Rowten Pot

Dave, James, Louie, Maz, Scott, Steve, Tom – Report by Steve

Loaded up with around 250M of rope, all the krabs from the hut and a few emergency maillons, we set off up the hill.

Ray’s sales pitch for the trip and other peoples previous recollections meant the Eyehole route was discounted fairly early on in the walk up to the entrance so we set off for the Big Gully route.

After the little rain we’d had, the entrance was rather noisy and we were surprised to find a bit of water around but not enough to put us off.

Managed the slippery first pitch down with a 50m to cross the water and crouch in the shelter of the overhang to keep out of the water running off the far wall. This was a good theory, but only served to allow the water running off the wall to go straight down the back of your neck.  The spray from the waterfall in front making sure your legs, arms and front were not left out resulting in a rather damp draughty start.

A swap of riggers took place as I was struggling to find the entrance pitch bolts without my contacts in!  Tom took us down into streamway across a long deep ish  puddle that was easy enough to avoid. The two small slings were just about right for the deviation.

In the confines of the rift we swapped riggers back again and proceeded towards the main shaft. With my limited views down the main shaft due to the darkness and lack of contact lenses I was not too concerned. Dave & Tom then started eroding my confidence by adding sound effects suggesting the view was not a bit daunting, however onward we went.

With more spray from the main waterfall to keep an eye on, good progress was made straight past the bolts for the re-belay traverse. A quick changeover and I was soon back up after a 10m detour. The traverse seemed to take ages with multiple rebelays most requiring adjusting to make sure the loop was long enough but eventually reached the bottom of the main shaft with Dave not far behind.

The way down at the bottom of this route looked dry & OK as opposed to plenty of spray on the opposite side if heading for the direct route. However, it was immaterial as an earlier decision was made in a moment of weakness to leave the final bag of ropes, so we had reached the end of our trip.

Over a boiled sweet and a quick look around we found that we were on our own, so began the ascent. It seemed to go very well, the rebelay working OK and Dave methodically de-rigging the whole lot, even the bag hauling didn’t seem too bad. We were soon in sight of the entrance pitches.

A swing on the rope across the long deepish streamway puddle, resulted in a wet arse which at this point was probably the only dry bit left.

Tom’s light shining down the final pitch was welcoming, as was the full team stood waiting at the top. Another round of boiled sweets or rock hard toffees and that was it, back to the cars.

Another good trip in my view, cold and wet enough for me to re-think doing Crystal next week (TBC) but not too cold to stop us having a good trip. A bit of something for everyone.