4 Days in the Peak with Andy Knight

(Andy Knight, sporting a new DJ)

A friend of mine is joining the Army (Andy Knight) so prior to this we have been away for a few days climbing, in the Peak. It was originally supposed to be in the Lake District but I pulled out because I wasn't willing to carry full kit for 4 days in the mountains on my ankles and toe (mainly because I sprained my left ankle the week before bouldering). Instead we went to the Peak, despite a rather damp weather report.

I picked Andy up in Stoke-on-Trent at 12 on the Tuesday and we just set off, with little or no plan with regard to the climbing. Our only real plan was that we'd be camping at Wardlow Mires. This has got everything a good climbers campsite needs. It's cheap and cheerful, there is an excellent truckers cafe across the road (for those to lazy to cook their own breakfast) and it is in close proximity to the best pub in the Peak District... The Three Stags head. With this in mind Andy suggested Stanage for the afternoon and we soon found ourselves gearing up in the popular car park. As Andy had arrived on the train he'd brought one large sack with all his camping equipment in and a small sack for the climbing gear, and it was a pretty small sack (POD Granite). This meant that Andy appeared to be geared up for a fast and light attack on the crag, carrying only what he needed. He defiantly embraced the alpine mentality (and this carried on through the week with his subsequent purchases). I on the other hand found myself cramming some form of climbing gear into my big old and essentially British sack. 

Our first route was Robin Hood's Right Hand Buttress Direct going at HS 4b. I've been eyeing up this crackline for a few years, but never found anybody willing to second it. It looks like it should go at HVS and this is probably what puts people off, so I was pretty excited when Andy picked it as his first lead. Andy made an excellent lead of this route, which proved to be harder than it was grade (or at least more awkward to climb) and I thoroughly enjoyed seconding him up it. Topping out I realised that we'd not actually looked in the guidebook properly for the nearest walk-off (probably the first time we neglected to use all the information that the guidebook had to offer over the course of the week) and this some bumbling around ensued before we found something easy enough to descend.

It was really nice to be at Stanage mid week as there was hardly anyone else at the crag. I'm not an anti-social climber, but given the choice of a crowded crag or lonely isolated crag I know which one I'd prefer. The less crowded crags tend to be a little looser or greener any generally more interesting. Stanage is a much nicer place to climb on a quiet day.

I tied on for my lead, which was a VS 4c called Inverted V. It was pretty similar to the last route as I found out when I climbed it, but with a couple of harder sections. I really enjoyed being back on a decent grit route and had a whale of a time making the moves out along the end of the overhang I was to turn on the right. I snuggled down to belay in my little down jacket, something that was to prove a point of jealously for Andy and mean a trip to hitch'n'hike for us later on! Having descended Andy picked a VS 4c called Hargreaves Original Route (black slab) as his second lead. We had actually arrived at the crag for about 1500 (due in part to the first of many stops in Hitch'n'hike and breakfast at Andy's favourite cafe on the way there) so by now the sun was starting to stoop low in the sky. We could already see the valley's beneath us filling up with a thick fog.

After a difficult start Andy made short work of his route, but instead of climbing up the original line he followed a another VS 4c line which almost runs in parallel. I had thought about yelling up to him and telling him that he'd need to move right at some point, but in the back of my mind I knew that he had already seconded that route, so pushing on through new territory would have been more fun. I seconded this one, in my down jacket because the time had come a past for climbing in a t-shirt and arrived to a grinning Andy.

By now it was getting cold and I'm sure there is many a Alpinist and hardy mountaineer would have considered climbing until complete darkness... and thankfully (though hardly Alpinists and probably soft mountaineers) we decided to do the same and attempt to squeeze in a another route. I choose Zagrete (HS 4a) for my final lead of the day and it proved to be pretty stiff and a little artificial. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the climbing as I did, very much so. I topped out to the blankest section of stanage, in reference to places to find a decent belay, but managed to cobble something together. Sat there belaying I got to watch the sun drop behind the cloud on the horizon. I was left felling like I was sat in a bubble as all around me the fog was pouring off Stanage moor behind us and flowing into the valley beneath. I literally sat there and watched it fill up with fog as Andy's little red light on his helmet shone through, indicating his progress. 

