Swinsto was all we could manage on the people power we had at the weekend. Loads of people were there for the trip, but a few wanted the out at valley entrance route.
Having never been down Swinsto before, the Long Crawl was a wonderful experience. As I was expecting a tough Rift Pot- or Vespers-type crawl, with a hundred weight of rope strapped to my back, I was quite surprised to find myself floating along in warmish water. The usual situation of a big gap in front of me and a small queue behind me still happened to make me look a bit of crawling lump, but I don’t mind that, my enjoyment of pies makes my enjoyment of crawls limited.
The pitches in Swinsto are nearly all either wet, an odd take off to avoid the water or quite airy. No squeezing is required, which is nice for the way back up against gravity. The big pitch is good fun, a little reach around off a ledge halfway down and a couple p-bolts give a great descent to the bottom. If I'd been rigging I don't think I would have seen them and would have been a little confused fifty foot up from the bottom and fifty foot down from the top. I was impressed by the clear water pools in Swinsto, some of them were so impressively clear I felt a little unsure of stepping in them or not with my muddy boots. Maybe I’ve spent too many days in Derbyshire.
Once at the bottom the group split into two, one off through the master cave to Valley Entrance and the sunshine, the others back up to take the rope out and see a bit of the cave in slower motion. As I watched the others plodding through the stream way on the way out I felt a little foolish for saying I preferred climbing pitches to abseiling them. You do get to see so much more at that pace and the day was still young so why not. And as Fiona W rigged everything on the way in and Damian W de-rigged everything on the way out it was a bit of an easy-going tourist trip for me.
Sunset / Hardrawkin – May 11th
The walk up to Sunset Hole wasn't fun. Walking up hill in caving kit is never really fun, more a way of saying to the walkers with poles and a serious look on their face that what they are doing is kids stuff, come caving if you want to be truly tough. The baking sun, even well before midday, was making it tough for me to look cool as I gasped and dripped my way along hoping that everyone else was suffering as much as I was.
The stable, slightly chilled temperature of caves was pretty welcoming for once and the short bimble along through Sunset was quite enjoyable. Not quite the long, low trip I was somehow expecting, I've avoided Sunset because, well I don’t know why, but it was a nice trip with just a bit of an abrupt end. I was tempted by the hanging rope ladder in the final chamber, but after getting two feet on the rungs I decided it was too much like hard work and got back down and set off out
to go down Hardrawkin.
My memories of Hardrawkin on a January day with at least a foot of snow falling on the walk up, was just plain cold. That day we got to the sump and out to spend a few hours in the Hill Inn hoping that soon I would be able to feel my toes.
This time I was hoping for snow as I felt like I had been walking around Ingleborough in the sun wearing wellies and a fur suit. The entrance section was shorter than I remembered and made relatively painless by not having to carry a bag. Damian threw some rope at the wall and it was rigged, either I blinked and missed him tying knots or he has some devil magic rope from the depths of Hades that ties itself. The pitches are good, slightly awkward and quite long, with some interesting white and red rock to see on the way up. The cascades between them are lovely to climb. I find sumps a little menacing, but knowing that the black water sump is 12 meters deep makes it a little more unsettling when standing next to it.
After a brief demonstration of toad rescue techniques by Damian we set off to be greeted by either the rumble of thunder or a mini-rock fall. As there was no swearing accompanying the noise I thought it can't be someone slipping over the greasy Hardrawkin rock and so thunder it must be. We set off back to the car to be greeted by a deluge of big rain drops, which started off as a lovely alternative to the sunshine. It even gave me the enjoyment of passing grumpy walkers with a sense of well dressed smugness and makes up for all those times when people ask you what you do and you say caving and they ask is that like potholing? Getting back to the car was a little grim as the rain turned to hail.
3 caves in two days, of which I've only been down one before, that’s a great weekend’s caving in my eyes, thanks to Damian and Fiona for putting in all the work and for putting up with our domino competition in the Helwith Bridge.
Ian B.
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