bren
New member
Yet again the lure of the underground out did the rational idea of avoiding the most difficult places to reach.My son asked if we could go caving and as he's new i want to encourage him as much as i can.The place was the problem then.I phoned Tom and asked if he'd thawed out from Tuesday and if he fancied a trip."where you thinking?" he asked. To be honest i didn't have a clue due to the rain on Saturday and how it would have effected water levels with snow melt etc. "How about crackpot?"he said. He assured me he knew where the entrance was and the route there.
It struck me last night that the road up there was quite steep and narrow and probably hadn't been cleared. For a change i was right and we just managed to get to crackpot but that left a good mile walk in some very heavily drifted snow to the entrance.The drifts were up to waist deep in places and pretty difficult.Tom took to the stream and we participated in a bit of canyoning which was quite enjoyable and far less strenuous than wadding through the drifts.After speaking to the farmer and a dodgy traverse up the resurgence waterfall we eventually found the entrance.Today we didn't need to dig out the snow which made a pleasent change.I wont name names but the relative warmth of the cave was a welcome respite to some members of the team. Tom led,my son in the middle and me taking up the rear seemed to be a sensible order as Tom had been in before.
We had entered via Kneewrecker passage which lives up to it's name well. The dimensions of the passage is not the problem but the loose rock in the crawl is quite sharp as one accidentally places ones knee upon them. I'd promised Tom that my son was quiet in crawls but we couldn't shut him up today so we spent a little more time in the crawl than i would have liked as he kept turning round to ask if i was okay and to point out the best route for me to take!!! He would then call for Tom who had disappeared round the next corner.
The streamway was well sized and my knees were happy to be out of the crawl. There is a great amount of straw stalactites decorating the main streamway which looked very nice. It's a very similar size to the passages in Dow but far more intresting due to the amount of calcite.There must be a very thick band of limestone above the water as the whole route is covered in stals and straws. we slowly made our way to block chamber and clambered over the roof fall.The size of these rocks is quite humbling and am quite happy to say the chamber looked very stable.Tom climbed up in to formation passage but he said it looked a bit tight so we followed the streamway to the far end of this tube.I had a quick look in from the other end and was disappointed to see lots of broken stals and flattened stalagmites. I wasn't prepared to add to the damage so reversed back out.
Once we got to column chamber we had a little pause and looked around admiring the formations.Cold hands long forgotten all members of the party admired the beauty of the chamber.I had no idea till today that the column is actually the picture which features on the OL30 northern Dales OS map cover. It's great to be able to recognise such things and i was very pleased with myself. After ducking under the bridge which in it's self is a very interesting formation we got to cullingfords folly.The main chamber prior to the "pitch" is impressive and the stalagmite formations while not tall are very broad and formed in a series of unusual shapes and dimensions.This is by far the largest chamber in the system and even has an impromptu bench.
The cave has a diffrent feel from this point forward.We slid down under the roof fall and entered back down to the steamway.Jordan and I looked at the far more darker rock strata here while Tom slithered off in to the siphon.A couple of minutes passed and the grunting had stopped.I turned my lamp out to see if i could see any light coming back from the passage to no avail.I was aware there is no through route so was a little concern.After a few more minutes i decided to go have a quick look. It's a pretty miserable bit of passage but after a few feet i was relived to see his light reflecting through the rocks. "tropical" he said "had to take advantage of the warm water" Myself i wasn't convinced.
We moved on to the digs and had a look very carefully around.A plaque on the wall reminds us all of the dangers of our sport.Not sure who Mr Hobbs was but I assume he was influential in the exploration of Crackpot? Hell Fire Alley was larger than i thought it would be and I'm guessing it gets it's name from the amount of blasting that was done down there.There is still plenty of blast wire about.What stuck me was the amount of dad's that had been expertly stacked forming "solid"walls I had a look at the scafolded dig and didn't fancy that and had a look a the left hand dig which looks like it has collapsed from the roof.Not sure what they were digging towards but there must be quite alot of potential under this crag.
We left Camp 2 and explored the other little side passages before heading back to the streamway and followed it to where the roof lowers and the water deepens.Tom Showed me a small water filled passage to the right.Its a little awkward but you can manage to lay down so the water is neck deep and squeeze into the passage. I left my helmet on but this meant i had to have my mouth in the water
I must be improving as normally the helmet would have been off so my face would have been nowhere near the drink! Looking at the block in front of me i guessed that due to the distance Tom had gone in to the siphon and the position of myself that a connection must be pretty close i guess we could have only been 10ft apart at the most.Has anyone ever made the connection here? It seems a very plausible route or is there a tight bit in the middle that just can't be passed ? Defeated we returned to have a look at the intestine series
My survey was now soggy so i followed Tom to the roof collapse and started off in the direction he pointed.To be honest i thought better of it but didn't want to look too soft so pushed in to the boulders of the choke. A couple of body lengths in i decided i was going to reverse as i could see no way through - "God that passage must be bloody epic" I thought. upon return to the car I smirked when i looked at the survey. The intestine series is about 40ft back from the collapse and has a very obvious entrance - will have to look properly next time. Is it worth doing and is the through trip to the main entrance possible? Due to the drifting snow we couldn't even tell where the main entrance was.Tom seems to think it could have collapsed?? anyone know if this is correct?
Defeated once more but not disheartened the guys crawled off down kneewrecker as i gave up the pretence and admitted that my skinned knees were hurting a bit more than was good for me.My son called back with encouragement and tips on route finding but I'm afraid it was lost as i was doing a flatout crawl dragging my legs and throwing the tackle sack ahead.Sounds a bit daft? not really the crawl was far easier this way and daylight was reached far more speedily than our entrance.Next time i go in my knees wont get wrecked.
