Link Pot, Easegill
Scott Nixon, Darren Mackenzie, Tim King, Pete Blamire, Chris Downham
Scott lead for this Link Pot trip, heading for Cairn Junction, Serendipity and the Easy Street streamway
Ireby Fell Cavern
Ray McGarry, Tim Donovan, Helen Hooper, Darren Mackenzie, Chris Downham, Scott Nixon, Tom Calpin, Sophie Cunningham, Bob Cattley, Nick Davies
A grand day out down Ireby during the heatwave, moving like a slick machine (some via Ding Dong Bell, some via the Shadow Route) down to Duke Street before heading up into Whirlpool Crawl for the thankless slog through to Ireby 2. At this point most of the party in their haste turned right and visited ‘Duke Street 3’ aka a chilly swim to a sump, while Ray and Tom turned left for Duke Street 2. Efficient retreat back out for Sophie’s poisoned hot chocolate on the surface, tainted by no-brand rum from Ryelands
Bull Pot, Kingsdale
Chris Downham, Bob Cattley, Tom Calpin
Quick SRT leg stretch down to the 4th pitch in a thunderstorm.
Boundary Pot, Easegill
Jason Clements, Darren Mackenzie, Tom Calpin, Yolanda Aze
None of us had done full Boundary before, with Jason itching to get it over with after several failed meets list appointments over the years. Him and Darren had tried it once in damp weather, only to be turned back by a section of ‘washing machine’ passage in the entrance series.
We slogged over the fell to the second highest entrance to the system, and slid through the entrance bedding. Down a climb, down another, right, left, down another climb, through some flat-out and acute corners, I lost track a bit to be honest. But eventually we popped out at the top of an airy traverse round a pot in a chamber and a free-climb down. Through a cross-rift into Fusion Cavern and into bigger stuff. We made our way past some fantastic crystal false floors and into Hiroshima.
We found the Manhattan connection without much difficulty up on the ledge, and popped down into upper Easegill. Made our way up to Nagasaki but ended up going upstream from here trying to find the route onwards, eventually getting to Limerick Junction before realising our mistake. We headed back in the right direction out Nagasaki and through the little canyon for a quick visit to Easter Grotto, Yolanda’s first visit there.
We’d have loved to go back out of Wretched at this point, but sadly due to the blockage it’d have to be County. This took longer than I remembered and by time we popped out of the entrance flap we were all knackered.
