dan_marc0
Member
Hello all. This trip report is a little late, and long, but oh well. I started caving in October of last year, and this trip marked the 10th cave ever for me! Featuring frigid -10C surface conditions and chronic faffing to the point of causing a family emergency, I hope you enjoy this first write up of mine 
I have met some brilliant people so far in this sport, and I look forward to meeting more of you on coming trips.
Nottingham University Caving Club presents:
"Coldest week of the Year? Let's do JH!" - James Hall (JH) In and Out - Monday 05/01/26
NUCC Members Present - Barney, Ben, Dan (me)
It was a bright but freezing Monday morning in Nottingham, with the weekends snow still frosting the University sports fields outside the caving stores. Barney and Ben, two of NUCC's finest, had agreed to my rather bonkers trip idea a week prior, with the goal being to blow off some steam after being cooped up with our Families all Christmas (and to descend the mighty Leviathan). We all met up at 09:30 to begin packing rope and tackle for the day, where I found out that there would be 4 Bags and one entrance rope to carry between the three of us. Great, I'm sure my 80-year-old back will be delighted with that news! After many delays caused from me tangling the 80 meter, and subsequent faffing about to fix it, we finally set off at 10:45 up the M1 towards the snow-capped Peaks that awaited us.
After a slightly harrowing journey, with Ben’s car narrowly avoiding skidding off the icy country road and into a wall, we arrived at the top of the surprisingly clear Winnats Pass. However, the car rather sadly ground to a halt and skidded back down the Router Farm track, forcing us to park up at a rather breezy lay by instead. Well, at least we had a cracking view of Mam Tor in the snow. (And the walkers had a great view of these 3 strange gangly men getting half naked in the morni--- ahem, early afternoon breeze). Alas, we set off up the farm track at about 13:15, where I slipped several times onto my arse, whilst the paragliders who landed in the adjacent field chuckled with amusement. Onwards and downwards!
Barney rigged the entrance pitch and descended at about 13:30. I followed shortly after, just as a group of walkers had come over to inspect our work. Wow, what a shaft it was! (yes, I know) Whilst waiting for Ben to join us at the bottom, I had a poke around in the West passage, and noticed an in-situ rope heading off upwards, anyone got any clues as to what’s up there? Curiosity was cut short by a rather frustrated groan from above; it was ben, who had forgotten to shut the bloody Lid and had descended to the rebelay. Let the faff continue! After waiting another 15 minutes accompanied by echoed grunting, we were all together and making fast progress down the Cartgate passage.
Bitch pitch was very interesting, but nothing major to report, except SUSS’s mildly irritating in-situ rope, which Barney said is to do with a dig nearby. They clearly must be more efficient than us, as at our current rate any dig would consist of a picking up a couple of pebbles before home time. The Rusty minecart remnants in the workshop however were mesmerising to look at and was quite humbling to picture people scrambling around down here over 200 years ago, in almost complete darkness compared to our portable head mounted nighttime obliterators.
Now, the main event, Leviathan! We took the short crawl off to the right, as this is the ‘traditional’ route I believe, although we did identify the drop down in the floor to the second route. With Barney continue to rig, Ben and I had some quality man time, but suspicions started to arise after about 20 minutes. After a long screaming match with barney who was 40 something meters below us, and through a waterfall, we determined it was rope-free, and we had just been too busy yapping. The faff continues! I took the plunge off into the almighty chasm beneath, with the only sound being the distant waterfall echoing from below. Words can’t begin describing how beautiful this descent was. The darkness revolved around, enveloping me, as I relinquished to the uncontrollable spinning. My light shimmered off distant surfaces, providing the only reference for just how VAST this chamber was. Boots reunited the ground with minimal grace, and I got to watch as Ben, who was reduced to a tiny beam of light, negotiated the mighty beast. An image that has really stuck in my head.
The rest of the descent was just as mesmerizing, but now with the added interest of the remarkable engineering works that have taken place in the lower section. The waterfall capture system connects into two pipes that entwine their way around the chamber ceiling, and plummet down into the darkness of the second pitch, akin to the intestines of a mighty Leviathan. Following these down, we remarked that the dam must be a little leaky, as it was quite rainy down to the bottom! We had arrived at about 17:30, which was far later than we had aimed for, but we were simply slowed down by the complexity of the rigging and communication problems. We had a quick poke around Cow Arse Worms, which was disappointingly lacking in worms, and the top of the Speedwell ladders, before snapping a photo and starting the ascent.
