29th March 2003
People present - Pete Dale, Duncan Jones, Adam Cooper, Jan Willder, Muppets

Meeting in Bernies at 11am, for Adams last trip before he had to go back to 7-day weeks. We had the usual sausage butty and hot chocolate and set off to the Hill inn. as we left Bernies Jan asked us if two other people she new could join us for the trip we said yes as the more the merrier! We set off in convoy towards the hill inn and as we passed White scar caves I decided to look at the map to see if it would be quicker to park at the quarry car park and walk up from there, but not everybody seemed keen about that idea. (Strange that!) So the Hill inn it was. Dunc, Adam the Muppets and me parked at the Hill inn but Jan drove past so we sorted the gear out and got changed while we waited for her to turn up. Eventually we saw a Jan like figure walking towards us down the road. All together again we set off on the long walk to Black shiver.

The walk soon was over and now we had the task of finding the entrance we studied the guide book and made a guess at where we thought it was and set off in that direction and the Muppets went their own way. After a few wrong guesses we decided upon a shakehole that we were certain was right and when one of the Muppets had a look and said 'Nope that's not it!' and walked off!! Jan followed them as Dunc, Adam and me studied the book again. We had a wander around the area but came to the same conclusion that it was the right hole that we had found first time. Dunc was then sent in to investigate and yep the guide book description was correct. By this time Adam had gone off to find the others but came back saying 'they're f****ng miles away!' I could tell he was annoyed by then so we patiently waited for them to return. 30min went by and I was starting to get angry, so off I went to look for the bloody Muppets! All I could see was 3 little specs on the horizon in the vicinity of quaking pot! We then waited for another thirty minutes by which time Dunc had nearly had enough so he went looking for them as well. He came back shortly saying he could here voices approaching. 'Hooray!!!' I thought we could actually go caving now as Jan had all the rigging gear in her tackle bag. To cap it all the Muppets didn't even end up going in the cave and decided to go back to the car! 'Bloody Muppets' finally we were off into the cave.

The entrance to Black Shiver is easily located by standing on the style that goes over the wall to Meregill and looking across the fell to the edge of a raised bank where three shakeholes can be seen. Black shiver is just to the right of these and can be identified by a 4m climb down to where a stream enters from one bedding and flows into the downstream passage towards the first pitch.

Dunc was first in again closely followed by Adam, me and Jan. the first section was a flat out crawl in the stream, which wasn't that bad, for a few meters to where it opened up a bit and you where able to crawl. A few more metres and you could walk! Didn't seem as bad as the book made it out to be. We where soon at the first pitch and found it to be p-anchored which made it even easier still. We put our S.R.T. kits on and I set off rigging the pitch, which was a little tricky to do, but safe enough for us. The first 7m of the pitch was free hanging to a ledge and a squeeze through to the second part of 5m into a pool. Dunc was next down and once he had reached the bottom we waited for Adam, as we wanted to watch and hear how he tackled the squeeze! To our disappointment Adam passed the obstacle with relative ease so we set off along the passage at the bottom which led to a nice hading fault passage with a bit of crawling at the start but it soon gained walking height towards the second pitch.

This pitch is also split into 5m and 4m sections with an awkward take off the second part of the pitch could easily be free climbed if dry weather was guaranteed. Everyone safely down we then made our way along the passage through a pool that was only welly deep. (I thought it was waist deep!) Walking passage followed and a zig zag saw us at the next pitch with a tight squeeze to get past. Traversing out to rig the pitch I then had to backtrack so I could climb down and get through the squeeze to descend the pitch. Dunc went down first and informed us that we were at 'Black Dub' I followed and so did Jan but Adam stayed put, as he wouldn't fit through the squeeze. As we hadn't brought the rope for the next pitch Dunc and me saw no point in getting wet by going through the crawl to have a look at it so we decided to exit the cave. Jan on the other hand wanted to look so we let her do that while we made a quick exit.

I went first followed by Adam as he would need assistance at the squeeze and Dunc was helping Jan de-rig. I was soon up onto the first pitch ledge waiting for Adam to make his ascent through the squeeze which turned into quite an ordeal as he struggled a lot but with a hefty tug of his harness something gave and he was through! Jan and me took the tackle bags and left Dunc to assist Adam out as he looked a bit shattered after that ordeal. All on the surface we then had a nice stroll back to the car and got changed. We then headed for the chippy for a bite to eat before we attended the reunion dinner at the Marton arms.

Definitely a trip to do again as we didn't bottom it this time but now we know what it is like another trip won't be long in the waiting! Oh yes before I forget it turned out that Adam might have cracked a rib in the squeeze but that's the price you pay unfortunately for him but at least he has a few months off to recover for the next trip down there!

Pete Dale