Birks Fell Cave -
14th. September 2014
Birks Fell Cave! I
can’t remember quite who went, but there were 13 in total.
It’s a great trip Birks
Fell, a classic, a not so complex but interesting sporting caving trip. The
book “Not for the Faint Hearted” offers the following advice about Birks Fell
“Cavers who get bored in Birks Fell should begin the search for a new
leisure interest” The caving trip in
its entirety is described in great detail, more than I need to mention, in that
book. It’s not changed very much from what I can tell. In fact we confirmed
that not much had changed as Fleur Loveridge took
some photographs for cave monitoring purposes. She deserves all the credit for
sorting out the cave monitoring for this trip and the CNCC, who asked for this,
seemed very happy with her work.
We were fortunate in
taking along with us one of the authors and researchers of NFTFH on the trip.
None other than Bobby Bailek himself. That man is a
star! It was a pleasure to have seen all
the other eight cavers disappear down the entrance crawl in two separate
groups. They even took a newbie too. Young Tom Clayton who was sporting a shiny
new clean over suit.
There I sat on the
grassy knoll looking at Dalek and the brothers
Simpson who I had caved with many years ago on the same trip, when they were
teenagers and we were all in the Burnley Caving Club. I announced that we were the de-rigging party
and hopefully we could catch up the racing snakes at the front, when that old
caving chestnut was pulled out of hat. “I am only going as far as the second
pitch chimed the Simpson’s”, and then Dalek started
hobbling on several decades of joint abuse .... whimpering ... The last bus
that ran him over is still recovering I hear! Looks like we had better get a
wiggle on then, as the racing snakes had been sent ahead to rig the entire cave
and the de-tackling party wasn’t actually a de-tackling party after all. We
didn’t need to fret the tackling party were smart enough to realise that they
had to carry out all the gear too.
The caving trip is best
described like this, for me! Tight bits, walking, climbing, getting lost, then
a flat-out tight rift, walking, stooping, (I can’t stand stooping) staggering,
crawling, twisting, looking puzzled at Dalek, Dalek looking blankly back
at me, worrying about large loose
boulders slowly crushing me in a
squeeze, getting stuck, and that bloody bag and wondering if Dalek actually knew the way on. A growing sense of anxiety,
losing my sense of time and slowly and gradually getting more and more tired
and broken. Then I got to the half way point at the elbow bend, the end of the
cave then, reverse gear and do it all again on the way out.
With the added bonus of
being with Dalek all the way, it was comedy genius
between us, we were a class act. Dalek unable to
know, or locate the ongoing passage, and me a hulking wreck huffing and blowing
through passageways trying to keep up with him. One of several notable
escapades enjoyed was the old disappearing way on in the way out trick. The one
where the way on just vanished. Frustrated and feeling hopeless I corroborated
the disappearance and then realised that the way on was like in all good
pantomimes behind you!
We enjoyed a delightful return through all manner
of inconvenience including neck deep water, losing the Simpson’s and Dalek forgetting to bring vital upping gear which gave me a
rest as he free climbed the non free
climbable pitch on his bad joints, making it back to the surface after a 6 hour
trip.
All in all a good day
out thirteen cavers counted in and
thirteen cavers counted out. We
confirmed that the cave was still there for the CNCC, no epics and a good laugh in the bar afterwards.
Now, here are some tips
for would be future club caving trip coordinators.
Do not assume that the
club tackle store is in fact a tackle store with actual tackle in it for the
caving trip. I made that mistake and had to scrabble around contacting various
folk the night before. The upshot was that the gear was scavenged and sorted
out in the car park at Buckden. Thanks to Si and Di
Hard for supplying missing gear. I had left the gathering of tackle until the
Saturday afternoon and found much of the gear was still on its way back from
France and it had stalled somewhere in Kendal.
Agree before entering
cave that who is doing what, especially the de rigging.
Organise Birks Fell
Cave for a Saturday as it’s a long day out, especially for residents of the
South of England.
Bring with you an
actual copy of the guide book and not the author.
Bring the
permit!!!!
Lastly, I took the
advice in the guide book and found another leisure interest, by becoming a
shameful blues harmonica player.
Bill Sherrington