Team: Ben Marks, Rob Eavis, Joe Buck, Sam Pemberton, Chris Hibberts
The trip I had on Thursday night was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had underground, and the SMMC streamway is quite a sight to behold. The trip was definitely not easy by any stretch of the mile, but I feel incredibly privileged to have been the first under-18 caver to have made it through the sump into a place only seen by a small handful of people.
Before the trip
A chance occurrence in the TSG the weekend before the trip would see me come eye to eye with that bloke I recognized off of of the front cover of “Caves of the Peak District”, and I ceased the moment to ask for a trip into Cussey at some point. However, the reality of what I had signed myself up to suddenly hit home when I received a text a few days later with a time and date. The plainly worded “meet for pre beers at 18:30 at this carpark” was accompanied by a dropped pin for the car park in Eyam village, and with that I set to planning how I was going to prepare myself for one of the hardest trips I have ever agreed to. The priority for me was getting enough sleep, so I was into bed by 2130 each night of the week leading up to the trip, and I skipped out on the gym to avoid any aches!
Thursday came quickly, and all I could see in my mind was the rather grim looking free dive which I had seen from Rob’s video on the internet. I really planned out my food, ensuring that I ate a reasonable amount of time before the trip and that I had something sugary before dropping into the cave…
The trip
I finally trundled into the carpark at about 18:15 and got kitted up. To say I was apprehensive would be putting it very mildly. Soon enough Rob, Chris, Sam and Joe (in his new shiny van) joined us in the carpark and cracked open some pre beers. The others quickly donned their wetsuits whilst I started putting on as many layers as I could underneath my undersuit in an attempt to keep warm through the trip. So far, nobody had completed the trip without a wetsuit, but I don’t tend to get too cold underground so I seemed the ideal candidate to give it a go in normal caving attire. The walk in took little more than 10 seconds, and with the turn of a nut the steel lid was wide open. The draught coming out of Cussey is absolutely astonishing: the branches above the lid are swayed by it! It is, however, a mostly artificial draught originating from the fans in the nearby fluorspar mine.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I certainly didn’t expect Cussey Pot to be how it was. A fairly roomy entrance pitch is first dropped, and then a traverse across a rift takes you to the first constriction – Coconut Airways. This stempled freeclimb is fairly tight and takes some energy to downclimb safely. Coming back out is a whole different story however! From here on, the cave becomes of a slightly larger nature for a short period before closing right down to a vertical squeeze. With Chris and I being of a larger build than the Cussey regulars, there was some speculation as to whether we would fit through the squeeze – should we have not been able to slip our way through, the trip would have been cut short immediately and the delights of the Stoney Middleton Master Cave would have been only distant aspirations – But both of us slid through with some wiggling and help from gravity. From here, another pitch drops into an excellently decorated passage. It certainly isn’t reminiscent of the Stoney Middleton that I know of. A short distance on, we met the pitch into ‘Inglorious Bastards’, a large chamber, and the start of the long slog towards the sump we were soon to be having a splash in. This chamber is fantastic, and worthy of a visit in its own right. Cussey reminded me much of St Cuthberts Swallet on Mendip – The tight entrance series followed by some impressively sized spaces and pretties along the way.
After taking off our SRT kits in ‘Inglorious Bastards’, we headed down into the first crawl. ‘Loperamide Lust’ (a snug flat-out crawl) leads off from the main chamber initially at a fairly steep downward angle, before flattening out and getting even more snug! This was a real pain, and definitely the worst crawl of the trip. The resistance of moving forwards was really high due to the dry, sticky nature of the mud, and progress was initially quite slow. I found it easier to take my helmet off and push it in front of me for the tighter parts. Eventually we popped out into ‘Doom’ where a nice amount of larger sized passage was travelled before we reached the next crawl, ‘Vulgarious Bastard’. This crawl was very reminiscent of ‘Colostomy Crawl’ in Peak Cavern, if a little more snug. The thick, gloopy mud made forwards progress much easier, acting as a lubricant and allowing us to glide along through the crawl at a good speed. There was one duck which was rather unpleasant, but other than that it was more than do-able. Before I knew it, I was standing next to the final hurdle of the trip – The ‘Boil Up Sump 2’ , and Joe was boasting about how clean he had kept his face. I was absolutely covered in the stuff, and quite looking forward to cleaning off in the sump. I was relieved at just how straight forward the trip had been to this point, which put me in a good mindset to have a crack at this free dive.
