Cales dale lower cave

M

markpot

Member
After a bit of knowledge on this one. Twenty plus years caving in the peak and i haven't got in here yet. Given the stable weather at the moment we thought it may be about time we had a poke, we have our bca cards, any one with experience of the place please post up  :thumbsup:
 
It was monitored weekly during the superb weather in 2018 and never opened up then. After the weather we had in May I would be surprised if this year was different....In my opinion of course.
 
My humble opinion is that we are currently a very long way off getting access to the far reaches of LCDC as a result of the recent weather conditions.
 
My gut feeling is that it'd need a fairly dry winter followed by a normal summer for any chance of the further parts being accessible. Of course, if you want to do a lot of flat-out grovelling in that area, there's Critchlow...
 
Moose said:
Now there's a cave to sort out the men from the boys!
Click to expand...

Although, of course, it is completely impossible to tell anything apart from a fox poo by the time you come out again.....
 
I've been thinking of having a check of the central dale to see if the tufa cave is accessible yet - that's an interesting little collector's piece!
 
Tried to locate the entrance to the lower section on a walk recently... GPS coordinates brought me here?

PXL_20220903_143556744.NIGHT.jpg
 
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There is no water at all in the stream bed which even in September 2018 was not the case.

There was also a very strong draught today and another week of dry weather ahead.

Never a better opportunity.
 
I'm fairly surprised that in this very dry period (relatively) from April that nothing more has been found here, lathkill head, SMMC .....and all the usual suspects normally too wet.
 
Its worth keeping a close eye on, once it unroofs the draft really speeds up evaporation and is soon accessible.
When you get to the end, the pulling bar and rope up there belong to TSG and have been there since about 1984, myself and Keith Joule had a project to rattle the massive terminal choke but it rained and we never went back. I love that place, good luck....
 
I've been away for a few weeks and today was my first chance to go take a look, after a tip off from Stoney Boy. So after 22 years of patient waiting i'm happy to say it's finally open!

1759513862389.png

Here i am in Cales Dale Stroll for proof! (Bograt, spot your bar, which is still there!)​

Not sure how long it will be open for given this rain, so definitely get in there quick if you fancy risking it.

Warning, the choke up into The Twilight Zone looks pretty bad and even collapsed on me a bit on my way back through. Tread with upmost care!

Full trip report coming soon to the Eldon website....
 
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