Ben suggested to me that I should de-rig, which was slightly terrifying as I had only rigged/de-rigged P8. However, it was a completely painless journey back up leviathan, and we had reached the bottom bitch pitch in quick time. But this is when the problems started. My buddies, both equipped with very shiny Petzl Pantins, practically sailed up bitch pitch, leaving me to haul one and a half rope bags, without a lovely £50 additional foothold. It was extremely tiring work ascending bitch pitch, especially packing the rope at each Rebelay and trying not to get tangled in that bloody SUSS rope! (Which I managed several times). I arrived at the top a whole HOUR and a HALF later, dangerously exhausted from having to constantly pull myself up to get my chest jammer to feed properly. Now I see why people own Pantins (or have better prussking technique I suppose!). Ben kindly packed up the rope whilst I recuperated with a nature valley bar. The time was now about 21:30, and we were getting very close to our 22:30 callout, so Barney sped ahead to get out on time.
Meanwhile on the surface, about this time my family had began to wonder why my ‘Find my Friends’ icon was still in the middle of a field, at nine o clock with a -10-degree gale blowing! I had made the mistake of telling them about this trip, and my Mum was under the impression that caves shut at 5! They went into full meltdown mode and proceeded to find Alistair of the TSG and DCRO on Facebook, and called him, along with the NUCC Instagram. Thankfully, the callout was communicated, and a cave rescue event was avoided, narrowly. Shortly after this, Barney had resurfaced at about 22:00 and communicated that we’d be all out shortly. The crawl back through the Cartgate was particularly unwelcome, with several clumsy and tired falls sustained, but was far more enjoyable than the 50-metre ascent up the entrance pitch. My arms were cramping so much that I could barely keep myself upright.
Reaching the hatch, a Siberian gale was blowing across the field, which ripped the heat out of you instantly (-6C with -10C windchill). There I found Barney, almost frozen solid into the surrounding tundra, shivering in a bivvy bag, where I promptly joined him whilst we waited for Ben. Unfortunately, the bivvy bag had a bit of a ‘window’, so it wasn’t doing a whole lot, so we proceeded to run several laps around the field like a bunch of mindless zombies. Eventually, Barney politely ran off back to the car, after being on the surface for nearly an hour. A short time later, Ben arrived, where we hastily hauled the rope up to the surface, slammed the lid and vanished. If only it were that smooth, at that temperature your wet gloves stick to the frozen metal instantly, making it painful to do anything. The walk back was unfathomably cold, with my hands going completely solid and sensationless. We made it back to the car and sat in there for a further 1.5 hours just heating ourselves back up!
Over 12 hours since going in the cave, we made it back to Nottingham. An 8-hour long trip of one of the most beautiful places on earth and a remarkable way to kick off the new year! Despite the frigid temperatures, I’d do it again next week. Thank you all for coming with me on this journey, it was fantastic! Titan next
(see below for some pictures)
I have met some brilliant people so far in this sport, and I look forward to meeting more of you on coming trips.Nottingham University Caving Club presents:
"Coldest week of the Year? Let's do JH!" - James Hall (JH) In and Out - Monday 05/01/26
NUCC Members Present - Barney, Ben, Dan (me)
It was a bright but freezing Monday morning in Nottingham, with the weekends snow still frosting the University sports fields outside the caving stores. Barney and Ben, two of NUCC's finest, had agreed to my rather bonkers trip idea a week prior, with the goal being to blow off some steam after being cooped up with our Families all Christmas (and to descend the mighty Leviathan). We all met up at 09:30 to begin packing rope and tackle for the day, where I found out that there would be 4 Bags and one entrance rope to carry between the three of us. Great, I'm sure my 80-year-old back will be delighted with that news! After many delays caused from me tangling the 80 meter, and subsequent faffing about to fix it, we finally set off at 10:45 up the M1 towards the snow-capped Peaks that awaited us.
After a slightly harrowing journey, with Ben’s car narrowly avoiding skidding off the icy country road and into a wall, we arrived at the top of the surprisingly clear Winnats Pass. However, the car rather sadly ground to a halt and skidded back down the Router Farm track, forcing us to park up at a rather breezy lay by instead. Well, at least we had a cracking view of Mam Tor in the snow. (And the walkers had a great view of these 3 strange gangly men getting half naked in the morni--- ahem, early afternoon breeze). Alas, we set off up the farm track at about 13:15, where I slipped several times onto my arse, whilst the paragliders who landed in the adjacent field chuckled with amusement. Onwards and downwards!
Barney rigged the entrance pitch and descended at about 13:30. I followed shortly after, just as a group of walkers had come over to inspect our work. Wow, what a shaft it was! (yes, I know) Whilst waiting for Ben to join us at the bottom, I had a poke around in the West passage, and noticed an in-situ rope heading off upwards, anyone got any clues as to what’s up there? Curiosity was cut short by a rather frustrated groan from above; it was ben, who had forgotten to shut the bloody Lid and had descended to the rebelay. Let the faff continue! After waiting another 15 minutes accompanied by echoed grunting, we were all together and making fast progress down the Cartgate passage.
