Alex
Well-known member
People: Pete Darwood, Alex Ritchie (author)
Date: 08/02/2025
Weather: Cold at 2C but surprisingly dry and had been relatively dry all week.
Well this is the 3rd attempt at this trip. The first time, the silt was too think so I could not get through (unknown date), the second time (2016) I managed to squeeze my way though on my own only to loose my bottle beyond the silted up passage in the low mud. But this time we would be doing it in the other direction, that would be easier right?
We started the day by carrying some scaff part way across for a dig nearby, just to warm up a bit, it was a cold day.
Anyway, an easy descent on in-situ ropes down Ireby via Bubbles had us to the connection junction in about an hour. We then left our back for a quick detour to Duke street as it was Pete's first ever time in this cave. We returned and had a snack ready for the what we thought would be a moderately difficult traverse. We started off by taking the short bypass to the duck/sump. Looking down the passage we could see lots of foam and the water appeared near the roof. I was glad we were not going that way as I did not have my hood, remembering only one duck near the end, why would I need it? My neo-fleece was probably overkill too (it wasn't).
The continuing passage was flat out for a bit, but was not too bad or mucky and we were soon sliding upright along a narrow rift with a few awkward climbs to avoid obstacles but nothing desperate. The passage again lowered and the muddy wallows ensued. They definitely got rather low, but it was not tight, and we were soon in passage I recognised from the Rift side. I was not sure why I had turned back coming the other way last time, perhaps it's been dug out since?
Wow this should be easy, I stupidly thought, considering we were very close to rift. At the back of my mind I knew the silt might be a problem, but I also knew that Todd Rye (and his mates) had been through a month back, so it should be fine... right? The first silt blockage thankfully had a bypass climb to it, as it would require quite a bit of work to dig out. Okay, as long as the second one was not like that then it's going to be fine... well it wasn't, it was worse! I remembered this being tight but was just wet silt you could dig out. Now, that was the same, however there was also now several inches of water on-top of it with about 3 inches of airspace, bugger! I tried a couple of times on my front and backed out each time, would this be a 3rd fail of this trip?
We tried digging a trench to lower the water but it just did not seem to want to go anywhere, before I knew it Pete, who I should say is a racing snake compared to me squirmed through on his back without much of an issue, well "I guess back is the way forward". I must say I hate going on my back, I get disorientated and dizzy so generally rather counter intuitively I do ducks on my front with my head to the side, only there was no room this time, so my back it was.
The good news is the water was shallow enough that I could rest my head on the floor without water flowing into my mouth, the bad news was the passage was badly silted up and progress was very slow and very unpleasant for someone of average size. I was not happy and soon I felt like I was stuck in this duck, a dangerous place to be and my breathing rate increased. With Pete's calming words I slowly shimmied my way along the floor even-though at times it felt like I was going nowhere, dragging the bag was not helping either! It seemed to take an age before I was able to right myself, my back of my head was almost completely numb and the cave passage was spinning round to my eyes, but I was out. After composing myself I went back in part way to retrieve my beanie hat from the muddy water. - remember I stupidly decided against a hood!
Well that was that, and it's all easy from here right? Yeh, there's some squeezes but I fit through them 9 years ago after-all, I don't "remember" them being that difficult.
First was the infamous triangular squeeze, did not look too bad but Pete struggled when he got his hip stuck for a bit and he's thinner than me, would I have an issue? Well time to find out within 30 seconds I was wedged quite painfully by my shoulder but there's no way I was going back through that duck/squeeze we came through now. "Come on Alex, you have done this before" I thought, then I remembered/figured out the grab technique, where one reaches past your head in the rift, to grab a rib of rock. This both gives much needed pulling power and more importantly manipulates your shoulder so it fits. Yay, through it, though it sure seemed it was harder than I remember, must had been in the thing for 5 minutes at-least.
I remembered there was a calcite squeeze somewhere ahead, but after that I knew we were basically home free. The passage went flat-out other calcite and I wriggled through and okay that was not too bad at-all just a bit of arduous crawling and we are out. After a deep puddle came the real thing!
It looked tight and Pete almost effortless wriggled through it on the left but said it was "bloody tight", so I tried to follow. Slowly but surely I wriggled forward, then slower and then even slower still, until the calcite was forming quicker than I was moving. Then a 1 inch high lip in the floor stopped all progress completely. I was not going anywhere, even when I relaxed and had Pete pull me, my upper back was firmly wedged against the roof and floor. Some 15 minutes we tried determined to not have to return the way we had come, but I was not going anywhere. I felt one with the cave and not in a good way. Once again my breathing rate was up, but it was not panic, it was just it was that tight I could barely breath and any effort soon had me out of breath. Okay then time to reverse and have a re-think... the first few inches were okay, but then I hit that damn lip on the other-side and bugger, I am not going anywhere. I guess I need to change my address to 1 Calcite squeeze, Rift pot!
