Peak District Rigging Guide Revision History
The history of changes to the rigging guide. The earliest history is now a little hazy!
| Edition | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 16.8 | 19/3/2024 | The Moosetrap series in White River, Peak Cavern, has been updated following a recent visit to the top of the third pitch.
The Ventilator series, down from the White River has been updated to reflect the recent rebolting work by the Peak Cavern Keyholders.
Pull through and pull up ropes in the the following topos have been standardised to show the total length of rope required to pull through, or up.
Only those routinely rigged as pull throughs, or pull ups are shown this way.
Nickergrove Mine, for example, where pull through is an option some visitors take, is shown with rope lengths for regular rigging.
|
| 16.7 | 26/2/2024 | Son of Longcliffe added to the Longcliffe Mine topo. |
| 16.6 | 11/2/2024 | Change to the rope length recommended for the traverse to the 2nd (upwards) pitch in Odin Mine. |
| 16.5 | 6/2/2024 | Eyam Dale House Cave. Changed the Derbyshire Key symbol to key, or code required symbol, following changes to access for this cave. |
| 16.4 | 16/1/2024 | Bottle Pot in the upper Dove catchment added to the guide. |
| 16.3 | 3/1/2024 | Minor revision to Longclffe Mine topo. Added the resin anchor backup for the entrance shaft top. Added advice to carry a Derbyshire Key, as well as the lid padlock key, which make opening and closing the lid latch from the outside much easier. |
| 16.2 | 28-11-2023 | NCC Shafts topo in Peak Cavern. The down pitches diagram has been stretched to make it clearer. The final pitch has been added. |
| 16.1 | 24-11-2023 | Revised Garland's Pot in the Giant's Hole Main Route topo to reflect the recent changes that DCA have made to the anchors for this popular pitch. |
| 16.0 | 23-8-2023 | Added a topo for Longcliffe Mine, near Speedwell, Castleton. Thanks to Phil Wolstenholme for the information and the sanity checking. Added a couple of new anchors that have appeared in Titan in recent years. One at the start of the traverse line out to the balcony over the main pitch, so you're not relying on a single anchor. The other at the top of a short pitch on the traverse around the Event Horizon to Titan Streamway. Page numbers have been removed from individually downloadable topo pdf's and viewable web pages, but kept on the pdf download of the complete guide. Most people seem to just download the topo they need for the trip in hand, so the page numbers are irrelevant and look weird there. |
| 15.9 | 10-8-2023 | Updated Lathkill Head Caver Top Entrance and Garden Path Entrance topos, following new resin anchors having been installed by DCA. Thanks again to Pete Knight (DCA Projects Officer) for the details. |
| 15.8 | 4-8-2023 | The West Passage practice pitch in Giant's Hole has had defective resin anchors replaced. The Giant's 3 topo has been altered to show two different ways of rigging this pitch. Thanks to Pete Knight for the update. A new symbol has been introduced to show drilled thread belays, to distinguish them from natural threads. The Key and the Giant's 3, George Cooper's Aven, P8 and Snelslow Swallet topos have been updated with the new symbol. |
| 15.7 | 6-7-2023 | Down pitches in the NCC Shafts improved with extra 10mm stainless through bolt anchors that have been installed by the Peak Cavern Key holders for a modified deviation, a new traverse anchor and a new deviation. These should make rigging and following the route easier. The rope length here has been increased from 55 to 70m. The What-Can-I-Rig app has been updated with the new rope length. Based on information kindly supplied by Michael Holliday of TSG and SUSS. |
| 15.6 | 26-3-2023 | Added a newly installed resin anchor at the bottom of Garland's Pot to the first Giant's Hole topo. A rope tied off there is harder to steal from the top of the pitch. Changed name of Lathkill Head Cave Upper Entrance to Lathkill Head Cave Top Entrance. This now matches the name used in Peakdistrictcaving.info. |
