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Hell Hole (22 February 2026) 23 Feb 2026 18:39 #21982
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- dchadwick
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Another rarely visited, out of the way cave. This time only about 50 minutes drive from the hut.
The intention was to visit the three main caves in the area starting with Hell Hole (in which I was expecting a very short trip).
For some reason, I thought that the parking at the top of the hill out of Whitewell was limited. So we left two cars in Whitewell village and went up to the parking in the other two cars. In the event, we could have parked about 6 cars in the parking areas.
Having changed, we headed across the boggy field to the stand of trees.
Matt rigged the entrance pitch using two trees (one for a traverse line & one for the hang). A third tree was used for a long deviation to prevent a rope rub.
Matt dropped down the pitch and rigged the oil drum pitch to a rotten log using the same rope.
He continued using the same rope down the third pitch but needed another rope for the final pitch.
After Lukasz and Bernice had followed him, we changed the rigging to use the iron spike mentioned in the description.
Then Ros & Paul descended. I decided that the oil drums were unsafe an decided to stay in the chamber.
Paul had a quick look at the head of the third pitch and was soon coming back up the oil drums sending rocks clattering down the short pitch.
Ros followed but her welly and leg-loop got caught on a bit of a barrel. She had to jettison her welly, hand jammer, and safety link in order to be hauled out.
I managed to free the leg loop from the barrel but the welly plunged down the pitch.
Paul and I decided that we should not let the others attempt to prussik up the oil drums as they were getting worse and more rocks were going down the pitch.
After everyone had negotiated the awkward section at the top of the third pitch we pulled the rope and spare kit (including Ros' welly) up the oil drum pitch. We then set up a haul, lowering a loop of rope to those waiting below.
We got the victim to put their short cows tail into the lowered loop of rope and told them to keep as still as possible while we hauled.
Having got everyone out of the lower reaches of the cave, we headed out.
I had a quick look in the hole where the river sinks but no-one was interested in doing another cave, so we headed off.
Team: Dave, Paul, Matt, Bernice, Lukas & Ros
Time: 2h 40m
The intention was to visit the three main caves in the area starting with Hell Hole (in which I was expecting a very short trip).
For some reason, I thought that the parking at the top of the hill out of Whitewell was limited. So we left two cars in Whitewell village and went up to the parking in the other two cars. In the event, we could have parked about 6 cars in the parking areas.
Having changed, we headed across the boggy field to the stand of trees.
Matt rigged the entrance pitch using two trees (one for a traverse line & one for the hang). A third tree was used for a long deviation to prevent a rope rub.
Matt dropped down the pitch and rigged the oil drum pitch to a rotten log using the same rope.
He continued using the same rope down the third pitch but needed another rope for the final pitch.
After Lukasz and Bernice had followed him, we changed the rigging to use the iron spike mentioned in the description.
Then Ros & Paul descended. I decided that the oil drums were unsafe an decided to stay in the chamber.
Paul had a quick look at the head of the third pitch and was soon coming back up the oil drums sending rocks clattering down the short pitch.
Ros followed but her welly and leg-loop got caught on a bit of a barrel. She had to jettison her welly, hand jammer, and safety link in order to be hauled out.
I managed to free the leg loop from the barrel but the welly plunged down the pitch.
Paul and I decided that we should not let the others attempt to prussik up the oil drums as they were getting worse and more rocks were going down the pitch.
After everyone had negotiated the awkward section at the top of the third pitch we pulled the rope and spare kit (including Ros' welly) up the oil drum pitch. We then set up a haul, lowering a loop of rope to those waiting below.
We got the victim to put their short cows tail into the lowered loop of rope and told them to keep as still as possible while we hauled.
Having got everyone out of the lower reaches of the cave, we headed out.
I had a quick look in the hole where the river sinks but no-one was interested in doing another cave, so we headed off.
Team: Dave, Paul, Matt, Bernice, Lukas & Ros
Time: 2h 40m
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