With Nick, Matt, Pete Bolt and pleasantly surprised to see Tangent pedal over to offer his services on surface duties. We met up at the Hunter's a bit later this morning as I had to take the dog to the vets in Wells, anyway we all piled into the tru ...
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Walking to Hang Tien (in the distance)Oxalis are going to start running tours to Hang Tien again, Initially just a one day and a two day tour, but eventually the four day tour will also go here.Snake in the 'grass'The point of our trip was to mark a ro ...
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Tuesday 5.7.16Team: Jen Baxter, Lisa Boore, Paul Tarrant, Dan Thorne, Claire VivianBeing as Paul was injured, this was going to be a smaller trip that would focus on route finding and visiting some easily accessible places that we had often walked past ...
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Hanoi motorbike with large loadAfter a day and a night in Hanoi we got up at four thirty in the morning to fly back to Dong Hoi, and then back home to Phong Nha.Where's the food?No rest for us, as it's our housewarming party, we've only been here two M ...
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The road to Ta PhinOur last day in Sa Pa, we leave tonight on the night train back to Hanoi, we've done enough trekking so we decided to hire some bikes and go off on our own. We got two mountain bikes via the hotel 30,000 VND for the pair, what's more ...
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A climber (M, 31) sustained a badly dislocated/query broken ankle when the handhold he was using gave way, sending the piece of rock down onto his lower leg. He was able to do a controlled descent before calling for help. The climber was given first aid treatment and pain relief by team members, before being splinted and then carried by stretcher to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance which had landed at… ...
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I have wanted to do Titan ever since I heard about it, but as a newbie caver 6 years ago, I presumed this was going to be out of reach for a very long time, and wondered if I would ever be capable of such a trip. For those that don't know and are interested, a brief bit of background and history:
Titan is the deepest natural cavern that has been discovered so far in the UK, previously thought to be Gaping Gill. Titan forms part of the huge Peak Cavern cave system in Castleton, Derbyshire. Also known as the "Devil's Arse", the huge entrance (the UK's largest) known as the Vestibule, is also the entrance to the popular show cave. Also connected to the system is Speedwell Mine; another public show mine which you can take a boat trip into (I still haven't done this!).

It's been known since the 1980s that there was 'something' beyond the Far Sump Extension connecting Speedwell to Peak Cavern. In 1992 extracts were published from an obscure recently discovered manuscript diary, written by the 18th Century academic James Plumptre. He describes in some detail his trip into the well known parts of Speedwell. But also large caverns and mine workings long thought to be in existence, but were supposed as blocked past the Boulder Piles. Cave divers had explored the far Sump extention, however the elusive dry route the miners must have used was still missing. After reading Plumptre's account, there was renewed interest in James Hall's Over Engine Mine Shaft found by the TSG in 1963; Plumptre describes what is now thought to be surely JH Mine: "There was another way out, by climbing one hundred and fifty yards farther to the top of the hill, but, as the way lay through another proprietor's mine, the miners never go by it, unless insisted upon by strangers..." Moose led a dedicated team of Derbyshire cave diggers to search for "Caverns Measureless". They excavated the workshop area of the mine, with many tools and relics left in situ, as the miners left them. The team spent a further 3 years removing boulders the bottom of Leviathan chamber, before achieving access to Speedwell in 1995. This area of cave was previously accessible only to cave divers from the Far Sump extention.

After years of grafting, and finding their way through a huge boulder choke near the piles, Moose and his team finally discovered the gigantic cavern of Titan from below in January 1999. They then proceeded to climb it over 6 days. Following reaching the top and surveying, 4 years was then spent digging an access shaft down from the surface. The existence of Titan was finally revealed to the wider caving community in November 2006. The entrance shaft is 46 metres deep, and Titan itself is split into a 62 metre pitch down to a landing point called the Event Horizon. Then a few metres down this ledge and onto a hanging re-belay point 58 metres from the bottom.


