Peak District Rigging Guide. CCPC

wellyjen

Well-known member
It isn't ideal, but at the moment it is the earliest and only record we've seen of what the discovers intended to name it. It could well just be a spellling mishtake by whoever draw up the survey. You can imagine how different people writing about the cave subsequently interpreted the word as either stalactite, or stalagmite, possibly without even realising they were misreading what was on the survey. People see what they expect to see, leading to confusion ever since. Any way, I do like the idea of mentally tripping people up when they see the topo!
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
This is something that has been bugging me since redrawing the topos for the on-line guide early last year. There wasn't a symbol for scaffold poles being used to belay from. The Peak District seems to have more than its fair share of these. Many site entrances being old mine shafts, where a scaff pole can be built in just under the lid. We haven't had a special symbol for scaff poles before. Instead we used the same symbol, an open circle, for natural anchor points; a source of possible confusion.

The symbol chosen is this:

scaff.png


The idea being that it looks a bit like a scaff pole seen in perspective and is obviously different from other symbols we use.

The following pages in the guide have been updated as a result: Cover, Key, Safety, Eyam Dale House Cave, Lathkill Head Cave - Garden Path, Lathkill Head Cave - Upper Entrance, James Hall Over Engine Mine, Long Rake Mine (Bradwell), Maskhill Mine, Nickergrove Mine, Oxlow Cavern, Rowter Hole topo 1, Snake Mine (both topos), Water Icicle Close Cavern and Deep Shaft (Day Shaft). The current version is now 14.1.
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
The rigging guide has an update for the James Hall Over Engine Mine topo to add the backup eye bolts on the surface recently installed by DCA. See Derbyshire Caver 155. https://www.thedca.org.uk/publications/newsletters/send/3-derbyshire-caver/174-derbyshire-caver-155. The entrance shaft rope length has been increased to suit.
A mention of ash die back disease has been added to the safety section,  with its deleterious effect on the strength of trees used for belays. The new version is edition 14.2.
Jen

 

wellyjen

Well-known member
The James Hall Over Engine Mine topo has been updated to better match reality. In particular, in the lower part of Leviathan, the survey was effectively rotated 180 degrees about the vertical axis, so the Tea Rooms were on the wrong side and the final rope appeared to landed you close to the Speedwell connection side of the shaft, rather than on the Far Sump connection side. The topo has been like this for several decades. I blame the much poorer lights we had back then, not letting us appreciate the layout of the shaft. The topo has now been split over two pages. Surface to The Workshop on one and Leviathan on the other. The JH and Titan topos have been moved in the guide from from within the Peak/Speedwell system section to being entrances in their own right, positioned alphabetically in the Castleton area section of the guide. This matches the approach used by https://www.peakdistrictcaving.info. For edition 14.3, the page numbers have been updated to suit the new positions of the topos. A printed guide will need reprinting. The guide revision history was getting long, so it has been moved to a separate web page to speed the loading of the rigging guide page.
 

Cantclimbtom

Well-known member
There is a slight possiblity I know who the original discoverers of P8 were (mentioned in a different thread) this is not verified in any way so I not stating any definite claims. I'm trying to contact the surviving brother and have emailed him and now trying a second email address but still no reply, he is very very elderly and I haven't had contact for some time so maybe no longer uses email? If I get contact and if he  does claim to have discovered it, I will ask if variations of "stalacmite" (etc)  mean anything  to him and if it's a spelling joke or copying error or what. Don't hold your breath though, it may not go anywhere or might just be a big misunderstanding. I'll let you know if it yields any info.
 

Cantclimbtom

Well-known member
Ok, spoke to him briefly and it helped make some sense out of my Dad's mangled story. The guy I spoke to hadn't discovered P8/Jackpot (as my Dad thought). It was discovered by members of Stockport Caving Club only a short while before he went in in 1964 and he and his brother were early explorers e.g. digging and "dry stone walling" to shore up the original entrance. He knows P8, from the start.

