19th December 2024 - Next Gen

 

A lovely warm, dry trip to Glasfurd's chamber with Tony and son who performed brilliantly with his SRT.

Used the eyehole route to avoid the horrific deviation on the open pot.

For the second week in a row met other cavers! These poor wretches aren't able to meet up until 6 pm so have to go caving but never get to make it to the pub!

Royal Barn now do Guinness 0.0!

11th December 2024 - County Pot Treasure Hunt

With Mike away Tony and I decided to see if we've any hope at all of finding anywhere in Easegill and duly set off to County (which we can find) to see if we could navigate the Manchester Bypass.

Dropping down the entrance climb I found a laminated card that resembled the first page in one of the adventure books I used to love as a kid, where your choices determined which page you'd turn to next. Intrigued, I proposed a short detour off our planned route into Spout Hall to see if we could find the location of the next card in the series so that our adventure in search of "Newton's golden crowbar" could continue. Despite a bit of time looking we left the Hall without having found the card and we set off for the Bypass, I for one a little disappointed.

My disappointment was short lived as moving out of Battle of Britain chamber I spotted another card! I'm not sure who the trail was intended for but the cards kept appearing as we continued down the Bypass which isn't the easiest of caving.  

[in progress...]

Al and Tony (Rick and Nick!)

5th December 2024 - Roaring Rowten

It was wet. Proper wet. Definitely an evening to be anywhere flood prone. Mike though had noted a post by Ian Patrick mentioning that Rowten could be descended in high water if a hybrid route was taken, though getting to the sumps would obviously be out of the question!

Even before we got to the gate on the Turbary road we knew the pot was close from the unmistakable roar of the water pouring down it. As advertised though the Eyehole route was dry and it was only at the end of the traverse after the bridge that we encountered our first drips. We were soon dry once again on the second traverse at the end of which Mike set off on the big pitch down the main shaft.

With his usual melodic "rope free" I set off down the impressive fissure. Soon a deviation loomed out of the darkness and fortunately I was able to use the rope to guide me across to it. I'm still not sure how Mike managed to pendulum across and clip the lone bolt on a smooth wall. Descending further I could see he was on a roll with his rigging as I approached the kind of flake you'd find on a "classic" Lake District climb sporting a rebelay rigged from purple cord. Ever since our Spanish trip where this cord initially proved its use, it's come in handy over and over again. It turned out the rope had been a little on the short side and rather than a mid pitch knot, Mike had come up with the, easier to pass, flake rebelay solution.

The thundering water was now almost at arms reach but we still remained dry despite the strong breeze. Even this wasn't to last long as we moved into the shelter of the flyover route. Mike's bolt radar must have undergone an upgrade as he can now detect bolts quite a long way around corners which is remarkably handy. As I arrived at the bottom of the pitch, Mike was arriving from round a corner with a wide eyed look. Peeking round, the entire shaft was filled with an almost solid wall of water and the noise was incredible. Despite our proximity, bar a bit of spray, we could marvel from a dry vantage point. We were definitely not going any further though!

This has to be one of my favourite trips down Rowten. The sheer power of the water is something to behold and yet, while tantalisingly close, you're never actually in it which is just the way I like it.