Tuesday Nighters - Katie, Edvin, Chris, John, Jess, Hal and Victoria
Well time for more Tuesday night fun! Jess and Katie threw around some ideas and due to the snow and general deluge of precipitation the Clatterways levels arose as a good and promisingly dry trip out. We weren’t sure if we needed two ropes but brought them just in case. Once we arrived and parked up it was time to walk and climb up the muddy bank to find the entrance. It is a nice tight entrance which leads to a fun 6 m pitch. Once down it is followed by a fairly free climbing pitch with a knotted line. Due to my reduced stature and desperately lacking arm strength I used my downing gear and met everyone at the bottom. From there it seemed like endless crawling and stooping passages of mine in several directions. We all spent some time exploring the pipe-workings. Throughout the mine there were interesting calcite walls and speleothems. Jess, Katie, John and Chris made it down to find some historic graffiti while Edvin explored a nice upper route. Katie remembered crossing a plank before. We did find a nice shaft but no plank. A few taller participants ventured across only to find a dead end. Exploring more we eventually came across a metal bar that could pass for a plank and went across. This led to the now blocked lower entrance. We respected that this is the garden entrance of a local resident who doesn’t fancy cavers jumping up into their garden so we went back to explore. We eventually met up again and began the trip out. It didn’t take long until we gathered above. Katie modelled her new caving suit, made with cosmic love by Beth. A brief thought of a pint at the Miners but we didn’t make it in time. Fresh snow had been falling so we made our way back to the High Peaks happy from another fine night out with the Tuesday Nighters.
Chris, Katie and Jess
Clatterways levels piling in
Edvin in Clatterways level