Slanting Cave, Gaze Gill Caves

[Don]

Members Present: Alex, Don

After some discussion earlier in the week about where to go, Alex and I decided on Slanting Cave. I had already been here twice before, Alex never. Being ambitious – or rather naïve – we packed rope and SRT kits into two tackle sacks for the two pitches at the end of the cave.

The cave entrance was found without two much difficulty, a small slot at the bottom of a small shakehole 140m or so east of Yordas. At the bottom of the letterbox entrance we landed on a very large pile of sheep bones. It looked like Satanists had set up shop. A slanting descent – hence the rationale for the cave’s designation I would imagine – led to a short, flat-out section followed by a short crawl and a flat-out ‘duck’. The next 20-30 minutes beyond this consists of twisting canyon passage which is negotiated primarily at floor level, though it is occasionally possible to traverse above the stream (As Alex pointed out to me repeatedly on the way out – I preferred staying in the stream).

Eventually the passage opens up somewhat and the way forward is via a crawl-traverse at roof level above a roughly 8m high rift, as the streamway at floor level is too small for human dimensions. Alex led the way at this point, past a stal squeeze (the end point on my first trip here), around an awkward 90 degree right hand corner (the end point on my second trip here), to a narrow rift above floor level. Alex tackled this head first while I opted for my usual feet first approach. Once around the awkward corner we followed the passage for roughly 70-80 feet, negotiating the traverse at either mid-rift level or at roof level. A calcite flow eventually blocked the way forward, leaving only two options available – a crawl in the streamway or a route above the calcite through a very small hole. Alex checked out the stream level route, but it was too tight and the rift became too narrow to proceed. He then tried the hole/tight squeeze. We knew from a previous trip report by Rob and Dunc that this was the way on, but had hoped there would be another way. Alex went through first. I reminded him about Rob’s advice to face the left hand wall, but Alex being Alex decided to face the right hand wall instead. The next five minutes consisted of a lot of swearing and kicking from Alex. Watching him thrash his way through the hole, I began to realise that the chances of me making it through were very slim. Actually, they weren’t slim. If they were slim I would have slid through easily (ha!). I tried to get through the squeeze a couple of times but realised that there was no way I would physically fit unless the hole were enlarged or I lost a couple of stone. So I waited for Alex while he went ahead to check out the passage ahead. He returned a few minutes later to say that the passage was sumped and that he was unable to find a way forward. Watching Alex try to fit back down the squeeze was even more fun than watching him try to go up it.

Once he was through we turned around and headed out. In total the trip lasted about two hours, which is hard to believe considering how short a distance we had come. Then again, it is very difficult to move tackle through the cave. Without tackle the trip could be done in probably half that time.

Unsatisfied with how the day had gone so far, Alex and I decided to check out the caves near Gaze Gill on the other side of the valley (just like Rob and Dunc had done on their aborted trip). In total we visited five caves: Corner Pot, East Bank Cave, Gaze Gill Cave, Lower Brown Hills Cave, and Upper Brown Hills Cave. It’s rather difficult to tell which cave is which as they’re all located very close together and at least three of them are connected together. The caves are all Grade 2 and very straightforward, consisting primarily of a narrow streamway. One of the caves, East Bank Cave, looks like it might do something interesting, but it would need to be capped for further forward progress to be made.

All in all it was a fun day, even though things hadn’t gone as planned.

[Xandar]

We knew from a previous trip report by Rob and Dunc that this was the way on, but had hoped there would be another way. Alex went through first. I reminded him about Rob’s advice to face the left hand wall, but Alex being Alex decided to face the right hand wall instead. The next five minutes consisted of a lot of swearing and kicking from Alex

I thought we agreed facing the right-hand wall was actually easier in the end and it was possibly because you faced the left was why you could not get up. Remember I could get my legs to the ledges at floor level to push off of facing right. On the way back I followed your advice and ended up not being able to get back through until I faced the right-hand wall.

There was no swearing from me on this trip. All the swearing was from you ;) As I recall, you swore at the bag then at that rock hit you in the face after you propped up against the wall, you swore at that tree in the gully and you made a strange beep beep noise (no idea what that was) when that rock landed on your finger hehe.

[Don]

Yes, there was a lot of swearing from me, particularly when my finger got smushed when we tried to move that rock in East Bank Cave. I regret now that I didn’t attempt the squeeze facing the same wall you did. It just didn’t occur to me at the time. Probably because it would have taken a bit of effort to reverse back to the rift and turn around so that I was facing the correct wall. Having something to push off would have made a lot of difference. Maybe we should go back? WIHOUT tackle this time.

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