Present: Al, Ian, Pete, Ralph
Phrase of the trip: ‘Oh, wow. Hey, come down here and look at this!’
An interesting cave, quite different to what I had experienced in Yorkshire. To begin with a ladder drops through two concrete tubes to a handline climb down to an SRT pitch. Once on the bottom level there are several passages to explore, each a twisty descent through boulders and greasy clay. Everywhere you look there has been a dig! We all went down the passages, each persuading the next to follow for ‘there’s a really nice bit here’! Invariably this turned out to be an even tighter, steeper and grottier mix of slime and boulders. At the main SRT pitch, Ralph rigged a second rope in parallel to the first, then called for one of us to de-rig it since it was needed for the bottom pitch close to ‘Gas Alley’. On the way out, Ian de-rigged for his first time, carefully removing all the maillons and untying all the knots, quite happily swinging around and packing rope. Closer to the top it became apparent that the others weren’t too happy to be standing around outside in the falling snow! There were murmurs of a late-night departure for Yorkshire, but nothing came of it. A pleasant walk back in the snow to the hut followed.
Immediately upon our return, Ian and Pete were wrangling for putting off tea and doing another cave. Ralph wasn’t too sure, but an SMCC chap said he’d lead us down a local cave so he gave in.