By now it was dark so we did bail from the crag, back to the car and set off to Wardlow Mires. What had seemed like such a simple plan was to become vastly more complicated. Both the Pub and campsite were closed! (reading in the guidebook told us they only open weekends, especially in the winter months). A little stuck and at loss of what to do we trawled the guidebooks for information. There isn't actually that many places to camp in the Peak and after a few failed attempts to find somewhere we ended up near Birchen at the Eric Bryn Memorial Campsite (EBMC). This was of course after sampling the ales on offer in the Robin Hood (not quite the Three Stags Head, but never-the-less and excellent pub). The EBMC had no car access so all little inebriated we emptied out the climbing gear from the sacks and set off into the fog.

Morning was a miserable affair. After a cold nights sleep, a little bit drunk and on a full stomach I was awakened by the campsite owner asking for camping fees (which I happily paid). My current cleeping bags (clue there's two) work on the principal that if they're too warm, then I'll not want to leave them in the morning. The problem is is that I think I've gone too far the other way! We were then informed, still tent bound, that we were in the wrong field! In the thick fog the night before we'd eventually just given up and accepted that we probably were in the right place. In the end we had to move to the right field (for fear of horses munching on our tents) and Andy picked what turned out to be an excellent spot close to the wall and shetlered from the prevailing wind. The rest of our day was spent waiting for a break in the weather and so you can imagine where we ended up. It's the same place any climbers always end up when the weather is bad... gear shopping. Breakfast was had at Outside in Hathersage (strangly the poorest breakfast, in terms of quality, we had over the course of the week) and a few items purchased. I purchased some coffee, produced by (Grower's Cup). I like coffee, but my expresso pot is awkward to use and slow on the trangia and I've yet to justify spending £16 on a filter for my jetboil. As they didn't have any down jackets that Andy wanted (as he was embracing the “fast and light” European ethic) we went to Hitch'n'Hike to make more purchases. I think Andy walked away with a nice RAB microlight alpine (down jacket) and a trangia. I was glad he brought the trangia. I inherited mine and now it's something like 34 years old. It looks dented and battered but it still works, requires very little maintenance and as long as you prefer sitting round and talking while waiting for your food to cook (rather than yelling over the sound of some gas or petrol powered jet engine) it's a good stove. 

With a respite in the weather and a wholly unused copy of Peak Distict Limestone a plan was hatched to climb at Stoney for the day. We picked a 50 metre VS 4c called Aurora. The route is situated on windy ledge buttress but starts at the base of the crag on the right hand side. Andy took the first pitch up the rib and after some difficult climbing to start he was soon out of sight with the ropes flying through the belay device. At the yell of safe I geared up to head second him. It was cold so I was still in my jacket but sporting a rather fetching (or rather garish!) pair of lyrca leggings. We were climbing on limestone and I thought my bizarre attire would do credit to all the lycra clad rock-jocks up developed this cliff during the 70's and 80's, even if we were climbing a VS. We took up Andy's little climbing sack, in order to leave the shoes on the ledge for the walk down. 

Arriving at the belay I set off to find the start of my pitch. Above me soared a 20 metre high groove with a handjam width sized crack running up it back. I can hardly give a blow by blow account of my lead (because that would ruin if for anyone else heading up it) but I was excellent. It was one of my favourite routes I've ever actually climbed. There was excellent gear all the way but by the climbing was still complex and through provoking. The last section sets out left onto the arete for a wildly exposed finish up the blunt rib, whilst looking down on windy ledge and realising where you really are! Andy agreed with me about the climbing on the last pitch but being cold we didn't stick around. The decent was almost as much fun as the climbing. It started with an abseil off the top, back to the windy ledge. It gave me a real appreciation for how steep and overhanging the rock is there (the abseil is pretty much free hanging). The next problem was getting back to the shoes. Had we read the guidebook properly (second time we didn't abuse the guidebook for it's full worth) we have known that we couldn't just walk round. I'll admit that I knew it was supposed to be a VD to get you round the arete, but I didn't think it would be an actual VD! (as opposed to an exposed walk). Andy lead this, dispatching it quickly and I followed. It really was a lovely little climb and I'll hopefully go back there... but continue up the HVS instead! With the shoes in collected all that was left to do was coil the ropes and descend, which was good as it started to rain on the walk back to the car.

