Titan Cascades and Absolution - Phil Wolstenholme

Present: Louise McMahon, Ann Soulsby, Phil Wolstenholme, Dominika Wróblewska

A little late admittedly, but this is what happened last Saturday up on yon Hurdlow. Alex Ried and friends had done a through-trip from Titan to Peak earlier in the week, and our team had agreed to de-rig the ropes, but also to use them to finally do the trip up the Titan Cascades - and get the Super Stemple® out of storage for the job it was designed to do. The weather was grim - strong wind and heavy drizzle, and as we were walking up Cavedale, this became a rather arduous and silent affair, with ruddy cheeks and stinging eyes being the order of the day. Eventually we made it to the shaft, with a detour via Hurdlow Barn for a change, and eagerly plunged into the relative warmth of the entrance shaft. Ann was going to de-rig the bottom pitch rope from the Event Horizon and make her way out whilst we three would do the streamway trip and then de-rig the rest.

I was last to leave the window and could already see Louise on the far side of the Event Horizon - as ever, the 'searchlight' beams you can get in there with good lights are always impressive, and I flashed a few down from the top for good measure. Once we were all across the traverse we found that the stream wasn't actually that bad at all - far, far less than my previous two visits, so we knew we had a chance of a good trip. We just had to get up the cascades, so out came the magic stick with a sling and etriers attached, and up we climbed - the two highest ones proving quite a challenge, but we all got up in a few minutes to marvel at the passage beyond. Not for long, as it soon diminishes into a flat-out (proper flat-out) crawl in water for what seems forever - but it's probably about 30m. After some welcome raising of the roof, another flat-out crawl, this time over mud (more of that later) swings off to the right - and then left, before suddenly raising into a rift above.

This rift passage is very nice indeed - very high and narrow with lots of fluting and ribs, and some entertaining squeezes en-route, and we were having a lovely time, with the singing slowly beginning. It ends after a handline climb at a junction, and a turn back and upwards leads to the scaffolded choke of doom, which must be climbed through, carefully. This enters the bouldery floor (we just crawled under it) of a large and high chamber, Absolution, with a rope dangling temptingly at the far end. Once at the top of what seemed about 12m, but it could have been more, an awkward rebelay and traverse leads into the Frozen in Time passage, festooned with small stalactites. Me and Louise took off our harnesses, but Dominika being smaller, kept hers on. We gradually crawled through the passage, at one point encountering an extremely interesting and entertaining set of gurgles from an invisible stream just behind the wall. This was the moment for some enterprising sound-recording, but sadly we'd decide not to bring it today. A shame, as that was some good gurgling.

After a little while the passage gets lower, and wetter, and we all gradually decided we'd had enough of crawling and decided to set off back to the pitch. On my previous visit up there, we'd had an amusing incident when we got ready to descend - Christine went first, but then as we all got ready to follow, one by one we realised that our Stops wouldn't open - all of us. - it was like they'd been glued shut. It got so bad that Christine had to tie her Stop to the rope and we hauled it back up, so we could all use it one after another. We realised that it must have been the mud we crawled over had jammed the spring, and the tight fit of the bottom plates had sealed them shut. I'd mentioned this on the way in. Dominika got to the pitch head first and got ready to rig her Stop - which then refused to open. The curse of the Cascade had struck again. it had to be taken off, massaged, cajoled, slightly banged and swore at before it eventually decided to open.

After some chuckling (and secretly checking our descenders), we all descended smoothly and set off back, making very good time. On the final cascade I threw down the Super Stemple into the deep pool, as it floats. But it doesn't with a sling, carabiner and etriers on and promptly sank to the bottom - somewhere! The water was brown, and I had to get in up to my neck before I managed to find it. So now I was pretty soaked, despite the plastic suit, and we still had the draughty pitches of Titan to climb. Oh shit. Dominika set off first, and as expected, we were treated to more operatic renditions of the joys of the underground - this time a 'Titanious' (thanks Kev Drakely - and Dominika) experience with the echo-o-o-o adding much richness to the experience. Eventually she got too high to understand (!) and we settled into that quiet shivering drippy dread you get whilst you wait to climb Titan. It never gets any better. My turn came and I tried to get up as quick as possible to try and get as hot as possible so I'd have some heat in reserve for the horrible exit later.

At the window, Dominika was drawing noise pictures, with her headlight off, and we sat for a while in the dark shivering but admiring the echoes whilst Louise climbed up. Once at the top Dominika set off for the shaft whilst we pulled up the rope, invariably dropping most of it in the muddy pool until it was like last night's pasta. The shaft, as always is the most miserable part, and I could hear the wind thudding on the lid from the bottom. Once Dominika was at the top and safely clipped on I climbed up and we sat under the lid listening to storm Hannah freaking out on the other side. Eventually Louise joined us and we had to get out - damn. But we did it pretty quickly and before long we were walking (nearly running) back down Cavedale to the chapel for a very well-earned hot mug of tea.