Cliff Force Cave

In Greek mythology the Monarch Dionysius leaves a guy called Damocles sitting under a sword suspended from the ceiling by a single thread. The moral being that simple decisions in life can have far reaching consequences, thus the saying life hanging by a thread. In Cliff Force Cave there is a chamber called the Room of Dangling Doom, where slabs of rocks hang from the ceiling. There is also another small chamber.....................…

Steve and I set off for Cliff Force deciding that the weather should be okay and if the stream was high we would look into the upper series. We arrived at the cave and just after changing were caught in a heavy shower of rain. We went through the entrance crawls without any problems and climbed down into the stream way. Being up to our knees we pressed on up stream hoping to get to the Room of Dangling Doom.

The water was higher than usual and on several occasions we encountered froth on the low ceiling.

Alter discussion we turned to go to the upper series, as we couldn't be sure if the heavy showers were continuing outside. We didn't fancy having to sit out any high water. The climb up the original hole into the Upper series is about 20 ft and goes through a narrow slot and then opens up. Steve climbed through no problem. I got my head through the slot and then had to heave, push and grunt to get up. We continued along the increasingly narrow passage until just before the tightest section I had to admit to girth problems. Turning we decided to go back towards Fault Hall. Steve climbed down the rift into the stream no problem. Putting my legs down the hole I stood on the obvious ledges, sinking lower, my chest was squeezed and suit rucked up, I remembered to go through at a slight angle. I pushed with my left leg to adjust when the ledge disappeared and my legs were left dangling in space. As I was still jammed at the chest I went nowhere. I knew Steve was below and at the same time as hearing the rock hit the floor I heard Steve yelling in pain. My thoughts were as follows:-

Oh S*** that's hit Steve on the head. ..... No it hasn't he wouldn't be making so much noise.

He's yelling something about his leg, it must be broken...... It can't be broken,he's hobbling around too much.

The conversation went as such

"Steve, you alright?" ..... "Course I'm not, a rock hit me leg"

"Put it into the stream to ease the pain" ..... "I'm not doing that it'll be bloody freezing"

I knew he was going to be okay when I heard that last comment, I squeezed out of the hole and climbed down to see Steve looking a bit shocked, he said he thought he was alright. The block, a 1.5 ft cube, had come out of' the ceiling, hit a ledge and bounced into Steve's leg at knee height. After calming ourselves down we made out of the cave with no further problems.

It was a sobering experience:- There had been no indication the rock was loose, in fact it broke away from the rest of the ceiling. Steve had not been standing under the climb, the rock had deflected to him, it was a close call. I'm not sure if that small room with the climb up has a name, but would the Dome of Damocles do.

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Cliff Force Cave

Gareth Carson