Amy had done some fantastic organising, sorting out a slot for us to kip in the TSG hut in Castleton and a permit for Titan for the weekend, but with two weeks to go, the weather was looking dicey. Thankfully, the sun came out in time and after a bit of umming and ahhhrring, we decided to give it a crack.

The key pick-up from Hitch and Hike went smoothly, though I slowed things down somewhat by remembering a list of things to buy that just kept on growing. Even Andy was waiting for me. Parking back up in Castleton, we changed in the hut and walked up cave dale. I challenge anyone to find fault with the TSG hut’s location (even if some of the local pubs have gone a bit gastro). A quick pull up the hill saw us to the nicely landscaped hatch and a conversation about SRT techniques.

Slowly it dawned to Marc and me that Steve, Nick and Amy were looking on somewhat expectantly so I started tying knots and disappeared into the shaft. A large puddle by the main pitch allowed us to moisten the ropes for the big pitches (odd isn’t it that the just-shy-of-50-m entrance pitch is overlooked?) and knots were cautiously tied while leaning over the void. Luckily, my light couldn’t see the floor, or it would have been properly scary. The club’s new 100 m rope was deployed for this drop, and while it had been rinsed, there was still much lubricant in the core. I descended somewhat rapidly with a spray of milky water being squeezed out of the rope by my descender. 

Slight bunching of the group occurred on the event horizon while the rebelay was dealt with – much nervier rigging than above as the line twangs over the lip of rock – before collecting at the bottom of the pitches for pork pie.

Navigation to Peak had been described as ‘dead easy’ by TSG dwellers. ‘You just go right, left, left, left, right, left, left, left.’ And with hindsight, they were right although this didn’t stop us from quickly visiting the main rising in the Speedwell system following a misguided upstream adventure. The recent rain meant levels in the system were highish. There was about an inch and a half of air in the duck between Titan and Leviathan, and there was a good flow of water piling over the dam at Bung Hole. Luckily, most in the group had hoods.

In the streamway below Bung Hole, we realised we were tight on time for our 16.30 deadline at Peak Cavern to avoid scaring the ghost tour (ironic?) and the group was getting shivery following a good half hour in waist-deep water. A pause to take on some more calories preceded a increase in pace as we rattled through colostomy crawl and the trenches before the passage got bigger and we could stomp through to the Brush Tree for a good scrubbing before exiting Peak just as our carriage turned into a pumpkin at 16.30. We’d entered the cave at 11.15, giving a trip time of 5 h 15 min, probably a little over 2 h on the pitches, the balance traversing the system. Top trip – though Richard’s pre-trip disdain of wetsuit wearing was a touch misguided!