Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett
(EPC), Ann Soulsby (TSG), Alan
Brentnall
I'd been wanting to do
this trip
for a while and so when I got a free Sunday it seemed like the perfect
opportunity (especially as we knew that JH was rigged). Some of the
SUSS cavers
and some blokes from Yorkshire had done it recently and that reminded
me about
it. Ann has done the Ride of the Valkyries and knows this part of the
Peak/Speedwell system well so was great to have her along. I'd like to
do it as
a pull-through (you can cave back from Salmon's Cavern to the bottom of
Calcite
Aven) but wanted to rig and de-rig it first to figure out what's what.
A team of
four dwindled to two (me and Ann) on the Sunday morning and the trip
looked in
doubt until Alan Brentnall arrived at the TSG with no firm plans. Was
excellent
that Alan decided to join us as neither of us fancied de-rigging JH
whilst also
transporting the 90m of rope needed for the Ride of the Valkyries. We
arrived at
Rowter Farm at about 10:30 am and packed the 20m and 70m(ish) ropes
that we
needed. Headed underground and soon found ourselves at the bottom of
Leviathan.
From here went through into the Far Sump Extension and turned left to
arrive at
the bottom of the fixed ropes that lead upwards in Calcite Aven. A nice
series
of pitches with rebelays, deviations and traverses lead up to the top
of Calcite
Aven and then into Fingernail Chamber. A hole in the floor is the short
Fingernail Chamber Pitch which leads to Balcombe's Way. We walked along
Balcombe's Way until the first bolts appeared. Here you're in a rift
passage and
there's a narrow (around half a metre) slot in the floor that you can
easily
straddle. I started rigging along a great airy traverse and the slot in
the
floor gradually gets wider as you go further along the traverse. Soon,
you're
rigging along just the right-hand wall and you start to become aware
that the
rift is opening out into something huge. It really does feel like one
of those
big continental caves! Reached the pitch-head and abseiled down to a
hanging
rebelay just over the lip. Rigged that and then a brilliant
free-hanging descent
down the huge rift. There's another rebelay further down with bolts on
opposite
walls and then you land on a ledge with routes on down both sides. We
followed
the bolts down past another rebelay to the bottom. Stuck our heads into
Salmon's
Cavern and then returned back up the ropes, Ann and Alan de-rigging.
From here
we retraced our steps back down Calcite Aven to the bottom of JH. We
were
de-rigging JH and Ann battled heroically all the way up the cave with
the
biggest (fattest) tackle bag that I've ever seen. It dwarfed my 'big
bag' and I
reckon it would hold about 200m of rope. Amazing effort to drag it up
the Bitch
Pitch and along the Cartgate. I picked up a couple of bags at the
Workshop and
headed out leaving Ann and Alan to de-rig. Me and my two bags were out
by 4 pm
with Ann and Alan taking a bit longer de-rigging.
A superb SRT trip with
some amazing
situations. The traverse into the pitch head is great fun to rig and
then the
pitches are also brilliant.
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