(Getting back to Windy Ledge)

(Andy setting out to deal with the VD back to the shoes)

We had a really nice evening that night. My mind was focused on simple things like “I need food”, “I need somewhere warm, preferably with beer” and then “I need bed, preferably warm” (ok, so I didn't get the last part). While I cooked stir-fry from scratch on my trangia, Andy built a sadly unsuccessful brazier. Apparently there is supposed to be no smoke without fire, but I can a sure you that this isn't always the case. On point of annoyance was that Andy's trangia didn't come with a kettle (surely the point of owning such a stove anyway) so you can guess where we stopped off on the next day... 

We climbed on Chee Tor (in Chee Dale) on the Thursday. I really should actually read the limsetone guide once in a while because there is a host of limestone climbing really quite close to Stoke. It'll beat going to the Roaches as well. We walk to the crag was very pretty starting at the old rainway station in Miller's Dale and walking down the railway lines and through the tunnels. When we descended off the old railway line the walk continued down into the limestone gorge itself and at one point along stepping stones at the side of the river. Here was had the third occasion where a proper read of the guidebook would have been a good idea. The path takes you on the left hand side of the river (facing down steam). Chee Tor itself is on the right and you can probably guess what happened. We found ourselves rewarming very cold and wet feet on the opposite side of the bank having crossed the river (whilst contemplating that we'd have to do the same again when we walked out). I'm almost glad we didn't read the guidebook properly otherwise we have probably either written off the idea of Chee Tor, or come armed with wellington boots and towels which would have taken away from the adventure.

(Crag access... and somewhere to hide from the rain)

(Stepping stones down the Chee Dale Valley)

(Andy bravely crossing the river... just to get to the crag)

Our route for the day was the Chee Tor Girdle, something Andy had suggested. It's 5 pitches of VS climbing graded 4b, 4b, 4a, 5a, 4c before you abseil back to the floor. Andy took the first pitch (also a route in it's own right called Dogone Groove). The rock was actually horribly cold a greasy and Andy won't mind me telling you he had to taken on the rope at least once. We I seconded it, it really threw me. Footholds that I would normally have no problem standing on saw my feet slipping off them without a moments warning. On more than a few occasions I was almost off. All in all I would probably say it was the hardest pitch that we had in the whole day and I arrived at Andy's belay in too minds about whether to continue. We did continue and were justly rewarded clean, dry rock with excellent friction and an abundance of good gear and tat to clip (a lot of the other routes finish at this break and therefore lower off here). My pitch was longer than Andy's but ended in a good belay and Andy soon followed. Andy's next pitch was a little bit of a forested romp for the first 10 metres, before he was back on to a sketchy more enjoyable (well for me anyway) traverse. We found quite a lot of loose rock as we climbed, considering that this is such a classic route.

At Andy's cramped belay we re-stacked the ropes for the crux pitch of the route, and also my lead. I've been running this over in my head since I've done it and I'm happy that there is still so much for me to learn. I ended up climbing for 25 metres till I arrived at what was described in the book as an “exciting hanging belay”. I should have carried on climbing for another 10 metres and actually done the crux of the route, but I stupidly misjudged it (and possibly cost us the route). I'd also ran out of runners (we I had one left) because I'd not been very economical with how I'd placed mine. There were too many protecting the easy sections and too few protecting the hard. Having said all that I had a great time climbing this pitch and managed to have a really neat and organised hanging belay. It wasn't until I'd brought the ropes in that I realised my mistake (belayed to early) but by there there wasn't much to be done. The Chee Tor Girdle is supposed to stay reasonably dry in all by heavy rain, but it had started raining and although the rock stays dry, the climbers clinging onto it and leaning out from the face don't. We made a good decision to bail off from my belay instead of pushing on and getting soaked through. We still had to ford the river (this time this with sensible aid of a stout plank) and walk back to the car.


This even was similar to the last apart from a small difference. It was raining. It rained on the walk back, it rain on the drive to the Robin Hood and it rain on the walk to the campsite. We both cooked in our own tents (Andy on his new trangia) while listening to said rain pattering down on the flysheet. Lying in my sleeping bag I could almost feel Andy's desire to head out into the rain and go to the pub (because he likes that sort of thing) so I sucked it and grabbed my waterproof. We were rewarded in our venture as the pub was warm and I could dry my gear by the fire, and of course there was nice beer. When it came to walking back at closing time there was a lull in the rain, so we got back nice and dry. 

