AUTUMN 2003 NEWSLETTER NUMBER 56 MORLEY POTHOLING CLUB

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1 AUTUMN 2003 NEWSLETTER NUMBER 56 MORLEY POTHOLING CLUB

2 CONTENTS 1. Christmas Do & Mallorca Meet? page 1 2. Future Meets page 2 3. Noticeboard page 2 4. Training page 3 5. Meets Reports page 4 6. Membership List page Addresses page 10 CHRISTMAS DO After last year s foray into things Italian and Spanish, we return to the normal and ever popular curry, but this time at the Amaans (previously known as the Maharajah) Balti Restaurant Dawson Hill, Morley Friday 12 December 2003 at 7.30pm Meet in the Nelson Arms at 7.00pm If you re coming, please let Catriona know as soon as possible so that we can confirm numbers to the restaurant by 5 th December. Please feel free to bring partners and invite guests. Note that some accommodation is available at Rooms Lane but a couple of days notice would save us embarrassment contact Dave or Catriona. Mallorca Anyone? Mike is thinking of planning a trip to Mallorca (possibly in the Pollensa area) next spring (April/May time) and was wondering what interest there might be. The north of the island offers plenty: caving, canyoning, climbing, mountain biking, walking etc. and is much different from the busy south-west. He was there a few years back and had a brilliant time, assisted of course by liberal quantities of cheap cerveza! I m not sure if anyone who s gone on one of Mike s (in)famous trips is still in the club but don t let that put you off! In case you hadn t noticed, Mike is a past master at finding the cheapest way to get to, and survive in, anywhere you can think of! 1

3 2 Future Meets Social meeting first Tuesday in the Month 9.00pm at the Commercial (Top en), Churwell. Next date: Tuesday 2 nd December Date Trip Type Leader/ Contact Sunday 7 th Peak Cavern Entrance via showcave to miles of mainly large Ian Jolley December passage, some squeezes and endless opportunities to explore. Sunday 4 th Mistral Horizontal cave, dry, lots of passage to explore Jim Williamson January Sunday 18 th Simpsons Fun pull through trip with 9 abseils John Nightingale January Sunday 8 th February Sunday 22 nd February Sunday 14 th March Saturday 3 rd April Sunday 25 th April Sunday 9 th May Sunday 23rd May Smeltgill Beck Cave Odin Mine Pillar Holes Browgill/ Calf holes Aqua Mole Further afield than usual in Brough: a horizontal cave with a bit of everything Interesting Derbyshire mine to explore, multilevel passage, SRT involved Grade III SRT vertical trip, can be done as an exchange, short trip Easy novice trip, entrance laddered. Opportunity to explore neighbouring caves Recently discovered cave to whet the appetite, involves SRT Jane Walton Jane Walton Jim Williamson John Nightingale Ian Jolley Heron Pot Enjoyable easy grade III SRT trip Robin Lawrence Gaping Gill Winch available to take novices into spectacular main chamber to explore, several other SRT options Ian Jolley Important - Please contact the leader at least a week in advance to let him/her know if you are going on a trip. If you want any more info check out the appropriate area guide or ask the leader. 3 Noticeboard For sale Various items of caving gear from ex-members (Little used SRT gear in good condition): Petzl stop 18 Chest ascender 11 Ascender with handle 13 Snap crabs (3) 2 each Screw crabs (6) 2 each Furry suit Offers Enquiries to Dave ( ). Lamps: Dave still has a few refurbished lamps: Nickel Cadmium wet cells. 2.4v 20 amp hour will provide 24 hours of light with halogen bulb, or about 18 hours with 1.25 amp bulb. Including headset and bulbs, 15. 2

