F’ing Hopeless Pot

Maz, Steve, Scott, Tom & Ray

Tom & Scott had been down this relatively recent discovery very shortly after the original explorations and were keen to get back. It was a 1st time trip for the rest of us and we were eager to see the well-documented pretties. Tom led us expertly straight to the entrance.

The excavated entrance shaft is a 20m climb down scaffolding. for which the CNCC description suggests a knotted handline may be useful. Being clever, I minimised the length of rope required for this by stringing together a series of single overhand knots, rather than knots on a bight. This was definitely a case of wishing I hadn’t started… it takes quite a while! In the end, the climb isn’t too bad, but the handline is useful on a few short sections.

At the bottom, Tom led on through a short crawl and rigged the 1st pitch. There was some debate (mostly from Maz) about whether Maz’s harness was coming undone at the top of the pitch, but it seemed secure enough. Scott then suggested that, as Ray hadn’t been before, he should lead on from this point. Ray protested, but lost.

Progress is never easy, but never really hard. The pitches are all fairly short. There is still some loose stuff around on some of the pitches and climbs, so some care is required.

Eventually we reached the rope heading up to Levelling Up. As Scott had been before, he decided to forego this particular pleasure on this occasion. Given how nice it is up there, I think this was a good call. Tom & Maz thought it looked a bit tight, so the 3 of them carried on to Speechless Grotto at the lower level, while Steve & Ray headed up the rope. It is indeed quite tight at the top. Once up the pre-rigged pitch, there is an awkward little climb up into a tube. Luckily, this was also pre-rigged with a short length of rope, complete with a very useful foot loop.

The tube at the top of the awkward climb is a short crawl through to Eggshell Chamber. This doesn’t pose too much of a problem, apart from a constriction, which isn’t that bad. I think anyone who can get up the pitch would fit through ok. Eggshell Chamber is reasonably well decorated, the highlight being a huge flowstone cascade. At the entrance to the chamber is a calcited side tube, heading off to Leveling Up. The tube is mostly easy crawling. Again, there is a single constricted section (as far as I recall), but it’s not too bad. It’s certainly worth trying to squeeze through to reach the pretties beyond. The passage starts to enlarge to walking size as Levelling Up is reached. The formations just get better the further you progress. Lots of straws and stals. The highlight for me is a grotto with lots of stalactites, each festooned with a multitude of helictites. I’ve never seen the like of it before.

When Steve and I had had our fill, we returned to find the others waiting at the bottom of the pitch. They had been to Speechless Grotto and come back with tales of stunning formations. Yeah, yeah… it can’t be as good as Levelling Up. We popped along to have a look anyway as the others started making their way out. Actually, Speechless is pretty stunning itself. Steve pushed on a bit beyond Speechless and then we started to make our way out, catching the others at the bottom pitch. Steve did a great job of derigging the whole thing.

This is a truly unique cave and well worth protecting. Tom & Scott noticed that some formations were already considerably muddier than on their first trip, which can’t be much more than a year ago.

Photos by Steve.