tightest passage in the UK?

[tubby two]

Iron maiden is indeed tight, so is the top of strans gill- i've only done the first pitch on a recce to see how tight it was, and it was. It's on my tick list for a dry summers day but it would be hellish hard after what the rest of the cave is meant to be like.
Anyone ever been down priorsdale cave near alston in the north pennines? Its the tightest bugger i've ever been in! i remember it taking about 20 mins to get backwards through the first squeeze after discovering the second one after it was even tighter and my friend wasn't coming through the first with me and i'm not sure i'd have been going far through the second anyway!

tt.

Top spoke of the hill inn's infamous wheel isn't too roomy either- but thats more bone size dependant!

 

[Langthwaite Pot]

The Rumbling Hole - Lost John's connection certainly has something of a reputation for being quite an awkward bit of passage. I'll buy you a pint if you manage it.

George.

 

[bubba]

I am told that Yoga Hole is exceptionally awkward

The one in Dr Jackson's ?

I've done that so it can't be that tight - it was just weird rather than tight. Granted, I was much smaller than I am now though so I doubt I'd get through now, but I've always had a pretty big chest so can't be *that* bad.

Hypothermia Passage in Rowtor Hole is meant to be pretty nasty, combined with being very cold. I looked at it once and declined.

Parts of the Dynamite Series in Carlswark are very tight.

As has been mentioned above, Strans Gill and Quaking Pot are supposed to be very tasty; Quaking is considered one of the hardest trips in the UK I believe.

In the Mendips, the Oxford Extensions in Dallimores sound absolutely horrendous:

Speaking as a rescue warden, I can honestly say that if someone were injured here, we just wouldn't bother

 

[Johnny]

The one in Dr Jackson's ?
Hypothermia Passage in Rowtor Hole is meant to be pretty nasty, combined with being very cold. I looked at it once and declined.

Yoga hole in DJ's is top, there is a way to do it that I won't describe, i'll let you find out for yourself (there's a clue in the name!)

Hypothermia is a good one, small for long enough to eat at you and then a press, whilst in water, at the end. But dont do it if the water is high or likely to come up.

There is a corker in Berton Pingles that I pushed but it only leads to 10m of low passage.

The Hollywood Bowl Series in Bagshawe has plenty of tight stuff to keep you entertained but its shut behind sumps right now.

Gaining the Streamway from the top entrance of Streaks is entertaining and not for the tall.

I seem to remember something in Oxlow, Icarus' Crawl, I think, being v tight.

Elbon's Kram in Hungerhill is tight and verticle.

I have a vague rcollection of a tight tube at the bottom of Rift Pot (Dales) leading to the 59 Series?

 

[RM]

I am told that Yoga Hole is exceptionally awkward, and to visit the end of Winnats Head Cave is not for the large of girth.

Im not small by any standards, but have managend both. Though the final slot through the second boulder choke in winnats is a bitch. Yoga hole is actually fairly easy though tedious

 

[darkplaces]

Oh boy some extream tightness, I am of a rounded size so I would say the tight hole in GB cavern on the way to the BIG caverns. The one were you have to lay on your side on pebles and wiggle though. For me its a winner because you contrast that tight wriggle to what you find later on HUGE caverns..

So far Shute Shelv cavern (Axbridge) has been the smallest/longest. I'v done it maybe 4 times now and on my own (to meet up later inside). crawl, or rather belly slide, downwards a windy bumpy slide. Initally I thought I would not make it but its easy now

 

[rich]

Some of these squeezes really aren't! I don't consider myself very small (40" chest by shirt size) but I didn't even touch the sides in Birthday Squeeze. Rhyd Sych is nice but can't be anywhere near the record.

The only squeeze I can remember not being able to do was the U-bend in St. Dunstan's Well in Mendip.

My nomination for most awkward is the entrance to Llanelly Quarry Pot carrying tackle sacks and the most unpleasant the calcite squeezes at the end of Daren Cilau entrance crawl in high water levels.

 

[epik]

The only squeeze I can remember not being able to do was the U-bend in St. Dunstan's Well in Mendip.

must admit some of the ones mentioned i have done and dont really consider them as tight so i will have to add the U-Bend to the list to try! Getting a good list to try though - Cuckoo and St. Dunstan's (never done that one) are high on the list along with a few others.

Looks like its going to be a busy New Year in Mendip trying all these, plus a few other underground achievements to try!

 

[Hughie]

The only squeeze I can remember not being able to do was the U-bend in St. Dunstan's Well in Mendip.

must admit some of the ones mentioned i have done and dont really consider them as tight so i will have to add the U-Bend to the list to try! Getting a good list to try though - Cuckoo and St. Dunstan's (never done that one) are high on the list along with a few others.

Looks like its going to be a busy New Year in Mendip trying all these, plus a few other underground achievements to try!

Those are two very small passageways indeed. I recall getting gassed in the route to the lake, and failed to get there. The squeeze in Goatchurch, between the boulder chamber and water chamber, referred to above as "f'ing tight and for kids" (I understood it was called the Z-bend), I've got through, and I'm the best part of 14 stone.

Lionels Hole has some good squeezes in it - not insurmountable, but enough to make it a good sporting round trip.

I think it depends how you're made, how flexible you are, and ones attitude and approach at the time.