Diagram by Olly King

Fast forward to September 2013 and after a lot of SRT practice, I felt almost ready. We booked the trip for the first weekend in October and planned to do James Halls over Engine Mine through trip out of Peak Cavern on the Saturday, then go down Titan and back up JH de-rigging along the way on the Sunday. The JH trip went well, we completed the through trip and got out of Peak Cavern in 4 hours and 45 minutes. Sat in a pub in Castleton afterwards though it dawned on me how much I was aching, and how much of a mission getting out of JH would be the next day. I realised this was beyond me at this time, and unfortunately pulled myself out of the Titan trip. This was upsetting for me, and I struggled with the decision I made for weeks afterwards. Next year though... next year I would do it.



Preparing for the JH through trip, October 2013

The next year another trip into Titan was planned, which I unfortunately missed due to a family occasion. I was hoping for another trip last year which never materialised. Then late last year it was announced that there were some problems apparent in the entrance shaft, and the fibreglass rings needed replacing, so it had to be closed for repairs. Many thanks to the team who stabilised the shaft and installed new concrete rings. Finally it was announced in March this year that Titan was "back open for business". As soon as I heard this I wasted no time in asking our chairman Tom Howard to book the trip, and so we had a date - Saturday 2nd July. This came around quickly, but I was more than ready for it this time... or so I thought.

On Friday Pete and Beth Knight of Peak Instruction asked if they could tag along on our trip, but only halfway... they didn't plan on 'bottoming' Titan with us. We were really happy that Pete brought his camera along, as none of us had one - taking pictures of this trip was the last thing on our minds. Titan is notoriously difficult to photograph, and requires a lot of fire power to light even half the shaft up, and none of us fancied carrying any unnecessary kit. The whole of the UK has seen a lot of rain this last 6 weeks, and there was a worry that the bottom would be sumped with water, in which case the only option would be to climb back up and out of Titan. None of us much fancied that idea either, the trip was planned as a through trip out of Peak Cavern, but it was something we had to be prepared to do.

Anton rigging the entrance, me checking my gear. Photo by Pete Knight

After a short while of wandering in the fields, we found the completely innocuous looking lid to the entrance of Titan. Anton cracked on with rigging the 50 metre entrance shaft, while we discussed what to do about the key. Seeing as Pete and Beth would be coming out, but we also needed access in case the bottom was flooded and we had to come back out. After this had been sorted, Anton and Olly descended the entrance shaft, with me following. By the time I got to the window into Titan, I found a nervous looking Anton, and Olly had rigged the first pitch. I asked Anton if he was ok and he kind of mumbled something like "just look at it". So I proceeded to clip into the safety line and peek out of the window for a look. Never before have the lines from my favourite poem had so much meaning.

"Into this wild Abyss, The womb of Nature, and Perhaps her Grave. Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all of these in their Pregnant causes mixed. Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, unless the Almighty Maker them ordain. His Dark Materials to create more worlds, Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend, Stood on the brink of Hell and looked awhile, Pondering his voyage; For no Narrow Frith, He had to Cross."
John Milton, Paradise Lost

Anton and me looking nervous. Photo by Pete Knight

Titan is simply massive. 130 metres deep and unfathomably wide from the beam of my headlamp, I could just about make out the far wall in the distance, but when I looked down, my light was simply swallowed up by the black void below. Beth was the first to very bravely abseil down to the Event Horizon, 62 metres below, followed by Tom to go and rig the last 60 metre pitch. During all of this Anton was talking himself out of actually doing Titan and going any further. I could see why. We have all been down much deeper underground places- mainly mine shafts and the like, but nothing like this. The exposure is like being high up outside, but you're underground and it's somehow worse. You can't see much of it in the darkness, and I found this fucked with my head. We told Anton he was going next, not to think too much, just to do it, and to not look down, because he would be able to see Beth and Tom's lights on the Event Horizon. He bravely heeded Andy Farrow's eloquent advice, "manned the fuck up" and went for it.

