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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC) and Chris Schofield (EPC)
The two of us headed up from Sheffield on the Thursday morning for a
look at
Tatham Wife Hole. Rope etc. had been packed in the comfort of my
communal
stairwell and the journey was uneventful. Arrived at Ingleton Granite
Quarry
Risings early in the afternoon and made our way to the cave. You
definitely want
an OS map for this one. The sketch map in Marshall and Rust's 'Selected
Caves of
Britain and Ireland' isn't very clear. It's a stiff pull straight up
the
fellside from the Ingleton - Grassington road but things ease once on
the
limestone pavement. One member of the party had opted to wear a wetsuit
and
regretted it on the walk up. The swallet entrance is to the west of
Ingleborough,
where the sloping ground meets the flat limestone pavement and is
fairly easy to
find in a large shakehole.
SRT kits on and we climbed down the small entrance and into winding
canyon
passage. This leads quickly into a chamber - Ogden's Chamber and on
down to a
short drop. This is free-climbable but we rigged it and carried on down
towards
the top of the first pitch. The first and second pitches are rigged
together and
pretty straightforward. From the bottom of the second pitch the going
gets a bit
more awkward and there's a load of stooping/crawling in fairly
constricted
passage. We made our way down the third pitch and The Ramp and on to
the Duck.
There wasn't a lot of water around so The Duck was pretty tame; just a
short
grovel in the water but never completely submerged. From here we
continued down
the fourth pitch and to the end. Never had to use any of the deviations
as there
wasn't enough water to warrant it. Just under 2 hours to the bottom.
We went a bit faster on the way out and exited in an hour and a
quarter. There
was a fair bit of frost on the ground outside the cave entrance and we
headed
back across the plateau and down to the road. A very enjoyable trip
with plenty
of proper caving rather than just swinging about on rope.
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