August 2026 – Kendal Caving Club

26 August 2026

By Damian T In Day Trips

Illusion Pot 26/08/2026 – ‘I love the smell of carbide in the evening’

A great turn out – Ami, Billy, Chris, Gareth, Maz, Sam (2nd ever trip), Scott, Sophie H and Tom joined me for this interesting trip. There was also some surface support from Steve P & son, who were both quite badly damaged following a failure to remain on ones mountain bike, good luck with the recovery.

Maz had recently been the recipient of an expedition carbide light and as he knew that was my form of light in the dim and distant he brought it along to have a go. So after getting changed at the end of the green lane on the Kingsdale road, the lower section of the generator was half filled with some old looking carbide provided by the surface support team. Maz and I stopped at the beck en-route and filled the upper water chamber having made sure the water regulator was screwed shut. However, that old familiar aroma of acetylene quickly filled the air and perhaps I shouldn’t have said “it shouldn’t be doing that” as I lit the flame with the usual little bang, as Maz became a little apprehensive. I did explain that it would just be a seal that had disintegrated and there was no imminent explosion about to take place. We pressed on to catch the others who were now at the stile beneath Twistleton Scar End. I’d forgotten how steep the first part of the path was and despite being in 1st gear, low box, nearly ground to a halt contemplating why I hadn’t delegated the carrying of the tackle sack to a younger being. Soon the next stile was met though signalling the ground levelling out as we traversed around the fell side. More talk of carbide at the entrance and a team photo taken by Steve, who kindly even gave advice on dress code.

I set off down the entrance shaft surprised to find pristine manhole rings with nicely aligned rungs, my memory was of blockwork with holes left out for ones feet, more like toe holds until you reached the recycled Fall Pot ladder. I was assured by Gareth that they had been there for years, perhaps I was thinking of somewhere else.

The entrance series leading to the duck seemed longer and more awkward than I recalled and again found myself contemplating, this time if I suffered from learning difficulties, as again failing to delegate transportation of the tackle sack. We reached the duck, thankfully particularly low and in fact not a duck at all, just a wet hands and knees crawl.

More talk of carbide ensued, mainly focused around the aroma as the generator was still producing but in an unstoppable manner. I hadn’t told Maz that dragging a carbide light through the muddy entrance series rather than wearing it was a bad idea because sadly the piezo lighting mechanism now failed to ignite the acetylene as it was thoroughly caked in mud. So the light was left by the duck and Maz continued with the relatively trusty Fenix. Quickly onto the Expressway with the usual ooh’s and arr’s and after a short spell of posing for photos, the group split, left for the pretties at the end of the rift and right for Rushton Chamber and Brunel Rift. As I still had the tackle sack I headed right with Tom, Billy, Sophie, Scott & Maz. Rushton Chamber never fails to delight, a wonderful spot. Tom headed off along Brunel Rift on the in-situ rope commenting that bolts didn’t look great and it was a knotted rope on the final drop so not able to descend or ascend on SRT gear. Billy was next and was rather appalled at the state of the bolts so the ropes I’d been dragging around proved useful. The left hand team caught up and Scott had to say farewell as an early start for work was required the following day. Billy finished rigging the CNCC route which really meant a short abseil to start with so as Sam was a bit knew for this, Gareth had no gear and I feared for my arthritic hip on such a wide start to the traverse so we went to find the pretties back at the end of the Expressway. Unfortunately we were thwarted by a triangular squeeze over an awkward climb and called it a day and headed out. The build up of acetylene by the duck was less than pleasant and was no advert for the reintroduction of carbide lighting. We thought we had got back to the car in time for a pint at the Marton Arms so rather selfishly left before the remainder of the group caught up (we did see their lights at the top of the green lane though before leaving). However, this must be a sign of the times, the Marton Arms was SHUT!

A thoroughly enjoyable evening though with good company

22 August 2026

By Connor C In Day Trips

Tour de Goyden- 22nd August

A day trip exploring the Goyden System.

Its not often we get to cave over in the Eastern dales so I had added this to the meets list on a few occasions but finally the weather permitted us a long awaited trip.

Ami, Jason and I met at the Goyden pot car park at 0930 on Saturday morning. We all geared up and I delivered the plan to what I hoped to be a good day out. Starting at Manchester hole we would follow the stream through into the bypass via Bax pot then into Goyden, then explore the reaches of the deeper system, we would exit, then shuttle down to New Goyden for a bit of SRT and a shorter round trip (It would be rude not to).

