Oxlow Cavern - Derbyshire - March 3/2013

[Danny Sutton]

Oxlow Cavern.

Visited with AndyJ, Dylan, -J-, Iestyn and Mad-Dan.

Oxlow Cavern is a part-natural and part-mined cavern near sparrowpit in Derbyshire. The route we took was a 5 pitch decent dropping you down 140m below the surface to the West Chamber.

Me and Jay left home at about half 8, having to stop off for petrol and McDonalds on the way, we arrived at The Wanted first, Andy soon after then Dylan and Iestyn.

We were also expecting Richard S, but dylan said he had seen him in the morning and he was unwell so headed off home. We headed off to the parking area andstarted to get ready, Andy headed off to the farm to pay our tresspass fee, he quickly returned and got ready.

We headed off up the hill to the entrance and Andy started to rig, the entrance pitch is about 18m through a very narrow rift, not at all nice and i was worrying about getting back out before i had even got in, Andy dropped in first, followed by Dylan, i waited till last to i could watch Iestyn and Jay get on the rope and Dylan was going to meet them at the bottom of the pitch, it's a vertical system, so 90% of the time you are clipped into something and he was there to make sure they were clipping into the right thing.

Once everyone else was down, i followed, we had expected the trip to be dry, it wasnt and allready after the first pitch i was soaked, not good! all i had on was a boiler suit and a t-shirt and tracky bottoms under it, i was rapidly getting cold, i guessed i would soon get warm on the way back out.

I cant remember the order of the pitchs now, but they were all pretty simple with a couple of rebelays and a couple of deveations to pass, all fairly simple.
We got to the west chamber, the way on from here was down to a sump, which we didnt bother with, so it was time to turn round and head back, andy was up first taking the spare rope with him “just incase” then jay ind iestyn next, both of them getting up without problem, then it was me then Dylan, Dylan was de-rigging on the way, we all made our way back to the first pitch, andy was up fairly quickly, Jay went next, the little sod was up it like a rat up a drainpipe, i was next and wasnt nearly as quick, to big and fat to move in the tight narrow rift, luckyly after the jinngling pot problems, i had got my self a pantin which made getting up so much easier, i was out....

when i got to the surface, jay was freezing, stood in the snow soaking wet and shaking, we headed off back to the car so he could get in some dry cloths, not long after the others joined us, we then headed off to the wanted for a well deserved pint.

all in all a great day, huge thanks to Andy and Dylan for rigging/de-rigging, and a big well done to Jay and Iestyn on their first full SRT trips, allways good once you've got that first trip under your belt

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

Great trip! I learnt a lot yesterday. Thanks guys :cheer:

[Danny Sutton]

[quote="Iestyn999" post=15386]Great trip! I learnt a lot yesterday. Thanks guys :cheer:[/quote]
Mainly our bad habbits?

[mike leahy]

good trip report. dry system i think you said at the start of the thread  :unsure:  :unsure:

[Danny Sutton]

to be fair Mike, it wasnt a wet system, there was no puddles or stream way, there was a fair bit of water dripping and a bit running off oneof the pitchs, it was find going down, but hard to keep out of it going up.

all added to the fun for the noobs, there shouldnt be anything thay cant deal with now

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

[quote="Mad-Dan" post=15390][quote="Iestyn999" post=15386]Great trip! I learnt a lot yesterday. Thanks guys :cheer:[/quote]
Mainly our bad habbits?[/quote]

Bad habits? I got out safe with little hassle, so your bad habits can't be that bad  

[Danny Sutton]

i think we were all on our best behaviour, i've never seen a stop get locked off so many times on a single trip.

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

[quote="Mad-Dan" post=15404]i think we were all on our best behaviour, i've never seen a stop get locked off so many times on a single trip.[/quote]
Aye, but it's a good idea to get into the habit of doing it, even if it's a bit of a faff and takes time to do

[Danny Sutton]

most definitely, it when you start cutting corners and becomming complacent cos you've "done it a million times before" that accedents happen.

it's much better wasting 10 mins on a trip faffing about than it is to spend 3 hours been rescued cos somethings gone wrong.

[mike leahy]

nothing wrong with doing it right. before you know it it's second nature and it does'nt feel like faffing around cos you get faster at it cos your tuned in to what your doing. practice makes perfect :sick:  :sick:  or something like that