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Present: Anthony, Bec, George, Mickey Mouse, Richard, James C (me)

After wandering about the moors for 20 minutes we finally found the entrance. The first part of the cave was reasonably simple and we reached a lot of ‘mini’pitches very quickly – they could be free climbed down but we had to send Anthony up first on the way back to rig ropes down.

The original plan was to meet up with the other party lead by Chris and Julia and go out Swinsto. The first pitch was reached by crossing a traverse, which was difficult because it was a tight crawl directly before a deep hole.

The pitches were generally fine (no deviations/rebelays and all between 8-25m). We made good, but slow, progress but it was marred by the numerous ‘tight falls’ which we knew we would have to get back up later if Chris’ party (or us) didn’t make it to the meeting point. After the longest pitch we had to negotiate a ‘duck’ through very cold water which was unsurprisingly horrible.

We continued until we got to a really tight bit; so tight infact that I couldn’t get through it at all (at least without removing my helmet, oversuit and several ribs). Thankfully Richard appeared in front of me having found an alternative way via a climb into the top of the cavern over the squeeze. I took this route, but it was in vain because immediately after the squeeze was the final pitch, which was nigh on impossible: a long very tight squeeze directly onto a 40m drop.

Bec and I wussed (but time was running out and we couldn’t see Chris’ party in the meeting point below), so we decided to return through Simpsons.

Anthony decided to go first to get ahead to re-rig the traverse and also rig the ‘mini-pitches’. He took George with him. There was a really tight crawl-climb with no footholds for which I needed Bec to push me up. Bec needed Richard to push her up. Richard was last and therefore had no-one to push him up. He also had the tackle sack. I went up the next pitch, intending to go on ahead, but reached the duck again, which I couldn’t face alone because on the way my batteries had been wedged here – I therefore decided to wait for Bec and Richard.

Forty five minutes later (it seemed that long!!!) they arrived. I assumed that there had been a problem in the de-rigging the preceding pitch, but it turned out that Richard hadn’t been able to get up the tight crawl-climb without a significant amount of thrashing around. I felt guilty for not going back to check they were all right, but I thought they were all through when I left up the pitch.

By this time I was freezing and so the duck was not a welcome prospect, and sure enough it was even worse than last time. Thankfully, Richard was peddling sugar capsules which I took to revive me for the journey out.

James C