We made good tracks and quickly arriving at the dry stream way entrance of Manchester hole, a little slide down via a well polished slab and we were in. Following the stream way, we passed many large ceiling decorations, until arriving at Mud hall. At the top was a short handline traverse to follow the route along at ceiling level until dropping down a short mud slope back into the streamway. We soon arrived at the first Stoop/duck and we were into the impressive Fossil Hall. This is probably (IMO) some of the best exposed fossils in Yorkshire, the hall is decorated with probably over 100 individual, 350 million year old Brachiopods shells. After a good look about we pushed on and soon arrived at the next duck, I lead through wondering how I used to stay dry when doing this with groups and making to the other side fully soaked, Ami soon followed behind and Jason taking the brave option to crawl through (respect). This brought us into Bax pot to which was the start of an awkward boulder choke traverse to bring us into the main streamway of Goyden, no matter how many times you do this section it for one never looks the same and two, longer than you anticipate.

Finally in Goyden I presented the route plan which would take us to the deeper sections. On route I pointed out all alternative ways and recalled previous experiences over the years in Goyden and how its nature and environment can be a serious beast pointing out all the flood debris hanging about in the roof. Following downstream we met the T-junction to head into the Labrinth passage, follow this, passing the blue tubes passage first, then A-junction after, then finally reaching 5 ways chamber. From here we headed uphill to meet the Alloy ladder and into Sand caverns which is another very round but well decorated passage with large amount of flowstone and and curtains. Given the conditions we were able to explore down into the Maypole passage which I had never done before. This includes a series of short muddy crawls, normally there is a little muddy duck to pass through but this was dry today (result) then a climb up a steep extended ladder next to the rusty Maypole and into a short decorated passage after an unconvincing call back that there wasn’t a great deal to see, I was surprised to meet Ami at the ladder who expressed she had come this far so might as well take a look, but was a little concerned about the climb back down. We returned to the sand cavern and made tracks to 20ft climb this involves a short climb up a doglegged churt passage or the alternative a short puddle crawl. Jason followed me and Ami took puddle which we I only found out by meeting her at the other time telling us to get a move on and that it all looked a bit ‘faffy’. She wasn’t wrong. A climb down 20ft and we made tracks to the deeper reaches Ami was keen to give the squeeze a go at the bottom so of course, when in Rome, we did it. At the other side follow downstream left and you arrive at a Terminal sump, which again we found something extra I had never done before, here there is an awkward climb straight up above the pool then another tricky climb into a narrow rift. This then brings you back to the top of the other side right before a climb down to the previous squeeze we had just done. This was a great little extra and was grateful for giving it a go. Once regrouping we headed back to five ways and pressed on to the exit via Pyridine passage which involves a wade through water, a climb up into a rift with the use of in-situ ropes then a traverse over another pool. With a bit of team work we were up and across, we pressed on made progress towards the exit and soon enough we were back in day light.

A little breather and a snack we geared back up after a short shuttle and headed into New Goyden. Both pitches rigged and we were once again in the main stream way but a good few hundred meters and 3-4 diving sumps from earlier. A stomp down the main stream, we arrived at another climb up into the planetarium, a chamber with lots of round pockets a glittery formation in the ceiling. We wanted to make it to the further sump, this involved a little slide down into a larger mud floored passage then a return to the streamway. Here we were amazed to see loads of little fish in the stream around the rocks, so we carefully carried on make sure not to harm the little cave dwellers. (I found out that these are Bullhead fish)

After finding the sump we spun around and headed back and alternative way and I had a little explore up an Aven that was on route. Before heading out we had a quick walk up to the upstream sump then return back up the ropes then headed up to the exit. A nice little trip to wrap up the day.

Hope to return again some time in the next year.

19 August 2026

By Tom C In Day Trips

Bull Pot o’ t’ Witches

Maz, Millie, Paddy, Sam, Sophie (H), Sophie (OG), Tom

A novice onboarding trip from two long-waiting prospective new keen cavers-to-be, Millie and Sam. We’d originally planned for County but when a thunderstorm warning pinged through to our phones and ungodly rain popped onto the forecast, we diverted to BPOTW.

Millie and Sam had arrived nice and early as requested, to find nobody there…special leader here had got to the foot of Bull Pot Lane and realised he’d forgotten a ladder from the store. They survived being eaten alive by midges however, oversuits and harnesses were dished out and sized up, and we were on the road to the pot.

