Eyam Dale Shaft, then into Gimli's Dream (attempt)

We already spend a lot of time on Stoney Middleton Dale. I think this has more to do with the familiarity of the area and the fact that access is so easy. We've probably not been down Eyam Dale House Cave for that simple reason, you need to provide proof of third party liability cover. It's a shame really but I can understand why.

The plan for this trip was to head down the Eyam Dale Shaft (from now on referred to a EDS), on account that both Finney and I had SRT rigs to play with. From here we'd then make our way into Merlin Mine, which has been blocked in the past but now has been re-opened (earlier this year I think). 

The day started like most caving days heading to Hitch'n'Hike for the purchase of yet more gear. There is always one of us who needs something and today that was Finney, who required a Croll. For those who don't know, a croll is an chest-ascender that's mounted above your harness and held in place by a chest sling. A couple of weeks before Finney had purchased said harness and chest strap, and had been using my croll for some SRT practise out of the loft hatch. It was only the night before we planned to go caving that he realised I'd be using my croll, thus a trip was made. With purchases made, we soon found ourselves parked up, geared up and walking to the EDS in Stoney.

Descending wasn't a problem at all, even with the bag dangling off my lower cows-tail, and following the survey was easy. Once Finney was down we decided to ditch the SRT gear (all the harnesses and climbing equipment). It wasn't like we'd be using it again until we came out. It turned out to be a very good decision.

Gimli's Dream is named on account of the amazing speolotherms in the cave, however they've been damaged over the years and the entrance from Carlwark (and therefore the EDS) was cemented shut. I think it was another case of instructors taking outdoor groups through, which always seems to cause a problem. Earlier this year a new link was dug, and named connect 4 (as 4 people went through it) and it's supposed to be very tight. This is what we were aiming for. 

We soon found the first part of the original connection, which takes you out of the EDS area and into the next chamber. This was access by sitting down legs first and then shuffeling forward, feeling the passage with your feet and lay on your back. This was the first trip out with my caving suit it was great. I crawled through puddles with no problem. It stayed warm all the way through. This chamber opened up into what would have been a fairly large chamber, was it not for the massive boulders everywhere and there were several exits off.

Andy tried the first one, going in feet first again as he could orientate himself round to go head first and after getting covered in mud, it proved to be short and ended in a collapse. We then tried another one, which the survey had told me didn't go anywhere in particular but Finney wanted to follow it. It was reasonably grim as we crawled through puddles and thick clay adhered to every part of us. Finney soon found himself getting more and more wedged while he could see the tube went no where, we turned round and headed back.

Further searching around found another small tunnel, which I dived into. It was pretty tight and as I crawled forward navigating myself over boulders I found out there was a connection issue with my main beam. This put the wind up me, especially as my secondary beam was flat (and there's a lesson about making sure the batteries are full if I ever saw one). I panicked, reversed myself managing to pin my leg in between a couple of rocks and panicked some more. I was a while before I calmed down.

Finney however kept his cool, crawled in and ragged my leg out of the where it was stuck, and when I say ragged I mean it. He'd looked at it and said "you're leg won't fit" to which he received "it will if you pull it hard enough" in reply. He did, I was freed and he showed me what I'd done wrong on the way out. We sat there, we trying to breathe deep and calm down, Finney probably trying not to laugh from my undeserved panic and decided what to do...



We headed back in. I was sure this was the connection into Gimli's, so sure. This time I went through, thinking to myself "breathe deeply and take your time, you can always reverse yourself" and I managed to get through without utter panic. Finney was following too with the haul bag (with no apparently problems either!) and I rounded a corner as the tunnel widened... only to thin again. Another constriction was passed which brought us promptly to a collapse, far off in the distance. I was gutted, and we headed back a little dejected. After a short discussion we went back to the rope, cleaned ourselves off as best we could and headed up and out. 

I don't like failing at things and since I've been trawling the net to find out where exactly the connection is. I've a feeling I missed something in that passage and I'll have to go back and look in the new year.