I'd love to be able to say we woke up to excellent weather on our last day and headed off climbing again. Sadly this wasn't the case. As kind as the weather had been the night before, it wasn't exactly happy today. We still managed to get the tents down staying quite dry and set off to the Yonderman Cafe, (the truckers cafe in Wardlow Mires) as it was on the way home. Where as outside probably provided us with the worst of the breakfasts (as in I wouldn't pay to eat there) the Yonderman was the opposite. Good quality locally sourced meat and freshly cooked as opposed to something that's been sat on a hot plate slowly drying out. After breakfast it was then the last stretch and home.

Despite the weather and the cold I've had one of the best trips I think I've ever had to the Peak. Limestone is a severely neglected rock type in my climbing CV but I fear that this'll be changing soon enough. I was annoyed at my pitch on the Chee Tor Girdle, but it's a learning experience and in future I'll read the guidebook more and work out where each belay is (and the crux is if it mentions it) before I dive into a complicated route.

It seems that limestone is good from something, other than caving in.

(A proper climber's boot... a mess!)

An interesting weekend...

As weekends go I'll be perfectly honest and say this wasn't my favorite. One this is that I've managed to get some good photographs from my day bouldering on Saturday. The weather was beautiful, and the rock good clean and dry. I've been given (more like entrusted with) a pre-release copy of the Churnet guide book. It's a odd little publication as it consists of only new blocks, crags and boulders scattered across the Churnet area. A good point to not is that it needs t be used in conjunction with an existing guidebook (like the Roaches guide or Peak District bouldering) because it literally only has the new stuff in. Considering the new guide is just over 60 pages long it looks like there is loads to explore!

Saturday was therefore spent blowing out my front tire as I pulled into the Rambler's retreat car park. This didn't dampen my spirits and the tire was quickly changed. What did dampen them however was landing badly on the bouldering mat and spraining my ankle. My ankles are a constant form of frustration as they get damaged so easily. I just slipped off the problem and caught the edge of the mat and rolled the ankle (again!). I guess the most annoying thing is that I wouldn't have damaged the ankle had the pad not been there to roll it over. My afternoon was spent adjusting some routes at the SUMC climbing wall for a friend who's based her dissertation around climbing. It's a really interesting line of inquiry and I'll get her to give me her results when she gets them!

Sunday should have been spent no at the crag, for many reasons (not just my ankles). However I found myself at the crag anyway and got to spend the day leading the occasional route but mainly sleeping on my ropes or acting as "tech support" for anyone who wanted anything checking (belays, abseils etc...). I guess it wasn't a total loss as I can log it as a supervising day in my SPA logbook. Realistically my day would have been better spent indoors. 

Group Caving Trip (Carlswark)

Since I started caving as you can probably imagine I've been going on about it no end. Half the people (well probably more than half) react along the lines of "how can you do that? I hate being underground? etc..." and generally have a negative view of caving. This is fine and everyone is entitled to their opinion. The other half (probably less than half) react along the lines of "wow, can I come?". Because of this I ended up organizing a caving trip for a bunch of my friends who've never been caving before. However I planned it so far into the future that everyone who came on the trip, has actually been out caving with me before! This didn't matter one bit as it just meant that we could have a quite a big group of us going down.

The plan for the day was to meet everyone (Laura, Sammy, Matt, Ronnie, Finney and Me) in Stoke then head across and park up at the lay by up from the power station in Stoney Middleton. The plan was to head down the Eyam Dale Shaft, as it's is the most exciting yet more manageable way to get into a cave system and then explore Carlswark heading into the dynamite series before coming back out of it and coming out the Gin Entrance (reducing the SRT involved).

There isn't much to say about the day really other than we all had a right laugh caving. I rigged the shaft with a normal Y-hang for those of the group who were happy abseiling and had a spare line running on an Italian hitch to back it up for a couple of the party. Sammy had never abseiled before so she got a crash course in how to make it down the hole without any problems.

