YCC Blog
Slaughter Stream Cave (to Three Deserts extensions)
Matt Ewles | 17 July 2013
We last visited Slaughter Stream (wet sink) in 2010, doing the classic main streamway trip to Kuwait Passage. This time we were keen to explore the North Western branch of the cave, to The Three Deserts extensions and back via Coal Seam and the main streamway. The following trip report/description may...
Henslers Pot to Henslers Master Cave sump
Matt Ewles | 28 April 2013
We have had a permit for Hensler's Pot up at Gaping Gill for the last two years, but on both occasions the weather has forced a change of plan. However, with the weather looking nice and enthusiasm from three people (myself, Gary, and Philip) the trip was on! There were...
Aquamole Pot
Matt Ewles | 11 March 2013
The weather was looking a bit grim, so we wanted a clean and uncomplicated, and relatively water-resistant SRT trip to start off our weekend staying at the NPC hut near Clapham. Aquamole came to the rescue, and provided an exceptionally efficient and enjoyable trip, and something I was keen to...
Marble Steps Pot
Matt Ewles | 3 September 2012
We wanted a nice simple trip down a classic Yorkshire Pothole, and they don't get much more classic than Marble Steps. We took the Sidewinder route down, which was a pleasant change as I have always taken the classic gully route on my previous visits. Sidewinder provides a slightly more convoluted...
Water Icicle Close Cavern
Matt Ewles | 6 August 2012
We had a great weekend at the Orpheus CC hut in Monyash. On Saturday, Gary, Chuck and I took a walk along Lathkill Dale in some lovely summer sunshine. I had no idea what a pretty valley this was! We found the entrance to Mandale Mine and Lathkill Head Cave, which...
Coast to Coast walk
Matt Ewles | 18 June 2012
Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk by camping Not really a caving trip, but this seemed as good a place as any to post our report on our coast to coast walk. We hope that this description may prove very useful to anyone planning the walk as we did (Wainwright route, camping,...
Little Hull Pot
Debbie Flowers | 29 May 2012
What a glorious day! The trip itself was brilliant. As someone who hasn't caved very often in the past few years, especially SRT trips, it was a shock to the system as some of the pitches are rather exposed. I needed to quickly learn to trust myself and my gear again!!!...
Little Hull Pot
Gary Douthwaite | 14 May 2012
A true classic Yorkshire pot hole! This cave should be on every SRT cavers list of things to do. The sun was out (for the first time in ages) and despite our concern that it had been too wet we set off from York anyway. After all Matt had a wet...
Little Hull Pot
Matt Ewles | 14 May 2012
We have had permits for Little Hull Pot each year since the club was founded, but every year it has been rained off. Having never done this Yorkshire classic before we had no idea how it responsed to rain, but the warnings in the guidebooks put us off doing it...
Pool Sink to Holbeck Junction
Matt Ewles | 13 March 2012
Having explored much of the Main Drain part of Easegill over the last several years, one classic entrance was not yet familiar to me. We have been wanting to do Pool Sink for some time, but being one of the more flood prone entrances, we have been rained off in...
Agen Allwedd outer circle via Coal Cellar passage
Matt Ewles | 27 February 2012
After two previous trips to Aggie (Agen Allwedd) we were finally ready to tackle one of the caves classic round trips. We initially set off to do the Inner Circle via Coal Cellar Passage (as our previous trip to Aggie had terminated at Coal Cellar Chamber). However, we ended up...
Ogof Draenen to the Dollimore Series and Medusa's Children
Gary Douthwaite | 14 February 2012
Everything was definitely against us for this trip. After Matt got some kind of flesh eating infection in his foot the night before and me being full of cold (not to mention knackered from doing Aggy for 7 hours), we'd all but written off our planned Draenen expedition. Things didn't...
Shuttleworth Pot
Matt Ewles | 15 January 2012
Great to get the chance to explore the recently discovered Shuttleworth Pot. We parked at the top car park of Leck Fell by Leck Fell House (as the lower car park was full) and followed the wall down the fell for some distance, before deviating off towards the entrance at grid...
Gaping Gill
Matt Ewles | 24 November 2011
We had a failed attempt at Dihedral as we got down about 40m and swung into a rift which we thought to be the way on, however, we soon found it not to be. An in-situ traverse line lead along to a P-bolt on a tiny ledge (psossibly the Mouse...
Sell Gill Holes (Wet Route)
Matt Ewles | 3 November 2011
Little Hull Pot was, once again, rained off, so up to Sell Gill for an adventure down the wet route. The SRT was surprisingly more technical than I remember (this may just have been Chuck's interesting rigging!) and we had a fairly enjoyable four hours underground. In true old fart...
Aygill Caverns
Matt Ewles | 12 September 2011
Arriving at Bull Pot Farm by 11:30 we were underground by midday, with the scaffolded entrance shaft being very easy to find (walk along the track to Barbondale, through the first gate, then immediately through gate on right, down to Aygill beck 50m ahead across the field, then the entrance...
Thackthwaite Beck Cave
Matt Ewles | 22 August 2011
I was really excited about the opportunity to explore some of the caves of Wensleydale, which I had ready so much about in the MSG Journals dating back to the 1970s. So with permission from Bolton Estate we headed up there on Friday evening, camping at the Old Hall Cottage...
Miss Grace's Lane (to Canyon Halls and Dog Tooth Chamber)
Matt Ewles | 27 June 2011
After a good nights sleep after our previous day and nights adventures in Slaughter Stream Cave and the pub at Symonds Yat, we woke to a red hot morning sunshine. Rich, Nikki and Sarah went to canoe on The Wye, while Gary and I went to explore Miss Grace's Lane...
Slaughter Stream Cave (to Kuwait Passage and back via Coal Seam Passage)
Matt Ewles | 27 June 2011
After caving for seven years without ever visiting the Forest of Dean I was very excited about our trip to Slaugter Stream. It sounded too good to be true - a mainly horizontal sprawling system with a main streamway and interesting formations. What more could you want! We drove down on...
Ireby Fell Caverns
Matt Ewles | 16 June 2011
Not the most delightful weather for early June, but we arrived at Masongill at a very efficient 11am, in rain and cold wind. However, the rain was only forecast to be light, and it had been very dry recently, so we happily headed off down the traditional route of Ireby...