With an almost herculean amount of effort and not fancying the long wait for rescue I was finally out, only on the wrong side of the bugger, all that effort for no results! Right then, still determined not to come back the way we came as I really did not like that silty duck, off comes my over-suit. Even to this my arms protesting after the struggle I had just had.
Okay let's study this and try again, this time slightly higher up. Pretty-much the same result, I got stuck at the same point, only now about 3 inches to the right. It also felt wider to the left, but was that not where got stuck there last time? "Feck it" I thought. "Go where it feels the least tight" This actually worked as my body was on a slightly different angle where it was less tight by about 1cm. It was enough and that combined with being sans over-suit allowed slow and painful progress. The rock was now jabbing into my almost unprotected lower back, but that's good it's my lower back not my upper back, so progress! Unassisted (as pulling me would just pull me in the wrong angle) I wriggled using my elbows and after another few minutes with a sigh of relief I said simply said "I'm through". This had been half an hour's battle and Pete was almost shivering as I re-kitted up.
The rest was a blur, basically crawl chamber, crawl chamber, some of it tight some of it not, we just kept going, even Pete was starting to feel tired and did not bother with the side trip to the big chamber in Rift. The duck in Low duke was as I remembered and I thankfully could do it on my front with my helmet off. I told Pete to do the same be he either ignored or did not hear this advice and so therefor sounded like a cave diver with all the bubbles he was generating, as he seemed to be breathing the water. I never knew Pete had gills!
More flat out wriggling brought us into the main part of Low duke and some climbs in some beautiful orange limestone lead us out to daylight. Despite me being stuck for some time in places the whole trip took less than 5 hours. Pete had also done 3 new caves in one day , having never been in Ireby, Rift or Low Duke. So was a good trip and the hardest I have done for some time. Well done Todd and co for doing SSE to AKA which involves this connection, I don't think I could have done that with these squeezes sapping my energy I probably would have quit at the calcite squeeze and gone out Low Duke.
Learning points: I need to remember I am not as thin as I used to be 9 years ago especially around my chest, are my black book days over with? Also bring a neo-fleece hood with me for these sorts of trips, it's not like they weighs much! Finally, maybe spend more time digging the silt out before going through a stupidly tight duck!
Alex
Date: 08/02/2025
Weather: Cold at 2C but surprisingly dry and had been relatively dry all week.
Well this is the 3rd attempt at this trip. The first time, the silt was too think so I could not get through (unknown date), the second time (2016) I managed to squeeze my way though on my own only to loose my bottle beyond the silted up passage in the low mud. But this time we would be doing it in the other direction, that would be easier right?
We started the day by carrying some scaff part way across for a dig nearby, just to warm up a bit, it was a cold day.
Anyway, an easy descent on in-situ ropes down Ireby via Bubbles had us to the connection junction in about an hour. We then left our back for a quick detour to Duke street as it was Pete's first ever time in this cave. We returned and had a snack ready for the what we thought would be a moderately difficult traverse. We started off by taking the short bypass to the duck/sump. Looking down the passage we could see lots of foam and the water appeared near the roof. I was glad we were not going that way as I did not have my hood, remembering only one duck near the end, why would I need it? My neo-fleece was probably overkill too (it wasn't).
The continuing passage was flat out for a bit, but was not too bad or mucky and we were soon sliding upright along a narrow rift with a few awkward climbs to avoid obstacles but nothing desperate. The passage again lowered and the muddy wallows ensued. They definitely got rather low, but it was not tight, and we were soon in passage I recognised from the Rift side. I was not sure why I had turned back coming the other way last time, perhaps it's been dug out since?
Wow this should be easy, I stupidly thought, considering we were very close to rift. At the back of my mind I knew the silt might be a problem, but I also knew that Todd Rye (and his mates) had been through a month back, so it should be fine... right? The first silt blockage thankfully had a bypass climb to it, as it would require quite a bit of work to dig out. Okay, as long as the second one was not like that then it's going to be fine... well it wasn't, it was worse! I remembered this being tight but was just wet silt you could dig out. Now, that was the same, however there was also now several inches of water on-top of it with about 3 inches of airspace, bugger! I tried a couple of times on my front and backed out each time, would this be a 3rd fail of this trip?
We tried digging a trench to lower the water but it just did not seem to want to go anywhere, before I knew it Pete, who I should say is a racing snake compared to me squirmed through on his back without much of an issue, well "I guess back is the way forward". I must say I hate going on my back, I get disorientated and dizzy so generally rather counter intuitively I do ducks on my front with my head to the side, only there was no room this time, so my back it was.
