AUTUMN

At Holbeck Junction, Cornes, Bradshaw, Dunnington, Eyre and Leyland decided to try to climb the waterfall pitch at the end of the left hand passage of the Green and Smelly system. For 'around a quarter of a mile' Cornes led the way up a steadily climbing passage. Various minor waterfalls and gaps in the floor were traversed by climbing up into roof-systems before the party reached the top waterfall. According to Eyre;

"Here's where the fun started. It seems that because I once did a bit of a climb in Sunset Hole, I have got the reputation of being a human fly. So Cornes promptly seized hold of me and said "There it is! Get up it!" I examined the pitch for about ten minutes. It was only about 15ft, but the walls had been polished by the waterfall to such an extent that I could only see one minute crack (2"x1/4"x1/8") in the whole wall. Even on this dry day, enough water was coming down to soak me, and if I slipped there was a lovely dolly tub at the bottom 4ft deep. I turned to Cornes and said, "Isn't there a way round?", "No! Get up it!", he screamed back at me. I took one look at his blood-flecked eyes and foaming mouth and decided to have a bash. Madman Cornes stood below the fall while I climbed onto his shoulders. I placed one boot-stud in the wee crack and found an even smaller crevice, hardly more than a finger-nail hold, for my left hand. Cornes now decided that I wasn't getting enough assistance. Leaving me up aloft, he walked away, and by intimidation, got Bradshaw up onto his back. Soon I felt hot breath on my neck. "What now?" I shouted, not daring to look round. When the swearing died down it turned out that I was expected to climb onto Bradshaw's shoulders. Well, three seconds later there we were; Atlas Cornes below, then Bradshaw and me perched piggy-back on high. I daren't climb up with the whole lot swaying in the breeze, so I reached up tentatively with one hand and found that we were about three feet from the top. How we got down I don't know, but we did. The only mishap was that Bradshaw stepped backwards into the pool. When we started back I saw Cornes at the foot of the fall, waving his fist at it, so I knew we were in for more trouble next time."

On October 7th it was a misty morning. The autumn tints were well developed on the way to Craven, and from the fell road we saw the cloud cap just rising from Gragareth. Again in Eyre's colourful words: "A strong party of bods, Pennine and Red Rose, arrived at Bullpot Farm. To our amazement, we saw Cornes drag three lengths of iron piping out of his sidecar (he had been reading Chevalier's book, 'Subterranean climbers'). The pipes all screwed together in a gigantic 'T'. A horrible thought assailed me, so I asked him what it was for. "To get up that waterfall with" he said with an ungrammatical leer. "Who are you taking with you?" I innocently asked. "Who do you think?" was the only reply I got." Soon the party assembled outside Rosy Sink, where there was a little light relief. The now notorious cleft below the entrance crawl claimed Dunnington's camera case. Muffled messages from Bliss, whose feet still protruded from the sink, were relayed to heartless onlookers. He can't reach it. Any string ? Dunnington's fast in the cleft himself ! (cheers) He's dropped Aspin's hammer in as well. (groans) He's reached the case. (cheers) It's burst open. (groans) Everything's dropped out. (roars of laughter) Eventually Dunnington was persuaded to crawl aside and let the others pass him. Happily he recovered his tackle in the end. Meanwhile, Cornes, Bradshaw, Leyland and Eyre pressed on with the T-piece to the foot of their waterfall. Here the sections were screwed together, and a wire ladder was tied to the top. As Eyre said;

"Just at the head of the fall, the water had undermined the rock walls, forming a crack four inches wide which continued across the top of the climb. It was my job to climb up on Cornes' back as before, and with Bradshaw to steady me, Leyland was to pass up the T-piece with the ladder attached. The idea was that I would then wedge the T-piece into the crack and climb up the ladder. This sounded all right but it didn't work out that way. I found that as soon as I began to lift the T-piece, we all swayed with the weight. This was very upsetting but eventually, they got it right up to me. I now stood on Cornes' shoulders, with Bradshaw pressing me against the waterfall. After waving the thing about for something like five minutes, my arms began to feel like lead. Although we were all suffering from the strain, I just could not get the top piece to grip. We were about to pack up when the thing stuck (or so I thought). My human support was wilting, so I began to climb the ladder. What I feared, happened. One end of the bar began to roll out of the crack at the top. I yelled to Bradshaw, but he couldn't support my whole weight, standing as he was on Cornes shoulders. Luckily I spotted a tiny hold on the left, and with one foot on this I tried to push the bar back into the crack. Every time I jammed it in, it slowly started spinning out. Well I knew I couldn't get down again without someone getting hurt so I decided to make a spurt 'uppards' and risk it. Shouting for them to stand by I climbed the last six rungs in a burst and just grabbed a handhold on top before the bar came right out at one end. Happily it didn't fall. With a sigh of relief, I hauled myself over the lip of the waterfall.

As soon as I had pulled the pipe into the upper passage and made it fast, the others came tearing up like madmen. "Virgin soil" yelled Cornes. But he hadn't yet seen what I had spotted. Another waterfall. His mouth shot open and he muttered something about having to do it all again. When we had all calmed down, we could see that this new fall would be even worse than the other one to climb. It was twice as high and not so wide, more like a very steep chute and with it being narrower, the water was coming down with much more force. We had a good prowl around, and then Bradshaw found an aven just to one side of the main passage. After the first six feet, it looked like a straightforward climb, so we gave him a leg up. Taking a rope with him, he disappeared from view. He had been gone about a quarter of an hour when I spotted a light 50ft above my head. Bradshaw was now trying to traverse back from a roof-passage to the head of the waterfall, and soon he sent the rope down. We dragged up the T-piece and ladder from the lower fall and then Bradshaw pulled up the ladder on the rope. Up on top we found we were in a big passage with a high roof and it wasn't long before we went forging ahead. As usual, the new passage was 'around about a quarter of a mile long', with an earlier branch leading into a choked bedding plane full of rounded black boulders, possibly from the surface stream. There was a terminal Black and White Chamber about 12ft high and 20ft across, with marvellous formations. Time was short, so we had to turn back.

Our return was uneventful except for negotiating the waterfalls. We just could not free the rope at the upper fall, so eventually Bradshaw threw it down saying he would slide down the chute. He could not quite wedge himself across, and rapidly gained speed. Leyland and I saw two boots coming towards us at about 30mph, and heard a plaintive shout "Support me Jim!". We all ended up floundering in the deep pool, happily none the worse except for a ducking. At the T-piece, we held the ladder on the rope and let it go when we were all down. If anyone fancies himself as an acrobat, the T-piece is still there. We retraced our weary steps towards daylight, meeting Gemmell and Aspin who had been surveying Trident passage and investigating new high-level stuff leading towards the waterfall in White Line Chamber."

WINTER AGAIN

It has been an exciting year. To us the Ease Gill Caverns are now familiar places, to be treated with the respect due to anything that is unique. Gladly we will show their wonders to responsible groups of club members who will join with us in protecting them from damage in respecting the landowners' wishes (permission to cross the moor had to be sought on every occasion from the gamekeeper, and large parties are not tolerated). If others are as happy as we have been in the Ease Gill Caverns, we shall be well contented.