| 15.5 | 26-2-2023 | Updated Victoria Aven topo to reflect the stabilisation and rerigging work that has taken place there. |
| 15.4 | 22-2-2023 | Corrected the name to Gentlewoman's Pipe Climbing Shaft from Engine Shaft, as the engine shaft is a different one, in the next field and under a concrete cap. Thanks to Mike Higgins, DCA Vice Chair, for pointing out the error. Fixed an erro in the Victorian Aven topo, where one "rabbit ear" of a Y hang on the right hand rope was missing. |
| 15.3 | 20-2-2023 | Replaced the written descriptions with drawn topos for Kirkland Shaft and the two internal training pitches, including Hell's Well, in Devonshire Cavern. Added the Gentlewoman's Pipe Engine Shaft to the Deep Shaft (previously known as Day Shaft) topo. Flower Pot, on the Carleswark Cavern topo, gets the new symbol for a scaffold pole, used to belay a short ladder to help climb the narrow plastic pipe. This got missed when the scaff pole symbol was introduced in edition 14.1. Added a symbol for flowing water and its direction in normal conditions to the official guide Key. This was recently used in the Winnats Head and Pindale End Mine topos and was thought to be a useful addition for other rigging topos. The water may disappear in drought. In flood, flow can increase considerably, and water can appear in unexpected places. The Giant's Hole, P8, Cliff Cavern, Day Shaft, Titan, Rowter and Knotlow topos have had this symbol added for pitches where water often has to been considered when rigging, or when it is useful for route finding. Its absence on a topo does not mean that the pitch is entirely dry under all, or any conditions. |
| 15.2 | 18-12-2022 | Added a high level route from Garland's Pot to Chert Hall to the Giant's Hole Topo 3. |
| 15.1 | 13-12-2022 | Added the upstream route in Winnats Head Cave. Corrected the fixed rope symbol in the Key, which should have had a circle around the F, but didn't and now does. |
| 15.0 | 3-12-2022 | Added an alternative descent from Upper West passage in Giant's Hole. Altered the page numbers to account for the additional topos since the last time this was done. Added the Key and Safety pages to each pdf download. If the cave, or mine has more than one topo sheet, then all sheets are included in the pdf download. |
| 14.9 | 12-10-2022 | Added two new symbols for Derbyshire key and for keys/code, if required for access. Updated the key and topos for Bagshawe Cavern, JH, Pindale End Mine, Rowter Hole, Titan, Day Shaft, Devonshire Cavern, Snake Mine, Hillocks/Whalf, Knotlow Cavern, Lathkill Head - Garden Path, Lathkill Head Upper Entrance, Water Icicle Close Cavern, Eyam Dale House Cave and Hungerhill Swallet. |
| 14.8 | 1-10-2022 | Added a topo for the pull up ascent to Miller's Chamber and the fixed ropes up Damocles Rift in Eldon Hole. |
| 14.7 | 25-9-2022 | Added a topo for Pindale End Mine. Minor correction to the Knotlow topo, where a scaff bar belay at the end of Meccano Passage now has the new symbol. Also corrected the spelling of Meccano! |
| 14.6 | 6-9-22 | Changes to Clatterway topo, reflecting the new stainless anchors installed (non DCA through bolts). |
| 14.5 | 6-7-22 | Minor corrections to the Maskhill Mine topo, based on a recent visit. |
| 14.4 | **-12-2021 | Minor modifications to Titan topo. |
| 14.3 | 19-11-2021 | Split the JH topo in to two pages. Surface to The Workshop and Leviathan. Moved JH and Titan from within the Peak/Speedwell system to being entrances in their own right, positioned alphabetically in the Castleton section of the guide. This matches the approach used by peakdistrictcaving.info. Corrected the page numbers to suit the new positions of the topos. A printed guide will need reprinting. Moved the revision history to a separate web page to speed the loading of the rigging guide page. |
| 14.2 | 23-8-2021 | Updated the James Hall Over Engine Mine topo to add the backup eye bolts on the surface recently installed by DCA. Increased the entrance shaft rope length to suit. Added a mention of ash die back disease to the safety section and its effect on tree belay strength. |