The good news is the water was shallow enough that I could rest my head on the floor without water flowing into my mouth, the bad news was the passage was badly silted up and progress was very slow and very unpleasant for someone of average size. I was not happy and soon I felt like I was stuck in this duck, a dangerous place to be and my breathing rate increased. With Pete's calming words I slowly shimmied my way along the floor even-though at times it felt like I was going nowhere, dragging the bag was not helping either! It seemed to take an age before I was able to right myself, my back of my head was almost completely numb and the cave passage was spinning round to my eyes, but I was out. After composing myself I went back in part way to retrieve my beanie hat from the muddy water. - remember I stupidly decided against a hood!
Well that was that, and it's all easy from here right? Yeh, there's some squeezes but I fit through them 9 years ago after-all, I don't "remember" them being that difficult.
First was the infamous triangular squeeze, did not look too bad but Pete struggled when he got his hip stuck for a bit and he's thinner than me, would I have an issue? Well time to find out within 30 seconds I was wedged quite painfully by my shoulder but there's no way I was going back through that duck/squeeze we came through now. "Come on Alex, you have done this before" I thought, then I remembered/figured out the grab technique, where one reaches past your head in the rift, to grab a rib of rock. This both gives much needed pulling power and more importantly manipulates your shoulder so it fits. Yay, through it, though it sure seemed it was harder than I remember, must had been in the thing for 5 minutes at-least.
I remembered there was a calcite squeeze somewhere ahead, but after that I knew we were basically home free. The passage went flat-out other calcite and I wriggled through and okay that was not too bad at-all just a bit of arduous crawling and we are out. After a deep puddle came the real thing!
It looked tight and Pete almost effortless wriggled through it on the left but said it was "bloody tight", so I tried to follow. Slowly but surely I wriggled forward, then slower and then even slower still, until the calcite was forming quicker than I was moving. Then a 1 inch high lip in the floor stopped all progress completely. I was not going anywhere, even when I relaxed and had Pete pull me, my upper back was firmly wedged against the roof and floor. Some 15 minutes we tried determined to not have to return the way we had come, but I was not going anywhere. I felt one with the cave and not in a good way. Once again my breathing rate was up, but it was not panic, it was just it was that tight I could barely breath and any effort soon had me out of breath. Okay then time to reverse and have a re-think... the first few inches were okay, but then I hit that damn lip on the other-side and bugger, I am not going anywhere. I guess I need to change my address to 1 Calcite squeeze, Rift pot!
With an almost herculean amount of effort and not fancying the long wait for rescue I was finally out, only on the wrong side of the bugger, all that effort for no results! Right then, still determined not to come back the way we came as I really did not like that silty duck, off comes my over-suit. Even to this my arms protesting after the struggle I had just had.
Okay let's study this and try again, this time slightly higher up. Pretty-much the same result, I got stuck at the same point, only now about 3 inches to the right. It also felt wider to the left, but was that not where got stuck there last time? "Feck it" I thought. "Go where it feels the least tight" This actually worked as my body was on a slightly different angle where it was less tight by about 1cm. It was enough and that combined with being sans over-suit allowed slow and painful progress. The rock was now jabbing into my almost unprotected lower back, but that's good it's my lower back not my upper back, so progress! Unassisted (as pulling me would just pull me in the wrong angle) I wriggled using my elbows and after another few minutes with a sigh of relief I said simply said "I'm through". This had been half an hour's battle and Pete was almost shivering as I re-kitted up.
The rest was a blur, basically crawl chamber, crawl chamber, some of it tight some of it not, we just kept going, even Pete was starting to feel tired and did not bother with the side trip to the big chamber in Rift. The duck in Low duke was as I remembered and I thankfully could do it on my front with my helmet off. I told Pete to do the same be he either ignored or did not hear this advice and so therefor sounded like a cave diver with all the bubbles he was generating, as he seemed to be breathing the water. I never knew Pete had gills!
More flat out wriggling brought us into the main part of Low duke and some climbs in some beautiful orange limestone lead us out to daylight. Despite me being stuck for some time in places the whole trip took less than 5 hours. Pete had also done 3 new caves in one day , having never been in Ireby, Rift or Low Duke. So was a good trip and the hardest I have done for some time. Well done Todd and co for doing SSE to AKA which involves this connection, I don't think I could have done that with these squeezes sapping my energy I probably would have quit at the calcite squeeze and gone out Low Duke.
Learning points: I need to remember I am not as thin as I used to be 9 years ago especially around my chest, are my black book days over with? Also bring a neo-fleece hood with me for these sorts of trips, it's not like they weighs much! Finally, maybe spend more time digging the silt out before going through a stupidly tight duck!
Alex
