Trip to upper/lower Long Churn -- 22nd Feb 2009

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Trip to upper/lower Long Churn -- 22nd Feb 2009

Group: Mary, Paul, Dave, Dave2, Alan, Andy, James

This trip was an excuse to take a bunch of 'new recruits' into the clean, but wet Yorkshire caves, in contrast to the muddy delights of North Wales. We headed off early and arrived at Selside at about 11.30. It was very quiet, there were only two other vehicles parked up in the lane. The weather was surprisingly pleasant as we changed into caving gear, a process which involved a fair amount to messing about to get the newbies with gear which vaguely fitted them. Dave paid the trespass fee and we headed off towards Alum pot. En route we met a party of three who where also doing Upper and Lower long churn, but in the opposite order.

We had a quick look in Alum pot and then headed towards Upper Long Churn where water levels were fine. Everyone piled in the passage and we headed towards Dr. Bannisters. The old hands stood and watched while the rest of the party explored the oxbows and roof level passages. Once everyone had had enough exercise we headed onward towards the deeper pools.

Most people managed to stay fairly dry by bracing against the walls, however some were less successful and ended up with wet wellies. After the pools the water level dropped and a bit further on the chamber containing Dr. Bannisters handbasin was reached. There then ensued a fair amount of larking around which meant everyone was pretty wet, but still warm.

We headed back onto the passage for a bit more roof level sport and met the other party two of whom had crawled along 'cross passage'. We exited into the daylight and then walked down to the entrance to Diccan pot. There were a couple of cavers from York Uni outside and we met their two companions coming out - they had a bit of a drenching on the pitches and had sensibly abandoned their trip. We headed ahead into the low crawl (much to Alan's horror) and joined the Lower Long Churn passage just before the rift. An easy climb down had everyone in front of the cheesepress. Mary and Paul led the way followed by Dave C, James and Andy. Alan decided that the pitch down to the font was much more inviting and so Dave rigged a safety rope and Alan followed by Dave dropped down meet up with the others.

We had a quick look at the Dolly Tubs pitch and then headed back up the climb behind the font, up the rift and then through double-shuffle and plank pools. An aqueous crawl out of the passage before the waterfall (Mary's idea!) had everyone out safely. A stroll back to the cars and a change into dry clothing ended a pretty good day out.

Overall trip time: 2.5 hours