| 14.1 | 11-8-2021 | Introduced a key symbol for scaffold pole belays. These are very common in the Peak and we haven't had a specific symbol for them before. This has changed the following pages: Cover, Key, Safety, Eyam Dale House Cave, Lathkill Head Cave - Garden Path, Lathkill Head Cave - Upper Entrance, James Hall Over Engine Mine, Long Rake Mine (Bradwell), Maskhill Mine, Nickergrove Mine, Oxlow Cavern, Rowter Hole topo 1, Snake Mine (both topos), Water Icicle Close Cavern and Deep Shaft (Day Shaft). The warning on rope lengths has been moved from the Key page to the Safety page, where it makes more sense for it to be. |
| 14.0 | 3-8-2021 | In the P8 topo, the names of the pitches above Idiot's Leap have been added. The name of Stalagtite (sic) Passage has been changed to the earliest known spelling (Survey in BSA Bulletin 62, 1967). The Giant's Hole topos have been condensed to two pages from three. The first covers the main route to the East Canal. The second covers other pitches in the cave. The pull through from the Upper Passage to the Crabwalk has been added to the second topo. A new Safety section has been added, to replace the Warnings and Disclaimers and the Resin Fixed Anchor Safety paragraphs in the Introduction. The pages have been renumbered to take in to account the added and removed pages over the last few months. A printed guide should be reprinted to update to this revision. |
| 13.9 | 22-7-2021 | The P8 topo now has more detailed drawings of the area around Idiot's Leap to help navigation and updated rigging of the high level routes there. The rigging for the Iron Ladder pitch has been corrected. Snelsow Swallet now includes the rigging for the lower pitch. At Eldon Hole, the South Gully route topo has been modified to make rigging and using the route easier. Corrected the introduction. The date of our first rigging guide was 1994. |
| 13.8 | 18-5-2021 | Removed the direct hyperlinks and QR code links from the web site and the topos to the appropriate DCA microguides for Far Sump Extensions, George Cooper's Aven, NCC Shafts, Victoria Aven and the White River Series. The direct links no longer work, but the guides can still be accessed from the peakdistrictcaving.info Peak Cavern entry links shown on the web site. |
| 13.7 | 10-5-2021 | Replaced Odin Mine topo. This has been updated after the reopening and extensive work carried out by DCA on the anchors. The mine rigging is now split across two sheets. To update a printed guide, replace the Odin topo with the new ones, plus the front cover, contents and index pages. |
| 13.6 | 4-5-2021 | Removed the Odin Mine topo temporarily. Odin Mine has been closed to visitors for over a decade, following a major collapse on the "trade route". The mine has now been rebolted and reopened, but has changed quite a bit. The old topo will be misleading and we need to visit the mine to prepare a replacement. |
| 13.5 | 26-4-2021 | Added Snake Mine part 2 topo, covering Chain Ladder Pitch, Old Man's Steps Climbing Shaft and the Lowest Pitch. Reprint the cover, contents, index and insert the new topo to update a printed guide. |
| 13.4 | 19-4-2021 | Descriptions for Lay-by Pot and the Eyam Dale Shaft and Flower Pot entrances to Carlswark Cavern replaced by drawn topos. Layby renamed to Lay-by to match the names used in DCA publications. To update, replace the cover, contents, index, key, Lay-by Pot and Carlswark Cavern sheets. |
| 13.3 | 1-4-2021 | Changed the name of Day Shaft to the historically accurate name of Deep Shaft. This matches the change in the DCA cave registry database. Similarly, Youds' Level is now known as Ringing Rake Sough. Changed the position in the guide so that the new name is alphabetically sorted in the region. You will need to print this topo, the Devonshire Cavern and the Snake Mine topo, plus the front cover, contents and index pages to update a printed guide from version 13.2 |
