A group of us had decided to spend this Saturday on the tops of Matlock, overlooking the the town and River Derwent below. We arrived at 8.30am after a McDonald's breakfast, and geared up ready for the 15 minute walk to Masson Leas Quarry. This particular quarry hosts a variety of climbing competitions and is well documented in various books with pitches suitable for all skill levels.
Upon arrival at the quarry edge, myself and Will headed around the left side to the cliff edge to set up the tree ropes, whilst the others set about climbing down into the quarry to set up base for the day. The sun was shining but accompanied with it was the bitterly cold wind, named by the media as 'The Beast From the East'.
As Will was unpacking the ropes and harnesses, I took a few minutes to continue around the top of the quarry to look for a shaft i have been trying to find for over a year. This shaft known as Gentlewoman's Pipe, is a 200ft tight vertical abseil into the inaccessible workings of Masson mine, which we usually access via a nice hole in the quarry face below. The difference with this access point is the adventure which follows it. This particular shaft leads to a route which will take you all the way down to river level, eventually emerging from an internally locked manhole cover in the childrens playground at Artist's Corner carpark near the speed cameras on the way into Matlock. An absolute adventure that i have tried to find and do for a good year now!
However, today was not the day for that trip, maybe one day i will finally get to partake and write up about that adventure. I headed back to Will and he was ready to be belayed down to the next ledge where an anchor point could be achieved. I got into the harness and Will got into the other and i counter weighted him over the edge as he hooked up to the strongest tree available. Once safe i clipped him off of my line and he proceeded to abseil down to the others at the bottom of the quarry.
I packed up the remaining unused ropes and harnesses and walked back around to take the climbing route down to our camp for the day. "Is it too early for a can of courage?" I asked the others looking at the 8 pack of Stella Artois in the bag... "Not at all, i'm about to crack one myself!" Will replied, his girlfriend, Marc, Andy and his two work friends all agreeing, and we each cracked a can at 9am, ready to calm the nerves and numb the wind chill. "We need a fire" Andy preached as the sunlight came over the quarry edge partially killing off the wind chill. 20 minutes passed by and the ropes were ready to ascend and the fire was cooking nicely!
We each took it in turns to climb the cliff face, whilst one of us counter weighted and took in the slack of the rope to ensure if anybody fell it wouldn't be far or hurt too much! A few hours passed by, camp kept moving with the sunlight until it finally had it time shining into the quarry. "Fire needs stocking up" I said as the final ray of sunlight moved on and left us with the wind biting at our bones. We spent about half hour collecting the dead wood and dry tinder all around the edges of the rocky depression, until the fire was roaring, then myself and Will went back to the top of the cliff edge to try out the single rope technique abseiling. This was different from what we were doing in the morning as it involves on single rope dropped down with nobody counter weighting the tail end. Instead we were to use Petzl stops, and if it went wrong, on your own head be it!
Will went first being the most qualified and experienced in ropework, then i followed. The initial climb was fine as it was a steep slope and not vertical, fighting with a few bramble bushes before we got to the vertical edge, heart in my mouth, i lowered myself outwards until legs were straight against the face. Steadily i pushed in on the Petzl stop and descended smoothly to the bottom, adrenaline engulfing me with self achievement once arriving safely at the bottom. We repeated this for a good hour before Andy suggested we take a quick trip into the mine meaning as 4 of the group had never ventured inside before.
I agreed to lead them inside, having spent well over 20 hours inside this particular mine and knowing how to navigate (probably with my eyes closed). We had a slight issue of only having crappy head torches with us, so i made sure everybody stayed close together and took the worst light for myself, even though i was leading! After a series of climbs down from the deepest ledge of the quarry, we quickly squeezed through the spiders into the wet clay like stopes which eventually lead us into the mine workings.
It was difficult to take many photographs here due to lack of decent lighting but we all gave it our best as I lead the group through to main ore wash chamber. There is a shaft at this point which leads all the way up to the surface, you can see daylight at the top of it, but this is not the shaft i was searching for earlier...
Once we had a quick break i proceeded to lead through the mineral wall gap, where calcification had made the walls a smooth white. Following the obvious path we eventually came to a fork where i took the left hand passage, up over a slippy mound where we were greeted by a large blue pipe. This pipe lead to the gated emergency exit from the Masson Show Cavern. No access to the general public is allowed into this system unless you pay from the Heights of Abraham end of the Masson Hill SSSI site. We saw a few tourists on the otherside of the gate, all looking at us in amazement as to how we were on the otherside of a fortified steel gate!
This was enough for one day, batteries were dimming out and i knew we could spend well over 6 hours down here if we wanted to search every passage. "We'll come back another time, if you want to the rest, our batteries die this deep, we ain't getting out!" I warned the others. Everyone agreed to exit and i let the newcomers go first. "Try and see if you remember the way" I joked following the group at the back.
They got to the first fork and instantly took the wrong path, i laughed and said guess i'll lead us back out then.
Once we arrived back at the surface we packed up camp and headed back to the cars ready for a complete reversal on the beers, and opting for a cup of coffee to warm up before heading home and calling it a day.
A brilliant fun filled day, costing us all but an 8 pack of beers!
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