4 6 Volt cells to make up Dave has found a source of NiMH tagged D Cells to make up into a battery pack. Not cheap at 8 each but for 40 you could make a 6v, FX5 equivalent, except it would be 2/3rds the weight and size of an FX5 and the light lasts almost 30% longer (11 hrs on 0.8amp halogen bulb). Anyone interested let Dave know asap cos he wants to place an order (if there is lots of interest the price may come down). FREE Lead Acid and Nickel Cadmium (FX Series) main and pilot bulbs (you could put a few coppers into club funds if you wish) T-Shirts Most members have collected their made to order club T-Shirts with unique logo, but we ordered a few extras. Therefore, Anyone interested please get in touch, strictly on a first come first served basis. 4 Training Ian and Jane attended a DCRO cave safety training course based at Castleton in May: Get me out of here!! (Not for the squeamish ) The weekend started off with my arriving at Castleton 40 minutes early and Jane oversleeping and arriving 30 minutes after the briefing meeting had started. Jane Mole and I went off in group A, doing the practical in the morning and in the classroom in the afternoon. We drove up to Speedwell Cavern and parked up and got changed. After a very short walk we entered Suicide Pot, very near to the roadside. The day s events started with a safety line being rigged and each caver then climbing up the rocks while attached to the safety line and being belayed by another caver above. The pair then swapped roles for the descent. The second event was ladder and lifeline techniques. The climbing of ladders should always be protected with a lifeline. The third event was mid-rope and ladder rescue including: using a ladder to rig a Z-rig and pulling an injured or unconscious caver up, and converting a Y-hang rigged rope to a Z-rig into a pitch head. All of which we thought we should try out at the climbing wall. By the time we left the cave it was lunchtime. We got changed, walked down into Castleton and had lunch. We then had a lecture in the classroom starting with risk assessment and management. It covered the usual things: trip planning, underground dangers, communication, emergencies, taking extra care with rigging and life-lining. Next up was a paramedic. Although the topic was very interesting, by this time half of us were very tired, sleepy and exhausted. The lights were off, the room was hot and there were no windows open (Should have foregone that last pint at lunchtime.? Ed.) I then got a sharp pain in my ribs, Are you awake? You were snoring!!!, Jane whispered in my ear. The third speaker was much better: she had the windows open, got the class participating and she was prettier than the bloke. She was teaching us how to go on after an accident i.e. if, after a fall, a bone is protruding out, put bandages around the wound leaving the bone. Finally we had a chap teaching us about simple hauling rig or Z-rig, all done using your own SRT kit. We plan to test all of these ideas including rigs and mid-rope rescues at the next SRT session at Leeds climbing wall. After an evening meal and sleep, the next day we went into Peak Cavern, mainly for fun, which we will be doing with the club on 6 th December Ian 3

5 Unfortunately, the Leeds Climbing Wall seems to be catering more for oil riggers and window cleaners these days than for cavers, having dismantled most of the interesting SRT features. No further sessions will be booked until the situation has been clarified. In the meantime, Dave s attic and garage are still available for SRT and ladder practice including rigging. 5 Meets Reports Little Hull Pot - Sunday 1 st June. Ian Jolley, Brian Ullah, Me (Jim W.) A bright sunny morning with the forecast of thunderstorms in the afternoon saw us set off for the cave. The walk up the hill (towards Penyghent) was a sweaty affair in caving gear and wellies with the sun hot above and not a breeze. Extra bottles of pop were taken for that bit. Underground seemed a more attractive place than usual. After a long rest we set off again for the next part of the walk and three minutes later arrived at the cave entrance. Usually happy to take the back - (not today pals!) I was first in. The cave starts out as a bit of a crawl, low in places, but soon opening up into a lovely well-decorated winding canyon. Time is well spent stopping and looking. The first pitch is reached and the water spills sideways. At this point Brian decided that he needed to go back outside for a few minutes, but swore me to secrecy - something to do with the World Wide Web or something. Going down the pitch for a couple of metres a little push backwards to a window and an adjacent part of the shaft keeps you away from the water. Although not much at this stage, the forecast was not good. A short traverse and a wide rebelay saw us all to the bottom of the pitch. The second pitch follows almost immediately. There is an initial climb up above the lip of the pitch, a squeeze through to the side and a higher access in the roof of the shaft. This part of the cave has a very airy feel about it: the pitch being about 33m from this point with the main Y hang on the opposite wall a reach over the void below! With all safely to the bottom we carried on for a few metres to the next obstacle. Three choices here: 1 a low duck. 2 a very tight squeeze. 3 forget it. Having seen Jane get through the squeeze on an earlier trip I thought I d give it a go. I d be the first to admit that I haven't got a figure like Jane s, (It would look pretty scary if I had!) but I had lost a few pounds since last time so rather than get wet to the neck I thought I d give it a shot. More or less straight through, with a lot of sideways effort into the wider section beyond. Unfortunately this narrowed down again to an even smaller slot for which a few more pounds needed to be lost. The duck was about 5m long with a good bit of space under the water, which made for a hands and knees crawl. Ian and myself went through this bit and waited for a hesitant Brian. Ian shouted words of encouragement such as you can breathe! Brian, having done the entrance crawl three times already, decided to go for choice number three and make an early start on the exit to wait for us on the surface. The way on took the form of a high rift passage, in a couple of places too narrow at stream level to stay in the bottom. At these points a climb up to small slippery ledges saw us reach the top of the third and last pitch. The cave changes character here. Up to this point we had been in a water worn cave (especially the second pitch superb). Now we were in a muddy chamber with fallen boulders and going down into a shattered chamber to the sump. Down at the bottom we had a quick look around and headed on out. The weather outside was still good and with a welcome breeze we squelched back down to Horton. 4

