Gaping gill â€" Yorkshire â€" 26/5/13
visited with â€" Alison, Amy, Vikki, Andy, Dylan, Guy, Jay, Mike, Richard, Tim, Tony
It was that time of year again, The BPC gaping gill winch meet, which means all pitches pre rigged, lights in the main chamber, and no need for permits, a plan was envisaged and a trip was under way.
My day started at 4.30am when I woke up with the worst hangover ever, from an all day binge drinking session the day before, at this point, I knew I wasn't going to be well, I guzzled 2 pints of water, took 4 paracetamol and got back in bed for a couple of hours, fast forward to 6.30am when I woke up again, I felt miles better but wasn't sure I should be driving, a couple of texts later and Super Vikki said she would pick me up. I edited my packed bags removing all traces of anything that I really couldn't be bothered carrying, so I spent the day without a camera..
Vikki, along with Alison picked me and Jay up and off we went, getting to Clapham village for 9.40am, everyone else was already here, we all got our stuff together and set off on the walk up the fell, this is by no stretch the easy part of the trip, the walk up takes an hour, it was glorious sunshine and very warm, not much fun in full caving gear, we eventually made base camp where we had to sign in and those thinking about exiting on the winch booked their seat, this was just Richard and Alison, the rest of us are hardcore cavers we had no need for that horrid winch.
We decided that we would split into 2 groups, 12 people hanging about a pitch head is going to get really tedious really quickly, Team one was myself, Jay, Amy, Alison, Richard and Vikki, Team two was the other riff-raff.
As the group I was in was the least experienced, we opted to enter via Bar pot, while the others would enter via Flood passage, we would all meet at the bottom of the last pitch of our planned routes which were in adjoining chambers.
I had only made this trip once before, last year, and to be honest I wasn't 100% sure of the route, I was fairly confident that I remembered it been obvious, but the last time I visited, we explored lots of other squeezes and passages, so I didn't have a mental map in my head, a quick chat with Andy saw him drawing me what he called a Map, the rest of us described it as an abstract, it looked like a little man throwing him self of a motorway bridge, never the less, we took it and headed off over to bar pot where a large group were heading down small mammal pot, which is what I think we should of done!
Bar pot entrance is a simple direct abseil 10 or 15m into a chamber, the only problem is the first 5m is tight, it is horrid, I went first, I had done it before and it isn’t to bad if you know which way to twist and with gravity on your side, Amy came next making small work of it, as did Jay, Richard and Alison had to do a bit of wriggling but got through with no major issues once they found the wide bits, and did vikki who had received some pointers off another group who had come in behind us.
From here we headed down down the greasy slab to bridge hall, letting the smaller faster group past, and on to big pitch, this is a lovely 30m decent down into South East Passage, where we met up with the others who were only just comming down their last pitch, in all honesty we couldnt of timed it any better if we tried.
From here we headed to the main chamber which is maybe only 100m away, we had a pitstop for some butties and those who had got cameras got a few pictures, Now i'm not sure why, but from here people kind of just decided that we weregoing to head back out, there is mile upon mile of passage to this system, but we had only seen a tiny section, i didnt mind to much as i have visited gaping gill 5 times now and have seen a fair bit of it, Richard and Alison had paid for the winch and decided they were going to exit this way, no one else had, but vikki went and fluttered her eyelashes at the winch opperator and asked if they would lift me, her and jay out and we would pay at the top, it took a bit of doing, but she managed it, it may of cost her her phone number or something, but as i'm sure everyone is aware, the club has no issue with pimping out it's members, for the good of the club obviously..
we had about an hours wait for the winch, but once we were out, it was glourious sunshine, we sat about waiting for the others but they never turned up so we headed over to bar pot which is where we expected them to exit from, we waited and we waited, eventually vikki went over, she came back saying she could hear Andy on his way up, we gave him a few mins but he never came out, he had fallen pray to the bar-pot squeeze, i stood laughing at him for a while then went and gave him a bit of a pull which saw him up and out, he waited for tim to get out who managed it no problem, not sure how with his huge gut, but he did, Tim and Andy came out saying mike is next and they didnt care if he had problems, mike as you would imagine made small work of it shortly followed by Amy, again, been so tiny didnt have a problems, they both then headed out saying it was Dylan and Guy and there shouldnt be a problem.
