Juniper Gulf, The Allotment, Yorkshire Dales
Grade 4 SRT Cave
My friend Sam and I both discovered that we had Monday off work and a
day trip to the Dales was discussed. The organisation was mostly conducted
by text message:
"Diccan, GG, Juniper Gulf. Which 1?"
"Good looking list of caves that. Decide Mon morning."
Monday morning arrives and it's been raining heavily for 24 hours or
so. In fact, Carlisle's afloat again and there's been 63mm of rain in the
last seven days. The Dales are going to be awash. Sam had a vague idea
that Juniper Gulf shouldn't cause too many difficulties in the wet so we
settled on that. Everything got packed and we headed off in the rain. Like
many cavers, I use the stepping stones at Gargrave as an indicator of
water levels and they were well submerged under a fast-flowing, sludgy
river. We arrived at Crummackdale late morning. It was still raining and
all around were resurgences and streams in spate. We headed up onto the
Allotment and found the small valley containing the entrance shaft.
Looking down it we were glad we had opted to rig the dry way in. The
stream bounded down the north end of the rift and disappeared under some
jammed boulders at the bottom. I opened the batting rigging the first 12m
pitch down and abseiling onto a sloping ledge above the stream. Just as
feet were about to get uncomfortably wet a traverse takes you over the
jammed blocks and downstream leading to a short, slightly constricted
pitch down into the stream bed. From here we traversed above the stream
into what has been described as a "gloomy and watered shaft".
This Monday it was particularly gloomy and watered with a waterfall
thundering down the left-hand wall. We both zipped up and headed on
towards a nice 15m pitch down.
Sam took pole position as we traversed along, crawling above the
streamway, straddling the rift on hands and knees. This section is pretty
awkward and would be a particularly bad place to fall. Next comes 'the bad
step'. Here, the passage widens and a swing off a flake lands you on a
sloping shelf. There are bolts if you want them. Sam breezed past that and
headed for the superb 25m third pitch. Constricted at the top, the shaft
bells out nicely to leave you hanging in the middle of the wide rift. Up
to this point we hadn't considered the water too much. You know there's a
torrential stream below you and you're getting thorough soakings along the
way but at this point Juniper Gulf really started going into overdrive.
Standing in the chamber at the bottom of the big rift the Big Pitch
started to make itself known. Taking over the rigging I took us along
ledges and into a healthy shower where a spike protects a short drop down
onto a big ledge. Cascading down out of the roof was a proper torrent of
water falling 90m vertically to the bottom. I set off traversing round the
right-hand side, rigged the pitch with rope and abseiled over the lip. All
I remember about the shaft to be honest is the noise, the wind, the water
and the bolts. I don't think either of us looked around once as we
descended down to the bottom of the shaft. The bottom was a mash-up of
spray, falling water and wind. Sam arrived and we stood in a hurricane of
wind and water as a waterfall hammered down in front of us. After a minute
at the bottom Sam raced off up the rope to be battered by water.
Once at the top of the big pitch we both relaxed and got on with
de-rigging, packing bags and transporting rope. The bread and butter
stuff. We exited three and a half hours after starting. Like Des Marshall
says in 'Selected Caves of Britain and Ireland', Juniper Gulf really is a
magnificent SRT trip. Made particularly memorable by a healthy amount of
water.
|