Then it was my turn. I really enjoyed the first pitch, and specifically wore my glasses which I don't normally take caving. On the way down I marvelled at the beautiful formations, the echo of my exclamations of delight at what I was doing, but mainly the amazing size of the gigantic cavern. I struggled to get my head around placing myself in the context of this chamber, dangling inside it on a rope, I hope that makes any sense, it's difficult to describe. I enjoyed the pitch very much, although landing on the Event Horizon was quite weird. I bellowed up to Olly that the rope was free and watched Anton preparing himself to go "over the edge". Once again, my turn...


Me looking down into the great abyss from the top of Titan itself. Photo by Pete Knight

This is a very good example of why testing your descender with a cowstail still attached is a sensible practice, and one I have always followed on re-belays. As soon as I went to unlock my Stop I realised the problem, locked it again, attached my hand jammer to the top rope, and then had more than a slight panic when I realised all my weight was hanging on a stop rigged through one bobbin 60 metres high. After a shit shit shit shit shit shit shit, no no no, I stood up and managed to compose myself enough to stick my croll on, stick my short cowstail in the knot, sit back down on the croll, take a deep breath and sort the damn thing out. Then when I sat back down on the Stop it was loaded on the corner of my D-ring rather than the middle, so I had to then sort that out too. Shook me right up, wasn't shaking at the top, but by 'eck was I trembling after finally getting off at the bottom! At first I had no idea what had happened - never happened before, never rigged my stop incorrectly before. It dawned on me that the weight of the wet rope pulling the stop downwards had pulled it out of the top pin, despite me knowing I had rigged it correctly. So when I closed the stop and locked it off, was clearly not paying enough attention to realise the rope was not fully underneath the pin. Anyway I didn't die, just gave Olly and Beth above me a bit of a scare!

At the bottom of Titan you get cold pretty damn quick, there is spray from the waterfall, and it's not a nice place to stand around for too long. I was glad of the extra base layer and balaclava I had stashed away in a dry bag. Once everyone was down we didn't waste any time in looking for the connection, us silently praying that it wasn't sumped, and also that the "Cow Arse Worms" duck wasn't too full of the nasty wriggly things. After some questioning of our route finding, we were very pleasantly surprised to find our wishes had been granted, and we could get through. Although Cow Arse Worms duck was absolutely rank and smelled foul, we were all happy to finally find our way into the Speedwell Streamway and have a good wash off. Seeing the old mining stemples on the way to the Streamway, and passing through Leviathan in JH, serves as a stark reminder that cavers were almost certainly not the first to find Titan, and we are all indebted to their hard toil.




Painting by SUSS in the TSG kitchen

Despite me having been in Speedwell Streamway twice before, I found it a bit disorientating wearing glasses (I don't normally wear them in wet caves), and kept falling over. I'm also very grateful to Olly for the piggy back through the deeper bits! What I should have done was taken my glasses off at the bottom of Titan, ah well. I found colostomy crawl much easier than last time, mainly due to not dragging a bag behind me and instead wearing my little personal 5l bag clipped to my hip, and also probably due in some part to it seeming slightly bigger than when I last tackled it 3 years ago. Each caver that goes through must bring a certain amount of mud with them right? I think we were all happy to see the bath in Peak Cavern, signalling the time for well deserved beer and BBQ was nigh. It's always fun to pass the tourists in the Devil's Arse, sopping wet and muddy, with no indication of the horrors endured to traverse underneath the hillside and emerge, triumphant into the sunlight of the Vestibule. They all stare at us, the look on their faces confirming the truth - they must be mad!

The Sunday de-rigging team of Tom (sleeping beauty), Olly and Cow friend (surface "support") and Andy Farrow (ROPE FREEE) encountered a few issues with the next team along who had rigged over us instead of using the extra bolts. But it seems they would have had enough to worry about at the time with knot passes! Despite me offering to help de-rig on Sunday, I went to Bagshawe Cavern with some new club members instead, which I will tackle in a separate little write up at some point.

Photo (Via Snapchat) by Olly King

Many, many thanks to our Titan team - Tom Howard, Olly King, Anton Petho, Andrew Farrow, Pete Knight and Beth Knight.

