Visited with UCET members – Mad-Dan, Andy F, Dylan, Richard S and Richard T and joined by DCC members Tom H and James J.
Giants hole is a grade 3 to 5 cave located in Derbyshire just outside a place called sparrow pit.
We had arranged to meet just down the road from for the cave at “The Wanted” pub, I had decided to get there much earlier than everyone else so I could go down to garlands with the camera and return to the car before everyone else got there, I had been in here before and there was no chance I was going to drag my DSLR around the full trip.
I got to the cave for about 8am, kitted up and went in, I decided to take some rope so I could get Garlands rigged to help keep a reasonable pace going, plus it gets busy in here and I didn't want to be rigging over other people later in the day. With garlands rigged and a few pictures taken, I headed back out to the car.
I just had time to get a butty and a drink before the others turned up, everyone else got kitted up and we had a talk about what we were going to do. It was decided that we would just do the classic round trip and maybe on the way drop down geology pot, Richard S didn't have any up gear though, but after a route through the boot of a few peoples cars, we found him some, he was just short of a foot loop, which wasnt a problem, we could just drop him one down, and with that, the electron got put back in the car, which was good as no one wanted to carry it, and with that, off we went.
The route through to garlands pot is fairly simple, consisting mainly of walkable passage and it is for the most part dry, only having to contend with ankle deep water here and there. Once at garlands you are faced with a 7 – 8m hole in the ground, as I had pre-rigged this, all we had to do was drop down, Tom, James and Richard T dropped down (not even looking at the rigging) which was very brave of them, there was no way I was going down it first, Andy was a little less confident that everything was OK, after he gave it a good coat of looking at, he gave it the thumbs up and off he went, followed by Richard S and Dylan, as it had survived all those going down it, I decided it must be OK, so went down it my self.
At the bottom of garlands you are at the start of the crabwalk, there is some dispute about it's length, Andy was claiming it to be around 450m, i'm convinced it is closer to around 4 miles, all I know is it feels like it's never ever ever ever going to end when you're in it, it's a very high very narrow
rift passage where progress is made by walking sideways, hence it's name “Crab Walk” it is in my opinion the hardest part of the trip. The passage twists and turns and the streamway is running at your feet, the only way I could get past a few areas of it is to lay in the water and pull my self around the corners, I can confirm the water is cold.
We continued down the passage until we met andy, the rest had got through the passage, but had noticed myself and Dylan weren't behind, so Andy had started to head back to look for us, it should have been obvious that Dylan had managed to get stuck and I had been delayed as I had to pull him out, or it was something like that anyway. We made progress and Andy then proclaimed “right chaps, this is the vice” I replied with “SERIOUSLY, WTF....” what was the other bit I had been stuck in then? Andy demonstrated how to best pass it, managing to get stuck, not just a bit stuck, but properly stuck, Dylan managed to pull him out and he made a second attempt at it passing it this time.
The worrying thing is, Andy makes Victoria Beckham look like a plus size model, if he got stuck, I had no chance, BUT... I had done this before, and I was a stone and a half heavier then, I fitted then, I should fit now, I took off my helmet, passed it to Dylan and said “if I get stuck, just leave me to drown” with a a deep breath in, a went for it, not sure how I made it look, but I was through it in what seamed like a blink of an eye, I put my helmet back on and off we headed to meet the others, coming to the ladders, which were totally under a torrenting waterfall, watching people trying to get down them made me LOL, I waited for everyone to get a face full of water, then around them I climbed. Winner. We got to the eating house and regrouped, by this poing both Richard T and Richard S looked freezing, Richard S was dithering and shaking with the cold, Dylan who took my advice after the sell gill trip had got a full fury and was like me, lovely and warm.
We made the decision that to go down geology with people feeling the cold would be stupid, so we headed for the upper series and the way back out. There is 2 unpleasant climbs with knotted hand lines, probably not bad in dryer weather, but on our trip they were under a waterfall, This eventually brings you to the giants windpipe, a 25m crawl in a 18” high passage through 12” of water, I dont think anyone was too keen on doing it, but it was either this or back to the crab walk and when those are your options, the windpipe wins every time, after the windpipe you are up above the crab walk, bridging the top of the of the rift, we went as far as the bolts for the pull through abseil back into the crabwalk, which is only maybe 30 or 40m from the bottom of garlands, once at garlands there was another group who had rigged a ladder, richard elected to exit on their ladder, been life lined by the other party, so he was first out, they de-rigged there ladder and we started to ascend out, there was a 3rd party also stood at the bottom of garlands, the only rigging still in situe was ours, so quite how they expected to get out, i've no idea. One of them came up our rope, Andy de-rigged, they then rigged there ladder which they had just left in a bag hidden at the top of the pitch, lucky they got back at the same time as us, or they would have been free climbing garlands.
We all headed out and back to the cars, myself Andy and Dylan were the last out, Richard and Richard were changed, and were just starting to warm up, Tom and James were just starting to get dry, we all elected to head to the pub for a swift half and to sit in front of the fire and get warm.
All in all an awesome trip, one of the most fun caving trips i've done for a while, there were no real problems, trip lasted at a guess 4.5 hours and the pint in the pub was awesome, although the DCC lads had a “hot chocolate” you could see most of the UCET lads looking at their drink with envy, but none of them would dare order a hot chocolate for fear of been ridiculed for ever more..
The big camera never did the trip and the compact got destroyed in the crab walk, so these are the best I can do...
Giants Hole, Derbyshire 16/2/2013We made progress and Andy then proclaimed “right chaps, this is the vice” I replied with “SERIOUSLY, WTF....” what was the other bit I had been stuck in then? Andy demonstrated how to best pass it, managing to get stuck, not just a bit stuck, but properly stuck, Dylan managed to pull him out and he made a second attempt at it passing it this time.
hangs head in shame
but to be honest - i had already been down it twice - and come back up twice - second time to find out where you were - which my shoulder didnt like so i attempted it resting on my good arm - which put me " against the curve " - its one of those things - if you do it right - you slide through without touching the sides - but wrong - you will never get through
The administrator has disabled public write access.
UCET Giants Hole trip, Derbyshire, 16/2/2013
11 years 2 months ago #14683
Excellent report, Dan. Although I think you'll find I did have a good look at the rigging and was more than happy to be using it. I check every little bit of rigging I hang off
Very enjoyable trip, shame your camera didn't like the Crabwalk - Although, does anybody?
Last comment from the report; That hot chocolate was good, and I dropped James off in Warrington then met a few friends in a local pub which compensated for not having a beer at the wanted
The trees have ears, the hills have eyes. Trust no one... but the sheep.
The administrator has disabled public write access.
UCET Giants Hole trip, Derbyshire, 16/2/2013
11 years 2 months ago #14712
there was never any doubt over the rigging, i'd been down and up it twice before you lot had even got there. I was lol'ing at Andy's huge amount of distrust in it when he got to the pitch. theres a 4 min video of him "checking it out" lol
