Sheffield University Speleological Society (SUSS)

by Edd

I hadn’t caved with UBSS for over a year so I thought I best show my face. I packed a spare Peachey & MUSCovite Ben to be sure I had fun trips  and we chugged up to the Dales in my new diesel car.

The first thing I discovered about my intrepid team was that Ben doesn’t really do navigating. Asking how long it would be until we left the Bradford sprawl was met with ‘I dunno where we are’ despite having the map. We got to the Bradford Hut though so it was OK.

My plan for Saturday was to finally go down Juniper Gulf after the New Year’s debacle (the bolts weren’t covered in snow this time). I rigged the first half-ish of the cave and Peachey the second. However Ben doesn’t believe in krabs. Git. All the traverses were a bit slow with old maillons as a result.

We were also using MUSC’s new 9mm that we’d collected that morning and it was a tad fast; Peachey had the foresight to use an extra breaking krab on the final 40m pitch but Ben & I had uncomfortable descents on slick Stops/Simples. We enjoyed the trip; it’s a nice little cave: alternating between traversing rifts and dropping pots.

I did have to dash out early to cancel the call-out and then head back into the fog to find the other two with my bottle of Dandelion & Burdock ( not trusting Ben to return despite having my map & compass).

We pottered down the first two pitches of Marble Steps on Sunday with Peachey & I sharing the rigging again. It was a fantastic cave and a pity we didn’t go any further into it. The second pitch is particularly impressive, opening up into a large hall-type bit. I’ll have to go back to do the whole cave next time I’m up there.

The entertainment on the return leg was provided by games of hide-and-seek with a Polo Estate while Peachey ran off to collect forgotten gear, keys, etc and by driving in circles when he wanted to get in. Ben & I didn’t tire of it. On the actual journey we detoured via Leeds to deposit Peachey and visited the squalor of his kitchen before getting confused by central Leed’s roads. After we found out which direction Halifax is in (the right direction) we escaped to Shef and all was good.

So I still haven’t caved with UBSS for over a year but I have caved with Dachstein bods again. Oh well.

There was a roll of red & white tape left at the Divers Camp in AI Passage for a good while, awaiting use somewhere. However on 7th Sept 2008 the whole passage flooded and it disapeared.

From a certain cave diver off UkCaving:

It was festooned through over half the sump yesterday. I had a hell of a job sorting it all out; fortunately it was a 3 tank dive so there was plenty of air. Had to leave a football sized bundle of the tape stuffed in a crevice in the first large airbell when coming upstream. I also left a smaller bundle of it under a rock next to the upstream dive base; it’s just on the right as you emerge at the sump pool (i.e. on the right before that waterfall in amongst the rocks).

The sump is safe for the present but if your team (or anyone else) gets chance please can you collect the stuff from the upstream dive base before a flood sends it back into the sump? Also, in the summer when water levels fall, if someone could wallow down to that airbell to pick up the bigger bundle, it’d make life safer for bubble blowers in the future.

It’ll be right, as long as the bundles are picked up sooner rather than later. There was some swearing though; just about every bubble contained a profanity! I’ll forgive the SUSS team – after all they’ve been very good with me carrying tanks or helping with dye tracing in the past. AND they got through the sump above Donatella’s Aven when we’d failed, which I was delighted with.

Speaking of which, there’s a white tank on the boulder pile nearest to Far Sump. If anybody could see their way to carrying out out to the Chapel it’d be an enormous help. Can anyone help with this?

Thought i’d post this up here in case any of you are down there before me…

Rob 1

by Edd

I’ve wanted to learn rescue techniques for a long while and with a day off, and having nipped to the shops for Rob2’s beers, the deal was done.

We went for a dangle in Horseshoe Quarry starting from trying to haul Rob on the rope with nothing and progressing through counterbalancing and introducing more and more pulleys and all that jazz. With Rob weighing 90+ kg and me weighing 60- kg there was a lot of jazz.

We finished with Rob doing a mid-rope rescue past a re-belay. Suspending from 20m up from Rob’s groin was unnerving. Bizarrely suspending my 90kg ballast whilst doing the same was fine*.

Rob2’s talking about running evening midweek rescue practices at Mark Wright’s tower. I’m certainly interested in getting more practice – anyone else?

*Rob may have pulled himself up a little when I released his Croll to save time

The day started off relatively smoothly. Bit of ‘house’ watching and then all the necessary faff that goes with any caving trip. Ali donned his wetsuit as P8 was expected to be a tad chilly.

