Not the best of weather for caving in the Dale's but 4 of us turned up and stuck with the program, which was Marble Steps. Although I'd had a little whisper that the entrance series was rigged, we did take all the rope and steel work to be self sufficient in our task to bottom the cave.
As we arrived at the shake hole and started to climb down into the gulley, it was evident that the entrance was rigged. So leaving one bag of tackle on the surface we enjoyed a free ride in, although we did have to do the bypass as the last entrance series pitch into the Main Chamber was not rigged.
It would appear that Lady Luck was on our side as the 10mtr climb was also rigged, moving forward through the 240 rift with tackle bags it was another nice surprise to find that Stink Pot was also rigged including the traverse over it towards to 90 pitch. And as we approached the head of this pitch luck really was on our side as this was also rigged, as we started to descend it was apparent that instead of dropping the 90 to the bottom, whoever had rigged it had swung across and joined the Intestine route. Still tacking the tackle with us it soon became clear that it was rigged to the bottom. After a crawl about and a look at the sump it was time to start making our way back out.
We did meet Bean and Co in the 240 rift as they failed to get passed Shadow Route in Ireby due to amount of water in there, so they carried on for a free ride to the bottom
Trip time 3hrs30
Stuart Weston, Phil Hawcroft, Paul Magsun, Myself
