Snelslow Swallet and Giants Hole Basecamp Chamber Series - Phil Wolstenholme

Present: Luke Brownbridge, Alastair Gott, Lizzie Kinge, Phil Wolstenholme, Dominika Wroblewska

This was the post-AGM, post-Al's birthday binge trip (though the second part was unplanned, at least for the rest of us) - consequently it was some time before we got to the parking area. Al was not in a good condition, so kudos for him actually making it outside and then driving most of us up there.The brisk wind saw us get changed in record time before we realised that (again) we'd left all the ropes at the Chapel. What a bunch of stoners. So Al drove back to get them whilst we shivered in a howling gale - though it was sunny to be fair. Eventually we made it down to Snelslow and figured out which of the slots was the entrance and I rigged the first pitch down, which was easy-peasy. The second one through the squeeze and round the corner foxed me a bit initially but that's essentially as I'm fairly confident sitting on unprotected edges, though I can see the logic in keeping all this roped for the less experienced, so it's not a criticism. The third and final pitch really confused me at first as I couldn't see any anchors at all until I'd dropped down a bit (with some horrible rope-rub) and then realised they were above my head! Ahem. Keep an eye out. The pitch was then a free hang (with a deviation) straight to the bottom and we didn't use the final rebelay. The large rift chamber is gobsmacking, and just looks like a Yorkshire pot initially. But there's virtually no vadose action anywhere - no scalloping, no trenches - nothing. I'm thinking the name 'swallet' is a misnomer here, as any stream action in there was possibly very recent, in cave time - the whole cave seems to be phreatic, and was dissolved away in very slow-moving waters.

There's a sediment and pebble bank that must be eight metres high and is a complete slice of history - and so there must have been some vadose action to bring this lot in but I suspect it was a fairly rapid infill - obviously I have no idea how much the diggers removed or where it went - hopefully the write-up will explain more when it's complete. The bottom pitch looked fabulous, and again, totally natural, though the giant compressed air shotholes at the top were an interesting feature! I could see a large amount of air-hose still at the base of that shaft and obviously the pitch needs further DCA anchors installing so it's not done yet! I had a poke around at a few vague 'leads' in the heap of dirt and rubble at bottom right of the main chamber and pulled down a big slab to reveal a hole that could go somewhere, but it would need some more bedrock removing to get in properly and have a look.

After that we went to Giants, though Lizzie needed to get back to start preparing food and Al was now beginning to wobble, so she left and he retired to the car like a grandad for a quick snooze. So just me, Luke and Domee now, and with no ropes and no taste for water, we elected to do the high-level section above Base Camp Chamber as I've only been once and needed to refresh my memory and the others had never been. What a fabulous section it is - a necky free-climb up the wall leads into a small rift/aven with an eight-metre flowstone column right in front, with large fins that are decidedly musical when (lightly) struck, like a giant marimba. A rope dangles from the roof and this leads after a rebelay through a small arch to another flowstone ramp with another rope. This is a steep slope and at the top is an awkward upward squeeze into a large and beautful chamber, with solution domes in the roof, full of flowstone ramps and with pure white stal dangling everywhere. It's incredible, and reminiscent of the top chamber in the Krypton Series. Further ropes lead up into increasingly tight spaces in the roof with a blasted tight passage leading off, but I couldn't get through with the harness on. A similar phreatic passage leading off the large chamber had a large coil of hose in it, presumably from an abandoned pumping experiment, and presumably this was beyond another tight blasted squeeze that I couldn't really be bothered to hurt myself getting through.

There are pipe deposits of baryte and galena up there and it very much looks like a pipe version of a vein cavity - as in, the water has dissolved away the mineral revealing the ancient cave it once filled. Who knows. But it's beautiful. On the way back down I remembered the unroped traverse over the first pitch, and climbing around on tiny ledges leads to a straight drop into Base Camp Chamber, so we all ended up perched over the drop looking down - I free-climbed down half of it, but the bottom half belled-out, so I thought better of it. There was a nice lump of galena sat on a small boulder choke just here, so there's definitely been some downward removal of mineral! There was nothing much else to do after that and we were all getting hungry (though definitely not cold for once!) so we ran back to the car to find Al considerably more refreshed and the first hint of rain coming over the horizon.

A great trip all round with 'new' cave aplenty, and no mud at all. Joy ;)