Grade 1 plan/elev of 156 and T.B.H. from 1987 Log Book
Grade 1 plan/elev of 156 and T.B.H. from 1987 Log Book
A 6m drop reaches a point overlooking a 5m wide circular shaft. Bolts for a Y-hang lead onto the 56m free-hanging Heart of Gold pitch, named for its cross section. Another 10m drop on the other side of a boulder lands on a large ledge covered in loose boulders, The Italian Bistro. Awkward rigging on the right wall and two lower bolts allow Deep Thought to be rigged just clear of the tottering boulders that give the 18m pitch its name.
At the base is The Restaurant at the End of the Cave, a large chamber sporting five waterfalls. From the foot of the pitch, the floor is steeply inclined up to an arch, beyond which the chamber continues to rise to a total length of about 50m. A debris slope up to a tube at the highest points leads only to a choke. There is no other way on from the Restaurant since the floor is choke by major collapse at a depth of 117m.
This description dates from 1999.
As the full guidebook description is understandably quite big and is still evolving, just an overview is given here.
Sub-horizontal passages lead through steeply-hading rifts from this entrance. A lower route was originally explored by a German group before CUCC's first visit, and remains poorly documented and not fully explored. The higher route, explored by CUCC, leads past connections to 142, another CUCC find. Passages trend downhill to reach the Big Pitch of 100m vertical.
Lärchenhöhle connects at the bottom of the Big Pitch, and a streamway leads down. A roof passage connects to CUCC's 144, and another leads on to smaller pitches to the Big Rift, dropping steeply down several pitches to reach Junction Chamber with connections to Schnellzughöhle (115).
The route to 115 also leads to Pete's Purgatory, 800m of awful streamway to the Confluence, much more easily reached by large fossil passages starting with Dartford Tunnel from Junction Chamber. The Confluence is around half the depth of the system, and marks a transition to a single linear streamway leading to great depth, a feature currently unique in the known caves of the area.
The streamway is interrupted by a bypassable sump and several, mainly short, pitches, before a low-airspace canal appears to mark the end. However, a low duck can be passed to reach a deep and very wet shaft Orgasm Chasm which drops to the final muddy passage and short pitch to a dismal and deep rift sump.
The sump is 898m below the 41a entrance, and is at just about the same level as Altausseer See, in whose underwater risings the Stellerweg water is presumed to emerge. The scope for greater depth here seems minimal, but connections to various higher entrances have increased this to c971m, with perhaps a little more potential still to realise (optimistically up to 1058m).
The pitch lands in a small chamber with a short walking rift exit. Pitches of 14m, 8m and 10m follow in rapid succession. At the foot of the 10m pitch, a smooth, oval squeeze, The Cnut (spelling mistake), opens onto The Womb. This is a fine pitch of 41m in a spacious shaft, landing in a chamber 12m x 10m with a floor of large boulders of dubious stability.
A rift to one side is a loose and narrow pitch of 17m to a ledge and much nicer drop of 10m. A large rift, The Large Intestine, follows. Initially traversed on wide ledges, this soon narrows to a crawl along the rift at roof level. A 14m pitch descends to the foot of the rift and a short section of sharp, suit-ripping rift leads to a chamber with an inlet up to one side. The suit ripping rift can be bypassed by a pendulum, but the rope left for this is now hanging inaccessible, so the original manoevre would need to be repeated.
The exit from the chamber is too tight, but a 12m pitch up reaches a muddy solution tube at roof level, originally reached by an exposed traverse from a point halfway down the previous pitch. A slippery climb up and a short flat-out crawl, The Small Intestine, leads to the head of a constricted pitch of 10m to a wider section of the rift. After a few metres, a pit in the floor necessitates a climb down, then back up of 5m. At this point, a traverse follows the roof of the rift while the floor cuts down sharply. A pair of 13m deep holes are crossed by fairly exposed traverses, and further traversing reaches the next pitch Fantasy, in a shaft which is initially about 15m in diameter.
A drop of 46m, broken by ledges covered in loose boulders, lands on a large sloping ledge at a junction with a much larger shaft. The rubble needs caution, as much of the rest of the pitch is in the firing line.
The next section is 58m with two deviations, close to a wall down which some water falls. The opposite wall is some 20-30m away, and to either side, no walls are visible. Below this section, a narrow saddle of rock splits the shaft, the left hand route (facing the water) being taken. A further 27m lands on an enormous (20m x 30m) flat ledge right across the shaft, with pitches continuing both sides.
The right hand (facing the water) shaft is the continuation of the route voided at the rock saddle. A steep, muddy slope leads onto a 41m pitch and, below this, a climb over a muddy boulder pile leads onto a steep ramp (rope required) descending 15m into The Dream Machine. This is a massive passage 30m wide leading through boulders the size of houses. After about 100m, a boulder pile with a large central boulder is reached. Beyond, the passage can be seen to continue, but scaling equipment will be required to reach it.
From the 30m x 20m ledge, the left hand shaft is undescended, but rock tests indicate a similar depth to the right hand shaft, ie. about 50m.
At the end of 1988, the depth is 354m with excellent potential.
Stopped at -375m, no further details at present.
From the base of Aquarius, traversing forwards gains a drier hang for the next pitch of 16m. A pendulum 10m down avoids the worst of the water, which continues down a clean circular shaft (see below).
The pendulum reaches W.C.S. series where two short drops in a rift lead to a bolt rebelay in a massive jammed boulder. Just below this, a window opens into a narrow shaft which is undescended. At the foot of the rift, a short section of hading rift gets wetter at the head of the next pitch, whose 11m are always lashed by spray from somewhere above.
