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Saturday 14th August 2010

Went in via the entrance one lower than the top entrance (It has a name but I can’t remember it), It had been widened during the rescue last year so wasn’t too bad. Lots of sqeezy bits and loose rocks but we soon entered a more comfortable sized stream passage. Turning left (Upstream) took us to the bottom of the third pitch from the top and past some spectacular helectites and straws. We then headed downstream via a few small wet pitches rigged from naturals or dodgy looking spits. A look at the sump convinced us that free diving it was not really an option so we reversed our tracks and came out the way we went in. To make sure that we were all very wet we went in to the third entrance, had a look at the sump from the other side, had a splash along the stream and then exited via the bottom manhole. A really good fun cave with some nice pretties not at all what I expected.

YSS Nigel, Alex, Susan
CCCC Jane, Mike
Bradford Alan, Richard

Fantastic trip. Mike and I first attempted Langstroth back in December when the cave definitely won. The pretties in this cave are really good although likely to suffer from increased traffic now it is possible to bypass the first three pitches of the cave.

Jane

Yes a great trip and this time I got out without symptoms of hypothermia! The formations in the cave are really quite special. I've put up some pictures on FB from the trip. The gallery is linked from the YSS FB page or the direct link is

Link:
www.2343ec78a04c6ea9d80806345d31fd78-gdprlock/album.php?aid=260435&id=646238571&l=296223f707

Mike

alexw wrote:

Went in via the entrance one lower than the top entrance (It has a name but I can’t remember it)

Hole in the Wall?

That's the one!

Jane

Alan and Richard are both members of UWFRA and whilst down at the sump and awaiting my turn to go back up the ropes I learnt in a conversation with Richard that he was the cave diver who helped Keith out of Ireby when he was trapped by flooding. This reassured me that this time round I was likely to get out of Langstroth OK!

i really enjoyed this trip, there was something for most people, even a tricky deviation for me to fight with. The sumps look interesting, but without a dive hood a no go (for me anyway). Jane made a good point concerning the location of the 'hole in the wall', look across the valley to the lonely tree (it is to the left of Pasture Gill pot) and follow the wall down. The 'hole in the wall' is opposite. Those hellictites were (by Yorkshire standards) very long. The 'flying swan' being my favourite. Thanks for a great trip everyone.

but without a dive hood a no go

Whats a dive hood?

Sorry Gordon, it is a tight hat made out of neoprene, keeps ones head relatively warm whilst underwater. And by no means to be confused with the hood thing that the gimp wore in 'pulp fiction'

AHHHhhhhh i c I thought it must be some sort of underwater breathing device!!

By the way chaps Aldi are doing neoprene gloves for £6.

alexw wrote:

A look at the sump convinced us that free diving it was not really an option

Why?

It was cold, that final chamber with its waterfall has a howling draught. the sump is in three parts. the furthest and longest part involves a tricky going down and back up manouvere and last but i suspect not least,the size of airbell's and their capacity to hold cabon dioxide resulted in the deaths of 3 cavers during the 70 or 80's. quite a tally of negatives to think about dont you think!

nsteel wrote:

It was cold, that final chamber with its waterfall has a howling draught. the sump is in three parts. the furthest and longest part involves a tricky going down and back up manouvere and last but i suspect not least,the size of airbell's and their capacity to hold cabon dioxide resulted in the deaths of 3 cavers during the 70 or 80's. quite a tally of negatives to think about dont you think!

i see - but it is still an option! not being pernickerty - i'd like to do the through trip so i'm gleaning info

Good man, a challenge such as this should be encouraged My reference to a neoprene hood may have something to do with my age

being a bit short in the hair department all ill say is there isnt owt wrong with a good hood when you have to put your head in cold water , it took me about 5 goes to get throught the duck in tatham wife because every time my head hit the water not olny did it take your breath away it way like having a brain freeze ,

pgeddes wrote;
"every time my head hit the water not olny did it take your breath away it way like having a brain freeze"

In the surfin world they call that pleasurable experience 'icecream head'. Used to encounter that pleasure at places like 'sewage pipe' in Thurso, Scotland. mind you, when the reef break has a name as glorious as that, other things became the focus of attention

iwalker wrote:

i see - but it is still an option! not being pernickerty - i'd like to do the through trip so i'm gleaning info

Originally Russ Brooks from BPC was going to join us in order to use our ropes and do the through trip. However he was going to dive with a bottle of air, which
he didn't manage to get hold of on the day so he backed out.