Another interesting squeeze is the slot in the concrete blockhouse over St Dunstans Well. I came out through there ok, but then a CDG member was trying to bugger me at the time - but that's another story! :wink:

 

[AndyF]

Porth Crawl in Carlswark. eek, it's the only place I've ever retreated from as too tight. I couldn't take a full breath while in it, so backed out before terror set in. Its a sideways slot type thing, with nothing to psuh or pull on.

It goes on for 30ft...apparently.

Alledgedly its really nice beyond it, but only halfa dozen people have made it through. More people on the moon and all that.....

(If anyone does go, plz take a camera and show us!)

 

[epik]

Porth Crawl in Carlswark. eek, it's the only place I've ever retreated from as too tight. I couldn't take a full breath while in it, so backed out before terror set in. Its a sideways slot type thing, with nothing to psuh or pull on.

Where is Porth Crawl?

I've only done Carlswark a few times and never with anyone who had done it before and the only guide book i have is Classic Caves of Peak which doesn't mention it! mentions a few places like ted's inlet and a few near the eyam passage but no mention of porth crawl!

 

[AndyF]

Porth Crawl in Carlswark. eek, it's the only place I've ever retreated from as too tight. I couldn't take a full breath while in it, so backed out before terror set in. Its a sideways slot type thing, with nothing to psuh or pull on.

Where is Porth Crawl?

I've only done Carlswark a few times and never with anyone who had done it before and the only guide book i have is Classic Caves of Peak which doesn't mention it! mentions a few places like ted's inlet and a few near the eyam passage but no mention of porth crawl!

Its up Dynamite Series. Dynamite goes through a dog leg squeeze, small but fairly easy if you bail it first. Then there is a split in routes. Up a climb leads to a tight squeeze to Falls chamber. Straight on leads to a crawl, and over a pot is Porth Crawl.

The area it goes to is interesting, and offers the potential for a link iwth Eyam Dale House cave.

 

[The Badger]

....there are plenty of snug places on Mendip if you look hard enough.

Cap'n C is quiet right size is subjective (much like height) but I'm confident, lissening to where you've been, in recommend Hairy Passage Bypass in Swildon's in you wish to necessitate a call out....

:twisted:

 

[cap n chris]

I am of a rounded size so I would say the tight hole in GB cavern on the way to the BIG caverns

.. Blimey, Mr. DP, you are in no danger of starving in a hurry. Even I don't rate that tube as a squeeze. A squeeze is when you need to breath out and get through quickly before needing to breath back in again (hence cracking ribs when it goes wrong)...

 

[hoehlenforscher]

Yoga hole in Dr. Jacksons. Ahhhh that takes me back. Done it twice when I was up in Keele. great but a real horrible cave all round!!! Only real squeeze ever beat me was the bedding in Ogof Rhyd Sych but not long after some jokers apparently blasted it a bit but never been back to see. I have horid memories of a passage in deepest Eastwater where there was a wet dogleg with a bar of rock across the middle which you had to squeeze under. That I seem to remember was quite tight.
I know its not really tight but not having caved very much for a couple of years I really found the Cwm Dwr crawl with the gravelly squeeze quite intimidating. Having done it about 10 times before I can only conclude I am getting to be a Fat bastard in my old age

 

[sadbastard]

There was a time when I had a real soft spot for tight passages, and passed the Yoga Hole, Strans Gill, Quaking, Marble Sink squeezes, the Rumbling Lost Johns connection and even the P5 squeezy bit before it was opened out. But the passage that I found most challenging (though managed without the removal of my wetsuit!) was the Mistral passage at the bottom of Pippikin before it was blasted out.

In a way the loss of that challenging serious of squeezes in the Mistral represented one of the saddest days in British caving. I must have a very narrow mind...

 

[tubby two]

A squeeze is when you need to breath out and get through quickly before needing to breath back in again

!?!?!

That must be a very quick squeeze! I always find it best to relax completely and breathe very deeply before going into a squeeze, and then go very slowly and only move gently as i exhale.
I always get annoyed by people who say they cant do tight stuff then attack things like madmen- no wonder they dont get through when they push so hard their chest swells up to double the normal size.

tt.

 

[BCMCXIV]

The Rumbling Hole - Lost John's connection certainly has something of a reputation for being quite an awkward bit of passage. I'll buy you a pint if you manage it.

George.

You beat me to it Langthwaite.. as soon as the words "tight" and "passage" appeared, the Rumbling Hole inlet sprang to mind.... eleven fiendishly tight right-angled bends, only passable in drought... marvellous... is that the one with the classic description "tight passage degenerates"?

I can't really say what is or isn't tight, because I'm a lard-arse.... and hence what is tight for me is easy for others... but I've heard the occasional rumour that Quaking Pot gets a little snug in places, as does the second pitch in Strans Gill... I have no desire to try either. Broken Finger is supposedly nails too, with the aptly named "fat-bastard-ometer".

 

[BCMCXIV]

I must have a very narrow mind...

Or else a very narrow body.

 

[BCMCXIV]

Rhyd Sych is nice but can't be anywhere near the record.

I fitted through the bedding plane in Ryd Sych without too many problems, and I'm not exactly petite... so I agree that it definitely doesn't hold the record. Though someone said that it had been blasted, so maybe it was much tighter in the past?