Sheffield University Speleological Society (SUSS)

28/02/2010

By Mike

After the usual fun and games in Castleton and the TSG on Saturday night I woke to find that the rigging team (Hannah, Tom1 and Chris) had set off an hour ago armed with large amounts of rope. Great! Everything seemed to be going to plan so there was time for a brew or two and a couple of bacon butties before the derigging team (Me, Rosie and Peachey) needed to head off.

We rocked up at Rowter farm at about 12:30 to find tony the micra standing proud in the snow! So mike in his dry kit for once, Rosie in her new fangled jump suit and Peachey covered in shit, we were ready to go! we trundled over to the JH entrance to find the lid open (naughty rigging team) thankfully we didn’t find any exploded sheep at the bottom of the shaft, Peachey did however leave his helmet at the car and only realised after me and Rosie had already gone down the shaft. Once he’d got his marbles he met us at the bottom of the entrance shaft.

The cartgate was dripping nicely after the recent rain and snow melt. On our way in we were definitely making the most of having no tackle bags through the cartgate and leisurely made our way through, down bitch pitch and in to the workshop. Then down the leviathan and no sign of the rigging team who had left a polite time of arrival: made of pebbles on a tackle bag. Spirits were high and no sign of the hangovers that we feared after another successful Castleton pub crawl! So on through the crawl to far sump extensions and stemple highway stopping briefly for a satisfying gulp of water. Heading down the fixed ladders from stemple highway we heard some noises in front of us and to our surprise it was the rigging team. “Woah guys that was quick!” I said.
“er… we went the wrong way round we ended up in Salmon’s cavern first, you said something about mud formations and a crawl that leads to titan” replied Hannah.
“er… yes that’s were you come out after you have gone down ride of the valks”
“ah fuck…”
“Salmon’s Cavern is awesome though!” blurted out the little ones.

So after a brief chin wag and another drink, we decided we still had plenty of time to complete the planned trip so directed the other team back towards calcite aven, much to our amusement! hehe. In the meantime while the other team went off up calcite aven and across to ride of the Valkyries we decided to waste some time by visiting major and minor sump. So after a brief crawl, some nice stomping passage way and treading gingerly through the ‘lake of a thousand banana skins’ we were soon perched above Major sump. We all needed a wee at this point, Rosie couldn’t wait so tested her extra long zip on her new furry suit (i said zip), “great success” was the reply! Me and Peachey decided that pissing off the top into Major sump would be a much more worthwhile form of relief, only to find we couldn’t quite find a suitably stable stance so had to climb down a bit first. We bimbled back and had a quick look at minor sump on our way to waste a bit more time. We reached Salmon’s cavern again and again we heard the other team but this time they were way up in the roof rigging the ropes down, yay they found the way! Salmon’s Cavern is a nice big chamber well worth a quick detour if you are doing the standard Titan to peak through trip.

Whilst we waited for the other team to descend we had a game of eye spy with our lights off, which lasted longer than you would think. We have black, dark, pitch black, nothing, inky and even some bright spot afterimages. This inevitably ended but changed into ‘I feel’.
“I feel with my little hands something beginning with ‘R’”, started Peachey.
“Rock” I said “Bit obvious really, ok hear goes, I feel with my bigger hands something beginning with ‘C’”. To which both Rosie and Peachey burst out laughing. “what? I’m feeling my Croll guys…my croll… what did you think i was feeling?”

By now the other team were just about down so we started to get ourselves ready to move. Once they were down we had another chin wag and some fizzy sweets provided by H. Deciding that we should get moving said goodbye to the other team who were now heading back out through JH. We now had to de-rig ride the Valkyries and JH, bugger! I derigged ride and Balcomes way, interrupted on the main hang by a nose bleed, so i wiped my muddy glove across my face a couple of times which proved to be enough of a clotting agent and onwards i went. Soon we were at the top in Balcomes Way stuffing rope into bags. We didn’t want to hang about now so blasted down Calcite aven, which was absolutely pissing down, and headed straight back toward the crawl to JH. Once through we had a brief stop and sorted out who was doing what derigging/carrying of lots of rope etc… I headed up first with the pig (120m of wet rope) Rosie came up next, then Peachey derigging Leviathan. I waited in the workshop and had a much needed mars bar. The others soon joined me and so off up bitch pitch we went, I got to the top and said I would head out straight away to save time. So I trudged through the cartgate occasionally shouting, “come little piggy” or “naughty piggy” to the tackle bag. Then up the entrance shaft, which seemed to take ages, but eventually i got out and just lay there for a while before heading off to get changed. Peachey then Rosie slowly followed with the rest of the rope, a cracking effort by the de-rigging team if i do say. We all made it back to the car feeling like we’d done a good trip and the other team’s car had gone so a successful trip all around in the end. We got dressed and headed back to Sheffield for Friary Time, Tea, Shower and Bed!