A short traverse into a large alcove escapes the spray and facilitates a dry hang for FUDE, a 14m pitch with natural belays set well back and soft squidgy choss at the pitch head. Two climbs lead to a rift/ramp area where the way on is tight and thrutchy. Nil Desperandum soon drops to the head of a short pitch and more climbs down into a chamber.
The rift outlet is too tight, but a 5m climb up gains a bypass where a short traverse leads to Ardua, a pitch of 11m. Down the slope, the water sinks in boulders, but the way on is a slot in the wall behind a large boulder. This immediately bells out onto Astra, a 38m pitch where a pendulum onto and over a huge chocked boulder reaches bolts for the second part of the pitch, a superb 25m drop down one end of a large rift.
Climbing down at the far end of the rift, an area of breakdown is reached. Up the boulders, a rift enters from the right (presumed to be an inlet, but not explored), while water can be heard away to the left. However, the loose nature of this area, combined with the pitch below, precluded anything more than a cursory examination.
Under the boulders, a short pitch lands in a chamber where the water is rejoined shortly before it cascades over the lip of another large shaft, the limit of exploration in 1987.
The pitch is 57m and quite wet, dropping into a sizeable chamber (50m x 10m and 40m high), The Planetarium. This chamber is formed along a fault, with breakdown littering the floor. At one end, under a large waterfall, is a pitch between the wall and the boulders. This drops 15m into an extremely loose boulder choke Religious Places, with no way on. No other route out could be found from the Planetarium, giving an overall depth of 331m.
The wet way on from the bottom of Aquarius descends pitches of 7m and 27m. The latter is arguably the best pitch of the cave, hanging free for 23m beside a column of water. Unfortunately, the way on is a tiny impassable rift.
The original entrance is a "walk-in" open shaft which leads on to a twisted vertical pitch of 17m, Parthos, into a sizeable chamber at the top of a rubble slope. The obvious small wriggle at the bottom of the slope leads to the Musketeers' Series, while a bolted climb leads to the main way on.
The Musketeers' Series consists of stooping phreatic passages, with a 5m pitch, then a couple of climbs to the head of an 11m pitch, Aramis, into a chamber. At the far end, a further pitch, Athos, is 8m. The way on is up a short climb to the head of a 5m+10m ramp, Porthos, down to a phreatic tube with a silted up floor. Digging in the silt revealed a tight rift rising up, but as this was too tight, the dig was abandoned. The water from Aramis descends a tight rift in the base of the phreatic tube, but after 3m, this too became too tight.
The climb up before the Musketeers' Series leads quickly to a T-junction. To the right, a winding ramp passage of decreasing size leads on and up with several fallen blocks making progress awkward. This route ends at a small chamber with an inlet dropping from the roof. Left from the T-junction leads on down a gently sloping boulder ramp in stooping, then walking passage. This increases in size and becomes steeper before emerging into the side of an enormous boulder ramp, Hillsborough Revisited. The inlet passage enters three quarters of the way up Hillsborough, which is 10m wide by 5m high and drops a total of 40m at 40°. At the base of Hillsborough, an aven rises to the surface and daylight can be seen reflecting off the sides of this second entrance. A third entrance was discovered on the surface which leads down a deep grike through a tight arch and into a small chamber. Digging boulders revealed a steeply inclined squeeze leading onto a pitch at the top of the Hillsborough ramp. The base of this pitch leads onto an inclined overhanging terrace with a hole at the back which drops 2m onto another inclined overhanging terrace. A 4m climb down from this ledge ends at the top of the boulder ramp of Hillsborough.
The base of Hillsborough was blind until a dig in unstable boulders on the left hand side revealed a tight drop between two wedged boulders into another very sizeable ramp, Penistone Road. This ramp is convoluted and twists around open shafts and roof collapse to end in a huge chamber with a small muddy hole in the floor, The Hole in the Road. This way on is blind.
An alternative route from the main ramp of Penistone Road leads down an old phreatic tube decorated with calcite frost and numerous small helictites to a flat-out crawl to a 25m blind pitch.
Near the bottom of the Hole in the Road, a 6m rope climb up the eastern wall, The Escalator, leads to a series of solution tubes. A 1m diameter tube drops NE into The Broadwalk, a sizeable mud-floored phreatic passage. Here, following a strong draught, the passage opens up, becoming very high with a number of avens cutting down into the passage. A 4m rope climb drops down to the head of a pitch, Reason to Believe?. This dry shaft is disjointed and 144m deep, broken at approximately half depth by a 'saddle'. A further short pitch lands on a slope before the final drop into a sizeable chamber. The only exit from this chamber is to the east and is a muddy rift passage traversed at various levels. This leads to the head of a further series of disjointed shafts and the wet 77m pitch More than a Feeling. Here a 57m drop lands on a spray-lashed ledge and a further 20m drop gives way to a large boulder slope. Two wet 2m climbs lead up to the head of a 7m pitch which leads to the base of the shaft.
Through the small passage across the base of the shaft, a climb down through boulders leads to a rift streamway. Only a short way down is an 11m pitch followed immediately by a 17m pitch, Leonie's Birthday Leap. The stream leads on once more until it cuts away and a traverse along a muddy rift passage leads to the head of a fault collapse chamber running away at an angle of 70°. Over 20m above the stream a distinctly dodgy rope climb/abseil leads to a point where a climb back around rejoins the stream. A further 8m rope climb leads to the last 19m pitch which drops into a sump at a depth of 425m.