Thanks to the Technical Speleological Group for their usual fantastic hospitality, their much improved Club Hut, and of course the BBQ on Saturday night.

Also thanks to Steven Mills, Robert Stevenson, Yvonne King and Callum Ewan for coming down Bagshawe Cavern on Sunday 🙂

DO EPIC SHIT. ...
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With Jake, Tav, Matt Tuck and another new participant to join the quest for 'caverns measureless', Duncan 'Smasher' Price. Tav went to the dig face, Smasher clearing the spoil away, Matt hauling, me on the shuttle and Jake on the surface. With a goo ...
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Dates: 24th -26th July 2016

Team: Bill Buxton,Graham Christian,Brian Clipstone, Howard Dare (& Molly),Kevin Diffey, Andy Dobson, Dave Dobson,Clark Friend, Chris Grimmett (& Sheelagh), Mark Hampson, Duncan Hornby, Harvey Lomas,Fred Levett, Tim Lewington, David Mullin, Allan Richardson

Apologies if I have forgotten someone!

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Friday

Tim and I had stayed at the SWCC hut Thursday evening so we could sneak a trip in on Friday on our way North for the annual North Wales mines weekend organised by Allan. Leaving Claire, Vince and Gary at the hut who were supporting a film crew filming an OFD through trip we made good time to the small village of Furnace about 6 miles south of Machynlleth.

We were to visit the mine Ystrad Einion a few miles up a narrow road. This mine is noted for the amazing water wheel just inside the entrance.

The Water wheel very near the entrance of Ystrad Einion.

One of the stopes, if you look carefully you can see one of the many bright green formations at the bottom of the picture.

The Kibble

There were many intense yellow formations within the passages of Ystrad Einion.

This is a relatively easy trip, no equipment needed and simple route finding. Total trip time was less than 3 hours, much of that me pratting around with the camera!
We then travelled North to join the others staying at the awesome Mynydd Climbing Club hut. That evening Tim and I “popped” over the mountain to Capel Curig for a meal.

A view to die for, which we almost did with the onslaught of midges!

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Saturday

The main event was a top secret location, so secret, if the very name of it was revealed it would destroy space and time as we know it and rip apart the very fabric of the Universe.

How a group of 12 blokes casually leaving the track and piling into one entrance was never noticed will forever remain a mystery.

So here is a pretty picture to distract you.

Many fantastic formations adorned “Area 51”.

Trip time: X hours
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View from the car window on the way up to the start

Short on time, and having read some reviews about the camps, we decided to climb Fan Si Pan in a day. Information about this was hard to find so we ended up carrying far more clothing than was required (more on that later).

Sunrise from the early part of the trail

As far as we could find out (and we believe this to be true as we work in another national park in Vietnam and it certainly is the case there) you can't climb the mountain without a local guide. This differs to Europe, but then this is Vietnam, so it's best to respect the laws of the country and support the local economy.

Through woods and streams

Our ascent was towards the end of June (2016) in what has been a cold and rainy year for Vietnam.

Beautiful morning

What clothes to pack was our first dilemma, this is a high mountain by many standards and we really couldn't get any sensible information (the receptionist at the hotel even suggested gloves and warm hat!), this is a hot place but it does rain, heavily particularly at this time of year.

Camp one, camp two does not look as nice

As we were worried about getting cold and only had cheap Vietnamese poncho style raincoats we packed about three extra layers of clothing. A total waste of time it's simply too hot most of the year. My advice would be to ask your guide (the day before you go) about the average temperatures at the summit for the month of your visit, for June it's between ten and fifteen degrees Centigrade but unfortunately we only found this out during our walk.

An early view of the summit

As Europeans we are used to colder temperatures so I would only take a maximum of one extra (thin?) layer plus a lightweight waterproof jacket. Even the waterproof may be a waste of time as the rain is so heavy that you will probably get wet any way, and, if you do put the jacket on, you will probably get to hot and sweaty.

The path now follows the power lines

How much food and drink to take was our next dilemma, reports tend to say the walk takes about ten to twelve hours (and this is probably a good average). We knew we were being provided with lunch but expected no more so we thought we should take something extra as were starting at five a.m. so would miss breakfast.

