Nigel's Trip Report
Ed's Photographs
DCC Four Weddings and a Funeral Stomp
This had been planned for what seemed like all year... A party in West Mine to celebrate the Derbyshire Caving Club having 7 members get hitched this year- Sue and Tony, Heather and John, Bev and Ed, and Gareth and Katie. And sadly, one of the Clubs long standing members passed away in July. Lenny Gee, whom I was only fortunate enough to meet a handful of times. On the day of his funeral a new cave discovery was made in Matienzo, Spain; and named Lenny's Cave in his honour.
I could not be around to help with much of the planning as I would have liked, I am told it took 3 trips and lots of people helping to get all the party stuff/lighting etc down to Sphynx Chamber in West Mine where the party was held. Not to mention getting the barrels of beer down there for the makeshift bar- big thank yous to The Cheshire Brewhouse and everyone who helped organise the big do!
On the day of the party my morning was spent icing cakes and generally taking too long to get my camping gear together... Upon arriving in Alderley in the mid afternoon, I went to meet some others who were already in West Mine (for reasons outside of their control!) so decided that would be a good time to take my chair down to Sphynx Chamber. I can't recall sitting on that chair once for the rest of the night :) Then back to the surgery where people in evening wear and helmets were soon gathering ready to party, including Paul Stubbs in a rather fetching black dress and Donna Stubbs in a suave suit.
Heading down to Sphynx Chamber, descending the ladders, with a safety net put in place, I could not help thinking to myself: do not get drunk... remember you have to get out of here again! Seeing the Main chamber in West Mine lit up for the first time was breathtaking and beautiful. I took the decision to get changed into my evening wear underground, this meant I needed some help to get dressed! Sphynx Chamber was not lit up like the main chamber, except for candles, disco lights and glitter ball, so was a bit disorientating at first as I am so used to having a cap lamp. The ladies tent toilets were a nice surprise- I was expecting buckets haha!
Has to be said that Heather was the absolute legend of the night coming down in her beautiful white and blue wedding dress :) The rest of the evening passed in a wonderful blur of beer, cider, food, beach tennis, smoke, dancing and excellent underground fun. I think the highlight of my evening was actually managing to climb a ladder in my floor length skirt with beer in hand! I made it out around 2am without much trouble, giggling behind Heather ascending the never ending ladders in her now filthy wedding dress. The walk back to the surgery felt like a 5 mile hike. Apologies to Colin Davidson who was rudely awoken in the surgery. Big ups to myself, Pete Whetham and Damian for being the last ones up drinking until 4am in the field!
....I woke up about 10.30am which was far too early but I got up and went to find people and coffee. I found them all in the tearoom. At midday me, Olly, young Paul and Damian decided to go and help with the clearing up operation at west mine, and took out SRT gear with us thinking we could have a play on the ropes afterwards. 10 minutes after going into West Mine it became clear we would not be doing any SRT today. I helped as much as I could before it felt like I would pass out!
Ed's Pics from the night
A blog about the party from the Cheshire Brewhouse
Tony's Report on Lenny's Cave
A film of Lenny's Cave
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| Photograph of Lenny and Bill from Colin Davidson? |
On the day of the party my morning was spent icing cakes and generally taking too long to get my camping gear together... Upon arriving in Alderley in the mid afternoon, I went to meet some others who were already in West Mine (for reasons outside of their control!) so decided that would be a good time to take my chair down to Sphynx Chamber. I can't recall sitting on that chair once for the rest of the night :) Then back to the surgery where people in evening wear and helmets were soon gathering ready to party, including Paul Stubbs in a rather fetching black dress and Donna Stubbs in a suave suit.
Has to be said that Heather was the absolute legend of the night coming down in her beautiful white and blue wedding dress :) The rest of the evening passed in a wonderful blur of beer, cider, food, beach tennis, smoke, dancing and excellent underground fun. I think the highlight of my evening was actually managing to climb a ladder in my floor length skirt with beer in hand! I made it out around 2am without much trouble, giggling behind Heather ascending the never ending ladders in her now filthy wedding dress. The walk back to the surgery felt like a 5 mile hike. Apologies to Colin Davidson who was rudely awoken in the surgery. Big ups to myself, Pete Whetham and Damian for being the last ones up drinking until 4am in the field!