With everyone down the shaft most of us took off any harnesses or SRT gear we were carrying and left a small pile of it in the passage, ready fro retrieval on the way back through. We kept the tackle bag though, which I've added a leash to so it can be dragged behind me if needs be and we set off into the dynamite series. I took up the rear so I could struggle along with the bag (and there'd be no shooting off ahead) and it gave Ronnie and Finney and chance to take charge of where we were going. I think having done so much navigation to get my ML I'm quite happy navigating underground. We've only been in pretty easy systems but it's always good to get some practice in. 

We followed the cockle passage to the t junction (left being big dig series and right being dynamite) and because I'd arrived last I found everyone standing in about of foot of water. I'd been watching the weather all week and wasn't surprised that the passage was flowing and I knew we 'd push on regardless, all I was really worried about was people trying to stay dry and moving slowly. I dived straight in and ended up almost balls deep in water (not really hard achievement when your crawling!) and we carried on through. Getting through the little area where the roof has been stablised was fun... as I watched the tackle bag float past me in the water! Once through this it was a little dried and we started the series of squeezes into the various chambers in the dynamite series.

The first was midnight chamber, which amazed those of the group who'd not been in it before. I really like how there is a completely different feel to the rest of Carlswark (Eyam Passage Area) and you can physically see the difference in how the cave has been formed. We carried on through into Success Chamber which, with 6 people, was a bit of a squeeze. We did try to take some photographs but there was way to much condensation. Andy then tried his best to fit through the connection into the next chamber, which was a small hole in near the floor half filled with water. He emerged soaking wet with helmet off saying that it wasn't possible, or at least he wasn't willing to it. We vowed to go back once the water subsides a little.

Having reached out furthest point the only thing left to do was walk, scramble and crawl out. We retraced out steps (or crawls) getting nice a wet for the second time and pushed on. We actually met another group of like minded cavers at the squeeze so all got to have a good laugh and a chat underground with them and where they were heading before carrying on with our own journey. We soon got back first passage we'd entered and retrieved the cached bags (for Finney to carry) and set off on the home straight. By this point I was pretty wet, but I've given up trying to stay dry. I've found that I have much more fun caving if I just accept I'm going to get covered in mud and wet, rather than trying to avoid it.
The home straight (or Eyam Passage) had enough water in it to breach my wellies but it didn't matter. We all ploughed forward happily until we came to the small depression in the floor which is actually an obscure connection to the resurgence entrance (that runs beneath the Eyam Passage). I dived down with Laura to have a look. Last time I was there there was a little bit of water in the sump but it was still probably passable. This time however it was flooded up into the aven almost. Just looking down at water in caves scares the life out of me, especially when I can't see the bottom but I still ended up chimneying down to it just to have a peak. I was soon up and out (as was Laura) while a few other's in our group had a look down.

Getting back up it became apparent that some of the group were cold, so we really did bug straight out this time and for the first time in a long while exited the cave in to beautiful sunshine. All that was left was the de-gear ourselves and then make it home. That isn't to say that I drove off and had to turn round 5 minutes later because I'd realized I'd left the shaft rigged up!

(Getting Sammy down the shaft, she hasn't abseiled before!)

(Matt, sporting some rather dashing pink marigolds)

(Draw me like one of your French girls)

(Ronnie and Matt in a nicely formed phreatic tube)

(Team pic, in daylight for the first time ever!)

(and this is what happens when you give Laura a harness)

I actually went climbing again...

Probably more impressive is that I've updated by blog, something I've let slip. The last few days have been a bit of a blast with regards to climbing. I'm still carrying an ankle injury (not ankle injuries though!) but I'm also sporting a possible broken toe. My foot fits into my climbing shoe, which I guess is something. Having now mentioned I'm full of injuries I've still been climbing all weekend... and Monday.

Saturday was spent at the Roaches. Both Andy and I haven't actually climbing outside in a while and with the weather report (light snow in the afternoon) we didn't think we'd get any climbing in. We probably should have started earlier as well to avoid the snow but we didn't. We stuck close to home (well Stoke) and went to the Roaches. I lead first and did Kestrel Crack (HS 4b) and had a cracking time on it. I've actually done this route before, but it was a miserable day with cold damp weather so I was happy to be able to experience the route in the dry. I think Andy really enjoyed it as well. We both ended up grinning broadly as he topped out and we could look down at the view. The broad grin's probably had more to do with all the little mishaps we'd had seeing as it was the first time out in ages. I'd managed to pull up the ropes without Andy tying in and he'd managed to leave behind a piece of gear, which I had to fish out on abseil. Andy then got lost on the walk-off.

