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Carlswark Cavern
(Dynamite Series) -
08/10/2008
Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Jon
Pemberton
(EPC), Sam Pemberton (EPC)
The Pembertons' enthusiasm for
Carlswark Cavern and the Dynamite Series in particular made me think
that I was missing out on something important so an evening
trip to Stoney Dale was planned. Unfortunately the Flower Pot entrance
which used to offer a quick way into the Dynamite Series has recently
suffered 'deterioration' so we went in the Gin Entrance and soon found
ourselves at the entrance to the Dynamite Series. The Dynamite Series
proper is guarded by a short squeeze under a low arch with water in the
bottom. Bailing stuff is lying around but although water levels were
reasonably high (water was flowing down Dynamite Passage) we didn't
need it on this occasion. A bit of crawling and squeezing leads through
Midnight Chamber and into Prospect Chamber with two ways on: a nice
climb up the right-hand wall leads to Fall Chamber and eventually the
bottom of Flower Pot whilst a low passage in the floor is the start of
Porth Crawl. Sam and Jon had previously decided that helmets off
works best in here and who was I to argue on this occasion. Shuffling
helmets along in front worked fine and in fact Porth Crawl's not too
bad - looks more difficult than it is in some ways and it's very short.
Once through that a short thrutch/climb up a rift leads to Clog Passage
with all it's shotholes in the walls. All very interesting! Through
here and then a bit more squeezing and crawling leads to the end of the
Dynamite Series (Final Aven).
Jon had been here before and was keen to have a proper look at
Buckley's dig/Picnic Passage etc. We had Martin Milner's sketch survey
of the passage beyond the end of the Dynamite Series and ticked things
off as we went. Buckley's dig starts at a hole under one of the walls
in Final Aven at the end of the Dynamite Series followed by flat out
crawling in mud. We passed Straw Inlet and continued in Picnic Passage
past a number of small cross-rifts and chambers to arrive at a small
chamber containing loose fill with a hole going up through it into a
small aven above. Conscious that we still wanted to make the detour to
have a look at the bottom of Flower Pot we turned around at this point
and made our way back through Buckley's Dig, Clog Passage and Porth
Crawl. In Prospect Chamber we climbed up and more crawling leads into a
rift. A shuffle under a hanging boulder at the end and climb up through
a hole in the roof led into Fall Chamber. This hanging boulder and the
choke above that leads into Fall Chamber needs a lot of care. Fall
Chamber is a nice place and certainly one of my favourite bits of
Carlswark. From here a nice climb and another crawl leads into a final
small chamber with a crawl leading off. At the end of this crawl is the
bottom of the blue barrels of the Flower Pot entrance. It's obvious
that nobody's going to be exiting that way anytime soon as the top of
the bottom barrels are well-squashed but plans are afoot to sort it out.
From here we climbed back down into Fall Chamber, through the Dynamite
Series and out the Gin entrance.
Excllent evening trip being tight, very muddy and tricky despite not
being a long way on the survey.
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