Swarthgill Hole - (Photos/video and report)

Featherstone Tangent

Mossdale Caverns - High Level Mud Caverns

With a body still tender from Langcliffe Pot three weeks earlier I wasn't wrong to predict I'd be in pain throughout the entirety of this outing. The hike to the scar alone was enough of a slog.
Huge amounts of fresh sand, shifted cobbles and froth in significant quantities were the usual reminders of the destructive reign recent storms have had.

Mossdale Caverns - Photos

After going through all my Mossdale photographs this is a collection of the best ones. The vast majority of them i'm afraid were blurry and unusable. I was carrying the camera unprotected inside my wetsuit jacket on all these trips, with nothing dry to wipe the lens - it surprises me any of them came out good.

Langcliffe Pot - via Oddmire

Today's trip was only my third time beyond Nemesis, yet I couldn't shake the feeling I'd been there more often. I've obviously spent a great deal of subconscious time in there.

When ever I see Great Whernside either in passing or from afar, I always struggle to place Langcliffe Pot within that hillside. Like Mossdale, there is a mysterious, incomprehensible element to those environments. This begins to fade the moment you exit, leaving an indelible sense of other-worldliness.

Mossdale Caverns - Video - Youtube clips

An assortment of footage featuring Mossdale Caverns

Rowten Pot - Pull through

I seldom leave Wharfedale for caving these days and it's been an age since I did a three peaks classic. My increased bias towards the Mossdale'esque type caving venues means I spend a lot less time on ropes as well so I wouldn't usually be interested in a conventional trip down places like Rowten Pot. I do have a long held affinity for through trips though and Rowten's is one of the finest examples in the Dales.

Marathon Obsession

I've only two choices, carry on or turn around, both offer torment but only one attainment. There is no where to hide from this crushing environment, no calling time-out. Every hard fought inch must be retraced and the further one goes the deeper-in one gets. The mind reigns in this physically repressed environment, one moment it is your friend the next your foe, your motivation and all your worst fears. Vanity and wealth count for absolutely nothing here, past experience and the fortitude gained are the only currency. These dour devoid confines rarely offer friendship but under the right circumstances are the only friend one needs. The greatest of satisfaction can be had through the existence of a simple hard earned end. Escape from the pressures of society can be achieved through the blinkered like reality that ensues. Loosening the grip your existence has on you can be a liberating thing but to truly succeed one must be willing to go all the way. Dangling a leg over the side is a common virtue and satisfy's the masses. To abandon the program completely is one thing but returning later is another.... Pushing yourself ever further becomes addictive and then just necessary..

Langstroth Pot - Through Trip - New Year (Solo)

My first lonesome trip of the New Year. The variable weather had forced me to cancel this one several times over the past week. I'd been here the previous evening, but after kitting up and heading for the entrance I realised I'd forgotten my Primary Light's (Fenix) battery. I made up for this absent mindedness by getting an early start, I was still against the clock though due to a scheduled Climbing Wall session later that day and supposed poor weather arriving at Lunchtime.

Dowbergill Passage Christmas Solo (Dow Cave - Providence Pot)

I've ended up doing the traverse of Dowbergill Passage many times this past year, most of these trips have been for sport, to keep fit and maintain an edge and usually be done at a very quick pace. Today's trip was a pleasant change from the norm and was used to tie up some loose ends and attempt some photography.

Cherry Tree Hole - Far North - Solo

Icy roads and a bitter gale almost forced me to reconsider doing this one. I'd foolishly brought very little warm gear for the overland trip to and fro, but decided I would just have to suffer.

Treading Water

Some of us will forever be governed by the sensations we have long sought, collected and experienced throughout our lives. Some of these sensations are so addictive that we never break free of the need to continually pursue them. Because without such stimulus life becomes a listless struggle, just merely existing.

For a while now I have felt the frustration that comes with not pushing myself enough, or more the fact I am not pursuing the one activity that I feel challenges me.

Notes on Session

I think it was sometime in 2013 when I first started this Blog. I was getting pretty lazy with my journals at the time and felt it was time I made more of an effort to document my stuff online. No sooner had I registered for the blog I lost interest or more just couldn't be arsed with it.

Season in the Abyss

Re-edited August 2018 by the author, with only a few of the additions left out from the original. I was never happy with how cluttered this one felt, and I've been meaning to get round to sorting it for a long time. I never was any good at the editing/proofreading side of things, but feel it now reads a little better. Some of this article makes me cringe, but most of it is still right on. I'm a very different person now to the one who wrote this fact, and felt the need to preserve that mindset, so haven't tampered with it in that way. Of the few bits added, all came from my original notes for the piece.

One thing I really only touched on in this article, was how lost I'd felt over the previous five years, especially towards Caving and other outdoor activities. Aspects of my old self and the drive I once had were beginning to return during this period. Something I'd concluded was lost forever. These outings were very instrumental in what followed over the next few years. So much so they may never of happened.  

Posted - February 2015 - on Ukcaving.com. The article was heavily censored and still is, especially when taking my original vision for the piece in to consideration, it would have upset a few people for sure....

Losing myself (with Sid) in Langstrothdale

I still remember how I really enjoyed writing this piece. I also remember cursing myself at the time for not writing a lot more about my experiences in the past than I did. Originally posted on UKCaving Feb 2014.

Southerscales Pot through trip: The Logistics of Caving with Diving

Originally posted on Ukcaving.com October 2012. All I have to say about this piece is; it still does a great job of reminding me how good a day that was. The period that followed this day was another one of those significant junctures in my life, where with hindsight I appeared to have made the wrong decision. Fortunately things did eventually come right and I have recently managed to redeem the foolish decision I made some weeks after this.

Return of the Wet Rubber Fetish

This article was originally posted on ukcaving.com in November of 2011. I have made some corrections to this piece, so it does differ slightly from the original.

King Pot

This was the first article i wrote after returning from London during the summer of 2010 it was originally posted on Ukcaving.com in August of that year.

One More Hit

A Ukcaving.com piece from May of 2008. I don't know why I've kept hold of this one, not a great piece, but it did precede what turned out to be a great year. It was also an early attempt to articulate my motives behind these kind of trips...

The Best Medicine or Maybe Not (Old Mossdale Caverns trip report)

Another old article posted on Ukcaving in 2007. This was one of my first online trip reports. The spelling, punctuation and layout of the original version of this article was so terrible that I've made some corrections to the version below. 

The subject of Mossdale Caverns online when I originally posted this piece, was a delicate and controversial one. Most people were against anyone visiting the place. Those with the most averse opinion tended to be those who'd never visited the cave. 
But even then, I came to the conclusion that most of those people were just jealous and pissed off with someone who thought nothing of soloing hard caves making a name for himself, by apparently blowing his own trumpet online. 
I have since those early days tended to speak my mind uncensored, however unpalatable, to those who consider themselves spokespeople for the caving community....