Andy lead the next route, which was Fledglings Climb (Severe 4a). He hasn't lead for a while and this was his first lead of the year (I know, he's left it a bit late). He was in for a right treat as well because the snow which was forecast, actually decided to fall. Didn't stop Andy climbing though and he topped out with no problems. I seconded him up and we headed to the upper tier.

After a considerable amount of faffing around we finally settled on a route (via flipping a coin) which I was to lead. It was Black and Tans variation (HVS 5a). Being honest I've been looking at doing this route for a while, but I've been put off by the blank looking and unprotected start. This wasn't the case and instead I enjoyed a few moves of balancy slab climbing, above some alright-ish gear before gaining the corner crack of the parent route. This was (and always is) a joy to climb, it's just a shame it's so short. Then there was the final slab and overhang to deal with. Having looked back at the topo I was probably too far to the right but I still enjoyed what I'd climb. I got to sit and belay as the snow fell. Rather cold we descended after Andy had seconded up in the snow. We did ask the coin if we should do another route, but ignored what it told us and headed back. 

After a short days trad climbing how had my toe and ankle fared? Well I keep the ankle strapped up in a plastic brace which my physio gave me and spend most of the time during activity dosed up on painkillers so it wasn't too painful by the end of the day. It's slowly getting better which each outing but I still need to be careful on it. As for the toe, well that just got more and more painful throughout the day. The pain lessened after I took off the rock shoe, so that problem is solved. What I did notice is that because I've not been climbing much recently, I've lost loads of muscle mass from my upper body. It's kind of nice to be reduced to having to think about using my feet so much more. Another positive thing I can take from not climbing as much is that I packed my bag from empty for once, instead of just putting water bottles in a prepacked bag (generally from the day before). It wasn't filled with all the accumulated crap I normally end up lugging round with me. It was just climbing gear, small amount of food/water and a warm layer. It was just nice to have a reasonably light sack for once.

Sunday was spent doing more climbing, well actually bouldering. I spent the day walking up a treeless valley (that might be an overstatement, they've not felled the whole valley yet) to Ousal Crag. They really are doing a lot of felling work there. The trees in the area are all infected with a parasite so they're being felling and instead "proper English woodland" is being planted in it's place. This will in theory look beautiful but it'll take some time. It it going to be nice to watch all the ash and beech growing up before the oak trees take hold and the change in biodiversity and undergrowth vegetation will make the area amazing in the spring. I'm already looking forward to spending a week bouldering there sometime in the far future and enjoying watching the trees change colour in the autumn.

Instead of waxing lyrical about some romantic view of the great outdoors I'll get back to bouldering, which was good. Considering I've not been seriously bouldering for about 5 months it would probably have been quite folly to expect to get anywhere on the 7a traverse (a constant source of frustration) but this wasn't the case. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't exactly up for bouldering but after procrastinating for as long as I could I did eventually put on my shoes and start working on the traverse again... and I got further than I've ever got! Over the course of the next couple of hours I managed to climb (in sections) the whole 7a sequence. This is something I've never actually managed before.

The day ended with me being knackered and hurting across my upper body. Apparently using muscles that have gotten fat and happy over the last three/fours months means they don't like you anymore then just ache afterwards. I was really happy with what I actually got done on the bouldering and again my toe hurt a lot, but that pain went after I took off my climbing shoes.

Monday was then spent in Redpoint Climbing Centre, for around nine hours! Not all of the time was spent climbing or bouldering as there was a lot of rest needed and tea to be drunk. This didn't stop me having a pretty awesome day climbing indoors for hours and hours. I left feeling sore, tired and happy.

I guess you once you've been climbing for a while, no matter how much time you have off once you're back climbing it's like it was yesterday (apart from being frustrated by a lack of strength). It's been such a nice change to be out climbing for a weekend rather than caving. Don't get me wrong, I love caving to bits but I've felt that life has had too narrow a focus for the last few months. Staying above ground is just as fun as being under it.