Rob quickly briefed me in the dos and don’ts of this rather intimidating free dive and dealt with my nervous questioning with some appropriate blunt answers! With some thrashing around in the water and gurgling, he had disappeared through to the other side and sure enough, the dive line was tugged three times to indicate it was safe for the next diver. Soon my turn came, and I got into the sump pool and started making myself comfortable. The temperature of the water made it hard for me to get a decent breath as I was hyperventilating a bit, so I allowed myself some time to calm down. I dunked my head under for a test run and emerged briefly after realizing just how grim it was. I knew if I didn’t go for it with the next dunk of my head, I wouldn’t be getting into the master cave and all of this prep would have been for nothing. I took a deep breath, and pulled like mad on the dive line. Before I knew it, I was out on the other side to a very elated looking Rob. I’m not sure who was more excited out of the two of us!
The others came through with Joe last, staying under water right until the end of the sump pool just to show off. Exuberant with the adrenaline of the dive, the team stomped off into the great passage of the Stoney Middleton Master Cave ahead. It’s hard to describe the scale of this place. Not only in the actual passage height, but also it’s length. It really is one of the best streamways I have ever visited. The walls are littered with deep scalloping and the colouring of the rock is very interesting. Numerous inlets and avens stand unexplored, giving some fantastic potential for more cave to be found. With every turn, boulder choke and narrowing of the passage comes a distinctively different character. It is most like Peak Cavern in places, but it takes on a Yorkshire feel at times too. We reached a constriction at the end of the streamway and the team quickly flicked to exploration mode. Joe was soon to get squirming into some of the potential leads, grunting to hear for any hollow voids beyond the choked passage. In this area we found some good chunks of galena – the miners can’t have been far off here at one point. The choke was passed down to a lower section of passage with a silted floor. This was very reminiscent of Speedwell. A sump was reached at the end, with no obvious dry bypass.
The trip soon turned around, taking in the sights of the streamway at a leisurely pace on the way back. It really is a special feeling to be ambling through a passage this good, especially when there’s been less than ten people here before you. Soon we were back at the sump, and I was feeling pretty happy with the return dive. I think complacency kicked in here, and I didn’t get enough of a deep breath. I was needing air halfway through the dive whilst my helmet was scraping the rock above my head. The only thing I could do was pull the dive line harder and get to the air space! Although totally do-able with enough layers and a furry undersuit, a wetsuit would have the distinct advantage of reducing the initial cold-water shock and ensuring you can get a good deep breath. Everyone was back through the sump with no real trouble, and the team could start the long slog back to surface.
‘Vulgarious’ was fine on the way back out, and progress was fairly quick. However, ‘Loperamide Lust’ was a real slog for me, and it took a considerable amount of time to get back to ‘Inglorious Bastards’. Eventually I popped out into the big chamber and managed to find the Cheese String I had stashed with my SRT kit for the final slog. However on holding the packet in my mud caked hands, I thought I’d manage without it’s plasticy goodness until I was on surface and clean. The prussik out was extremely tiring, not to mention the squeeze going against gravity. However, the worst part was definitely climbing out of ‘Coconut Airways’. That is a real challenge when tired! However, all were soon on surface and back to the carpark, cracking jokes and sharing stories of the trip we just had. We all cleaned off and exchanged our thankyou’s before heading off at about 00:00. I feel really lucky to have been able to do this trip aged 17 – It’s not something you get to do every week (unless you’re the Eldon!). Hopefully this paves the way for more to come and enjoy the delights of Cussey and the SMMC. If I can do it, then it’s not that bad!
Massive thanks to Rob, Joe and the rest of the team for the reassurance and helpful leg-ups where needed. Hopefully I can come down again sometime and do some more exploring…
Ben Marks