jasonbirder
Member
Thursday 23rd August
Eldon Hole
Jasonbirder, Wazza, Pipster, Dave P, Chris H
After the previous weeks exploration of Streaks Pot we all agreed it was time to do something more vertical, so Eldon Hole was picked as a venue for some good SRT and rigging refresher practice as well as an opportunity to have a look above the Main Chamber into Millers Chamber.
After our usual early evening rendezvous we headed over to Peak Forest parking at the end of the track past the farm and making sure we left no vital gear within chewing range of a large tethered Billy Goat! It was a nice sunny evening and so it was a pleasant, relaxed change, kit up, and amble over to the cave, finally climbing the hill and over the stile to Eldon Hole proper. For those that don’t know it Eldon Hole is a true open pothole, visible for miles around as a scar on the side of Eldon Hill. Climbing over the stile finds you at the south end of the huge open rift – about 20 feet across, over 50 feet long and 180 feet deep. We headed over to the East side to make our descent.
Here two metal posts driven into the ground provide the first rigging point – as they are about six feet apart it took a while to tie the worlds biggest Y-hang and get it sitting comfortably. I then clipped my tacklebag to my side and walked backwards to the edge of the pothole. Over the lip to find the rope lies on a horrendous rub point which I did my best to protect with an empty tacklebag clipped on the rope. Even though its only about 180 feet deep, because you are in bright daylight, open to the sky and because the walls of the shaft are so far apart I felt a lot more exposed than I usually do, so it was with my heart beating a little faster than normal that I abbed down a short distance to the first two P-bolts to rig a Y-hang for the first part of the descent. With the knot duly tied and clipped in, I passed the rebelay downwards (reminding myself for the umpteenth time to re-adjust the length of my cowstails…my short one is way too long!) and abseiled down on my stop finally getting deep enough to believe I was actually in a cave rather than just on a rock face. Looking up to see bright sunshine above me, then looking downwards into darkness below me was a quite disorientating feeling! About a hundred feet down I began to look for another bolt and quickly located a shiny P-hanger off to my right, swinging across I clipped a crab in and tied a figure eight knot only to see that once rigged the rope hung down into a gully and against the shaft wall below me, I’d obviously rigged from the wrong bolt, so I untied everything and located another hanger off to my left, swinging across and rigging from that gave a nice free hang down the remainder of the shaft to the pitch bottom. I passed the rebelay and yelled up “Rope Free!” so Wazza could begin his descent - he was bringing the next rope bag down so we could rig the pull through up from the Main Chamber into Millers Chamber. When his silhouette was visible coming over the edge of the pothole, I unclipped myself and abseiled down to the bottom of the pitch, landing on a muddy unstable rubble slope. It’s pretty unpleasant down here – the floor being littered with plenty of rotting plant matter and piles of unidentifiable bones from years of kamikaze mice, rats and rabbits launching themselves down the hole! Unclipping myself and finding somewhere to sit without disturbing anything unpleasant I lay back and waited for Wazza to reach me. I heard him pass the first rebelay and call Pipster down and before long he was landing next to me with the much needed rope.
At first glance there is no way on from the shaft bottom, but closer inspection reveals a downwards slot at the lowest point. A nasty muddy crawl at a steep angle downwards follows, requiring some awkward manoeuvres to avoid much nasty sharp & rusty metalwork which has been used in the past to keep the hole open. It is worth it though as you soon break out into the breathtaking Main Chamber. Wazza kicked the rope bag down to me and followed, then we both looked up to admire the view. We found ourselves in a huge chamber; the ceiling lost in darkness over 100 feet above us. The walls liberally decorated with some fantastic flowstone formations, if only the discarded bang cord and sheep’s bones on the floor hadn’t spoiled it for us!
We headed across to the chamber to rig a climb up – a pull through arrangement consisting of a continuous loop of cord rigged through a bolt at the top of the pitch and back to one down at the foot of the pitch was in place for us to rig a pull through. I cable tied my rope to the cord and began pulling down on the opposite side of the cord…every pull down resulted in my rope being pulled up a little further on the opposite side. A bit of tugging and shaking got it through the bolt at the pitch head and I then pulled the rope back down the opposite side of the bolt – meaning I needed 150 feet of rope to rig the 75 foot pitch. Tying an upside down Y-hang and clipping it into two bolts on the floor at the base of the climb and we were ready to ascend.