Here's to more time spent on, in, under but hopefully not falling off rock, in all it's bizarre forms and varieties!

Jugholes (or somewhere that isn't stoney!)

Had a 4 hour through trip down Jugholes the other day, which was extended with a trip down into the upper series, till we ran out of time. Due to things like physio appointments and the like we didn't manage to leave Stoke till 1300ish and then we encountered another problem. The day before I'd tidied my room (and I don't care how childish that sounds) and in doing so I found a map, and a 2011 road map at that. However we soon found out why said map wasn't in my car in the first place... the page for the peak district has been removed/lost. Our journey to Matlock relied on my sense of direction and this probably why we arrived a little late.

If lack of mapping was my first mistake, then not heeding the advice of the "Jugholes Interpretation Pack" was my second. I only brought a small spanner. Jugholes has a few access points, two of which (shaft and adit) allow you to do a through trip of the lower series rather than coming out the same hole. The original plan had been to gain access via the Shaft and therefore we'd get to do some more SRT (on account og being rope monkeys). There was Finney, Sammy and Me to get down, and Sammie was to be lowered so she'd get to join us. This wasn't to be though, because I'd not brought a "LARGE SPANNER" (other than myself!) with me, and yes it is in capitals in the pack. We wouldn't be going down the shaft today, but in a nice way it does mean we've got something to go back and do.

Instead we access via the old adit entrance. This was dug out a few years ago and would have been how they'd gotten the ore/minerals out of the cave/mine that is Jugholes. The lower series, or at least part of it was originally known as "Noon Nick Mine" (probably after the noon nick vein that runs through it). Now it's a tube, stablised by a corrogated tube of metal before you enter the mine/cave properly. From here the path carries on through a volcanic rock with evidence of pick marks on the wall before there's traces of small blasting holes and use of pneumatic equipement. Then the was a beautiful roof that has been created from stacked blocks into an arch. The sign use before it (which I regretfully did not take a picture of) tells you the "keep low" so you won't dislodge anything. It really is a beautiful contruction though.

(The stacked and balanced roof of the adit entrance)

The adit entrance soon followed through passing a wider section where the access shaft drops in. The lower series is actually a group of phreatic caverns which are connected by passages that have been mined out (it's the lower series that sits on the "noon nick vein"). There is evidence of mining throughout the chamber from the rails that are still on the floor to the mine cart thats passed on the way in. The first chamber we entered (the "fifth water cavern" on the survey) had a small shaft in the corner. Had we got the time I'm sure we'd have nipped down it to see what there, but just like the access shaft it's something we can come back and do. The next chamber is connected by a mined passage before you enter an much smaller chamber, again with plenty to explore. 

Access to the "4th water cavern" is a little harder to find that the last, but we found it. there are several small exits off this chamber and we didn't look in all of them, instead choosing to follow the survey and followed it round, back on ourselves, through a small squeeze, then up before the "4th water cavern" opened up in front of us. Sammy did really well considering she's never been caving before and helped out with the passing of the bags from one to each other... though she did end up standing on my shoulders to get up the short climb. We'd told her while we were down that "there are no heros in caving" and if she needs help with something, just ask. The "4th W/C" was the largest chamber so far with more to look around and explore. Finney went off to dive through some squeezes (only to return telling us they'd gone no where in particular), while I wandered around looking ar some amazing phreatic features and speolotherms. There was an amazing wall covered in flowstone that my camera just could do justice (mainly because I'd forgotten the tripod). There was also the whats left of a false flow here, that would have been held up by the rubble, sadly theres little left now.

Getting the then next (and largest cavern, the 3rd W/C) was up a slab and then along a very slanted chamber. In the ceiling there hve been P-bolts installed so you can protect it for outdoor groups, but we just ignored it all and carried on. No point getting the rope all muddy if we don't need it. We spent a while playing in this chamber (namely splashing in the puddles) and clambering around before I sent Finney off in the wrong direction and I had to check the survey. Finney was sent off in the right direction through an interesting passage that involved a lot of clambering and squeezing (and swearing at the bag) before the climb out was found. This I climb and rigged to bring Sammy up, Andy climbed out himself and this left us in the 2nd water cavern and what is the "main" entrance to Jugholes.