We Sat on the grass and waited and we waited and we waited, nothing, then we herd a whistle, as i was still wearing caving gear i went in to see what was going on, i was shortly followed by Andy and Mike, Dylan was stuck solid, we gave him some lovely kind words of encouragement, most of which i cant post on the open forum, then we just generally laughed at him, we had a small discusion on weather to try to pull him up or to just cut the rope and push him back in, but faced with been ridiculed by his fellow cavers for ever more, he decided to put a bit of effort in and managed to pull his self up, which was lucky for him as we had decided we would just cut the rope and we were waiting for Tim to bring us the knife.
With Dylan out, we mopped his tears and gave him a hug and reasured him that everything would be OK and that we wouldn't tell anyone, all that was left now was Guy, this was the worrying part as Guy is 8ft 4in, and Bar pot isnt, but amazingly he was up and out in seconds, the ascent was described as “he got up there like a greased rodantâ€, Andys wonderfull choice of words.
All we had to do now was spend an hour walking back to the cars, we did, getting changed and calling in the pub for a beer and andsome food
all in all, another great UCET day out. Lovely caving, lovely weather, great banter and loads of fun.
As said, i didnt take a camera, you'll have to wait for Tim and Tony to post their pictures.
:lol: :lol: :lol: lmfao.
fair play dan you do a cracking trip report. thanks to everyone on the trip it was a good day out
I've decided to call it a day with caving and take up tiddlywinks. No chance of getting stuck then :blush:
I wouldnt worry to much, this was my last exit through bar
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/550970_10152026530700508_118900965_n.jpg)
Great report on the day's events Dsn, and a big thank-you for setting it up. Gaping Gill Main Chamber thoroughly deserves the much over-used description of "awesome". Another tick on my bucket list. All in all a memorable day. B)
I thoroughly enjoyed the day too! :cheer:
Thanks
We look forward to Tim's pictures
Tonys will be better - mine are still on the camera..... job for once i get out to the rig :-P
Dylan - don't worry fella, you don't need to quit, you've been kicked out anyway...ohh and subs are non refundable. You might as well give me all your caving gear coz u won't be needing it anymore.
One small point to note - the reason we started talking about getting back out of the main chamber was probably something to do with the time - it was 3 something or other by then and i was thinking of the pub! ;-)
top report dan :-)
Knew I could count on you for support Tim :(
Dylan, You ok love? Hows the PMT? Still feeling a little emotional and teary?
Found you a new hobby love. You might actually be able to do this one?....
http://www.floristry-course.co.uk/
hahhaha
(i hope to hell i never get stuck somewhere or i'm never ever gonna live it down!)
i'm just getting my own back for jingling pot, i do hope it is you next tim, i might have to pee on you to help you slide out
come on tony . where are your piccies ond video :S :S :S :S :S :S
there on facebook..
[quote="Mad-Dan" post=17948]there on facebook..[/quote]
thats no good to me :angry: :angry: :angry: i don't do faceybooky :S
Fantastic report Dan. Funny as hell. Been in work all day so will add a few pics in a bit and will do a vid during the week. Absolutely fantastic day yesterday. Thx to everyone for making it such a great trip. My knees feel like I've had a team of midgets attacking them with hammers while I was asleep last night. Well worth it though.
Here's a few for now.
Few more......
fair play tony your getting the hang of this photography shit :P :P :P
[quote="mike leahy" post=17973]fair play tony your getting the hang of this photography shit :P :P :P[/quote]
Cheers Mike, Getting there slowly but surely, a lot of guesswork at the mo lol.
WOW!!!! Stunning photos Tim. Those pitches look epic.
Great trip reports and pictures, sorry I missed it. I will have to get back underground soon, spending to much time floating down rivers at the moment. ;)
top stuff tim..
Superb photos of a remarkable place