Paddy’s something of an expert in taking novices safely down BPOTW now, and he was off ahead rigging the traverse line down the open pot, and into the chimney for a lower. After enjoying the bottom of the waterfall for a bit we dove into the first pitch and again Paddy’s magic spider web saw Sam and Millie getting their first experience of abseiling on a Stop. The rest of us followed and Sam lead us up into the boulder choke and into whatever that long muddy passage is called.

A left turn first to work our way along to the different avens, a good chit chat in Burnett’s Great Aven and then back the other way for the round trip. I branched off at this point to go de-rig the first pitch, and back at the open pot I thought I was stood under the waterfall but it was intense rain – the dump had arrived. The others got busy with some squeezes and checking out the artifact pile before heading back up the scramble to join me.

We managed to slip out during a bit of a gap in the heavy rain and soon enough, it was time for choccy Swiss Roll (thanks OG) back at the midge-infested cars.

TPST: 3h

Pics by Millie

16 August 2026

By Scott In Day Trips, Uncategorised

Top Sink to Pippikin Pot

Present: Jasmine, Scott

Easegill is the nearest ‘big’ cave to where I live, and has fascinated me ever since my first trip to Lancaster Hole with the KCC. Following John and Miranda on an evening County to Lancaster through trip, I marvelled at their ability to remember the route amid so many chambers, boulder chokes, twisting canyons and muddy crawls. I was instantly keen to learn my way around the system, and had a few tentative solo excursions just before Tom C joined the club. We teamed up early on, and here was a fellow Easegill zealot – one with a formidable memory for underground places, and the ability to cheerfully suffer numerous walks across Casterton Fell in the dark. Many good trips followed, and we soon got to know our way around.
At some point, I became aware that you could do a Great Big Through Trip in Easegill – in at Top Sink, out at Pippikin. Hmmm. Maybe one day. Better check out the Wormway first, or the escape route through the Manchester Bypass, or the Link crawl. At some point, I realised that I knew the route all the way through! But other caving trips intervened, or the weather worsened, or potential partners had to cancel… it remained an untasted ambition.
This summer, I felt like I was on a bit of a roll trip-wise, and the weather had been excessively dry. When Klaudia’s trip to Hammer Pot was postponed, I leapt on the chance to recruit Jasmine to an alternative Black Book trip – the classic Easegill Traverse.
Tom couldn’t join on the day, but kindly offered to keep me company on the walk over to pre-rig Link, on the day before the trip. Young Keo was also in attendance, and reportedly laughed himself silly when I disappeared down the narrow entrance pitch into Link Pot – clearly he already has his head screwed on, and will not be easily recruited in future for any of this caving nonsense.
The next day, it was on! Jasmine was full of enthusiasm for the trip (just as well, really), and we made speedy progress to Top Sink. We were carrying a single bag with snacks, emergency kit and a 60m rope (bit long, but at least it was 9mm). Soon we were at Walrus pitch. The little traverse rope had been removed, but that posed no problem, and we got delightfully moistened on the way down the pitch. Penknife pitch soon followed, then Limerick Junction and the bold step over to the Bridge of Sighs. A little later we were at Nagasaki, about an hour after leaving the surface.
My watch (which I found abandoned in a car park years ago) has always had a little quirk: it randomly loses power and resets itself. Most normal people would have replaced it by now, but I’m attached to it and a bit tight, so I’ve learnt to live with it. Anyway, this happened at some point after Nagasaki, meaning that we were estimating the actual time from then on. No problem though, as callout was hours away… right?
When we reached Easter Grotto I persuaded Jasmine to go for a look at the stals while I relieved myself of some excess hydration in the Thackray’s streamway. She was suitably impressed (by the pretties, that is), and soon we were on the way downstream. We had a break at the Stop Pot ladder for food, and then the muddy bits flew past until we stopped to hunt for the tell-tale blue polyprop rope which marks the climb down on the far side of Oxbow Corner.
We were in the Main Streamway now, and this was easily the most pleasant bit of the trip. The water was super low, and the passage is continuously interesting, with pools, washed out shale beds, stals and high level meanders to take in. Alas, 15 minutes later it was over, and we climbed up the Stake Pot fixed ropes to find the window to the EPC series.
The caving from here was a little more awkward in places, and we ticked off the various landmarks until the top of the 88 Foot Pitch. This was a more spectacular descent than I remembered from my only other trip there, or perhaps I now have a better light! The Wormway followed. Even though I knew that the forecast was settled, it’s a spooky bit of passage which obviously floods frequently. I was glad to see the orange rope which I had rigged the day before on Echo Aven.
At this point we were starting to feel like we’d covered a fair bit of cave. Most of this was new to Jasmine, though she’d done Cow to Countybefore and a trip in Link (Sheepgate!). Understandably we were tiring a bit, but I was looking forward to the Soreen and juice that I’d stashed for us at the Link entrance pitch. After some awkward derigging and crawling we were there. We had a break, dumped the bag and proceeded tackle free to the Link Crawl.
It had been years since I’d been here, and once or twice I began to doubt my memory, but pushing on through the Wet Wallows (now a big puddle that gets your ear wet) and the Muddy Wallows (either not muddy today, or it was that bit with a flat out tube crawl full of gravel?) eventually brought us to Dusty Junction.
Last chance to escape before Pippikin, but I don’t think either of us seriously considered it – we were too invested now. We made our way to the Hall of Ten and the start of the pitches that would take us to the end of the trip.
Now, Pip is the sting in the tail. The pitches themselves are pleasant enough, but linked by unrelentingly awkward passage. Not far distance-wise, but a physical challenge against gravity when you’re already at a low ebb. I’d done Pippikin downhill 3 times before, and actually found going up it quite enjoyable, if hard. Jasmine enjoyed it less, but her endurance and strength of character saw her through. The reason that it’s so difficult is that in four separate squeezes you have to rely on the same move: a horizontal thrutch with your legs jammed high and your weight on one hand. It’s a specific technique, and Jasmine was trying it out for the first time in the notorious Stemple Squeeze, against gravity, after nine hours of caving!
Eventually the four squeezes yielded their grip on us and we crossed Cellar Pot to see the rope from the surface pitch awaiting us (phew! I’d been hoping that was there) It had just got dark outside, so we estimated the time to be about 9pm. Once on the surface, we legged it through the bracken, struggling to find a way down the cliff above the gill. We dropped down next to the Mistral Entrance, quickly derigged Link and marched over Casterton Fell to the farm, arriving 5 minutes before the callout was due! I said a hurried goodbye to Jasmine and drove up the hill to get signal. Callout just averted!
This truly was a mega day out, and none the less for being a long time in the making. Thankyou to Jasmine for your company and support in the long dark of Easegill, and all of the awesome KCC members who’ve shown me around over the years. And there’s still Bye George and Peterson Pot to do in the future 🙂

