Leck Fell – Kendal Caving Club

7 June 2026

By Ami S In Day Trips

Rumbling Hole – too much rumble this time

Team: Ray, Paddy, Jasmine, John, Ami

Horrendous weather topped off by a wiggly bolt scuppered this one last time, so I was keen to see it all the way.

As we could actually see this time (still light and everything), I was excited to experience the famous hanging rebelay with a view. And it didn’t disappoint! Ray set off rigging persued by John, who I’d never met but was evidently very competent from the off. I was at the back to enjoy Paddy and Jasmine’s excited cries as they tackled the first drop. Poised over a rock edge, you lower yourself on to nothing, with the glorious green shaft down below. Certainly one of the most fun rebelays in the Dales!

By the time I reached the bottom of pitch one, the famous Rumble had begun, complete with a shower from the waterfall straight on to our heads. It became rather more, ahem, atmospheric from here. This second pitch is probably lots of fun if you can see through the water. There’s a deviation that Jasmine and I both agreed was a pain in the a***, and by the time I had finished faffing I could see the lights below turning back towards me.

Paddy and Ray had apparently reached the two 6 foot climbs and decided the flow was far too strong, and the water far too wet, to continue. We all took our turns dashing back under the falls and heading back out in no time. Sad not to reach the bottom, but absolutely worth seeing Rumbling in full, monstrous flood!

27 May 2026

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Lost Johns, Monastery Route

Long Dave, Billy, Sophie H & Ray

The trip on this particular evening should have been a Big Meanie – Deaths Head exchange, but Ami (who had proposed it) was unavailable. As she was keen to do it, we simply postponed it and replaced it with not 1, but 2 trips! Damian led those with a penchant for aquatic pleasure into Middle Scar Cave, while I tried to drum up enough danglers for a Monastery – Dome exchange in Lost Johns, which is a trip I’ve been keen to do for quite a while. Only Dave, Sophie and Billy signed up in the end. While it certainly would have been possible to do the exchange with 4, it somehow seemed more sociable for such a small party to stick together. So we decided on a simple in and out of Monastery.

For once, the weather was surprisingly clement up on Leck Fell, so it was a rather leisurely change and stroll along to the entrance. And what a different scene greeted us to that of a few weeks ago. This time there was barely any water flowing into the LJ entrance. We were going to have a very pleasant evening indeed – none of the usual spray lashing or salmon impressions on the various climbs for us.

I led off through the very familiar entrance passages, eventually cutting down with the water where the New Roof Traverse heads off towards Dome & Centipede. Sophie declared herself very happy to not have to do this particular traverse. Hmmm, I thought.

Continuing with the water, we got to a short down climb. In the past I’ve wasted a bit of time looking for anchors here as it looks a bit tricky to get back up. There aren’t any anchors… and none are needed as the climb is much easier than it looks, both down and up. Not long after, I made the same mistake I always make on this route and completely missed the “obvious” Old Roof Traverse leading to Hampstead Heath pitch. Missing this traverse leads one to the head of a wet “pitch”, but nothing to rig off. A quick bit of backtracking and thrutch up later, we were making our way along the traverse. To my mind, the Old Roof Traverse is much worse than the New. Sophie seemed to agree.

Soon we were in the dry passage leading to Hampstead Heath pitch, which was quickly rigged and descended. Meeting the water once again, the traverse to Monastery pitch soon begins. At least this is protected by a rope, initially rigged from a natural thread and then following a long line of anchors. It’s a bit cramped for rigging this section and I was glad to eventually reach the end of the traverse and start heading down the pitch. Just a couple of metres down, I swung into the dry oxbow passage to rig the drier hang. To be honest, we probably could have carried on directly down in view of the low water conditions, but where’s the fun in that?

Everyone loved Monastery pitch. And why wouldn’t they? It is particularly nice. And unusually dry on this occasion. Dave took over the lead, and rigging duties, from here, sliding down the narrow climb (another problem to overcome on our way back up?) and soon reaching Piscine pitch. In no time at all, he had the traverse and pitch rigged and we were all down thrutching, crawling and ducking along the passage to the final pitch (Pinnacle). I always find that this passage goes on a bit longer than I expect, but nothing too bad.