Ed's Pics from the night
A blog about the party from the Cheshire Brewhouse
Tony's Report on Lenny's Cave
A film of Lenny's Cave
P8 Jackpot
I woke up an an hour late to Olly knocking on my door- not the best start to the day! I packed everything as quick as I could and we went to pick up Pete Whetham I think half an hour later than expected- sorry Pete :( The plan was to get a bacon butty in Castleton, but after speaking to Tom who had also woken up extremely late, we went to meet him at Hitch and Hike for brekky. Unfortunately nobody told Kieran, who had been waiting at the carpark near P8 for 40mins already. Oops again...
The entrance to P8 involves a fair bit of water through to Cascades Chamber, and avoiding a soaking is not an option. I half slid half fell down Idiots Leap in the waterfall! Watching Kieran rig and descend the First Pitch filled me with hope as to how I was going to manage it having only done a couple of rebelays before this trip. It was not too bad apart from initially trying to thread my stop upside down on the second bit :o We then moved up to the high level passage and over the Bold Step which seemed a much bolder step to me on the way back.
Kieran's Trip Report
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| Pre-trip photograph courtesy of Kieran Rooney |
Kieran's Trip Report
Bar Pot to Gaping Gill and Back
Olly came to pick me up in the morning, for once I was ready on time :) Nigel and Colin then picked us up from Olly's and off we went to the Yorkshire Dales, the original plan was to go caving in Ireby Fell Cavern. On the way up with Nigel and Colin Davidson fascinating us with stories about past DCC activity in Yorkshire, we noticed water lying on top of the fields everywhere. We had a lot of water in the week before doing this trip and were aware that Ireby Fell drains a large proportion of water in the locality, maybe not the best system to be caving in today... So we arrived at the bunkhouse in Clapham where Tony, Sue, Tom, Pete W and Pete C were waiting, some of them being much worse for wear after the previous nights drinking in the bunkhouse :) And so it was decided that it would be a better idea doing Bar Pot instead of Ireby Fell, so after some breakfast we were on our way up towards Ingleborough.
I wore just my paw print furry suit to stay cool during the 2 mile hike up, cue some odd looks from the many ramblers out on this lovely day. Upon arrival at the shake hole, funnel-like entrance to Bar Pot, we kitted up then Nigel and Tom went straight in to rig the ropes. Just as I was squeezing into the entrance, we realised that the cheap batteries I had nicked from my mum for the trip were not working at all. (I had lost my battery chargers) Thankfully Pete Whetham had some spares he kindly chucked my way, and we squeezed the short way along to the first pitch. After some fiddly maneuvers, we made the awkward descent through the boulder choke, and slid down a greasy slab with a handline in place to help. Being on my own at this point and with what looked like several ways on, I wandered to the bottom of the boulder chamber and spotted a hole in each side of the wall, then waited for the others to confirm the right way on. Through the hole and into another boulder strewn chamber with a short, slightly exposed traverse leading to the top of Big Pitch: a straight 120ft descent. As we were waiting for Tom and Nigel to rig the pitch and descend, another group of cavers were coming into the chamber behind us, one of them playing what I thought at the time sounded like a tin whistle but turned out to be a recorder. What a strange and nice thing to hear that music in a cave!
