. Possibly because of the dry conditions or due to the fact that I was second down. Nevertheless, it is certainly an eerie place. All morning I had a definite and lingering sense of unease about the Black Rift pitch which was quickly approaching.
Dave disappeared into the wet crawl exiting Black Dub. This wasn’t too bad at all and quickly we were both at the foot of Thunder Pot which drops onto another large shelf and leads to the first drop of Black Rift. We re-grouped here. I then deviated along the left side (away from the water) and started the traverse to the Eagle’s nest. Two anchors and a “Y” hang with a slither over a bulge of rock to a comfortable stance overlooking the first section of Black Rift. The final “P” hanger is in the roof and requires a lean out over the pitch, it’s fairly straightforward though and looks down onto a large ledge 20m down. I had a 55m rope for this first section then a 65m length for the remaining Black Rift - my plan was to link the two ropes at the double anchor re-belay. I could now see the huge jammed boulder wedged across the shaft.
I felt more relaxed now - the first section of Black Rift is impressive but straightforward. But where was the re-belay? I slowly abseiled down scanning for the “P” hangers, getting my bearings. The huge jammed boulder came more clearly into view and I slowed my descent to admire the view, it’s a fabulous setting. I was feeling very small in this massive cave. I spotted the re-belay anchors above the jammed block, locked off my stop and swung over to my right (facing the wall) and climbed up to rig. I then abseiled a short distance to place a deviation off the block, locked off and waited for Dave to come down to the re-belay. He was quickly down as I prepared to drop the main section of Black Rift. I could just see the bottom - it's huge and tremendously impressive. Despite the dry weather there was still a small amount of spray over the last 20m or so. Watching Dave come down gave me more sense of the cave’s scale - it’s really awesome to see.
Both safely down we got a move on to reach the sump. Further crawling past some quite impressive formations - we were quickly at North Chamber which Dave rigged. Final pitch off a single sling around a spike. Further scrambling and crawling which wasn’t too taxing and we were at the sump. More impressive formations here. I would say we were both quite elated at this point, it’s a trip we’ve been meaning to do for years. Chocolate and fluids back at North Chamber - we were going to have to get a move on to meet our call out time.
Thank goodness for Spelenium gold rope. Despite this there was still a massive amount of rope stretch on the big pitch. Going up was a slog but my elation counteracted this. Getting up the Black Dub pitch proved the crux for me. Getting off the rope into the streamway is easy but the squeeze a few feet on is now slightly uphill and consequently more difficult on the way out. I found myself well and truly stuck, I had to back out and try again the opposite way around (see the YouTube video). With a fair bit of squirming I got through. I’m 6ft and 76KG and in fairly good shape (I would say), but found this pretty tight. Dave shot through without any bother which really pissed me off.
The crawling proved much, much more strenuous on the way out. With wet ropes adding to the weight and the continual snagging of bags we were having our endurance and patience tested. I was glad to get to the entrance crawl - I had raced ahead while Dave de-rigged the penultimate pitch. My plan was to dump the largest tackle bag at the entrance then head back to help with the two smaller bags. By now I was pretty tired but headed back into the crawl to meet up and share the increasingly annoying burden of tackle-bag-dragging. We were both relieved to head up the open entrance drop and into a glorious evening of fading sunshine.
I would say doing Black Shiver is the best day out I’ve had. It’s taxing, a little scary in places, but a truly awesome natural wonder. Just don’t go near it if the weather’s in doubt.
Hats off to Dave Brook for discovering and exploring Black Shiver. What a find!
I must also give great credit to ianball11 on this forum for completing it solo. That’s a very impressive accomplishment.
Our trip is YouTube thanks to Dave’s camera skills. Hopefully it will prove useful for fellow cavers planning a trip.
Safe caving.
Andrew Gemmell. 12th September 2022.
My caving brother Dave and I had made a short recce earlier in the year down to the head of Black Dub pitch. We were both desperate to complete it and with the unbelievably dry weather this summer, we had no excuses.
Monday 15th August was the planned date but to our horror thunderstorms were predicted that afternoon. Dave insisted we drive up from his pad in Warwick early on the morning of Sunday 14th and go for it. Weather was hot and sunny - a sweaty walk in was expected.
We parked up at the usual Chapel Le Dale layby in glorious sunshine. I was armed with two tackle sacs, Dave with my humungous mountain equipment duffle bag filled with kit and plenty of water bottles. There was no way we were doing the walk in dressed in our under and oversuits - we’d melt. Walk in took about 40 minutes - it was a slog and were both sweating big time. Nevertheless it was great to be out in the Dales on such a glorious day.
I always use my Garmin GPS to navigate and we went straight to the entrance pitch, passing the now dry Mere Gill stream en route.
I rigged the entrance pitch using a sling and dropped down to the entrance crawl. The entrance stream was just a trickle.
Entrance is a flat out crawl, it looks intimidating to say the least but it’s fairly short. A few rocks had to be shifted to the side but I was quickly into the longer section requiring hand and knees crawling. I had one large tackle bag, Dave had our two smaller bags filled mainly with Spelenium Gold rope. Thank goodness we had invested in Spelenium Gold.
