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News
30/10/2009 - Christmas Caving and Christmas Drinks 2009
Christmas drinks will take place in Buxton on Saturday 19th December. In a change to previous years, we will be having a few drinks in the pubs followed by a party at the Spa Bar (upstairs room booked), where a DJ has been organised to provide the tunes.
Meet in the Cheshire Cheese at 7.30/8pm.
A dales caving trip will take place on Monday 28th December. Trip yet to be decided but will be a good fun trip rather than a 'not for the feint hearted'!! An exchange trip in Gaping Gill has been mentioned. Festivities will continue in the evening at The Helwith Bridge.
Let me know if you would like a place booking in the YSS hut.
Jason Rider
14/05/2009
- EPC members involved in Old Mill Close Mine rescue
On 11th and 12th May 2009 EPC members
were involved in the rescue of an injured caver from Old Mill Close
Mine between Wensley and Winster. The caver had suffered a dislocated
shoulder after falling approximately 4 metres whilst a significant
distance into the mine complex. The rescue was carried out by
Derbyshire Cave Rescue and is one of the biggest and most involved
rescues that DCRO has carried out in recent years. The operation lasted
over 12 hours and involved over thirty cavers underground and on the
surface. Click [here]
for an online report.
Jules Barrett
14/05/2009
- New Full members
Congratulations to the following people
who were promoted to Full membership of the Eldon Pothole Club at the
AGM in April: Mark Harrison, Toni Murphy, Jon Pemberton, Sam Pemberton, Leanne Rennie, Tam Rennie,
Andy Rowbotham, Ernie White, James Wood
Jules Barrett
14/02/2009
- Eldon AGM and Peak District Stomp
This year's EPC AGM and Stomp will be
held at the Waterloo Hotel, Taddington. The Stomp is open to members,
non-members
and friends of the club.
Camping is available in a field behind the pub. The Stomp will not be
all-ticket; just turn up on the night. Click [here] for more information.
Jules Barrett
18/12/2008
- New P-bolts installed
DCA have installed new P-bolts on the
final short pitch into Oxlow's East chamber and to protect the bad step
between the adit entrance and upper entrance in Jug Holes' Lower Series.
Jules Barrett
18/12/2008
- 2009 subs and 3PL insurance now due
EPC subs and third party liability
insurance payments are due before the 1st January 2009. In
fact to simplify the Secretary's administrative burden he needs them
immediately so that the whole lot can be sent off to BCA in good time
for the 1st of January 2009 meaning that we are all insured for the
whole of next year. The amount
to pay is as follows:
- Full Member insured
through EPC: £24.00 (Eldon subs) + £16.00 (insurance) =
£40.00
- Full Member insured
through another caving club e.g. CDG: £24.00 (Eldon subs)
- Aspirant Member insured
through EPC: £16.00 (insurance) payable now and no subs until AGM
in April 2009
- Aspirant Member insured
through another club: nothing until AGM in April 2009.
- Non-caving Full
Subscriber: £12.00 (Eldon subs)
- Honorary Member: nothing
to pay
Payment can be made by
standing order, cheque or cash. Contact
the Secretary for details.
Sam Townsend
07/12/2008
- Moorfurlong Mine - Ladder is Knackered!
The ladder on the Moorfurlong entrance
pitch is now completely knackered and not safe to use. It's completely
detached at the top, the mid-point join is broken on one side and the
bottom has buckled. If you want a trip down there take a scaff bar,
sling and and SRT rope or wire ladder. A 20m rope or 15m ladder will
see you to the bottom.
Sam Townsend
09/11/2008
- Flower Pot entrance to Carlswark Cavern re-opened
The Flower Pot entrance to Carlswark
Cavern was initially dug from the surface in the 1990s by members of
the Keyhole Caving Club.
The entrance leads into the Dynamite Series and was opened to bypass
the rest of the Cavern, making it easier to reach a dig at the end of
Picnic Passage. In 2008 the entrance suffered a collapse and Eldon members Jon Pemberton, Sam Pemberton and James
Wood have led the effort to re-open it. The new entrance should last for many
years and provides an interesting route into this part of the Cavern.
Click [here] for Jon Pemberton's full
report on the re-opening of the Flower Pot entrance.
Jules Barrett
13/10/2008
- Bagshawe Resurgence Connected to Bagshawe Cavern.
On Saturday
11th October Bagshawe Resurgence was connected to
Bagshawe
Cavern. Simon Cornhill and John Taylor broke through the dig in the
resurgence by levering and breaking boulders at a depth of three metres
forty metres into sump two. As soon as open passage was gained a line
reel was found three metres ahead. The reel was Simon Brooks’ who
had
reeled a line into the sump from the Windy Passage end of Bagshawe
Cavern in 1998. This discovery not only proves the connection to
Bagshawe but also eases the exploration of an upstream continuation of
the sump. The breakthrough is a culmination of thirty years of
exploration in this sump by many divers including Jerry Murland, Steve
Tucker, Russell Carter, John Cordingley, Andy Morrison, Simon Brooks
and
Jim Lister.
The next task is to locate the main underwater passage and the way on
upstream.
John Taylor
02/10/2008
- Bad Air at the bottom of Nettle Pot, Derbyshire.
On
a trip down Nettle Pot, Dan Hibberts and Bob Toogood encountered bad
air (most likely raised CO2 levels) in the area of Red River Passage. Be careful
down there! Jules Barrett
19/09/2008
- Flower Pot entrance to Carlswark run-in.