The drive to the cave was very uneventful, parking caused some minor issues as the car park was covered in about a foot of snow, but no matter, we parked just up the road in a little lay-by.

Halfway through getting changed Sam realised he had forgotten his helmet… After some stressing on Ali’s part (as he was the leader after all) Sam persuaded him he would be fine in a neoprene hood with light attached. But about 5 minutes later, after Tom1 also discovered he was helmet-less enough was enough and we piled into the car again to go helmet hunting. After Tom pushing the back of the car to get it out of our snowy parking space we were back on the road.

Little did we know the next disaster was about to strike; a minute into the journey me and Tom saw something small and black fall off the roof of the car. We questioned this and after some cursing on Ali’s part discovered that it was his phone. Back we went to go phone hunting.
We found it in the ditch and at first glance it appeared to be in full working order but we soon realised that about half of the buttons didn’t work. Alas, we needed to get back to the first job of finding a helmet so off we go to the TSG. One helmet was found, which would have to do, so we borrowed that and off we toddled back to the cave. Finding a chicken foot on the side of the road was quite interesting, I gave it to Sam as a present.

The trek there was quite arduous, walking through snow up to your knees across fields is not an easy task; so we stopped to have a rest half way and ate some snow to cool down. The entrance to P8 was half covered in ice but there was enough space to get down. And so continued our very fun and very wet caving trip. After our original plan of heading off at 12, getting there at 4 after all that we’d gone through, it felt nice to be in a cave at last!

By Ellie

After leaving at about 2.15 for our 1 o’clock trip we arrived at p8 to find the car park rather full of snow we finally managed to park just down the road. In the process of getting changed Sam discovered that he had forgotten his helmet. We all had a good laugh at him, then shortly after I discovered I had also forgotten my helmet. I really did feel a bit of a tool. This put the trip on hold while we decided to go to the TSG to look for a spare helmet. Shortly after setting off something departed the roof of the car. It was Ali’s phone. After recovering the phone and finding it surprisingly intact, though unfortunately no longer fully functional, we got to the TSG and fortunately found a helmet. We returned to where we parked the car and got kitted up. It was at this point we discovered Ali had forgotten the rigging kit. We managed to gather together enough krabs to get us down. We set off through the snow to the cave. We got there to find the entrance largely covered by a sheet of ice which we then had to enlarge to get in. once underground it was a really good trip with no more problems. So the fresher was the only one not to cock up in some way. On asking how she felt at the end of the trip Ellie’s response was “There’s still time.”

By Tom 1

Rob was keen to do the Three Pots so I tagged along with SUSS again because I had nothing better to do. The weekend didn’t start brilliantly: I was over 30 mins late having driven past the railway station three times in my attempt to find H’s house and Rob’s van was several hours late reaching H & Alisa; it didn’t improve with the hour-long search for the cave and Rosie destroying a wall; and then me leaving the metal-work in the cave, leaving Alisa and Tom2 to get lost certainly didn’t help.

Still, Ali, Alisa, H, Rob2, Rosie, Tom2, and I did have a fun late-night trip down Mere Gill. A particular highlight for me was scaring Tom2 shitless, not once but twice. First, in the streamway at the bottom, I lay face-down in the water and played dead and later I jumped out from a corner. Priceless.

Rob managed to convince me to go down King Pot and H & Alisa followed. It was rather hot walking up a hill in PVC oversuits but the cave was worth it. The abuse of ‘Mendip caver’ was finally turned as I loved the tight and crawly sections and it was the best cave of the three. Rob & H got us in and out in six hours, which meant there was time for the party that night (I can’t remember the occasion).

Back at the hut Alisa, H & I drew pity as we sat on the floor, eating from the large pot. Bizarrely Rob refused to join us, using a bowl out of manners or etiquette or something. H and Rosie then ganged up on me asking when I was going to join SUSS. I handed over my tenner and joined the ranks.

Pennyghent was a nice way to finish. The bird-man opposite the Bradford hut showed Alisa & I his birds of prey and then we plodded up the hill in the heat. Ali, Steve, Rosie & Lil Chris rigged the cave for us and again it was Mendip Caver time as everyone (particularly Rob) whined about the entrance crawl. It was nice to be in a splashy cave although the many holes in the streamway did have me worrying about snapping my ankles. Out in five hours and a slightly less sweaty trip back down.

Alisa, H, Rob2 & I managed the Three Pots however a team of three women had done the Three Pots & Three Peaks in 36 hours that weekend too.

PS If you wonder why this is 7 months late, then I’d like to hear a better suggestion of what to do in a non-functioning power station with no work on at 3am.

