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My caving images in the local paper
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@ChrisR Thanks for reminding me this thread is still alive 
This week I had my third trip down St Cuthberts and I was lucky to get out.
Two weeks ago the reccie trip was the toughest caving trip I'd ever done. The next week we took the photo gear to some relatively easy to get to locations; the trip was demanding but I felt I could have gone further.
This week we took the photo gear into new territory part of which was a long, arduous squirm through a boulder ruckle which physically took a lot out of me. I'm told a lot of the fatigue is caused my lack of caving experience and it will get easier the more I do it.
I let one of the others take my bag on the return journey, which I'm seriously glad about as if I'd have been carrying my gear the extra effort may have meant this story had a different ending.
St Cuthberts Swallett has two major obstacles near the entrance and both are fairly infamous.
Wire Rift is a tight slot with some impressive drops underfoot while squeezing upwards at about 45deg through the vertical rift. No danger of falling, it is way too tight for that. Last week I thrashed around getting nowhere as I'd taken a bad line; this week I found a better line but it was very tiring leaving me at the bottom of the Entrance Rift feeling utterly spent.
The Entrance Rift is horrendous. It is a 30 foot vertical slot with precious few holds. It is narrow enough that with my build falling isn't a problem, when I twist my hips I get wedged solid. My first trip I took a bad line and found I could jam myself just by taking a deep breath. Falling may not be a problem, but making progress upwards certainly is!
After a few minutes to catch my breath I set off up the entrance rift and quickly realised the strength had gone from my upper body. It proved a major struggle to make progress and all I could manage was painfully slow a jam and stretch move which gained half an inch at a time. by the time I got to the top my arms were shaking with fatigue and I needed a good lie down before I could face the 20ft ladder in the concrete pipe to the surface.
Horrendous - but I made it unaided!
The objective of this week's trip was September Chamber.
The guide describes it as 200ft x 50ft, but I was slightly disappointed to find there is no line of sight through the whole cavern.
This was really just a reccie so I can work out what I need to do in a future trip, so I wasn't expecting exhibition quality images. I need to have a think about where to stand and how to light the space and better show its shape.
Here's some images...
On the way in I wanted a shot of the ladder in The Ledges, but the exceptionally dry weather meant that the waterfall was only a dribble.
I had a go anyway to see how it looks in camera; this is just a quick setup with minimal lights. I need a viewpoint where I can see the upper ladder, this one isn't right and I can do much better, but the caver on the ladder seems happy with it. Definitely a location to back to when we get some wet weather.
This weekend I'm on a reccie down the caves of Fairy Cave Quarry, reputedly one of the best decorated caves in the country. Then a photo trip back down my favourite cave Swildons Hole; should be a walk in the park by comparison with St Cuthberts and I'm looking forward to it.
Later in the week I'm off on a reccie down Reservoir Hole to The Frozen Deep, a recently discovered chamber and the largest underground space in Mendip. It will be a nightmare to light and this trip is just to give me a feel for the scope of the challenge.
There's a good feature about it in The Daily Mail. The images were taken by Gavin Newman, somebody I regard amongst the UK's top cave photographers.
I'm told it will need an hour to get to the chamber carrying no camera gear, and an hour to explore the chamber - that chamber is properly big!!!!
In preparation for photographing large spaces I've invested in a tripod I can get down there; I've been hand-holding so far.
It's a beautifully engineered carbon fibre travel tripod which folds down to just 30cm and will happily lie in the rucksack across the top of my Peli case. For the curious, I bought one of these, though it seems to have jumped up in price as it is currently £200 and I paid £169. Yes it's a lot of money for a travel tripod, but...
It only arrived today so I haven't used it in anger yet, but I'm super impressed by the build quality and how how rigid it is when fully extended. It and I are going to get on just fine
This week I had my third trip down St Cuthberts and I was lucky to get out.
Two weeks ago the reccie trip was the toughest caving trip I'd ever done. The next week we took the photo gear to some relatively easy to get to locations; the trip was demanding but I felt I could have gone further.
This week we took the photo gear into new territory part of which was a long, arduous squirm through a boulder ruckle which physically took a lot out of me. I'm told a lot of the fatigue is caused my lack of caving experience and it will get easier the more I do it.
I let one of the others take my bag on the return journey, which I'm seriously glad about as if I'd have been carrying my gear the extra effort may have meant this story had a different ending.
St Cuthberts Swallett has two major obstacles near the entrance and both are fairly infamous.
Wire Rift is a tight slot with some impressive drops underfoot while squeezing upwards at about 45deg through the vertical rift. No danger of falling, it is way too tight for that. Last week I thrashed around getting nowhere as I'd taken a bad line; this week I found a better line but it was very tiring leaving me at the bottom of the Entrance Rift feeling utterly spent.
The Entrance Rift is horrendous. It is a 30 foot vertical slot with precious few holds. It is narrow enough that with my build falling isn't a problem, when I twist my hips I get wedged solid. My first trip I took a bad line and found I could jam myself just by taking a deep breath. Falling may not be a problem, but making progress upwards certainly is!
After a few minutes to catch my breath I set off up the entrance rift and quickly realised the strength had gone from my upper body. It proved a major struggle to make progress and all I could manage was painfully slow a jam and stretch move which gained half an inch at a time. by the time I got to the top my arms were shaking with fatigue and I needed a good lie down before I could face the 20ft ladder in the concrete pipe to the surface.
Horrendous - but I made it unaided!
The objective of this week's trip was September Chamber.
The guide describes it as 200ft x 50ft, but I was slightly disappointed to find there is no line of sight through the whole cavern.
This was really just a reccie so I can work out what I need to do in a future trip, so I wasn't expecting exhibition quality images. I need to have a think about where to stand and how to light the space and better show its shape.
Here's some images...
On the way in I wanted a shot of the ladder in The Ledges, but the exceptionally dry weather meant that the waterfall was only a dribble.
I had a go anyway to see how it looks in camera; this is just a quick setup with minimal lights. I need a viewpoint where I can see the upper ladder, this one isn't right and I can do much better, but the caver on the ladder seems happy with it. Definitely a location to back to when we get some wet weather.
This weekend I'm on a reccie down the caves of Fairy Cave Quarry, reputedly one of the best decorated caves in the country. Then a photo trip back down my favourite cave Swildons Hole; should be a walk in the park by comparison with St Cuthberts and I'm looking forward to it.
Later in the week I'm off on a reccie down Reservoir Hole to The Frozen Deep, a recently discovered chamber and the largest underground space in Mendip. It will be a nightmare to light and this trip is just to give me a feel for the scope of the challenge.
There's a good feature about it in The Daily Mail. The images were taken by Gavin Newman, somebody I regard amongst the UK's top cave photographers.
I'm told it will need an hour to get to the chamber carrying no camera gear, and an hour to explore the chamber - that chamber is properly big!!!!
In preparation for photographing large spaces I've invested in a tripod I can get down there; I've been hand-holding so far.
It's a beautifully engineered carbon fibre travel tripod which folds down to just 30cm and will happily lie in the rucksack across the top of my Peli case. For the curious, I bought one of these, though it seems to have jumped up in price as it is currently £200 and I paid £169. Yes it's a lot of money for a travel tripod, but...
It only arrived today so I haven't used it in anger yet, but I'm super impressed by the build quality and how how rigid it is when fully extended. It and I are going to get on just fine