(This little guys is about 40mm across, and he wasn't the largest)

The second water cavern, which is now an massive arch has chambers leading off it in quite a few directions, however the one we needed was hidden away under a small but spacious boulder ruckle. The other passages leading off head into the small mine system, which although I would have loved to explore (apparently it's got an lovely example of a stablised arch) wasn't really part of our plan for the day. I recognised the ginged shaft from the photos I'd seen (whilst researching the day before) but Finney decided that it was just too high to justify climbing down so we rigged an abseil. While finney was actually down the shaft assessing with gave me and Sammy a chance to have a good look at the cave spiders, which were clustered all over the walls (and to scare Finney, as they're not his favourite animal to say the least). Apparently shining a bright light on them causes them to get frustrated (or at least flail around) but blowing on them gently gets them to slink away and hide in a crack in the rock. Annoyingly on hissed at me, or it was whatever was in the crack the spider was trying to get into. I know last spiders can hiss, but I've never heard of cave spiders hissing, so I'm doubful but still... hissing spiders eek! 

With the rope rigged up, Finney was first down the shaft (after fumbling his 'biner and dropping it). Then Sammy followed and finally I descended. The shaft itself is a rather interesting feature. It is "ginged" which means that it's been stabalised with what looks like drystone walling. It's easy enough to climb out, using the solid back wall but on the whole it doesn't look the most stable. We'd have been better off if we had a ladder, but sadly we don't. The chamber immediatly below the shaft heads off through a area of collapse to some stacked deads, holding up a rather large slab. The whole of the upper series was much much more complicated to navigate around. I don't think it was helped by my "I'll just bumble around till this all makes sense" approach. We headed forward and ended up clambering over a mass of roof material (there has been a significant amount of roof collapse here, which has formed much of the cave). 

After much scrambling and clambering around we came to a couple of feature that I could recognise; one being green clay and the other being the streamway. It was rather erie listening to the streamway bubbling along in the dark, but at least it was something to handrail ourselves along. The green clay is actually significant as it's not a comment feature, and I was quite excited by this... Finney and Sammy didn't really have my enthusiasm for some "green clay". 

We followed the streamway down looking at the amazing speolotherms and flowstone covered clays and rocks all the way down. By this point my camera was pretty much sealed into it's case (as I'd managed to loose my useful camera case and was therefore using a zip closure one... zips do not work very well when all gummed up with mud) and so I didn't take as many photos as I should have done. I know this cavern has some cave pearls, that I really wanted to find but I'd no real idea where to look. We did find some lovely fossils on the mass of blocks that has fallen down from the ceiling though. Instead we carried on following the stream until we came to the "beehive slopes". 

This is a massive area of flowstone covered slopes interspersed by gour pools, which (when undisturbed) have some amazing cystal growth on thier sides, and are a green in colour. We clambered around the whole area, something that we probably were not supposed to do (and will not be doing next time). Finney planned out what he wasn't to bring next time to take some photographs of the cave and these slopes.  Sadly time was against us at this point and so we headed back. This wasn't the normal "crawl out the way we'd come" because we managed to miss the way we'd come in and thus found ourselves lost. For a moment I didn't actually know where we were and Finney clocked this as I spent 5 minutes trying to decided if we should go left or right when two passages presented themselves (I did try and blag an explanation for my pondering, but it didn't float). However I'll thank the MLTE for teaching how to navigate and we hand railed the stream up to the wall and followed the well worn slope uphill till we arrived back at the chamber with the stakced deads. In the process, we also have a much easier (though muddier) way back in next time we go. I climbed out, chimneying carefully up the ginging and brought Sammy up on a rope (though she hardly needed it). Finney decided to practise some SRT and fully kitted up and jugged himself out. I guess if you can do it up and clayed up rope whilst covered in mud... then you can do it anywhere!

 Jugholes was an excellent trip and considering it's only a grade 2 cavern there is so much to actually do there. I know we're be back to descend down the acess shaft into the lower series and there is plenty of little squeezes to push as far as they'll go but it's the upper series that I really want to get into. There are come cave pearls somewhere in there and Finney wants to lug all our camera equipement down for a series of photos of the beehive slopes. It'll be a lot of lugging but I think it'll be worth it. I just can't wait to head back there now.