We quickly arrived at the first pitch which is straightforward. I rigged and dropped down the first pitch onto a flat section before a very narrow section at the head of the next drop. I re-belayed from a single anchor before traversing through the narrowing to another single anchor re-belay There is a very convenient ledge for your feet at the narrow section which makes rigging easy.
Blood pot came next. I rigged a “Y” hang followed by a single anchor re-belay just around the corner, a very short way down. This drops down onto a very large shelf. A further single anchor re-belay completed the pitch which is also straightforward.
Dave was up next for Black Dub pitch. He climbed up into the roof to rig a “Y” hang, dropped the rope down, then climbed back down to the starting point. As the pitch is hour-glass shaped Dave felt it was easier to pass a short squeeze at stream level to re-join the rope lower down - avoiding an even narrower squeeze just below the “Y”. It looked very cramped at the head of the pitch and as Dave is shorter than me, I wasn’t going to argue. He was quickly down into the Black Dub and rigging the rope to multiple actors along the left hand wall. I followed him past the short squeeze to get my first look at Black Dub - just as Dave lost his balance and fell backwards into it. Priceless.
Selected Caves guidebook describes a sense of foreboding at the Black Dub. I didn’t feel this. Possibly because of the dry conditions or due to the fact that I was second down. Nevertheless, it is certainly an eerie place. All morning I had a definite and lingering sense of unease about the Black Rift pitch which was quickly approaching.
Dave disappeared into the wet crawl exiting Black Dub. This wasn’t too bad at all and quickly we were both at the foot of Thunder Pot which drops onto another large shelf and leads to the first drop of Black Rift. We re-grouped here. I then deviated along the left side (away from the water) and started the traverse to the Eagle’s nest. Two anchors and a “Y” hang with a slither over a bulge of rock to a comfortable stance overlooking the first section of Black Rift. The final “P” hanger is in the roof and requires a lean out over the pitch, it’s fairly straightforward though and looks down onto a large ledge 20m down. I had a 55m rope for this first section then a 65m length for the remaining Black Rift - my plan was to link the two ropes at the double anchor re-belay. I could now see the huge jammed boulder wedged across the shaft.
I felt more relaxed now - the first section of Black Rift is impressive but straightforward. But where was the re-belay? I slowly abseiled down scanning for the “P” hangers, getting my bearings. The huge jammed boulder came more clearly into view and I slowed my descent to admire the view, it’s a fabulous setting. I was feeling very small in this massive cave. I spotted the re-belay anchors above the jammed block, locked off my stop and swung over to my right (facing the wall) and climbed up to rig. I then abseiled a short distance to place a deviation off the block, locked off and waited for Dave to come down to the re-belay. He was quickly down as I prepared to drop the main section of Black Rift. I could just see the bottom - it's huge and tremendously impressive. Despite the dry weather there was still a small amount of spray over the last 20m or so. Watching Dave come down gave me more sense of the cave’s scale - it’s really awesome to see.
Both safely down we got a move on to reach the sump. Further crawling past some quite impressive formations - we were quickly at North Chamber which Dave rigged. Final pitch off a single sling around a spike. Further scrambling and crawling which wasn’t too taxing and we were at the sump. More impressive formations here. I would say we were both quite elated at this point, it’s a trip we’ve been meaning to do for years. Chocolate and fluids back at North Chamber - we were going to have to get a move on to meet our call out time.
Thank goodness for Spelenium gold rope. Despite this there was still a massive amount of rope stretch on the big pitch. Going up was a slog but my elation counteracted this. Getting up the Black Dub pitch proved the crux for me. Getting off the rope into the streamway is easy but the squeeze a few feet on is now slightly uphill and consequently more difficult on the way out. I found myself well and truly stuck, I had to back out and try again the opposite way around (see the YouTube video). With a fair bit of squirming I got through. I’m 6ft and 76KG and in fairly good shape (I would say), but found this pretty tight. Dave shot through without any bother which really pissed me off.
The crawling proved much, much more strenuous on the way out. With wet ropes adding to the weight and the continual snagging of bags we were having our endurance and patience tested. I was glad to get to the entrance crawl - I had raced ahead while Dave de-rigged the penultimate pitch. My plan was to dump the largest tackle bag at the entrance then head back to help with the two smaller bags. By now I was pretty tired but headed back into the crawl to meet up and share the increasingly annoying burden of tackle-bag-dragging. We were both relieved to head up the open entrance drop and into a glorious evening of fading sunshine.
I would say doing Black Shiver is the best day out I’ve had. It’s taxing, a little scary in places, but a truly awesome natural wonder. Just don’t go near it if the weather’s in doubt.
Hats off to Dave Brook for discovering and exploring Black Shiver. What a find!
I must also give great credit to ianball11 on this forum for completing it solo. That’s a very impressive accomplishment.
Our trip is YouTube thanks to Dave’s camera skills. Hopefully it will prove useful for fellow cavers planning a trip.
Safe caving.
Andrew Gemmell. 12th September 2022.
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