Month: July 2024

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Fiveways Pot

Tom, Will, Claire & Ray

The first key to a successful trip down this one is finding it, as Pete & Matt had discovered on the previous (aborted) KCC trip. A GPS is absolutely essential, especially on the sort of murky day we had. Even with a GPS, we still seemed to be walking randomly across the fellside… and yet, somehow, we ended up at the correct shakehole.

The entrance climb sets the theme for many of the pitches, being a bit tight and awkward at the top. It’s an easy enough climb, but a short handline is useful, mainly because you can’t see where your feet are going until your head has popped through the hole. At the bottom of the climb, I set off down the slope to what I thought was the first pitch and was rather disturbed on 2 counts. First, there didn’t appear to be any hangers and, second, it appeared a bit on the tight side. Luckily Will found the actual 1st pitch in the totally opposite direction. In keeping with the general theme of the cave, the pitch was a bit tight and awkward at the top, soon opening out.

Next comes the Tonga Trench – a steeply descending rift, neatly divided into about 10 massive shored steps like a giant’s staircase. This is some feat of engineering. Then there is a reasonably tight short blasted crawl, leading to a short climb down a shored shaft. I thought this looked a bit intimidating from the top, but it was easy enough to climb down the shoring. Another short crawl then leads to Blade Runner pitch. A y-hang rebelay (from opposite walls) a few metres down is my sort of rigging and gives a great hang. Will had some choice words for Claire who he blamed for giving him a drenching on his descent. Was it deliberate or not? The debate continues…

Another short crawl leads to a 5-way junction. Apparently this is not the feature after which the pot was named! The way on is via the passage immediately to the right. We didn’t spend any time exploring the other 4 ways.  The next pitch (My Left Foot) is reached after crossing a few holes in the floor – nothing too scary though. Mt Left Foot is another fine pitch. At the bottom, however, is an awkward section requiring climbing up a few feet and traversing before dropping down again. The next pitch is reached soon and is quickly followed by the last 3 pitches. The last pitch is a bit tight near the top, but soon opens out.

Tom decided to forego the last pitch on this occasion, presumably thinking it would be awkward enough to get back up the other pitch heads. Can’t say I blame him. As is the way on Dowlass Moss, the bottom is pretty uninspiring. A low, wet crawl apparently leads to a tiny sump, but none of us could muster the enthusiasm to take it. So there was nothing left to do, but begin the long upward journey.

Will offered to derig and, surprisingly, no-one argued. I went up first. Near the top of the bottom pitch I heard something fall. I didn’t know what it was until I reached the top of the pitch and noticed that the case in which I carry my phone was open. Bu88er! My phone must be lying in pieces somewhere far below. Hopefully Claire or Will would be able to pick up most of the pieces on their way up, largely to avoid littering. Poor Will put a lot of effort into the job, exploring a ledge partway up, but no sign of anything phone-like. What a mystery!

The mystery was resolved when I reached the bottom of the next pitch to find my phone lying there, thankfully intact… and still in working order. It must have fallen out of the case on that pitch instead, presumably near the bottom.

Meanwhile, Will was cursing my shiny new tackle bag, struggling with the length of the cord. Claire had never heard such language! Apart from that, the journey out went very smoothly and we were back at the cars shortly after 2pm. Given the early hour, what could we do but retire to the Marton Arms for a debrief after another great trip. Thanks all!

Photos by Will (mostly) and Ray

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Lancaster Hole – Wretched Rabbit

Connor, Tom, Will, Yolanda

Report written by Tom?

Thwarted yet again by the weather, we sacked off Penyghent Pot and, given that most of the attendees would soon be heading to the Berger, we decided that a nice tiring Easegill through-trip would be a good option. 

We headed into Lancaster and made our speedy way down to Fall Pot, with Will being pointed on a short solo diversion to the Colonnades as he hadn’t seen them yet. At Fall Pot, Connor headed onto the gloopy in-situ rope of the main pitch while Tom headed for the more climb-y bypass down the slot. Will and Yolanda clocked the thick mud oozing from Connor’s descender and decided to avoid getting their gear mucky at such an early stage, instead choosing the bypass.

Given the forecast we chose the high level route from here rather than chancing the main drain, so along to Stake Pot we headed, and swiftly across the bridge and up to Bob’s Boss. After a bit of formation admiring, we slipped, slithered and sometimes skied our way along the high level, once again thankful for the traverse lines around Scylla and Charybdis.

Passing Oxbow Corner we paused in Oakes Cavern at what’s becoming the usual lunching spot for some choccy and hydration, before pressing on through the Minarets and through the various massive caverns dotted along the route. Will spotted familiar territory as we approached Main Line Terminus, having been there just last week for the Manchester Bypass trip. On we headed to Stop Pot and regained the main streamway.