Once Chris H, Pipster and Dave P showed their faces we explained what we were doing, pointing out how important it was to ascend the right side of the rope and I began to climb up – the beautiful flowstone formations and calcited boulders distracting me enough to ignore the rub points on the rope as I ascended. At the top of the pitch I clipped into an in place traverse line to protect me as I traversed back across the top of the pitch and then climbed up into Millers Chamber. I then shouted Wazza up the rope behind me.
Millers Chamber really was awe inspiringly beautiful – fantastic huge flowstone curtains, dried up crystal lined gour pools and awesome huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling – well worth the climb up. Once Wazza joined me we headed further back into the chamber to discover even more pretties – including a couple of gour pools filled to the lip with crystal clear water. Dave P joined us and then Phil W began to climb – a real heart in our mouths moment of sheer terror followed…we could hear Phil W approaching the top of the pitch then we heard what seemed like an enormous smash of something hitting the floor…for a second we feared the worst, but when Phil W started swearing we realised he must have been okay…it turned out he’d dropped Dave’s camera…a minor disaster compared to our fears!
With everyone up the rope and enjoying the view I clipped into the fixed line and made my way down to the pitch head – and the most important thing – making sure I was attached to the right side of the rope – get it wrong and I’d be experiencing a very speedy descent to the floor below! Double checking everything to make sure I was secure I abseiled down and called out “clear” to Wazza so he could follow me.
I then headed back across the Main Chamber climbed up the crawl and squeezed through into the fresh air at the bottom of the pothole. Sitting down and strapping my Petzl Pantin to my boot I clipped my ascenders to the rope and began the ascent outwards. Up to the first rebelay easily enough, passed that and up towards the top of the pitch, as I climbed I called down to Wazza that he could begin his ascent. I then climbed the rope up to the Y-hang rebelay just below the lip of the pothole and with that passed I ascended very carefully and delicately (being aware of the rub point at the lip of the hole) to the edge of the pothole and out of it onto the grass above.
A great fun pothole and it was lovely to lie back in the grass and stare up at the stars while I waited for the rest of the crew to climb out and join me.
Pipster lugged the tacklebag out and Dave P heroically brought up the rear, de-rigging as he came.
All that remained was for us to haul the rop up, stuff it in a tacklebag and head back to the cars…a fantastic nights caving.
Cheers lads!
Eldon Hole
Jasonbirder, Wazza, Pipster, Dave P, Chris H
After the previous weeks exploration of Streaks Pot we all agreed it was time to do something more vertical, so Eldon Hole was picked as a venue for some good SRT and rigging refresher practice as well as an opportunity to have a look above the Main Chamber into Millers Chamber.
After our usual early evening rendezvous we headed over to Peak Forest parking at the end of the track past the farm and making sure we left no vital gear within chewing range of a large tethered Billy Goat! It was a nice sunny evening and so it was a pleasant, relaxed change, kit up, and amble over to the cave, finally climbing the hill and over the stile to Eldon Hole proper. For those that don’t know it Eldon Hole is a true open pothole, visible for miles around as a scar on the side of Eldon Hill. Climbing over the stile finds you at the south end of the huge open rift – about 20 feet across, over 50 feet long and 180 feet deep. We headed over to the East side to make our descent.
Here two metal posts driven into the ground provide the first rigging point – as they are about six feet apart it took a while to tie the worlds biggest Y-hang and get it sitting comfortably. I then clipped my tacklebag to my side and walked backwards to the edge of the pothole. Over the lip to find the rope lies on a horrendous rub point which I did my best to protect with an empty tacklebag clipped on the rope. Even though its only about 180 feet deep, because you are in bright daylight, open to the sky and because the walls of the shaft are so far apart I felt a lot more exposed than I usually do, so it was with my heart beating a little faster than normal that I abbed down a short distance to the first two P-bolts to rig a Y-hang for the first part of the descent. With the knot duly tied and clipped in, I passed the rebelay downwards (reminding myself for the umpteenth time to re-adjust the length of my cowstails…my short one is way too long!) and abseiled down on my stop finally getting deep enough to believe I was actually in a cave rather than just on a rock face. Looking up to see bright sunshine above me, then looking downwards into darkness below me was a quite disorientating feeling! About a hundred feet down I began to look for another bolt and quickly located a shiny P-hanger off to my right, swinging across I clipped a crab in and tied a figure eight knot only to see that once rigged the rope hung down into a gully and against the shaft wall below me, I’d obviously rigged from the wrong bolt, so I untied everything and located another hanger off to my left, swinging across and rigging from that gave a nice free hang down the remainder of the shaft to the pitch bottom. I passed the rebelay and yelled up “Rope Free!” so Wazza could begin his descent - he was bringing the next rope bag down so we could rig the pull through up from the Main Chamber into Millers Chamber. When his silhouette was visible coming over the edge of the pothole, I unclipped myself and abseiled down to the bottom of the pitch, landing on a muddy unstable rubble slope. It’s pretty unpleasant down here – the floor being littered with plenty of rotting plant matter and piles of unidentifiable bones from years of kamikaze mice, rats and rabbits launching themselves down the hole! Unclipping myself and finding somewhere to sit without disturbing anything unpleasant I lay back and waited for Wazza to reach me. I heard him pass the first rebelay and call Pipster down and before long he was landing next to me with the much needed rope.
