February 2009
People present - Alex Ritchie

Weather: Dry and warm

It was a late start for this trip with an amazingly long walk to the cave known as the Emporium. The Entrance series consists of either a shaft known as the "lift of doom" with a winch attached or a 9m free-climbable route known as the stairs. On this occasion I decided to take the free climb as I only had enough rope for one pitch. With them passed I reached a pleasant walking passage which was dry for this time of year. After that there was an obstacle known as "the door" this was passed with clever use of "the key" and the beautiful main chamber known as "the apartment" was reached.

This cave only has one pitch of 3 and a half meters with a free climbable route known as "Stairs of blue carpet" which bypasses it. Now the problem was I did have the right equipment namely any Wellies or shoes of any sort on at this point having lost them at "Door mat" passage".

I Got up to the free hanging re-belay with no problems but It seems didn’t put enough slack in my rigging of the re-belay loop (about none it seems) as I couldn’t get my chest jammer onto next bit of rope as I simply couldn’t stand up high enough (at least without any shoes on ouch!!) so with this problem I decided to a change over and come back down again, as the "Banister" pitch head did not look that stable. I took photos of the main chamber and de-rigged and made my way out to the pub.

It was a good trip however I might not try it again though (even with shoes) as my cow’s tails have scratched the formations in this beautiful cave (Please don't tell my land lord!) so I doubt I will get a permit next time.

Alex Ritchie