18th March 2025 - Cantabrian prep

After last year's superb trip to Cantabria we've decided to go back and hoping that they'll love it as well, my family's going to join us too. While others aren't so sure, eldest has said he wouldn't mind a go at some caving, so needs to learn the ropes. We've had a couple of SRT lessons in a garden tree so the rest of the team decided he was ready for a proper trip. As it's mainly pull through trips we're planning on again this year, Simpson's seemed an ideal location. 

Picking Mike up is always a joy as there'll be a pot of tea on the go, accompanied by fantastic tray bakes. Today was no exception and replete with outstanding chocolate brownies, we headed to Devil's Bridge to meet Tony and then on to Kingsdale. The Dales look stunning in the low light of a spring evening and the trudge up to the Turbary road was almost pleasant. Mike's cave radar was working in high precision mode and he walked straight across the open moor to the entrance.

While the Swinsto long crawl is infamous, I'm sure it feels almost as far in Simpson's and personally I find it a bit more awkward. At least in Swinsto you know you're crawling, whereas Simpson's I feel I'm constantly transitioning between stooping and crawling. In both though it's a relief to reach the pitches. The Five Steps passed without incident and at their foot we geared up for the first real obstacle, the traverse over The Pit.

Gearing up to traverse the pit

The pitches now fall in quick succession and we were back into our familiar routine with eldest slotted in between us. Mike quickly rigged with Tony and I trying hard to pull down the previous rope and get it forward before eldest descended allowing Mike to move on again. I thought there might be a brief pause at the duck but the speedy duo were through by the time I got there and there was no let up in the pace. That is until an innocuous little slot before the Slit pitch where I came to crashing to a standstill. I'm blaming the camera in my chest pocket, but I really struggled. To make matters worse, when taking off my SRT gear to make myself more sleek, my descender and cowstails fell off into a puddle. Not noticing until Tony was also through, he kindly went back to retrieve them for me. By contrast the Slit pitch itself I managed to pass without issue and having had to use both of our ropes for the longer pitch, the team was briefly reunited at the bottom. 

Watching Tony negotiate the Slit pitch

The stomp down the main drain helped pump a bit of warm blood around after the aqueous passage from the Great Aven and we were soon at the pitch up into the roof tunnel. Eldest's new jammers seemed to do the trick and Tony and I were once again playing catch up to reach Valley entrance.

There was just one final stop to make to fully introduce eldest to the Thursday night club, a pint (of orange juice and lemonade!) in the Barn.

An integral part of a Thursday night trip

Huge thanks to Mike and Tony for looking after eldest on his first proper trip.