Jim's Memories - 1
21.
28th February, 1965, Meregill
Team: J Newton, I Carruthers,
W Holden, R Kirkham, D Baldwin, D Hodgson, M Wilkinson, S Kilburn, C Ogden, A
Stott.
Three of us had gone up
on the Saturday and diverted the stream from Meregill,
the water being already very low, and on the Sunday the entrance was open.
Eleven of us gathered at Meregill Skit and changed in
beautiful weather. The largest ladder of the three needed was dropped down the
entrance pitch (50') and four of us went off to ladder the next one, a 70'
which we split into two ladders for better climbing. The next pitch
was described in Pennine Underground as a 75' but in the end we
needed nearer 90'. We then passed through a couple of deep pools and reached
the 100' which also had a ledge about 30' down. A little time was wasted
uncoiling the big coupling rope but soon we were down and into the more
interesting reaches of Meregill.
The
next obstacle was a short drop of about 10' into a very deep pool where a
ladder was useful. We traversed around the pool (it was too deep to wade in as
found out by Bill) and immediately down another pitch of about 15' and into
another pool under a rock bridge and then we were in "The Torrent."
This is a quite large passage after all the pitches and goes on for a
considerable distance, ending in a stooping crawl to a miserable sump. Halfway
down the torrent is a large inlet which was very perplexing. All 11 members on
the trip got to the bottom and then made a very orderly retreat out,
arriving at the surface just as dusk was falling to a snowstorm. Quite
different to when we went in.
Jim Newton