Topic

Wow what an epic! For me any way. = Longest/hardest caving trip I’ve done so far.

And with 12 in the party there were lots of interesting challenges ie in keeping everyone together/keeping track of where everyone was….. and informed of where we were going at all times which was dealt with brilliantly by Keith in particular but every team member has to be congratulated on the way they handled themselves in a very professional manner; in keeping to the task/minimizing the risks/helping each other out.

I naively thought this was going to be a repeat of my last month’s ‘nice little Easegill Lancaster return trip’ with Keith and Nigel ; (especially as most of the party this time were ‘suffering’ from a good night out following last night’s AGM!).

However after visiting the Colonnades and the Graveyard. we moved on past ‘the alien’;

and then seemed to find 12 different ways to get down to the stream passage! ………..It was something like the ‘SAS rescue of the Iranian embassy ‘- with team members abseiling/climbing down all sorts of routes into the stream passage.

Nigel left his bag here for collection on the way back.

After a bit of a headcount everyone was eventually accounted for. And Nigel decided to explore upstream.

A great choice.

And everyone enjoyed a long pleasant stomp up the stream way. The brief hesitation on the deeper water pools was soon done away with…….after Keith decided to do a bit of ‘body surfing’ halfway up and Dave shouted charge!

We carried on for a through trip. I’ve no idea how he did it, but Keith managed to navigate our way out perfectly.
We came out the aptly named Wretched rabbit. Which after hours of caving was really, really, knackering! (For unfit me any way); it was a real test of endurance. Especially as I knew one slip on ALL those mud covered boulders could result in a broken leg at any time.
I certainly think I was crawling a few more seconds than I should have been – due to sheer exhaustion!
But then just to add to the fun, we came to the ‘hand over hand’ bits on the final climbs out, which was just the ‘icing on the cake’ ( just when you think you have finished … here’s another surprise to make sure you have nothing left in the tank’ LOL). It was at this point that Nigel finally agreed that he would n’t be able to retrieve his bag and that he would have to ask someone to return it via the caving forums!

WOW! Really Glad I did (survived) it. Really impressed with everyone’s team work.

Good job Nigel knew his way back across the moor in the dark. As I would have been totally lost.

Big THANK YOU again to Keith for retrieving the rope from Lancaster all on his own!( made worse by having to wait for some ‘guests’ to finish off using our entrance ropes! This meant that Keith was having to travel even further than the rest of us; across the moors in the dark. This also resulted in him getting back to his car after the rest of us, who were anxiously waiting for him at the cars. The guy deserves a medal!

Probably missed out on loads!?! ....please everyone feel free to add delete or whatever to this blurb...

Who were the 12 ?

Lee Marvin
Ernest Borgnine
Charles Bronson
Jim Brown
John Cassavetes
Richard Jaeckel
George Kennedy
Trini Lopez
Ralph Meeker
Robert Ryan
Telly Savalas
Robert Webber
Clint Walker
Donald Sutherland

The real twelve were......
Dave Nixon
Kate Nixon
Dave Nolan
Rob Rimmer
Paul Geddes
Nigel (no bag) Steel
Clair Powel
Tom Coomber
Gordon Aitken
Alex&Sue
Keith Mason

I'd like to \"second\" Gordon's thanks to Keith for leading the trip, an epic task given the size of the group.
I thought the tactic of either not deciding on, or else not telling the team, the plan was to do a through trip worked excellently in making sure everyone committed to the full trip!
Keith: thanks also for derigging the pitch, and sorry half of us left before you were back.

Claire

this trip has issues that im sure will pop up since it was ment to be a trip down fall pot up doubledecker pot and wilf taylor way and the downstream end of the bull pot sump than across craoo passage and waterfall passage up into montagu before the exit out off lancater hole led by me with help from kieth

all was going well till we got to fall pot as me and kieth were checking a possible new way down the group split up and made any way they could down through fall spot i went down to the stream way three time returning up because i knew there was peolple behind me.i ended up at the top off fall pot with everyone down in the stream way , once back down in the stream way the group had split up again heading up stream , once we were all regrouped some way up the passage the trip had change ! we were now doing a through trip and coming out off wreched rabbit, at this point i just dropped tothe back of the group and followed from the back helping keep evryone moving so the group didnt split up to far again
lots of stuff to say but will keep it to myself

glad we did the through trip thoe its been one ive wanted to do for some time even if i did have to run across the fell jump in the car in a very wet furry so i could make a phone call hahahaha

A great trip even with the traditional hangover. Upstream main passage with its pools and plunges, Oakes Cavern, Cornes Cavern, the Minarettes and the big rift were tremendous all helping to develop those basic caving skills. As we all spilled out into easgill this particular caver was exhausted, managing to go arse over tit in easgill stream. I did feel 10 years younger (must have been all those accumulated face packs). Big thanks to Keith, and thanks to a great team who made it such an enjoyable trip.
Gordon, we left Clint Eastwood down there!
Many thanks
'No Bags'

NO BAGS i like that, let us know if you get it back nigel

Good job yer Balls were'nt in it Nigel

All those of you who thought it was a fun trip should think about signing up for the long weekend in Wales (May bank holiday) as that's the type of caving you get there. A total change from faffing with ropes (as most Welsh caves require none) and potentially a lot of variety. OFD has a great streamway (like Easgill but much more of it) and other caves have all kinds of trips ranging from very, very easy to stuipdly long and/or hard. If you've not been you really ought to make the effort. Don't know if you wore your SRT kits but in S Wales you don't need to faff with it all getting caught ....

Fiona