Topic

A cold and pretty miserable day had greeted the band of cavers on their awakening after a night in the Helly, the realisation that summer was over quickly dawned on us at breakfast. Undeterred by the biting wind we were on for a rigging practice trip down Bull Pot in frozen West Kingsdale.
Ales beautifully packed the ropes as part of his training for the 2013 Xitu Expo in Northern Spain and off we went at a rather leisurely pace, the time 1015.
On arrival after a quick change we were off up the hillside and towards today's target, confidence amongst the chums with regards finding the cave was at a wayfaring low, but the quiet form of Nigel was focused on the entrance and low and behold he soon found it (for future reference park by the gate opposite Brown Hill Pot and head up the Hill on a right bearing, NW for the pathfinders amongst you, when you hit the small trees, you are in the right area. If you hit the turbary road you have gone too far).

Once at the entrance Nigel carried out his promise to rig and derig, he rigged the pitch (see Susan's photographs on the clubs website) and descended to the bottom, this is where his promise failed. Stu was down next and we continued to the next pitch, Stu on the high road me on the low road, unfortunately Stu spied the 1st bolt and it seemed a good idea for him to start rigging the pitch, whilst I climbed up the passage. Stu continued with the momentum of a finely tuned rigger and because he had been out of caving action for some time Nigel felt it fair that he continued to the bottom of the cave... Which he did...

The rest of the team were quick to follow, some fine alterations made to the rigging at the top of the 3rd pitch by Alex Wallman and we were soon at the bottom of the 3rd. Alex and Nigel turned back here as the sump is miserable and uninspiring, one of those places that once seen you could quite happily go through life without any further encounters. The rest of the team had not been and so felt it necessary to plod on to the miserable sump. Nigel waited at the top of the 3rd pitch and when the 'sump team' arrived at the bottom we had the most unusual of experiences, the 'mother of all caving phenomena'...

Stu Weston's mobile phone began to ring...

It was the Keithmiester on his way back from Prague ...

Stu had a quick conversation and then continued with Ales's 2013 Xitu training... he was derigging the whole cave...
Swiftly done we were soon back on the surface winter had returned with a vengeance, it was raining, as we got back to the car Stu looked and felt highly delighted, he had found some crag tat, unfortunately his joy soon change to sorrow when Alex informed him that Nigel had dropped his pantin earlier in the day...
The sewing Nigel spent on his meander last week (4 hours if you remember) was to no avail, the harsh environment of the cave soon reduced his meander to a torn and tattered mess, never the less he will continue to use it to the last.
We made a retreat to Ingleton for what is becoming a recently customary YSS Sunday excursion to Inglesport for cheesy chips.....

Points to cogitate following this trip;

Summer has ended,

Molephones are surplus to requirements,

Nigel's ability to delegate far outweighs his ability to rig pitches


Time: Three hours 30 Mins

Players: Nigel steel, Stu Weston Susan Blackburn, Ales Harbrec and the one and only Alex Wallman.

You are an ace Nigel! Brilliant trip report, brilliant caving party: THANKS TO ALL! Sleep well, I hope that the YSS school's ghost will let you calm tonight

Thanks Ales, the ghost has already been to see me when I was measuring the Easegill surveys in the library this night

I must remember to spell your surname correctly tho.

i take back all i said to Stu about his outdated mobile phone bet the iphone couldnt do that , this need putting on ukcaving

Yea I must admit I gave him some grief about his outdated device earlier this weekend.
It was a priceless moment to be deep under ground, hanging on the cowstails then hearing the usually irritating melodic sound of a mobile going off.

Sorry folks have had to edit the above in order to iron out a few grammatical errors etc

Sorry Nige - the April fool was a bit late this year, it was not really Keith on the blower from Prague- it was a call about PPI claims, flaming automated junk call - thats why I hung up.

stuartw wrote:

Sorry Nige - the April fool was a bit late this year, it was not really Keith on the blower from Prague- it was a call about PPI claims, flaming automated junk call - thats why I hung up.

Naughty Stu, you caught me with my trousers down there (and not for the first time ).
Still amazing that the phone rang whilst underground.