Still good views but is that cloud I see approaching?

As it turned out, as we left the hotel they handed us a large bag each with bread, jam, two bananas, an apple and (randomly) a tomato plus half a litre of water.  When added to our snacks, the lunch and the half litre of water provided by our guide and the litre of water we packed we thought we would have too much, but again it was too late to do anything about this.

Is this the summit?

As it turned out, we had way too much food but just the right amount of water. So my advice is carry about two to three litres of water each and only take limited snacks or none at all if your hotel provides a packed breakfast.

The trail gets steeper

One important thing is sunscreen, after the first three hours we were in the clouds or under a cloudy sky for most of the day, but despite applying sunscreen before we set off, we both caught the sun a bit. So take some with you and apply regularly.

Into the clouds

So, enough general information for now, back to describing our day. We got up at 4:30 am and were ready to leave by five, except there was no one about 😢. At about quarter past two people turned up on motorbikes (no helmets) and we were given a lift to the guiding company headquarters where we transferred to a car for a lift up to a high pass where we started the walk. At this time the weather was glorious, we should have been at the top! We started off through woodlands and beside a stream, nearly always climbing, after about an hour and a half we reached the first camp, tin sheds, surely people would only stop here if they were walking up from Sa Pa? Continuing up, the weather was still fine and we were rewarded with some fine views.

View from the summit

After a while the route follows a ridge up towards an obvious false summit, this is also the route taken by the power lines used to supply the buildings at the top. Partway up this ridge we were engulfed by clouds and after just over three hours of walking we reached camp two, not a pleasant site, tin sheds like camp one, litter scattered all around. The rooms here looked dark, damp and nasty, used sleeping bags were left lying on the 'beds', giving the impression that they would not be cleaned before being used again. (There was no one around so it's not possible to say whether they were used again or not.)

View from the summit

Our guide wanted to stay here for twenty minutes but we insisted on pushing on after five, twenty minutes later we started descending (this is before the actual false summit), losing about 100m of height before the final climb up. From here on things deteriorated (in our opinion), general building waste was strewn about the hillside and where the path had been diverted, the new path was so poorly constructed, particularly through a boggy section, that I can't see it lasting.

View of the summit! Oh deary deary me!

Eventually we reached the stone stairway that has been constructed to allow the cable car users to get to the summit and reached the top after four hours twenty minutes. What can I say about the top? Well, look at the pictures and make your own mind up, but to me it was horrible and certainly distracted from what had been a pleasant walk for most of the way. I'm sure the thousands of people who enjoy the cable car each day might disagree. The walk back down follows the same route and took us another four and a half hours, but we weren't rushing as we had plenty of time and had lunch about an hour below camp two.

Hairy caterpillar

In conclusion, it is possible to climb Fansipan in a day, but why would you want to? If you do you are going to hit the crowds plus the best weather is often early in the morning so when you reach the top there will be no view, just masses of people (I've read that the cable car can transport up to 2000 people an hour to the summit!) Better to take two days over the climb (as long as you can face a night at camp two), stay at camp two and get up early so as to reach the summit before the cable car clients arrive, and while there is a good chance of clear views.

Congratulations, Vietnamese style!

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With Jake and Tav. Following my recent visit at the end of May to the Yorkshire Dales to take a part in the Haggs Brow Cave Excavation Project I had been reminded how effective 'capping' was in the reduction of boulders. I decided that I would obtai ...
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TerracesDay two in Sa Pa, today we have a full day trek, organised through our hotel (Sapa Elegance), to Lao Chai and Ta Van.TerracesAfter a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we met our guide and the rest of the clients who were joining us on the trek, ...
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A climber (m 36) was not able to clip the first bolt at the start of a route, before falling circa 4 metres on to a ledge and suffering a head injury. He was treated by Yorkshire Ambulance Service and air ambulance paramedics at the scene, before being carried from the crag on a stretcher by CRO members and then taken to hospital by air ambulance. Volunteer hours 38 ...
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Stephane Fontaine very kindly invited the DCC to a rope event that his caving club run each year in Senzeilles Quarry in Cerfontaine, Belgium. Initially, and for 3 months, I was the only person who took this offer up, until a month before the event Andrew Farrow booked himself a plane ticket too. Stephane came to collect us from Brussels Charleroi late on Friday, upon arriving at Senzeilles, we found everyone asleep and so had to have the quietest BBQ ever - thanks to Stephane for much needed beer! This was my fist night sleeping in a hammock and it was great! I like arriving in a destination at night, and then waking up to see where you have come to. In this case big smooth faced marble quarry with what from a distance looked like giant spiders webs rigged across it in every direction. We were up bright and early, keen to get ourselves signed up, and get on the ropes.