At the bottom of Big pitch, we took our gear off and left it there. I remember vaguely wondering about getting back out of Bar Pot again and what a long way up it seemed. Onwards to Gaping Gill through an easy little system of stooping to crawling passages with little to no water. On the way Tony showed us the Sand Caverns, some fair sized muddy chambers where the DCC once held tennis and golf tournaments during the open weekends. Moving through the passages towards the immense main chamber, a steady flow of air turning into a cold breeze picked up until we could hear the rumbling roar of the waterfall. Walking out into Gaping Gill main chamber was an awesome experience, the waterfall seemed to carry in natural light from the surprisingly small hole at the top, then the fall fanned out into several landing places in the rocky pool at the bottom. Olly was the first to brave standing right underneath the pounding water, I walked right around the pool edging closer until I finally found the guts to jump right underneath. Wow that woke me up, it was absolutely freezing and very powerful as Olly said, felt more like sand than water! Moving around and through the huge chamber, I had to keep looking back at the light and water, the spray from it still reached us right to the far end. On the other side, we climbed up the steep rocky bank and then down a ladder to have a quick look at the West Chamber.
We took a slightly different route back to Bar Pot, Tony leaving me and Olly to navigate our way and ending up in a low crawling passage full of rocks, squeezing past 2 other cavers coming in the opposite direction. Back at the bottom of what now looked like a very Big Pitch and the rest of us took a break while Tom and Peter Clewes flew up the rope. Me and Olly crawled our way back up, and a further climb up to where Olly dragged me by the arms up the greasy slab. I took another quick break, I needed it for the last bit out which was actually nowhere near as hard as I was expecting it to be. While we were waiting for Tony and Pete to get out, Pete C went to have a look at the top of Gaping Gill. Amazing how what looks like a calm babbling brook on the surface turns into a raging waterfall at the bottom. Back at Bar Pot and it was clear the effects of lastnight were taking their toll on Pete W who was yet to emerge. We stuck around for abit, eat the last of our food and watched the other cavers coming out of Flood Exit just across from us. After offering to help with their group shot, then Olly sabotaging it. I was getting quite cold, so we started to slowly walk back, with the others eventually catching up.
In the pub afterwards for an all too brief yet much needed pint, and then home and straight to a birthday party. Thanks to Nigel, Tony, Tom, Pete C and Pete W for a cracking days caving!
Olly's trip report
Gaping Gill Winch Weekends
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| Me and Olly messing around with batteries on the way in. Photographs courtesy of Tony Brocklebank. |
At the bottom of Big pitch, we took our gear off and left it there. I remember vaguely wondering about getting back out of Bar Pot again and what a long way up it seemed. Onwards to Gaping Gill through an easy little system of stooping to crawling passages with little to no water. On the way Tony showed us the Sand Caverns, some fair sized muddy chambers where the DCC once held tennis and golf tournaments during the open weekends. Moving through the passages towards the immense main chamber, a steady flow of air turning into a cold breeze picked up until we could hear the rumbling roar of the waterfall. Walking out into Gaping Gill main chamber was an awesome experience, the waterfall seemed to carry in natural light from the surprisingly small hole at the top, then the fall fanned out into several landing places in the rocky pool at the bottom. Olly was the first to brave standing right underneath the pounding water, I walked right around the pool edging closer until I finally found the guts to jump right underneath. Wow that woke me up, it was absolutely freezing and very powerful as Olly said, felt more like sand than water! Moving around and through the huge chamber, I had to keep looking back at the light and water, the spray from it still reached us right to the far end. On the other side, we climbed up the steep rocky bank and then down a ladder to have a quick look at the West Chamber.
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| Tony waiting for Pete |
In the pub afterwards for an all too brief yet much needed pint, and then home and straight to a birthday party. Thanks to Nigel, Tony, Tom, Pete C and Pete W for a cracking days caving!
Olly's trip report
Gaping Gill Winch Weekends
Conceptual Photography in Alderley Edge
My friend Rebecca Palmer is an exceptional photographer who specialises in conceptual ideas and techniques. We had been trying to arrange this shoot in Alderley Edge for over a year. Rebecca had never been to Alderley, I always knew the area was suited to her style. I had told her about some of the history and legends associated with the area and so we had a few ideas for the day. We planned to meet Vicki in Alderley village and walk up to the edge to Stormy Point, then through the woods to see the sandstone undercut and the Wizards Well on the way to Church Quarry behind The Wizard pub. Unfortunately Vicki's train from Northwich was late and so Rebecca and I headed up to the edge leaving her to catch up with us. The rain seemed to be getting heavier so walked briskly up the big hill and straight onto Stormy Point for a few shots of the sadly cloudy view. Then we headed under the sandstone escarpment for abit of shelter from the rain and for me to get changed for a photograph.