The Flower Pot entrance to Carlswark
Cavern has run-in. Plans are afoot to re-open the entrance. Contact Sam
Pemberton, John Pemberton or James Wood for more information. Jules Barrett
07/09/2008
- New door and lock for the Coe at Bagshawe Cavern.
A new door and pushbutton combination
lock has been fitted to the Coe at Bagshawe Cavern. The door and lock have been provided by
the Peak Instructed Caving Affiliation (PICA). Jules Barrett
31/07/2008
- Sam's Dig in Bagshawe Cavern has 'gone'.
On July 31st 2008, after 4 years of digging, Sam
Townsend and Bog Bergmann, accompanied by Dave Cowley, John Taylor,
Jules Barrett, Sam Pemberton and Jon Pemberton pushed up through the
choke in 'Sams Dig' into a large rift chamber. Named "Paternity's
Fault" after the fact that nearly all the diggers have had children
during the course of the dig, which has been a bit of a hindrance. Sam
and Jules free climbed an estimated 50 metres up the rift (a bit like
the West Swirl Passage in Oxlow, but steeper). Unbelievably - the rift
looks to be blind at the top. There looks to be a floor level
continuation that draughts but it's going to require some serious
digging. Since the discovery work has been done to stabilise the choke
which was in danger of running in. Anchors and fixed ropes have been
installed to the top of the aven and the next job is to survey the
new find. Sam Townsend
01/06/2008
- Roof of Coe at Bagshawe Cavern.
Andy Norman and John Taylor have begun
work to replace the roof on the Coe at Bagshawe Cavern. On Saturday 31st May the roof
was removed and the old timbers replaced. New timbers were installed
and work began on fixing new slates. Jules Barrett
01/06/2008 - WARNING - Carbon Monoxide at Long Rake Mine,
Bradwell Moor.
On the weekend of 24/25 May 2008 two
cavers were taken seriously ill with Carbon monoxide poisoning in Long
Rake Mine on Bradwell Moor. The source of the Carbon Monoxide is not
known and DCA are advising that cavers should not descend Long Rake
until further notice.
Jules Barrett
01/05/2008 - Bagshawe
Cavern Entrance Stope Project complete.
The work that members of the
Eldon Pothole Club have been doing at Bagshawe Cavern to address the
issues raised by the PICA inspection of October 2007 is now finished.
The concrete slabs are in place and Martyn Grayson has installed a mesh
grille over the hole in the steps. A series of photgraphs of the work
has been send to PICA for distribution to members. Jules Barrett
28/04/2008 - Work at
Bagshawe continues apace.
A working evening is being
planned for Thursday 1st May 08 in the Bagshawe Cavern entrance stope
and we need your help! With the final shuttering complete we plan to
mix concrete and cast the third of the five concrete slabs that are
needed to finish the job in the stope. To make this happen we need
around nine cavers to mix concrete, man the zipwires which will be used
to transport the concrete down the steps and pour the concrete into the
shuttering. Preparatory work will begin at 5:30 p.m. and we hope to
have the zipwires humming by 7:30 p.m. Bring lightweight caving gear
and gloves. The Eldon MGM will be held in the White Hart after work has
finished. Sam Townsend
26/02/2008 - Collapse of
Stemples in Carlswark Cavern
Some stemples have collapsed in
Carlswark Cavern. Click [here]
for a survey showing the site of the collapse. Some old wooden stemples
that were put in to support poised boulders in the roof have fallen
out. There has been a small rock fall but that has been
cleared and the route into the Lower Streamway/John Smith's
Passage is still open. Four wooden stemples have fallen out
and the only one that remains is a weedy piece of angle iron that isn't
doing anything useful. There are three large poised blocks
around 1.5m above the floor of the passage as you exit
the pool on the bend in the Big Dig. The route to the Lower
Streamway and John Smith's Passage goes right underneath
these blocks. I wouldn't be surprised if there was more
movement as the whole thing settles and you certainly wouldn't want to
disturb any of it by accident!
The DCA Projects
Officer is aware; it looks as though some propping will be needed. Jules
Barrett.
18/02/2008 - Conservation
work in Bradwell Dale and Bagshawe Cavern
On the 9th and 10th of February
2008 Eldon members organised a clean-up of the Bradwell Dale caves and
Bagshawe Cavern. A skip was provided by Natural England and over twenty
cavers from a variety of Derbyshire clubs were involved in tidying up
the outside and inside Bradwell Parish Cave, Walker's Grotto and
Bagshawe Cavern. Click [here] for a full
report from the weekend. Jules
Barrett.
03/01/2008 - Eldon
members working to make Nickergrove Mine safer for use by groups
The Nickergrove Through-trip is
an excellent little trip which involves a couple of interesting
vertical sections combined with a bit of stooping and crawling passage.
Cavers enter through the adit entrance and exit a short distance away
by climbing out of a shaft entrance. The Peak Instructed Caving
Affiliation (PICA) have been keen to make the trip safer for some time
and the vertical sections have recently been P-bolted by DCA. Some
suspect rock at the top of one of the climbs was causing concern and
Eldon members Jules Barrett and Sam Townsend have now gardened it away
from the edge. Recent work in Nickergrove is an excellent example of
PICA, DCA, Natural England and local cavers working together. Jules Barrett.
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