14 August 2026

By Ami S In Day Trips

Gaping Gill Winch meet – Dihedral

Team: Connor, Long Dave, Sophie H, James & Ami

It’s been on almost everyone’s list since day 1 of caving, and it was finally time to do it, with the added advantage of using the winch-meet rigging.

Only Dave had done it before, but as we headed up the long walk I was feeling pretty nervous. Upon arrival we received the most lovely greeting from the Craven lot – what stars! The only problem was we got a thorough explanation of what we were in for, including a knot pass on the second pitch (!) which did not help my nerves.

The was nothing else but to go for it, and Connor bravely led us off. I was close behind and suddenly my nerves were gone as I realised quite how spectacular this was going to be! The first pitch has a full Jurassic-park style view of the ferns above and the cavern below all lit by the sun and spray.

Connor had kindly waited for me as the first deviation on the second pitch had been described as difficult – but it was totally fine even with my short legs. The view from this ledge here was my favourite bit, and soon you’re over the rock and hanging off the rebelays I had admired from below – we were in the main chamber!

I took my time down to enjoy the view, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the tiny lights of the others pursuing me. Everyone stopped mid way down the last pitch – especially amazing for James as he hadn’t been in Gaping Gill at all before. What a way to make an entrance!

We had a squashed snack and a venture to Mud Hall which was quite spectacular. Any thoughts of a different way out were long gone – I certainly thought it only counted as ‘doing’ Dihedral to complete the round trip. It was inevitably hard, but no less spectacular on the way up. I regretted my undersuit, and assume Connor did too as I watched him swinging around the last pitch to get a dunk in the waterfall.

We emerged into the sun one by one and were treated to more friendliness and even a cuppa. Absolutely one of the best caving trips you can do. A big thanks to Tom for organising, and an even bigger thanks to Craven Pothole Club for their hard work setting up the winch; allowing us the trip and their incredible hospitality. We’ll bring you up a watermelon next time.

Pics by Dave, Sophie and Connor

8 August 2026

By Tom C In Day Trips

Penyghent Pot

Connor, Damian, Scott, Tom

This was the third summer I’d put PYG on the meets list, the previous 2 getting rained off at the last minute. Pretty chuffed that this time it fitted perfectly into a weather window, plans were drawn!

