Topic

We soon found the entrance, but it took us a few minutes to excavate the snow from around it in order to belay the rope down the rather cosy entrance climb. From the pleasant sunshine we dropped straight into the wet entrance crawl which felt [insert expletive here] freezing (snowmelt not being renowned for its bathing properties); fortunately I was behind Sam so he didn’t have the option to turn round

Once down the few short pitches and squeezes it was on to the impressive 70m fault pitch. Despite relatively recently placed spits (to replace the originals), a good sprinkling of water was never far away. With nothing much to see at the bottom we were soon back on the rope, albeit rather cautiously after some loose rock went flying down the pitch. All to soon we were back at the crawl, which was still perishing, but a least there was warm sunshine waiting at the end of it

Party: Alex R, Sam, Rich

You make it sound a short easy trip!

How did Alex's lemon yellow suit stand up to a East Kingsdale NC3 grade 5 (Alex R Grade TBC)

Rich, grand report.

My effort below (Wrote before I saw yours!).

Why go caving? A question often put to me; and one I was struggling to answer when heading up the hill to the entrance of the cave on a gloriously sunny day. Once there we had to clear the snow to find the block to anchor around - the other 2 weren’t convinced by my plan of a snow bollard! Alex headed down first, Rich following and me last to leave the brilliant sunshine behind. Soon down into the icy cold canal/ flatout crawl, I was really struggling to answer the question of the day. Somehow persevering with the task in hand the 150meter crawl succumbed and the first pitch encountered along with item 1 of Alex's dropped objects (hand jammer). The other pitches went easily but were very tight (item 2 of Alex's dropped objects - rigging spanner) before the main feature of the cave - the final shaft. Rich rigged, me and Alex followed to the bottom where with nothing to see we quickly made a retreat. Rich demonstrated how loose 1 section of the shaft was first before Alex de rigged. Then just a case of squeezing back out along the crawl and battling with the exit. surfacing to a very nice afternoon sun, stroll down the hill and probably the most pleasant change in Kingsdale I have ever had!

Back at the YSS I had time to reflect on the days caving and back to my first question - why do I cave? I decided to go road biking on the Sunday - 60 miles plenty of accent and a jolly good day had!

Party: Rich Rae, Sam Clifford, Alex Richie (YSS)
Time: 5 hours
Change: Grade 1

Think it did well, but no pocket in it! He seemed happy enough to have splashed out the equivilent cost of a family house in Barrow on the suit!

Think it did well, but no pocket in it! He seemed happy enough to have splashed out the equivilent cost of a family house in Barrow on the suit!

On close inspection there are two small holes in the back, so I am not happy.

I wrote a short trip report on UKCaving about the cave which I will copy here:

Just did a trip down there yesterday, fantastic little trip. Bolts are in good condition and are still shiny. Not sure why you need 2 - 3 slings for the big pitch, we only used 1 maybe thats why we got so wet, I guess we missed some other deviations.

I would ask though that someone re-bolt Stemple pitch at some point, no traverse to the Y-hang and the rope hangs down the tightest bit lol. It was far easier to free climb up the more open bit, its actually quite an easy free climb, the traverse was worse!

I also found a bypass to Scimitar, climbing up the rift a little downstream but I don't recommend that route, the hole at the top was snug but I still fit through with half my SRT gear on lol.

Finally, while waiting for people to re-ascend the big pitch I dug about in the boulders at the bottom and opened up a nice little void where the water drops down but was cut short in this en-devour as a henry knocked down from above exploded beside me.

Oh someone asked my grade for the cave: Going off that I am un-bruised relatively and not aching and as its quite short, I can't score it more than 4 really, even tackle lowering route I squeezed up was not that bad, the slot in Car was worse than that.

Oh and to defend my self. Hand jammer was placed there I did not loose it, it was just in my way so I let it drop in the steam. As for the rigging spanner, I found it in Rowton anyway, I think its an escapee spanner.

alexr wrote:

Think it did well, but no pocket in it! He seemed happy enough to have splashed out the equivilent cost of a family house in Barrow on the suit!

On close inspection there are two small holes in the back, so I am not happy.

Was considering one of these [new Lyon suits] after reading the glowing review in Descent. Will be interested to hear how yours is looking after a few more trips before I spash out!