6 Hardrawkin Pot - Sunday 22nd June 2003 John Nightingale, Ian Jolley, Steve Moorhouse and Robin Lawrence. After meeting at 9:30am and breakfast at Harden Bridge we set off for Chapel-le-Dale and parked just beyond the Hill Inn. Once there we changed, packed the two rope bags and started on our way up the bridleway towards Great Douk in sunny weather. On the way Steve and myself seemed to split from John and Ian, when we got to Great Douk we looked around to see John and Ian trying to sneak a short cut across the fields. Meanwhile we arrived at Great Douk and headed southwest across the fields. We soon spotted a depression by a wall and arrived at the entrance to Hardrawkin, with caves going both up and downstream. After a brief look at both options two more cavers turned up, but not John and Ian. These chaps asked if we were going in Hardrawkin, when we said yes and we were waiting for two more, they said they would go have a look for Sunset Hole and come back later. After several minutes John and Ian appeared and we set off into the downstream entrance. There was a short climb down into an open pot before the cave started, then various walks, shuffles and crawls in decorated passage before the first pitch of about 25 metres. Steve rigged this and descended followed by myself. Once at the bottom we looked up to see Ian re-rigging the pitch: they obviously didn't agree with Steve's economical style of rigging and were using all possible P hangers! Eventually Ian then John descended, and we arrived at the second shorter pitch of 12 metres, I rigged this using all possible P hangers available, and descended to the sump chamber followed by the rest of the party. Once at the sump there wasn't any further progress possible, the diving line vanished into the sump pool, but nobody volunteered to see how deep the pool was! We started back out with John leading the way, Steve de-rigging the second pitch and myself the first. On the way out we encountered the two cavers seen earlier, then another party of five. We continued out to the open pot to find Ian trying unsuccessfully to emerge from a crack at the bottom of one of the walls! After failing to remove enough rocks to get out, he went back the way he had come and popped out of another hole further along the wall. We then decided to investigate the upstream cave, so without leaving the stream, we went under a hole in the wall and into the cave. This consisted of high passage, which was only wide enough to walk sideways, with occasional dips to crawling in the stream to go under narrower sections. This carried on for some time before we surfaced in the middle of the field. A quick look above ground and back into the cave which continued in a similar fashion until another opening which still continued... this involved more crawling in the stream until it would go no further. We retreated back to the last opening and then wandered back across the field to find John sunbathing with just his furry suit on, wondering where we had got to! 5