I needed a lot of direction and help from Rebecca- this kind of thing did not come naturally to me at all! Quick change back into sensible clothes and we went on through the woods to have a look at some of the other interesting features around the edge. The rain continued and so we thought the best course of action would be to head to the Surgery hut and wait for Vicki in there. Not long afterwards I peeked out of the hut to see a sodden, forlorn figure in a brightly coloured poncho heading towards us. Once we had dried off a little we went over to Church Quarry behind The Wizard pub for a few more photographs. Another change of clothing, this time into a vintage wedding dress that Rebecca brought along.
We decided that was enough for today and a return trip would be planned for Springor Summertime in 2013.
Rebecca Palmer Photography
Rebecca's Flickr Photostream
I needed a lot of direction and help from Rebecca- this kind of thing did not come naturally to me at all! Quick change back into sensible clothes and we went on through the woods to have a look at some of the other interesting features around the edge. The rain continued and so we thought the best course of action would be to head to the Surgery hut and wait for Vicki in there. Not long afterwards I peeked out of the hut to see a sodden, forlorn figure in a brightly coloured poncho heading towards us. Once we had dried off a little we went over to Church Quarry behind The Wizard pub for a few more photographs. Another change of clothing, this time into a vintage wedding dress that Rebecca brought along.
We decided that was enough for today and a return trip would be planned for Springor Summertime in 2013.
Rebecca Palmer Photography
Rebecca's Flickr Photostream
Bagshawe Cavern Birthday Trip
There was supposed to be a DCC trip to Gaping Gill on this date, also being the winch meet weekend but it was put off again for various reasons, and so I proposed another caving trip somewhere closer to home. It was my birthday on this weekend, and so I thought we could go caving then celebrate with a few drinks in the evening. Everyone seemed keen on doing Bagshawe Cavern and I had never been there before.
The wonderful Tom Howard picked up me and Gareth Goodall, then we drove to the car park at Bagshawe to meet Colin Shepherd, Angela Ward, Graham CaveUK and Bill Edge. Also met two new faces, Sarah and Gary who I think are also from Chesterfield Caving Club? We signed into the Bagshawe Hut for 11am, and began the descent down the 102 steps into the cavern. Bagshawe Cavern is a mostly natural cave system discovered by Lead miners in 1806, working what was then called the Mulespinner Mine. In the second half of the 20th century Bagshawe Cavern was used as a tourist attraction.
There is a junction at the bottom of the steps, with old fuse boxes and electric cable left from when the cavern was open to the public. We went straight into the cave system, no leader was really decided on for this trip but Graham seemed to know it better than anyone else who had been there before. We followed a passage which led to an aven with excellent formations. I started to freeclimb up as there seemed like an obvious route along at the top, about halfway up the tricky climb I could see the passage, but some were not so keen on climbing up there so it was left for a another trip. We continued down the main passage passing a short flight of stone steps next to a 5-6m pitch, being used at this point by caving instructors with some visitors. This high chamber is the Dungeon, which we intended to descend on Gareth's electron ladder later on in the trip.
Past the Dungeon, we saw some more good formations with cave pearls trapped in a calcite cascade. We stopped for snacks and a group shot in a fairly large boulder strewn chamber, climbed through then continued to follow the streamway, with Graham looking for the Hippodrome. Met two friendly chaps from a Welsh caving club who I think helped us to work out that the boulder chamber we had just come from was the Hippodrome as Graham had suspected. We went through a muddy passage to a small chamber that ended where the water was a couple of feet from the roof to continue on I think to a sump which Graham had a look at. A few of us turned right at some diving weights into a sloping crawl to peek over at a resurgence making an awesome noise for it's size just below us. We turned back at this point with no further to go unless you are a cave diver, and met the few who had not come through the water that were waiting for us in the muddy passage.
