Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett
(EPC), Chris Schofield (EPC).
Chris and I were looking
for a quick
evening trip with some decent SRT and had thought about Oxlow, Lathkill
Head top
entrance and Knotlow. Since Chris hadn't been in Knotlow before we went
for
that. I did the cave as one of my early SRT trips and remember being
more
concerned about whether I'd threaded my Petzl Stop the right way than
enjoying
the trip. Left Sheffield at 6:00 pm and drove over to the Knotlow
Triangle.
Nobody else at the parking so it looked as though we were going to have
the
place to ourselves. We wandered over to the entrance, got sorted and
abseiled
in. The first pitch down the ginged climbing shaft is a straightforward
descent
which landed us on a sloping floor with the way on under a low arch. An
easy
traverse to the head of the second pitch and we dropped down that
without any
problems. We had a good look at the deviation P-bolt that's lying on
the floor
at the bottom of the second pitch and then moved on down the series of
short
scrambles that leads past the window into the 210 and down to the head
of
Waterfall Pitch. I'd never rigged the waterfall pitch traverse and it's
a great
thing to rig with well-positioned bolts and a Y-hang in a brilliant
airy
position. There wasn't a lot of water coming down the waterfall pitch
inlet so
we didn't need either of the two deviations. Once at the bottom of
Waterfall
Pitch we had a brief look down the coffin level that leads down to
Fourways but
turned round before getting too wet. Chris de-rigged the whole cave
which meant
I could enjoy being a passenger on the way out and have a good look
round. We
were back at the lid by 9:00 pm and arrived back in Sheffield at 10:00
pm.
We're
both keen to go back and do some more in the Knotlow-Hillocks system
including
the connection. Will probably be an evening trip. If anyone fancies
joining us
for that please get in touch with me or Chris.
 
1. Chris abseiling
down the second pitch.
2. Chris in the coffin level on
the way to Fourways
3. P-bolt lying at the bottom of
the second pitch.
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