7 As it was still only early afternoon a visit to Great Douk seemed worthwhile, especially as Ian hadn't been through there before. John declined but said he would meet us at Middle Washfold exit. Once in the depression where Great Douk starts we had a quick look down the scaffolded entrance to the dig before entering the cave proper. Great Douk is nice easy walking in stream canyon for some time before a fork appears, we went right at this point as neither myself or Steve could quite remember the way. It closed down soon after, back to the fork and try left. Soon this lowers to a crawl and keeps going until the hole in the roof appears. Up that and another brief crawl to daylight and John who had got bored and entered at Middle Washfold for a look around. Once we were all on the surface, John said he would head off to Great Douk to collect the ropes left there, and meet us on the track back to the cars. We did manage to catch him before he walked all the way back with both tackle sacks, but only just! Back at the cars the two cavers from Hardrawkin passed saying there was another party of seven (besides the party of 5) in the cave while they were down there... seems like we just missed the rush hour! A quick change and a pint in the Wheatsheaf in Ingleton finished the day. Robin Penyghent Pot - Saturday 26 th July 2003 Jim Williamson, Ian Jolley, John Nightingale, Robin Lawrence and me, Jane Walton We were on a mission: we had been beaten by Penyghent Pot on a previous occasion, turning back after the 5 th pitch through cold and fatigue. We were determined to get to the end of the cave this time. We came suitably armed with miles of rope and slings and enough food to feed the We descended the entrance shaft, wriggling through a tight slot into a constricted passage. A small boulder in the middle of the floor made the going even tighter but once past that we dropped down a hole and into the infamous 1000-foot crawl. It went on and on and on. my knees were getting very sore by then so I tried to put different parts of my kneecap on the floor each time to even out the pain. The crawl went flat out for a while then opened up to end at the head of the first pitch. We were delighted to see that the cave had been P bolted since our last trip; the spits we d previously rigged from were dodgy to say the least. We descended the first short 20-foot pitch, landing in a pool. Wading through we entered stooping passage that soon enlarged to a comfortable height and after 400 feet we arrived at the short 2 nd pitch. This quickly led to the 3 rd and 4 th pitches, 18m and 21m respectively. Ian rigged these 2 pitches with one long rope and we soon found ourselves in a cold, wet chamber. According to the book the next 4 short rift pitches were climbable, but not by us, so we rigged them all, adding slings for re-belay points to avoid rope rub. An exposed section of rift got the better of John: he didn t relish sliding into it and getting stuck so he headed back. After the 8 th pitch we arrived somewhat damp into Boulder Chamber. Climbing down short cascades we rigged and descended Myers Leap pitch. After a low section the way forward opened up into large passage containing underwater flakes. This made our progress slow and awkward, especially for tired legs. After 200 feet the stream tumbled down cascades and poured into Niagara Chamber. We rigged Niagara pitch, abseiling carefully to one side of the waterfall to avoid further drenching. Wading for a further few hundred feet we finally came upon a dive line and the sump. Triumphant, we found a 6