We tracked back to the Dungeon and whilst waiting for the instructor to de-rig his electron and lifeline, had an unsuccessful attempt at trying to find our way through the squeezes down to the lower series. I think there were a few too many of us to have done it comfortably anyway. At this point we should probably have paid more attention to how the instructor had rigged his lifeline as when it came to us rigging one we all had different ideas and ended up hopelessly confused about how to lifeline the last person safely down and up the pitch. I am not sure we had enough rope for this either. It was probably a good thing that we ended up leaving it for a return trip with SRT kit next time!
So we headed out back towards the junction at the bottom of the entry steps, where there is another large passage with a plank across and a "no entry" sign. Of course we ducked under this to have a look, and walked straight into a stope with some dodgy looking timbering, and bits and pieces of boulders still hanging on by fractions of rotten old wood at helmet bashing level. Some lovely calcite formations had developed over the walls of the old mine workings, creating the most beautiful stope I have ever seen. I was gutted I had left my camera back at the junction but I would very much like to organise a return trip here soon to descend into the lower series and see the rest of this fine mine/cave system.
Back up the steps out, pausing for breath and photographs along the way, then another group shot outside the hut, we were in the pub for around 3pm enjoying the first of my birthday drinks. Went out in Stockport that evening with Vicki, Paul, Gareth and Kate for a good few drinks then some 3am birthday cake. What a top day, thanks guys! :D
The wonderful Tom Howard picked up me and Gareth Goodall, then we drove to the car park at Bagshawe to meet Colin Shepherd, Angela Ward, Graham CaveUK and Bill Edge. Also met two new faces, Sarah and Gary who I think are also from Chesterfield Caving Club? We signed into the Bagshawe Hut for 11am, and began the descent down the 102 steps into the cavern. Bagshawe Cavern is a mostly natural cave system discovered by Lead miners in 1806, working what was then called the Mulespinner Mine. In the second half of the 20th century Bagshawe Cavern was used as a tourist attraction.
There is a junction at the bottom of the steps, with old fuse boxes and electric cable left from when the cavern was open to the public. We went straight into the cave system, no leader was really decided on for this trip but Graham seemed to know it better than anyone else who had been there before. We followed a passage which led to an aven with excellent formations. I started to freeclimb up as there seemed like an obvious route along at the top, about halfway up the tricky climb I could see the passage, but some were not so keen on climbing up there so it was left for a another trip. We continued down the main passage passing a short flight of stone steps next to a 5-6m pitch, being used at this point by caving instructors with some visitors. This high chamber is the Dungeon, which we intended to descend on Gareth's electron ladder later on in the trip.
Past the Dungeon, we saw some more good formations with cave pearls trapped in a calcite cascade. We stopped for snacks and a group shot in a fairly large boulder strewn chamber, climbed through then continued to follow the streamway, with Graham looking for the Hippodrome. Met two friendly chaps from a Welsh caving club who I think helped us to work out that the boulder chamber we had just come from was the Hippodrome as Graham had suspected. We went through a muddy passage to a small chamber that ended where the water was a couple of feet from the roof to continue on I think to a sump which Graham had a look at. A few of us turned right at some diving weights into a sloping crawl to peek over at a resurgence making an awesome noise for it's size just below us. We turned back at this point with no further to go unless you are a cave diver, and met the few who had not come through the water that were waiting for us in the muddy passage.
We tracked back to the Dungeon and whilst waiting for the instructor to de-rig his electron and lifeline, had an unsuccessful attempt at trying to find our way through the squeezes down to the lower series. I think there were a few too many of us to have done it comfortably anyway. At this point we should probably have paid more attention to how the instructor had rigged his lifeline as when it came to us rigging one we all had different ideas and ended up hopelessly confused about how to lifeline the last person safely down and up the pitch. I am not sure we had enough rope for this either. It was probably a good thing that we ended up leaving it for a return trip with SRT kit next time!
