The Giants - Oxlow Connection, Derbyshire
Grade V
30th August 2007
The Giants - Oxlow Connection is a notorious trip and something that
fellow EPC-member Sam and I had wanted to do for a while.
Giants Hole and Oxlow Caverns are two very popular caves, Giants being a fun mix of walking, stooping, sideways
shuffling, crawling and short pitches whilst Oxlow is predominantly vertical. They
were connected in 1966 by the EPC to give a demanding trip which was, at
the time, the deepest
in the UK. The passage joining the two systems is known as the Chamber
of Horrors and involves tight squeezes and a number of intimidating ducks.
Sam, Jase and I planned the Giants - Oxlow Connection for a Thursday
evening at the end of August.
Sam and I arrived at the Oxlow parking to meet Jase and Nige. Nige had
volunteered to come along to help rig Giants so he disappeared off to rig
a ladder on Garlands Pot for us. Sam, Jase and I got changed, packed some
rope and headed off towards the entrance to Oxlow. There were no
other teams around so we dropped the first pitch and carried on rigging
the pitches down to the col that overlooks the east chamber. Rigging
continued and before long we were stood beneath the pull-down device that
allows access to 'New Oxlow'. This pulled through fine and we prussiked 9m
up the rope to swing into the high level phreatic tube at the top. Here we
stashed SRT kits and began crawling along Pilgrim's Way. This is a nice
section of fairly dry crawling passage which eventually leads to Mecca
Aven. I was wearing a 5mm wetsuit and the other lads neo-fleeces with
plastic oversuits. We were all very hot through this section! It is at Mecca Aven that the fun starts! Crawling upstream leads
shortly to a flat out, tight section where a certain amount of digging is
necessary to push over the gravel floor. After this the passage continues
low and tight but nowhere desperate passing Oxlow Aven. After a good deal
of this the passage eventually starts to descend and you get the feeling
that the ducks must be pretty close by. Pools start appearing in the
bottom of the passage and the whole place has a feeling of dampness about
it. Eventually Sam at the front shouted back that we were at the first
duck so helmets were exchanged for neoprene hoods. In fact this was a
false-alarm being only a deep puddle but after another minute of crawling
we were at the first duck. The passage here is tight and there's no way
that cavers can get past each other. Sam turned over onto his back with
helmet off and slowly made his way through the first duck. His feet
disappeared and he shouted out that he was in an airbell with another duck
in front. Jase and I waited whilst he went through the second duck and
then Jase headed through the ducks. Having seen the other lads go through I was
confident that the ducks weren't too long and opted to hold my breath and
free dive through on my back. Holding my helmet between my knees
with one hand and pulling along the roof with the other worked fine and
the only awkward part was when my helmet became stuck on the roof halfway
through the second duck. We had heard that the first duck from the Oxlow
end was the worst and expected some more (but easier) wet stuff. In fact,
after these two ducks the passage continued with
more flat-out crawling until suddenly, we popped out into Poached Egg
passage in Giants. From here we nipped through the Giants Windpipe and
into the Crabwalk before climbing up the ladder on Garlands.
A thoroughly enjoyable trip and all three of us were very pleased to
have put this one to bed! The water level will make a big difference to
the ducks and they can sump entirely.
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