8 dry spot and tucked into a long-awaited meal. I feasted on a (soggy) chicken sandwich and buttered malt loaf, the best meal I ve ever eaten in a cave! We turned back and made decent progress but the exertion started to take its toll as the rope bag seemed to get heavier by the minute and snagged at everything along the way. Jim, Robin and Ian shared the de-rigging until the first pitch when Ian s main light failed. He had no batteries for his backup torch and so faced the prospect of exiting the cave in darkness. All was not lost however, the backup torch on my helmet worked OK so we swapped helmets, he now had a working sidelight and I still had a main light. There was a snag I have a small head and Ian has a big head. So Ian spent the next hour with my helmet perched on the top of his head with the chinstrap garrotting his neck in order to keep the helmet on. I had the opposite problem, despite adjusting the helmet to the smallest setting it flopped over my eyes. During the torturous crawl back I couldn t look ahead of me, I could only look down at the floor of the passage, the minute I raised my head the helmet fell over my eyes. So after head butting the wall several times along the way my mind was distracted from the pain in my knees by a pounding headache! Finally we came to the end of the crawl and climbed out of the entrance shaft. Glad to be out by now, we had spent 9 and half tiring hours underground. Robin raced back to his car (don t know where he got the energy) to let his wife know he was still alive. Meanwhile Ian, Jim and I took it more slowly back to the car. It was a fantastic but exhausting trip. Goyden Pot and Manchester Hole 16 th November 2003 Dave Roberts, Catriona Lawrie, Alan and Jo Yarker and me, Kay Easton A beautiful day, with the bracken rusty gold on the hills, and the reservoirs nearly empty after a summer of low rainfall... It s my first trip with Morley, and the arranged trip has had a novice trip appended largely for my benefit I hate anything remotely connected with climbing and it s only recently I ve gained the confidence to climb more than 3 steps up a stepladder. Goyden has the advantage of being very close to the parking place, and we are soon inside clambering over a bouldery floor. Despite poring over the survey and a couple of route descriptions, I have no idea where we are and which direction we re going in, and I am none the wiser when we come up, so I won t attempt to describe the route, merely give some impressions. My first worry comes when Dave says you have to get through that slot there and make sure you don t fall down into that pool. Fortunately, I have managed to borrow some cows tails, and manage the slot easily, only to find that on the other side is a traverse, and this traverse doesn t even have rock to stand on, only a rope. I never thought that relative safety would come in the form of a tree stump wedged lengthways into a slot! After more sideways slithering we come to the end of the traverse, and the way on is down a knotted rope. Dave stays to catch me, and in doing so, his lamp and the elastic on the back of my helmet get entangled disentangling while balanced on a sloping boulder is not easy. 7

9 From now on life is easier, and I am impressed by the size of the cave not by the length, although there is a lot of passage, but by how roomy it is. I am sure that there are flat out crawls, but the route we went was through large passages, some walking height, the worst, hands and knees crawling, and there was very little water. At one point there was a flake of rock across the way, with a body-sized hole at the base, which we all went through in different ways. And at another point we admired a little cluster of fungi, long white stalks and minute caps. We climbed up what I now know is the 10ft pitch and along Sand Tunnel and Clay Tunnel accurately descriptive names - and through one of those squeezes that present no problem to long legged males but which short legged females have to climb over, and into Telegraph Aven it was difficult to see which of the climbing aides was more hazardous the ladder with missing rungs at the top, or the telegraph pole whose climbing spokes sloped at all sorts of downwards angles. We weren t tempted, and returned the way we had come, and on to Cap Tunnel. Cap Tunnel was remarkable for the fossils, little corrugated tubes and oval shapes, as densely packed as the fossil rich rock you see polished for sale in gemstone shops. We first noticed it on the loose boulders of the floor, and then realised the walls and ceiling were just the same. We made our way out along the main stream passage, marvelling at the black chert in the walls, neatly spaced blocks in a line along each side of the passage. Next we entered Manchester Hole, and after a diversion upstream to some more chert strange jagged pieces apparently on limestone bedding, which yet proved to be firmly attached we headed downstream down a large walking passage and eventually to what we agreed to take as the final sump (nobody feeling any inclination to get wet). We were keen to see where the new through connection to Goyden was, so started nosing into side passages on our way out, but to no avail hardly surprising, since we were looking in the wrong place! So out into the sunshine, and after changing, a pleasant stroll to look at the entrance to New Goyden, by which time the rest of the group had emerged. The rest of the group, led by Paul Smithson, had gone from Manchester Hole via the new connection into Goyden. It consisted of Paul, Mike, Simon Bowens, Edward, Ian, June, Jane, John plus friends of June s: Jackie, Anne and Andrew. This must be the biggest turnout of MPC members et al. I ve seen on a trip Ed. 8

The team, from left to right: Danial Jackson, Neil Brammer, Brian Cullan & Alex Ritchie (Me)

The team, from left to right: Danial Jackson, Neil Brammer, Brian Cullan & Alex Ritchie (Me) People Present: Neil Brammer, Brian Cullen, Danial Jackson & Alex Ritchie Weather: Ranging from 32C and brilliant sunshine 21C overcast with one or two small thunderstorms Trips: Pene Blanque Scouting