So we headed out back towards the junction at the bottom of the entry steps, where there is another large passage with a plank across and a "no entry" sign. Of course we ducked under this to have a look, and walked straight into a stope with some dodgy looking timbering, and bits and pieces of boulders still hanging on by fractions of rotten old wood at helmet bashing level. Some lovely calcite formations had developed over the walls of the old mine workings, creating the most beautiful stope I have ever seen. I was gutted I had left my camera back at the junction but I would very much like to organise a return trip here soon to descend into the lower series and see the rest of this fine mine/cave system.
Back up the steps out, pausing for breath and photographs along the way, then another group shot outside the hut, we were in the pub for around 3pm enjoying the first of my birthday drinks. Went out in Stockport that evening with Vicki, Paul, Gareth and Kate for a good few drinks then some 3am birthday cake. What a top day, thanks guys! :D
Giants Hole Speedy Round Trip
Very last minute trip suggested by Owen Thomas, as I have never been before and need to do more caving trips! Olly took some pursuading to do Giants again after his trouble at the Vice last year. Olly picked up myself, Owen and Gareth and we went straight to Castleton for Bacon Butties, trying to decide on the best time to avoid the hoardes of tourists that would inevitably be heading into Giants. There were a couple of minibuses in the car park god knows how they get down the track, many people kitting up in neat clean matching suits and helmets.
I think we got in for 11am, we had brought SRT kit to descend Garlands Pot, but had to wait what felt like ages (probably about 10 minutes) for the instructors to bring all their visitors back out from the top of Garlands, being lifelined on belts to go and have a look down the Pot then come back out again. When they had finished, Owen quickly rigged the 4-5m pitch and we were down and contemplating the Crabwalk. We left the bags at the bottom of Garlands and went for it at full speed! Owen blazed the trail with me just behind. Olly put in a valiant effort not far behind me at all considering he had to go under some of the tighter parts, including the Vice. The rest of the trip up to the Windpipe passed in a blur as we were going so quickly! I remember freeclimbing up a cascade with some rope already in place to help, and I vaguely remember pausing for breath at the Eating House. Then onto the infamous Giants Windpipe, 30ft or so of crawling through a fairly wide, but very low passage with water and a few boulders in the bottom. I was informed that the water level was quite low for this trip, there is a sign at the start: "Giants Windpipe Do not freedive this sump, it is in excess of 20 feet long."
Out of the Windpipe and back to the top of Crabwalk, to begin the long chimneyish climb down to the bottom. This was pretty hairy in places for me and Gareth, being the smaller members of our group! Gareth informed me a couple of weeks later at his wedding that he had dislocated his finger doing the Crabwalk climb! Back to our bags to put our kit back on for the prusik up Garlands, and we were out for 2.30pm. In The Wanted for 3pm, then in work for 5pm!
I think we got in for 11am, we had brought SRT kit to descend Garlands Pot, but had to wait what felt like ages (probably about 10 minutes) for the instructors to bring all their visitors back out from the top of Garlands, being lifelined on belts to go and have a look down the Pot then come back out again. When they had finished, Owen quickly rigged the 4-5m pitch and we were down and contemplating the Crabwalk. We left the bags at the bottom of Garlands and went for it at full speed! Owen blazed the trail with me just behind. Olly put in a valiant effort not far behind me at all considering he had to go under some of the tighter parts, including the Vice. The rest of the trip up to the Windpipe passed in a blur as we were going so quickly! I remember freeclimbing up a cascade with some rope already in place to help, and I vaguely remember pausing for breath at the Eating House. Then onto the infamous Giants Windpipe, 30ft or so of crawling through a fairly wide, but very low passage with water and a few boulders in the bottom. I was informed that the water level was quite low for this trip, there is a sign at the start: "Giants Windpipe Do not freedive this sump, it is in excess of 20 feet long."
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