Sell Gill Holes, Yorkshire Dales
Ojay/Ninjaboy
It's been a good while now since I've been caving, so I don't mind posting this up here
(Apologies for the quality, a fair few were taken on the GoPro, anyway it's more about having fun and getting wet than pics)
Severe weather warning, wimbledon 2012.. Meh... Caving it is!
In all seriousness though, trying to plan a decent trip in this weather ain't easy
We decided to head over to the Dales and make it up as we went along, the rain and the water levels being the main factors here
Plan A, B & C were a no go so we decided on Sell Gill Holes..
Situated just outside Horton in Ribblesdale ahead of the Pennine way, a fairly easy going Grade 3 all weather cave
The 'Wet route' was a no go due to the streamway making it f00king treacherous, so the 'Dry route' it was
Now the guidebook says 'DRY route', and it probably is on a decent sunny day when it hasn't been pissing down
Except today it wasn't and we both got quite a soaking, long before hitting the waterfall and streamway at the bottom of the 3rd pitch
It started to rain as we arrived, so I quickly set about rigging the first pitch at fossil entrance;
A quick re-belay onto a Y hang and down the daylight shaft
A short distance away via a stony slope is the 2nd pitch
I setup a quick traverse line so I could rig a free hanging Y hang to drop us straight down (I got one hell of a soaking as N.B watched on)
Once down a large chamber and rift between the second and third pitches
A quick scramble leads to the 3rd pitch, roping down to a small ledge and rigging was a bit of a faff, but simple enough really
Descending the third pitch lands you in a high rift
(Just beyond, the water from the active route comes crashing down a 45m shaft to the right as you enter a huge boulder filled chamber)
We climbed down the boulderfield and followed the streamway
Eventually it degenerates into a wet crawl ending in a silt-choked sump
And given the fact it was pissing down we didn't hang about and stayed clear of the sump, as the last chamber fills to the ceiling
Getting Out
