29th May 2009
People present - Pete Dale, Rob Santus

Weather: Warm and Sunny, in fact bloody hot!

We arrived in Ingleton and headed for Bernie’s for a quick brew and to buy a new tackle bag. We then had a nosey in Inglesport and then headed off up to Kingsdale. What a nice place to be in the sun; we parked up in a lay-by near Bull pot and then got changed. All kitted up we set off on the hard slog up the hill. Surprisingly the walk up to the entrance was rather easier than I thought it would be, but we still had sweat dripping off us by the time we got there. Looking at the rusty oil drum entrance we got a few pics then headed over to look at the original entrance to brown hill - what a mess that looks, glad we were going in Floyd’s entrance! Anyway we donned our srt kits and then I descended the oil drums for 10ft till rock was felt by my feet. From the bottom of the oil drums a short drop into the continuing passage, round a bend, plops you into the first chamber on route to the bottom. Next up was a short crawl round a few bends into another chamber. A brief flat out-ish crawl leads you to a sharp bend to the right. Rob was in front and we consulted the description and it said a crawl-traverse followed by a thrutch along the rift. So with the way on looking narrow and not being able to see around the next corner, Rob climbed up to the roof to proceed with the crawl-traverse. Passing the bags up I then followed him. The traverse wasn’t too bad until I reached the first bend; at this point the rift became too tight for me so I shouted to Rob who had got to the end and climbed down again. He came back at stream level and said it was easier. So I somehow turned around and made my way back to where we climbed up.

With me back at the stream level the tight rift in front didn’t look like a much better way but I gave it a go, first crawling on my side, nope not going to fit, so I reversed out again and had another look at it. I decided the best way was to walk through, Rob said it wasn’t possible but I showed him; it was so much easier, I just eased my way along for a metre and I was at the bend that I got to before but at stream level. Re-reading the description it made sense with the way I had gone but was not clear on this. Well all we had to do was follow the rift which was never that tight until a widening was reached. Checking the words of wisdom it stated a traverse to the first pitch so off I went into the rift round a few bends and low and behold, I find the bloody pitch rigged. So down I went only to find the next pitch rigged, Bugger! Should we take the bag with the last two pitch ropes in or not; we both thought for a moment and decided that we should.

A brief crawl in the stream emerges at the impressive ‘Galerie pas mur, Gallery not wall?’. The way on was a traverse to a free climb down a chimney/rifty bit and then a wriggle under or over some boulders to a traverse. A few metres of wriggling and you could then walk again for a bit to where the rift opened out and 3 separate ways diverged. We were going the standard route so our way on was more traversing which was not hard - a bit like Juniper gulf, but easier. Soon the pitch head was in sight ‘Ian Plant shaft’ and yes it was rigged. Rob went down first and hearing rope free I followed. What an impressive pitch! (A bit like a mini Titan). At the bottom of the first section, a short traverse leads to the 2nd part of this 56m monster. Reaching the bottom the beautiful ‘Marmite passage is followed to the last pitch, and following that a very short stroll to the sump with all its frothy goodness! Sump gained we headed out with no real problems, even the entrance posed no threat to us. Upon reaching the final climb up the oil drums you could feel the heat and climbing out onto the surface the full force of the sun could be felt - it was hot hot hot! Brown hill bottomed and at least we carried the ropes as far as we would have done if it had not been rigged.

Great trip and well worth doing although NFTFH states ‘Allow 6-8hrs for the return trip’ and we did it in 3 1/2hrs, possibly 4 if we had to rig it.

Pete Dale

Photos - Rob Santus