Groupe Speleo Centre Terre are known for being "rope monkeys" in Belgium, and this was no surprise when we were handed the rigging guide, which wasn't really a rigging guide. But it indicated the three different levels of rope practice in the quarry. Green: very easy, for kids. Orange: "soft route". Red: "pro route". Myself and Andy started on the very easy ropes to get a feel for the place, take a closer look at their rigging, and make sure all our gear was set up correctly for the course. And so onto the "soft route". This consisted of walking halfway to the top of the quarry to the starting point, then what can only be described as 40-50 minutes of fairly tricky rope work!

Andy on the "Pro Route"

The afternoon saw us attempting the pro-route and getting to various stages of completion before jibbing out. I chose to get off about halfway in, in a "not so designated getting off point", before getting to the over-water section. My arms at this point were aching, and so I took the opportunity in the afternoon to walk up to the top of the quarry and get some action shots of Stephane, Andy, Laurel and Paul on the walls. That evening was followed by a smashing BBQ, and Euro cave talk all night!

Stephane in Monto St. Etienne

On Sunday Stephane organised a caving trip for us into a lovely little cave called Monto St. Etienne, in the Huy region of Belgium. We met 4 of his young caving colleagues - Nico, Salome, Piet, and Arthur, kitted up and headed underground. This cave is protected due to the presence of bats, and gated with access only allowed during the summer months. This is a very pretty little cave with many decorated areas, that has sadly been slightly spoiled in places by spray painted graffiti. After pausing for a photo in the large chamber, we quickly found our way down to the first pitch. Salome was in the process of gaining her first stage in rigging practice, and so we waited and took some more photographs and enjoyed Piet's music, while Salome expertly rigged the safety line and traverse, before we all descended into the second half of the cave. Once down, we had a good wander around the various routes, and then climbed up a pre-rigged shaft into the most well decorated part of the cave. Upon leaving the cave, Nico presented with cans of Jupiler lager, and we happily sat in the sun eating bread, chorizo and cheese.

Andy in front of Brussels Cathedral

Monday saw myself and Andy wandering around Brussels being tourists in the rain, I really enjoyed the city, there was so much to see even with most of the major attractions shut on Mondays. Fairly disconcerting seeing the military literally every half an hour or so; armed personnel on every other street corner. At least we felt quite safe!

Many thanks to Stephane for his wonderful hospitality!

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Starting the walk through rice terracesAfter this mornings excursion we were looking forward to an afternoon stroll away from the crowds.Rice fields in actionOur guide met us at the hotel and we were then driven some distance away from Sa Pa to our sta ...
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A walker (m, 59) slipped from a stile whilst crossing a field boundary, injuring an ankle. He was taken in a CRO vehicle to the nearest public road for transfer to a road ambulance. Volunteer hours 24 ...
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Sa Pa townAfter flying to Ha Noi, spending the night and the catching the night train, we arrived at Lao Cai station where we were picked up for the transfer to Sa Pa.What?The transfer took about forty five minutes to get to Sa Pa and another forty fiv ...
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Banteay Srey carvingsOur final days in Siem Reap and after a day on the bikes yesterday, we were going to spend a bit of the time sitting in a tuk tuk as we planned to visit some of the more remote sites.Banteay Srey, smaller than many other templesFir ...
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