| 13.2 | 31-3-2021 | Added a topo for The Dungeon in Bagshawe Cavern. Other pitches in Bagshawe will follow, but this is the most often descended. The DCA access links for some of the caves were broken, so the links on the site and the QR codes on the topos have been corrected. All caves now use peakdistrictcaving.info links, rather than a mix of these and DCA Cave Registry links. Since many topos have new QR codes, the opportunity has been taken to renumbered the pages to take account of the two new topos since the last renumbering. The Level 7 / Hope Shaft topo is now called Middleton Dale Mine - Level 7 / Hope Shaft to match the naming in CotPD. Various minor corrections. A printed guide will need printing again to bring it up to date. |
| 13.1 | 10-12-2020 | Added a topo for Clatterway Levels. To update a printed version, you should print the new topo and reprint the cover, contents and index. |
| 13.0 | 14-10-2020 | Updated and corrected the JH Mine topo, between the surface and the Workshop. Added the option to use a deviation on the pull through pitch in Nickergrove Mine, if it is to be rigged for ascent. Renumbered the guide pages to account for the additional topos since version 12.0. To update a printed version, you should reprint the entire guide. |
| 12.9 | 5-8-2020 | Added Snake Mine topo. Just the round trip route for now. Print the new topo, front cover, contents and index to update your guide. |
| 12.8 | 20-7-2020 | Replaced the Eyam Dale House Cave description with a proper topo. To update the guide reprint the page and the front cover. |
| 12.7 | 6-7-2020 | Corrected a rope length in Nickergrove Mine, following a report from Larry Blanchard. To update your guide from version 12.6, reprint the Nickergrove Mine topo and reprint the Cover, Contents and Index. |
| 12.6 | 14-3-2020 | The Rowter Hole topo has been replaced with two topos and now includes the route from the Gin Shaft to Crystal Orechasm. A topo has been added for Day Shaft that drops down to Youds' Level in the Derwent South region. A minor correction has been made to the Knotlow survey with the rope length in to Pearl Chamber, shown as 29m being changed to the correct 20m. To update your guide replace the front cover, Contents and Index and the Knotlow topo. Replace the Rowter topo with the two new ones and add the Youds' Level - Day Shaft topo. |
| 12.5 | 8-3-2020 | Added the pull through pitch back in to Basecamp Chamber to the third Giant's Hole topo. This has been renamed Giant's Hole - Basecamp Chamber, Boss Aven & Carnival Aven. To update your guide reprint the third Giant's Hole topo and the front cover. |
| 12.4 | 25-2-2020 | The Hungerhill Swallet topo has been updated. The route uses Thunderbolt non-stainless steel anchors and these have been in situ for many years. Their safety is unknown. The anchor symbols have been changed to the non-stainless type and the safety warning made stonger. This cave is on the list for rebolting by DCA, but in the mean time, if you do visit, be aware of the risk. To update your guide reprint the Hungerhill Swallet topo and the front cover. |
| 12.3 | 23-2-2020 | Update of the Level 7 and Hope Shaft topo. Replace the front cover and the Level 7 / Hope Shaft topo to bring your guide up to date from version 12.2. Thank you to Masson Caving Group for supplying up to date information for this system from their recent trip. |
| 12.2 | 16-2-2020 | Addition of George Cooper's Aven rigging topo. Update to Victoria Aven topo. QR Codes added to all the topos. These provide direct links to the peakdistrictcaving.info web page for that entrance. Allows you to quickly find access and location information from a paper rigging guide by pointing your smartphone camera at the QR Code. Print the entire guide to update from any previous issue. |
| 12.1 | 12-1-2020 | Level 7 / Hope Shaft topo grid references removed. Hope Shaft reference was incorrect. More accurate locations are now in peakdistrictcaving.info. Replace topo (page 40) and front cover. |
| 12.0 | 8-1-2020 | The first edition to be published on-line. All topos redrawn as vector graphics using Inkscape. |
| 11 | 2011 | The last paper based guide |
| 9 | 2005 | Guide type set using Scribus. |
| 1 | 1994 | The first edition of the Rigging Guide. Provided for historical interest only. Don't use this for caving! |
The entrance of Uamh a Bruthaich Chais Fhada in Appin, Scotland. Photo © Jenny Drake 2013.