I plan to speak to him again, if anyone has any P8 historical questions, such as stalacmite/stalagmite/stalactite passage please PM me. Can't guarantee he'll know, but I can try to ask.. Don't ask anything involving roped pitches though, unless you mean rope ladders (pre electron!)
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
The Maskhill Mine topo has received a couple of minor corrections and a general tidying up, following a recent visit. The guide version is now 14.5. Maskhill still requires a ridiculously large amount of string and krabs, or maillons though.
 

andys

Well-known member
Any chance of including an indication of which of the continuing passages provides the way out via the lower level? :)
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
Any chance of including an indication of which of the continuing passages provides the way out via the lower level? :)
If I knew which way it was! Confession time; my only trip there was a solo one for doing the first topo, so I've not been beyond. The topos are for rigging, rather than route finding, so I'll tend only to put in enough for the string side of things, with any route finding needed to do the SRT. It isn't a hard and fast rule. Other club members who've created topos have put in more "this way" signs.
Jen
 

andys

Well-known member
Thx - but important though if you're doing a pull through and drop below the exit by accident!
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
Thx - but important though if you're doing a pull through and drop below the exit by accident!
You'll need to do your own research to find what you need for a through trip. The rigging guide is a guide to the rigging, not an everything you need to do the trip. It sometimes gives links to further information, where it is known. I'm not aware of a survey for this place. Most people just seem to blunder around until they find an exit! The only bit you could get wrong as a pull through on the SRT side would be to continue to the bottom of the first pitch and not get off half way down. The topo says this is blind and is pretty obviously so when you arrive there, so pulling down the SRT rope at this point would be a bit daft. The second pitch lands in a passage with various junctions and is reasonably free climbable anyway. Any other pitches you find are not part of the through trip.
Some good trip reports by Alan Brentnall from the TSG here.
 

LarryFatcat

Active member
Any chance of including an indication of which of the continuing passages provides the way out via the lower level? :)
just keep going generally in the same direction- there are a number longer of side passages to explore on the left as you go especially near the exit- and a complex on the right- it would be nigh on impossible to get lost- it's not rigged for a pull thru as easier to derig on the way back to change
 

owd git

Active member
just keep going generally in the same direction- there are a number longer of side passages to explore on the left as you go especially near the exit- and a complex on the right- it would be nigh on impossible to get lost- it's not rigged for a pull thru as easier to derig on the way back to change
standard measure is to follow the breeze in Clatterway. then cut across the right garden to the road,to avoid bad looks!!
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
We've finally got round to visiting Pindale End Mine. There is now a topo for the pitches accessible from the Upper and Lower Entrances, under the new shaft caps that DCA installed in the summer.
Also a small update to the Knotlow topo, where the scaff bar that can be used at the start of the traverse from the end of Meccano Passage in to the Chapel Dale Shaft now has the new symbol we made for scaff bar belays. Meccano is also now spelt correctly!
 

pwhole

Well-known member
Did you like it? The blue tuff is really nice. Did you notice the level a few metres down the roadside shaft on the Dirtlow Rake side? I haven't had chance to check that yet as it means swinging off the rope - and it goes around a bend quite soon so not sure if if it goes far without getting into it!
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
Did you like it? The blue tuff is really nice. Did you notice the level a few metres down the roadside shaft on the Dirtlow Rake side? I haven't had chance to check that yet as it means swinging off the rope - and it goes around a bend quite soon so not sure if if it goes far without getting into it!
It was a fun few hours. The blue (s)tuff was unusual. I don't have the geological knowledge to appreciate what I'm seeing unfortunately. I was too busy scanning ahead for the rebelay anchors to spot the level heading off of the upper shaft, but my colleague noticed it.
 

wellyjen

Well-known member
There is a second topo for Eldon Hole. This shows the pull up rigging to get to Miller's Chamber, plus the fixed rope that is usually there to climb Damocles Rift. The draft topo was drawn last year from memory, following a visit, but it needed a return to check. What with one thing and another, including the pull up cord breaking and the pitch needing aid climbing again, it has taken till now. Link to topo. The text in the main Eldon topo about this route has been removed.
We are at version 14.8 of the guide.
 
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