My chaffeur, Big Jim, turned up on cue in Horton-in-Ribblesdale and so I was off to the YSS. With us came the Dead Kennedys and John Shuttleworth tapes – what else would you wash-up to in the morning?

The overall results from my six-night stay weren’t that impressive – one successful trip in four attempts – but then it was a fun week. The hut was rammed every night: Cardiff, Aberywsth and Penrith being there throughout; SUSS bods filtering in;  Eldon there for a bit; and MUSC waltzing in from the Bradford.

The successful trip was down Bar Pot with Emma (CUCC) and Clair (SWCC) on account of it would actually happen and all of Eldon had already nipped off to do various other Gaping Ghyll routes. Not a big trip but fun all the same and plenty of time to make enchiladas for dinner.

Unsuccessful Trip No1: Sam, Kate, Matt St Clair (all CUCC) and I were going to try the Providence Pot – Dow Cave through-trip. The cave is notorious for route finding (apparently) but with my notes from ‘Not for the Faint Hearted’ everything was going swimmingly … until the halfway point. I actually found both ways to Brew Chamber but didn’t recognise it, Matt had found a too-tight crawl in water and Sam had found agony and fatigue jamming his knee on a climb. We turned around and had a slow exit, having a 7hr trip. Oh well - next time.

Unsuccessful Trip No.2: Mike, Andy C, Sally (UBSS), Big Jim and I were off down Rowten. I was puzzled to find Mike & Jim on the surface as they’d set off 20 minutes before me to rig. As well as disguising some caves, the snow also hides p-bolts: no caving.

Unsuccessful Trip No.3: I was all fired up for rigging Juniper Gulf with Tom (CUCC) and Mike on 31st and then derigging Nick Pot for Gay Dave, Jinny, Milky Matt and Dangerous Dan (all CUCCish). Unfortunately despite Mike & Tom forming the Human Simple body belay, I could only find the rebelay bolt; the back-ups were not to be seen. We cleared a lot of snow and my footprints were right by the buried bolts (Milky found them later). Bugger. We nipped down Nick and found the other team still descending Vulcan (90m) so went back to the hut.

New Year’s Day was occupied with the aftermath of the previous night: washing-up and dry-stone walling a car-sized hole. Ali, Sam, Mrs Sam & I popped up Pennyghent before ending the week in the Helwith Bridge for dinner & beers with Adam and a few MUSCites.

By Andy Chapman

Me and a few of the Eldon boys (Hibberts, Toogood, Jams and Pemberton assisted by a cast of thousands) have been down Gautries, digging at the minute. A pretty amazing trip and if you’d like to help assist carrying dive bottles to the end, please feel free to ask!!

Anyway, a nice description for you. Through Gautries, to the end, under the mucky duck into Poole chamber. There used to be a sump here but it’s drained recently, leaving an absolutely minging duck which every now and then, sumps completely, making a worrying little sump dive through mostly mud.

This leads on to very mucky passage, up a horrible slope to the first sump. Luckily, this can be siphoned. When we first looked at this, we siphoned it so there was about 2 inches of airspace, I went through first nose against ceiling, bricking it slightly only to discover on the way back, it had siphoned even more so there was about a foot of airspace, damn!! This leads on to another slightly easier duck which leads onto flat out crawling through sloppy mud, yuck!!

This eventually heads up a horrible muddy slope to a heavily draughting dig and to the right is a hole leading down to a sump. This was dived by John Taylor and Jules Barratt and Martyn Grayson is continuing to dive it.

Anyway, this is a nice extension to Gautries and hopefully should make it a bit more popular and take some pressure off P8, We’ll see though. Come on all you SUSS hard nuts, get involved and do some tourist trips down there!!!!

Originally we were all planning to head to Bull Pot Farm for a few good trips down Ease Gill…this soon changed when we saw the amount of snow on Friday.

[Read more →]

By Rosie Hadfield

Over 30 SUSS students descended on The Balti King for an end of term Christmas Dinner.Snow had settled on the ground outside as we tucked into tasty curries.

Of course, Santa made an appearance – with many ridiculous presents. Among them there was a “Teach yourself Polish in an hour” video for Chris P (ask him why!), Latex gloves and lube for Tom2, a survival kit for SUSS weekend (gloves, kneepads, batteries and hangover pills) for Chris B…but I think the best had to be Mike’s….

People ended up in the Notty for a few drinks, and then by 2am we all were back in the Cobden; and there had to be a snowball fight with Ozzy outside.