At first glance there is no way on from the shaft bottom, but closer inspection reveals a downwards slot at the lowest point. A nasty muddy crawl at a steep angle downwards follows, requiring some awkward manoeuvres to avoid much nasty sharp & rusty metalwork which has been used in the past to keep the hole open. It is worth it though as you soon break out into the breathtaking Main Chamber. Wazza kicked the rope bag down to me and followed, then we both looked up to admire the view. We found ourselves in a huge chamber; the ceiling lost in darkness over 100 feet above us. The walls liberally decorated with some fantastic flowstone formations, if only the discarded bang cord and sheep’s bones on the floor hadn’t spoiled it for us!
We headed across to the chamber to rig a climb up – a pull through arrangement consisting of a continuous loop of cord rigged through a bolt at the top of the pitch and back to one down at the foot of the pitch was in place for us to rig a pull through. I cable tied my rope to the cord and began pulling down on the opposite side of the cord…every pull down resulted in my rope being pulled up a little further on the opposite side. A bit of tugging and shaking got it through the bolt at the pitch head and I then pulled the rope back down the opposite side of the bolt – meaning I needed 150 feet of rope to rig the 75 foot pitch. Tying an upside down Y-hang and clipping it into two bolts on the floor at the base of the climb and we were ready to ascend.
Once Chris H, Pipster and Dave P showed their faces we explained what we were doing, pointing out how important it was to ascend the right side of the rope and I began to climb up – the beautiful flowstone formations and calcited boulders distracting me enough to ignore the rub points on the rope as I ascended. At the top of the pitch I clipped into an in place traverse line to protect me as I traversed back across the top of the pitch and then climbed up into Millers Chamber. I then shouted Wazza up the rope behind me.
Millers Chamber really was awe inspiringly beautiful – fantastic huge flowstone curtains, dried up crystal lined gour pools and awesome huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling – well worth the climb up. Once Wazza joined me we headed further back into the chamber to discover even more pretties – including a couple of gour pools filled to the lip with crystal clear water. Dave P joined us and then Phil W began to climb – a real heart in our mouths moment of sheer terror followed…we could hear Phil W approaching the top of the pitch then we heard what seemed like an enormous smash of something hitting the floor…for a second we feared the worst, but when Phil W started swearing we realised he must have been okay…it turned out he’d dropped Dave’s camera…a minor disaster compared to our fears!
With everyone up the rope and enjoying the view I clipped into the fixed line and made my way down to the pitch head – and the most important thing – making sure I was attached to the right side of the rope – get it wrong and I’d be experiencing a very speedy descent to the floor below! Double checking everything to make sure I was secure I abseiled down and called out “clear” to Wazza so he could follow me.
I then headed back across the Main Chamber climbed up the crawl and squeezed through into the fresh air at the bottom of the pothole. Sitting down and strapping my Petzl Pantin to my boot I clipped my ascenders to the rope and began the ascent outwards. Up to the first rebelay easily enough, passed that and up towards the top of the pitch, as I climbed I called down to Wazza that he could begin his ascent. I then climbed the rope up to the Y-hang rebelay just below the lip of the pothole and with that passed I ascended very carefully and delicately (being aware of the rub point at the lip of the hole) to the edge of the pothole and out of it onto the grass above.
A great fun pothole and it was lovely to lie back in the grass and stare up at the stars while I waited for the rest of the crew to climb out and join me.
Pipster lugged the tacklebag out and Dave P heroically brought up the rear, de-rigging as he came.
All that remained was for us to haul the rop up, stuff it in a tacklebag and head back to the cars…a fantastic nights caving.
Cheers lads!
Now theres an idea...why on earth didn't I think of that!
Quite fancy going back sometime to have a quick poke around Damocles Rift.
