Those Present -

Tim, Sooty, Nigel, George.

 

Having read, some years ago, an article in Descent magazine about discoveries in Dentdale Tim Hallam had had Ibbeth Peril on his “to do” list.

 

Excessive keenness to cave by George Goodfellow and Sooty lead to this cave being eventually ticked off the list.

 

However Ibbeth is extremely flood prone and is was only after an aborted trip (when Tim was sat in his car in Manchester watching the world and his wife floated passed in the middle of the worst storm for some time) that we eventually reached Dentdale.

As we parked up, George asked him now famous question of “What do I have to do to lose my Novice Status?”.  Later trips truly saw George lose that label!

A quick nosey down the dale and it was back to the car to meet Nigel (TSG digger) who had just arrived in his passion wagon.

 

Once beside the plunge pool we stared into the entrance…cool!

 

A pleasant bedding plane was interestingly littered by flood debris in its roof.  George was not keen once I pointed this out!

 

However once we dropped into the main stream it was all beer and skittles.

 

No one could believe it when we reached the main chamber – lovely and big, time for photos. There might even have been some of the pretties if Tim had

Ibbeth Peril – March 2003

Report by Tim Hallam

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remembered to put a new film in his camera.

Wandering off to one side we found the pretties and much ooooo and arrrrrr later we set off towards the end of the chamber.  Here Nigel, Sooty and George stared interestingly at the “step of faith” across a 30-foot high rift.  Eventually it was Tim who took the bull by the horns the held trustingly onto the wall flake to make the stride.

 

Onwards we strode up a nice passage where Sooty (whilst having enjoyed a few pints, as we all have, over the last few years opened his legs and showed his class! – by showing off his (until then) dormant climbing skills to reach the higher passage.  George keenly investigated a side passage with a large expense of energy due to the low nature of the terrain and caused much amusement to pop out by our feet in an oxbow.

 

Back in the main passage the team investigate the floor where we dropped into the lower series and excitingly found a new chamber? (oh – but in fact had just gone in a

circle)

 

Upon exiting the cave we stood around admiring the plunge pool.  This was a foolish move for Tim as Sooty did the sensible thing and pushed him in.  The first Tim knew about it was when he was underwater!!!

 

To finish off a perfect day a few pints were consumed in the Station Inn in Ribblehead (out of the way for this trip but what the hell….)