47/7 : Skull Cave

The cave is located 3m to the right of the main path up Jultayu, slightly below the level of 2/7. It is a very inconspicuous entrance in a gravelly slope.

A 10m pitch drops onto an unstable debris slope, at the top of a fine 31m free hanging pitch, Spinal Tap. This drops into a fine chamber with a large number of rebecco and wolf skulls littering the floor. A short drop in one corner leads into a bouldery area, where an easy squeeze between blocks enters a small chamber. Here a tight and awkward hammered hole, the Eft, drops into a tight rift, where a howling gale blows out of a long, narrow, hammered slot, which is the head of the next pitch.

The pitch, The Hollow Men, is 40m long and runs down a stall wall for the lower section; [it is possible to climb over the wall to the top of another pitch where a 23m free hang, High Windows, drops into a chamber, blind apart from an inpenetrable fissure, through which water can be heard dripping.]

The Hollow Men lands in a heavily calcited chamber from where several routes lead off. [The most obvious route is a pitch of nearly 30m. At the bottom it is possible to squeeze into a rift continuation. Following the trickle of water in the floor seems impossible, while the higher level closes down after perhaps 10m.]

From the bottom of The Hollow Men, a short climb leads into a higher level of the chamber, The Waste Land. This is an unusually complex area, with trickles of water disappearing into several `shakeholes', some interconnected.

[A three metre climb from the floor of The Waste Land leads to the top of a 7m pitch which connects with the bottom of High Windows. Alternatively, from the top of the pitch, an easy but exposed climb leads to about 50m of muddy passage which enlarges steadily until its choked termination. Another pitch from The Waste Land connects with the bottom of the 30m pitch described above.]

The way on from The Waste Land, is near where the main trickle of water drops some four metres over a series of small ledges [to where it drains through a small hole.] To the right of this, a larger hole is a window into the top of an echoey shaft; this is a large, easily climbable rift, `Church Going', which is thought to be in line with the rift described above, although there seems to be no connection; all water enters this part of the cave from the roof, not at floor level. A tight squeeze leads downstream from the base of the rift. A small passage, Pilgrim's Progress, can be followed at floor level for about fifteen metres through several squeezes, to within three metres of a large-sounding space in which water can be heard trickling.

Rigging guide