Lancaster Hole – Wilf Taylor’s Round

James, Dave, Pete, Paddy, Ami

At one point 11 people had suggested they might attend this one, resulting in some frantic alternative trip planning. But between illness and the glorious weather just 5 brave souls arrived to a beautiful sunset at Bull Pot.

It was the best kind of trip – the kind where none of us really knew where we were going. Once past the lovely, straightforward pitch at Lancaster Hole (anyone know what the MANY other bolts all the way down are actually for?) and once again resisting the intriguing passage half way down, we set off towards Kath’s Way. We were collectively confident at this bit, if not at the integrity of the way-marking scaff bar.

The description called for a slight detour to rig the short pitch we would eventually take back up into Fall Pot. Dave rigged this short pitch (he wasn’t given much choice) over the in situ rope, but a look about suggested some of the slightly longer alternatives might be more fun next time. We ignored the advice to go to the bottom of Fall Pot for a recce, confident we’d had a decent enough look from the top.

We continued on – a strangely short ladder leading through an awkward hole to the muddy passage beyond. Even if we hadn’t previously done this bit, the smooth mud gives the route away, and is also lots of fun to slide around on. We soon reached the beautiful bit of passage at the T junction, and stopped for a breather as we were all feeling rather warm. After Story time with Paddy (as he had the description) we began the Round, with no idea between us who Wilf was (creative ideas were proposed – so good I have purposefully not looked up the reality).

The route was very dry, but the stream-way rock is beautiful and full of fossils. There’s some in situ ropes to help you along some awkward climbs, but the route finding wasn’t hard. We found ourselves in Main Drain and had a quick look at the sump, before heading off to the supposedly tricky boulder climb that we hadn’t checked out earlier. We made the right choice! No real trouble – just keep going up – and before we knew it we were back in Fall Pot and heading out, with Paddy derigging.

A lovely little trip. And the tiniest piece of Easegill ticked off. We’ll be back.