Unexpectedly far in Cliff Force Cave, 16/5/18

[Scaife]

Cliff Force Cave
Wednesday the 16th of May 2018
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Janet Kent
Chauffeur and Surface Photographer: Andy King

We part-time workers decided on a midweek trip to the Buttertubs and Cliff Force Cave, high up the Buttertubs Pass between Swaledale and Wensleydale. After parking by the Buttertubs, we got out and had a look at these glorious holes, just perfect for keeping dairy products cool. There were more Buttertubs than I remembered.

We had a bit of a play in these roadside pots – free-climbing down one of them and rigging the largest tub for SRT. Very pleasant.

We then crossed the valley to get to Cliff Force Cave. The entrance is a slightly awkward climb down, then a slide over a slab to get into the streamway. Janet had drawn out an incredibly detailed survey of the entrance series last night, so she led the way. She doesn’t own a printer, but she can certainly draw.

It’s quite simple to get from the entrance to the main stream though: down the entrance climb, slide over the block and climb into the chamber, turn right and follow the passage around a left-hand bend. Just before the way ahead gets very low and wet, there is a short climb up on the left that leads into a muddy crawl, via a small chamber and ends in a larger chamber. A short climb down here (not all the way down to the stream), then through the boulders on the right, carry on over the ducking pond and keep right through the complex of passages beyond, then join the streamway.

The Main Streamway is a fun place, with boulder obstacles to climb over and a few places where it looks as though there will be a mandatory immersion, but all obstacles in this part of the cave can be passed very easily if you get them right.

At the end of the Main Streamway, there is a low, wet crawl and a short climb up into a large chamber known as Fault Hall. The passage leading onwards from this chamber is very impressive, with waist-deep water and the walls adorned with jutting chert projections. The roof lowered to a duck (the duck can be avoided, but we’re Black Rose cavers), and we both went through feet first, on our backs. It was certainly a duck, which makes what we found later seem all the more strange.

After a bit more canal passage, we were at the Room of Dangling Doom. At first I didn’t really understand the name, thinking it just looked like a solid, flat-roofed chamber. Looking more closely I could see that the flat ceiling was made up of large slabs of rock that weren’t entirely connected to the layers above. At the far end of the Room, near the left-hand wall, there is a short climb into a 60m crawl that ends at Sump 1.

I saw the dive line disappearing off into the waterlogged passage and assumed we’d reached the end of our non-diving trip. Janet wanted to see the sump, so continued forwards a short distance and said she couldn’t see where it sumped. It then struck us that perhaps the water levels at Sump 1 were actually low enough that we could get through. Helmets off, but with enough airspace that our faces were always out of the water, I pushed on, with Janet not far behind. The water was cold and deep – in parts we had to swim, but there were numerous submerged boulders that acted as deep-water stepping stones – and the walls were quite narrow about halfway along. Before long I had reached the end of the dive line and we were past the sump.

It’s been quite dry recently, but I wouldn’t say we’re experiencing a drought. The streamway involved plenty of wet crawling and the duck was certainly still a duck, so I wonder what has happened to affect the hydrology here. There was no sign of any kind of pumping equipment and as far as I’m aware this sump has never been passed without diving before.

There is about 250m of passage between Sump 1 and Sump 2. It began as crawling in the streamway, but soon opened out and much of it was dry, walking or stooping passage. Towards the end, the roof lowered and we rejoined the stream. After an easy squeeze (a shivering Janet waited for me here), a crawl through the stream terminated at Sump 2. This was properly sumped and the water levels here didn’t look particularly low – the dive line was attached just out of the water. Puzzling.

Both very cold now, we returned to the sump and it seemed even easier on the way out. My hands were so numb that I couldn’t put my helmet back on when we got past it, so I had to keep it off for most of the 60m crawl.

Janet’s left arm was tingling and she was feeling a sense of impending Doom. I thought perhaps she was having a heart attack, then I realised she was just getting the feeling back into her arms and we were approaching the Room of Dangling Doom. Fortunately my hands were now functioning, so my helmet was back on and no dangling doom was going to stop me.

We bypassed the frigid duck this time and were soon back at the Entrance Series. Before heading out, we had a quick look in Shower Chamber and felt like total douches, then we returned to the world to see our photographer, who had been walking in the afternoon sun, King for the day.

[rob]

Just read our report to cliff force in March 2007. We were definitely repelled by the sump. I remember we felt an ominous sense of doom in the room if dangling doom also, strange place!

[Author]

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