Bitch pitch was very interesting, but nothing major to report, except SUSS’s mildly irritating in-situ rope, which Barney said is to do with a dig nearby. They clearly must be more efficient than us, as at our current rate any dig would consist of a picking up a couple of pebbles before home time. The Rusty minecart remnants in the workshop however were mesmerising to look at and was quite humbling to picture people scrambling around down here over 200 years ago, in almost complete darkness compared to our portable head mounted nighttime obliterators.
Now, the main event, Leviathan! We took the short crawl off to the right, as this is the ‘traditional’ route I believe, although we did identify the drop down in the floor to the second route. With Barney continue to rig, Ben and I had some quality man time, but suspicions started to arise after about 20 minutes. After a long screaming match with barney who was 40 something meters below us, and through a waterfall, we determined it was rope-free, and we had just been too busy yapping. The faff continues! I took the plunge off into the almighty chasm beneath, with the only sound being the distant waterfall echoing from below. Words can’t begin describing how beautiful this descent was. The darkness revolved around, enveloping me, as I relinquished to the uncontrollable spinning. My light shimmered off distant surfaces, providing the only reference for just how VAST this chamber was. Boots reunited the ground with minimal grace, and I got to watch as Ben, who was reduced to a tiny beam of light, negotiated the mighty beast. An image that has really stuck in my head.
The rest of the descent was just as mesmerizing, but now with the added interest of the remarkable engineering works that have taken place in the lower section. The waterfall capture system connects into two pipes that entwine their way around the chamber ceiling, and plummet down into the darkness of the second pitch, akin to the intestines of a mighty Leviathan. Following these down, we remarked that the dam must be a little leaky, as it was quite rainy down to the bottom! We had arrived at about 17:30, which was far later than we had aimed for, but we were simply slowed down by the complexity of the rigging and communication problems. We had a quick poke around Cow Arse Worms, which was disappointingly lacking in worms, and the top of the Speedwell ladders, before snapping a photo and starting the ascent.
Ben suggested to me that I should de-rig, which was slightly terrifying as I had only rigged/de-rigged P8. However, it was a completely painless journey back up leviathan, and we had reached the bottom bitch pitch in quick time. But this is when the problems started. My buddies, both equipped with very shiny Petzl Pantins, practically sailed up bitch pitch, leaving me to haul one and a half rope bags, without a lovely £50 additional foothold. It was extremely tiring work ascending bitch pitch, especially packing the rope at each Rebelay and trying not to get tangled in that bloody SUSS rope! (Which I managed several times). I arrived at the top a whole HOUR and a HALF later, dangerously exhausted from having to constantly pull myself up to get my chest jammer to feed properly. Now I see why people own Pantins (or have better prussking technique I suppose!). Ben kindly packed up the rope whilst I recuperated with a nature valley bar. The time was now about 21:30, and we were getting very close to our 22:30 callout, so Barney sped ahead to get out on time.
Meanwhile on the surface, about this time my family had began to wonder why my ‘Find my Friends’ icon was still in the middle of a field, at nine o clock with a -10-degree gale blowing! I had made the mistake of telling them about this trip, and my Mum was under the impression that caves shut at 5! They went into full meltdown mode and proceeded to find Alistair of the TSG and DCRO on Facebook, and called him, along with the NUCC Instagram. Thankfully, the callout was communicated, and a cave rescue event was avoided, narrowly. Shortly after this, Barney had resurfaced at about 22:00 and communicated that we’d be all out shortly. The crawl back through the Cartgate was particularly unwelcome, with several clumsy and tired falls sustained, but was far more enjoyable than the 50-metre ascent up the entrance pitch. My arms were cramping so much that I could barely keep myself upright.
Reaching the hatch, a Siberian gale was blowing across the field, which ripped the heat out of you instantly (-6C with -10C windchill). There I found Barney, almost frozen solid into the surrounding tundra, shivering in a bivvy bag, where I promptly joined him whilst we waited for Ben. Unfortunately, the bivvy bag had a bit of a ‘window’, so it wasn’t doing a whole lot, so we proceeded to run several laps around the field like a bunch of mindless zombies. Eventually, Barney politely ran off back to the car, after being on the surface for nearly an hour. A short time later, Ben arrived, where we hastily hauled the rope up to the surface, slammed the lid and vanished. If only it were that smooth, at that temperature your wet gloves stick to the frozen metal instantly, making it painful to do anything. The walk back was unfathomably cold, with my hands going completely solid and sensationless. We made it back to the car and sat in there for a further 1.5 hours just heating ourselves back up!
Over 12 hours since going in the cave, we made it back to Nottingham. An 8-hour long trip of one of the most beautiful places on earth and a remarkable way to kick off the new year! Despite the frigid temperatures, I’d do it again next week. Thank you all for coming with me on this journey, it was fantastic! Titan next
(see below for some pictures)
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Dan hasn't had the joy of 4 sets of rigging going down Gaping Gil etc. He doesn't know what awaits him 
