When they finally settled on a date for the 2024 Hidden Earth caving conference, it clashed with our away trip to Nenthead.
Having provisionally booked the Assay House, we decided to go to Nenthead anyway.
We ended up with only four people staying in the Assay House, seven more staying in vans and a few "locals" coming for day trips.
On the Saturday Andy lead us on a through trip from Middlecleugh to Smallcleugh using a few short, pre-rigged pitches.
The first problem was getting passed the ore cart in the entrance. This was moved out of the entrance, the team passed it and then dragged it back in, leaving Andy to squeeze past it after locking the gate.
We then followed the main entrance passage passing a couple of right turns (with associated navigation faff) before turning right to the first of 5 ropes.
The ropework was slow to start with, but soon sped up. This was helped by the pitches being together allowing several people to be descending at the same time.
The ropes eventually dropped us into Smallcleugh. Some of the miners' brick work was amazing with brick arches over many of the passages and some brick galleries over 10m high.
There were a couple of sections where the water got quite deep, chest deep on some of our shorter members.
In a few places it got a bit tight, but nothing we had to dig out.
There were a few interesting climbs, but they were optional, mainly to visit artefacts such as carts, dynamite boxes and tools.
Towards the end of the trip we took a side tour to the Ballroom (complete with football).
We then had another long passage to the exit.
Special thanks to Andy for navigation & Paul for ensuring everyone stayed in a group.
Team: Andy, Kate, Klaudia, Liam, Phil, Robin, Dave, Ros, Dave, Ade, Lukasz, Caiti & Paul
Time: About 4h30
