Gaping Gill

One year after Sophie dragged me up to Gaping Gill at 6am to go down the winch, I return as a full convert to the underground! Sophie and I were so excited to go caving that we arrived 12 hours early, staying the night in Clapham in the van.

Ray, Sophie and I arrived at Gaping Gill at 10:30am on Winchmas-eve to find the place deserted. We eventually found signs of life in the beer tent, where Ray secured us a cup of tea on our return to the surface by a donation of high-quality biscuits.

We suited up and squeezed our way down into Flood Entrance. It was at this moment, Ray realised his kneepads were still in Clapham! You wouldn’t have known from his speedy crawling after the entrance pitch. We soon found ourselves swinging around clipping deviations on South East Pot. It really is huge, with a nice hanging rebelay and interesting rock carved out by water.

Armed with the route description, I led us away from the ledge through some cobbled crawls and stooping passages, finally getting to the main chamber. It was incredible. The best view in the Dales? Unfortunately we were too early in the week for the lights to be turned on, so you’ll have to make do with my poorly lit photos.

Ray took the lead on navigation, taking us to mud chamber and sand chamber, giving great ideas for future trips. Too wet for stream passage, we retraced our steps to South East, exiting via Bar Pot Big Pitch. The crawling continued, before tackling the greasy slab and small mammal pot. Daylight beckoned. We will be back thats for sure.

Recent free ascents of the famous Gee Gee Rider meant GG was at the top of the to-do-list, and it didn’t disappoint. We had been talking about getting down there constantly for the past few weeks and the day turned out to one of our favourite trips to date. Cheers for the trip Ray!