Given the number of pitches and the way the lengths fall, I decided to add mini ToughPrint topos to each bag as some therapeutic organisation.

We met at Brackenbottom at 9 for an early start, and it was warm enough that we sherpa’d everything up in big bags for a change at the pot. Connor had opted for an undersuit, the rest of us in neoprene. But which team was going to have the most clothing regrets?

We headed down the entrance boulder choke, some with less faff than others, and wormed along and down the climb into the long crawl. Tip: leave a little cairn of cobbles for yourself where you drop in, as you’ll read more about later!

This crawl is as shitty as it sounds, 300m or so of first hands and knees, before lowering to exhausting commando. Luckily with the drought there was very little water in it today, I dread to think what this would be like with a decent flow. As we took an exhausted break and Damian announced we were at knee shuffle number 493, we could hear the waterfall of pitch one somewhere ahead, which Connor was already rigging.

We plopped down this and along Easy Passage, which is better thought of as Slightly Easier Passage. Pitch 2 was another effortless little drop, and we were into the start of the meat of the trip. The spectacular 3rd and 4th pitches offered fantastic views, and I couldn’t help but dangle spinning around for a few moments, absorbing the view of the airy shaft. With the drought conditions, the bottom chamber was nowhere near as unpleasant as the descriptions make it out to be today.

Onwards into the chain of pitches down the big rift. At the 5th, an awkwardly fallen boulder created a squeeze which unfortunately excluded Damian. The drive was there but he reluctantly turned back.

The next few pitches all had in-situ, and while many of them were free-climbable, I at least was glad to have the rope, particularly on the way back up. The in situ of pitch 8 was a soggy affair for team neoprene, but team no-prene traversed out and rigged the dry alternative.

Myers Leap (No. 9) was quickly rigged, and we were down into a different character of cave – large stream passage, with ankle-spraining ribs of rock hidden underwater making progress awkward. The wetsuits made it no issue when I fell into the occasional deep pool, with Connor picking his way round more carefully. Pitch 10 was another shorty and then we bypassed Niagara pitch via the gully on the left.

Passing beneath an impressively tall aven we wound down the final stretch of streamway to the sump pool, for celebratory Rocky bars and Haribo Tropifrutti. These are hard Haribos to find in the UK so I thought it was a worthwhile occasion for the bag I’d sourced.

At this point I was beginning to realise the severity of my situation, being in poor caving fitness after 9 months of only weekly short trips due to baby life. I knew that my biggest battle would be to not whinge too much to Scott and Connor.

My unfit body creaked and cramped its way back up, but there’s not a whole lot you can do but press on. They kindly derigged us up, and a couple of welcome breaks replenished the energy.

We set up a hauling system to get the 4 bags up the big pitches, and the entrance felt slightly closer, although the long crawl still beckoned. I desperately drank a lot of streamwater in thirsty anticipation of the crawl, and am now writing this trip report while sat on the toilet, dealing with the fallout of this decision.

Speaking to Damian afterwards, it turned out that he missed the climb out of the long crawl, and accidentally explored the bitter upstream end, before realising his mistake. He then reversed and missed it once again, heading a fair way back down the long crawl before noticing familiar suffering. Upon finally finding the climb, he built us a small cairn, which prevented us doing the exact same thing.

We squirmed exhausted from the entrance and performed dramatic collapses onto the sun-drenched meadows of Penyghent, before peeling the nightmare off us and buckarooing ourselves up with tackle sacks for a lovely warm evening walk back down to Brackenbottom, and one of the most well-earned pints at the Helwith.

TPST: 6h45
Pics by Connor

1 August 2026

By Scott In Day Trips

FOUL Pot

Present: Connor, Scott

Not a cave either of us had been to before. FOUL Pot is often described as being a bit like other Fountains Fell caves, but not as ‘ard or ‘orrible. I’d concur with this. It reminded me of Curtain Pot, though not quite as long.

In a nutshell: nuts, usually. But to sum up FOUL Pot – entrance climb, awkward bit, really awkward bit, climb down, nice orange flowstone, boulders, crawly bit, decent pitch, decorated passage, tight rift, really nice pitch (Man o’ War), traversey passage, final pitch into big chamber, muddy sump.

All of this was good fun, with 4 bags to pass between Connor and I in the various tight bits. He rigged, I derigged. We had a Yorkie at the bottom. It took about 5 hours, car to car. There was a friendly reptile to greet us upon exiting.

Good day out really, with a bit of everything. Let’s get it back on the Meets List at some point!

Month: August 2026