The mile back to the car was intresting with my son getting very cold hands due to dad forgetting the gloves - sorry mate. Next time will remember. It was a good day and yet again the the scenery was stunning due to the snow. Probably we were some of the warmest people in swaledale today, well when we were underground
It struck me last night that the road up there was quite steep and narrow and probably hadn't been cleared. For a change i was right and we just managed to get to crackpot but that left a good mile walk in some very heavily drifted snow to the entrance.The drifts were up to waist deep in places and pretty difficult.Tom took to the stream and we participated in a bit of canyoning which was quite enjoyable and far less strenuous than wadding through the drifts.After speaking to the farmer and a dodgy traverse up the resurgence waterfall we eventually found the entrance.Today we didn't need to dig out the snow which made a pleasent change.I wont name names but the relative warmth of the cave was a welcome respite to some members of the team. Tom led,my son in the middle and me taking up the rear seemed to be a sensible order as Tom had been in before.
We had entered via Kneewrecker passage which lives up to it's name well. The dimensions of the passage is not the problem but the loose rock in the crawl is quite sharp as one accidentally places ones knee upon them. I'd promised Tom that my son was quiet in crawls but we couldn't shut him up today so we spent a little more time in the crawl than i would have liked as he kept turning round to ask if i was okay and to point out the best route for me to take!!! He would then call for Tom who had disappeared round the next corner.
The streamway was well sized and my knees were happy to be out of the crawl. There is a great amount of straw stalactites decorating the main streamway which looked very nice. It's a very similar size to the passages in Dow but far more intresting due to the amount of calcite.There must be a very thick band of limestone above the water as the whole route is covered in stals and straws. we slowly made our way to block chamber and clambered over the roof fall.The size of these rocks is quite humbling and am quite happy to say the chamber looked very stable.Tom climbed up in to formation passage but he said it looked a bit tight so we followed the streamway to the far end of this tube.I had a quick look in from the other end and was disappointed to see lots of broken stals and flattened stalagmites. I wasn't prepared to add to the damage so reversed back out.
Once we got to column chamber we had a little pause and looked around admiring the formations.Cold hands long forgotten all members of the party admired the beauty of the chamber.I had no idea till today that the column is actually the picture which features on the OL30 northern Dales OS map cover. It's great to be able to recognise such things and i was very pleased with myself. After ducking under the bridge which in it's self is a very interesting formation we got to cullingfords folly.The main chamber prior to the "pitch" is impressive and the stalagmite formations while not tall are very broad and formed in a series of unusual shapes and dimensions.This is by far the largest chamber in the system and even has an impromptu bench.
The cave has a diffrent feel from this point forward.We slid down under the roof fall and entered back down to the steamway.Jordan and I looked at the far more darker rock strata here while Tom slithered off in to the siphon.A couple of minutes passed and the grunting had stopped.I turned my lamp out to see if i could see any light coming back from the passage to no avail.I was aware there is no through route so was a little concern.After a few more minutes i decided to go have a quick look. It's a pretty miserable bit of passage but after a few feet i was relived to see his light reflecting through the rocks. "tropical" he said "had to take advantage of the warm water" Myself i wasn't convinced.
We moved on to the digs and had a look very carefully around.A plaque on the wall reminds us all of the dangers of our sport.Not sure who Mr Hobbs was but I assume he was influential in the exploration of Crackpot? Hell Fire Alley was larger than i thought it would be and I'm guessing it gets it's name from the amount of blasting that was done down there.There is still plenty of blast wire about.What stuck me was the amount of dad's that had been expertly stacked forming "solid"walls I had a look at the scafolded dig and didn't fancy that and had a look a the left hand dig which looks like it has collapsed from the roof.Not sure what they were digging towards but there must be quite alot of potential under this crag.
We left Camp 2 and explored the other little side passages before heading back to the streamway and followed it to where the roof lowers and the water deepens.Tom Showed me a small water filled passage to the right.Its a little awkward but you can manage to lay down so the water is neck deep and squeeze into the passage. I left my helmet on but this meant i had to have my mouth in the water
I must be improving as normally the helmet would have been off so my face would have been nowhere near the drink! Looking at the block in front of me i guessed that due to the distance Tom had gone in to the siphon and the position of myself that a connection must be pretty close i guess we could have only been 10ft apart at the most.Has anyone ever made the connection here? It seems a very plausible route or is there a tight bit in the middle that just can't be passed ? Defeated we returned to have a look at the intestine seriesMy survey was now soggy so i followed Tom to the roof collapse and started off in the direction he pointed.To be honest i thought better of it but didn't want to look too soft so pushed in to the boulders of the choke. A couple of body lengths in i decided i was going to reverse as i could see no way through - "God that passage must be bloody epic" I thought. upon return to the car I smirked when i looked at the survey. The intestine series is about 40ft back from the collapse and has a very obvious entrance - will have to look properly next time. Is it worth doing and is the through trip to the main entrance possible? Due to the drifting snow we couldn't even tell where the main entrance was.Tom seems to think it could have collapsed?? anyone know if this is correct?
Defeated once more but not disheartened the guys crawled off down kneewrecker as i gave up the pretence and admitted that my skinned knees were hurting a bit more than was good for me.My son called back with encouragement and tips on route finding but I'm afraid it was lost as i was doing a flatout crawl dragging my legs and throwing the tackle sack ahead.Sounds a bit daft? not really the crawl was far easier this way and daylight was reached far more speedily than our entrance.Next time i go in my knees wont get wrecked.
The mile back to the car was intresting with my son getting very cold hands due to dad forgetting the gloves - sorry mate. Next time will remember. It was a good day and yet again the the scenery was stunning due to the snow. Probably we were some of the warmest people in swaledale today, well when we were underground