At this point we made our way up to Holbeck Junction and a short diversion into Gypsum Caverns. The straw-covered chamber at the end is always a pretty sight. Will attempted a LiDAR scan but the straws prove difficult for it to see and it didn’t quite do it justice. At this point we were feeling well-exercised and it was nice knowing that just half an hour of knackering caving would see us out of Wretched Rabbit. We twisted and wound our way through the labyrinth and made our way up into Spiral Staircase, with only some mild cursing from Yolanda in the tight pitch bypass, before bursting out of the cobble funnel and hauling ourselves out of the entrance climbs. 

A quick wander down the gill and up onto the fell, and Connor was all too eager to de-rig Lancaster. Grand day out.

Photos by Will.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Cupcake

Maz, Ray, Tom 

Report by Maz

Whenever I had spoken to people about Cupcake, the response was either “haven’t done it” or “it’s a bit muddy down there.”

With such an enticing sounding name, surely a bit muddy, meant, well, a bit muddy. Research had garnered that the eponymous Cupcake is a rather cakey looking calcite feature somewhat near to the entrance. Sounded lovely.

Ray hadn’t managed to get many takers for this and had floated alternatives. I, however, was keen to see this fine piece of geological patisserie. Tom kindly offered to show us the way.

According to the description, Cupcake is a series of pitches connected by various highly decorated crawls, rifts, ducks and passages, eventually joining up with Notts 2 at the superbly named Count Lazio Stroganoff’s Aven. Our plan was to give some of it a go.

Our descent began when Tom was tempted by the entrance in situ rope. A few feet down and the shout up was this was a quick one. I’m not keen on those sort of ropes, so Ray was persuaded to rig one especially for me. Quickly down, through a shored section, and we were on to one of several crawls. This culminated in the famous Cupcake feature. I do like these looky likey type formations and while I appreciate some resemble their name only vaguely, cupcake does very much look like a cupcake.

Mission accomplished, it was time to explore. Tom had been down to just beyond pitch 3 before and was keen to further his knowledge of the cave. Some more crawling, this time with added mud, we descended via Splashdown pitch into Pool chamber. That’s where the proper mud began. Not so much of a splash, rather a gooey splat. The journey though was made better with some excellent formations including wonderful translucent straws. A tight downward rift then led to some nice traversing. Tom leading down the unpleasant slope that was mud pitch. There was no avoiding the horribleness here and soon we were caked.

This point marked Tom’s furthest exploration. To move on, we needed to escape the chamber. We knew there was a tight rift climb at the far end. If we could get someone up onto the ledge above, they could rig a rope down for the rest of us. Brilliant! We soon spotted a scaffolding pole 30 or so feet above. That was the way forward.

What followed was a genuinely impressive free climb by Ray up a tall, vertical, extremely tight, exposed, muddy rift. Upon gaining the ledge, Ray informed us that the scaffold pole we were relying on, was in fact just tape. He did find the bolt however, and rigged the pitch. This was Limbo Pitch

I ascended first and did OK for a while. At the top, the pitch narrowed and my progress slowed. Soon I was down to short movements, gradually inching up, using, elbows, knees even my head, to aid my progress. I arrived exhausted. By the time Tom’s head popped up, I was just getting my breath back and heart rate under control.

We were keen to continue. Some hugely impressive formations followed and along rifts and easy traverses. Sludge Crawl lived up to its name. tight, squeezy and muddy. Very, very muddy. Ray dumped his SRT kit and Tom left the tackle sack. We carried on through this hell hole to pitch 5; Slither Aven.

Although the way forward looked perfectly fine, this became our terminus as time was getting on and I was aware that was becoming knackered.

Back through sludge crawl. I regretted leaving my knee pads in the van. Formations gazed at on the way in became a blur as we soon reached the descent down Limbo pitch. Gravity and a very muddy rope soon had me on the bottom of the pitch. Ray downclimbed the rift to meet us. I don’t know how he got on with it, as I was already on the mud slope. Progress on this return journey seemed very quick until a squeeze literally stopped me. On the way in I’d just wriggled through. After a bit of effort, I was free, Tom and Ray offering encouragement.

We breezed past the Cupcake and soon we were out to a setting sun. Our clothes, rope and SRT kit covered in mud.

Would I do it again? Probably. Was it worth the mud and crawls? Back at home 24 hours later, I’d say yes. Would I recommend it? Like many things in life, you just have to see it for yourself.

The moral of the story? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, don’t judge a cave by it’s name. Cupcake, my arse. Mississippi Mud Pie more like. Thanks to Ray and Tom for rigging.

 

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