Pinnacle is another great pitch, starting with the customary roped traverse, before dropping down onto a ledge above a pool. Billy made the mistake of abseiling right down to the pool, leaving himself an awkward scramble back up onto the ledge. Forewarned, Sophie made no such mistake. After the ledge, the pitch continues on down into Sink Chamber via various rebelays and/or deviations. Dave expertly rigged this section with 2 rebelays, ignoring the final deviation, which wasn’t necessary in the relatively dry conditions.

Sink Chamber was as far as we could go on this occasion. After a few photos (and, in my case, a bit of looking longingly up at where the Dome rope would have come in), Billy set off out first, followed by Sophie and Dave, with me derigging the bottom 2 pitches.

The narrow climb up to the bottom of Monastery pitch provided a bit of entertainment, but nothing too serious. Dave even provided a convenient sling for use if required. Sophie led up Monastery pitch, with Billy derigging this one. It’s not the easiest pitch to derig, but he did a great (and very quick!) job. Not wanting to be left out, Sophie derigged Hampstead Heath pitch.

Opinion among the team seemed to agree that the Old Roof Traverse was a bit easier on the way out. Is this because the passage floor gets progressively closer as you move forward? Or is the caver simply more used to heights and traversing on the way out?

Billy provided a convenient stepping stone for the next short climb up. Then we were back on familiar territory and heading rapidly toward the surface in no time.

One day I’ll do the Monastery – Dome exchange, but this was more than adequate consolation. Another great evening out with great company.

Photos by Dave.

29 April 2026

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Gavel Pot clean-up

Ray, Maz, Jason

Having visited ‘Echo Chamber’, the new discovery off Glasfurd’s Passage in Gavel, I wanted to install a cleaning station (a bowl, spray bottles and sponges). Why? Well, to get to the new chamber, with its fabulous white stal, you have to crawl through a short section of gloopy mud, so that if you do accidently touch something and leave a muddy smear (as I had done!) it’s impossible to clean it off, as every part of your kit is just as dirty. And Gavel is KCC’s adopted cave, so it seemed fitting for us to do it.

We arrived at lunchtime to an uncharacteristically sunny Leck Fell (but still windy), and soon set off. Maz wanted some rigging practice, so we were treated to a rigging masterclass from Ray for the entrance eyehole pitch. When we got to the second pitch, the diggers’ rope was still in place. Should we ignore it and rig our own? Nah, sod it… It was a slow descent – I guessed the original 10mm rope had increased to 12mm from the embedded mud. Never mind, we were down soon enough, and on to Glasfurd’s.

We were soon through the gloop, and I arranged the cleaning material and removed the mud I’d left the previous visit – conscience satisfied. Meanwhile, the others had been exploring to the end of the chamber, but not content with that, set to restoring some more stalagmites to a more pristine state. The club can be proud of them!

We eventually dragged ourselves away from the virtuous work, had a wallow in the stream to get rid of some of the muck, went down to admire the exposed traverse to pitch 3, then returned the way we’d come. A good trip, with a bit of a difference!

11 March 2026

By Scott In Day Trips

Notts Pot – BUSS and Centre Route Exchange

Paddy, Ami, Damian, Tom, Jasmine, Steve, Scott

A top team of seven headed up to Notts Pot on Wednesday night, carting five unwieldy bags of gear. The weather had been dry all day, but a bit wet earlier in the week (note this detail, dear reader, for it is significant later in the narrative)!

We were soon down the first two pitches and assembled in the 3 Ways Chamber (with four ways on). I had been keen to investigate one of the lesser used routes in Notts, so had organised tackle for an exchange between BUSS and Centre routes. From the description it sounded like it should be possible for the BUSS Routers to land behind the final duck in the bottom passage of BT Route, then climb out onto the last ledge of Centre Route if the Centre Routers were kind enough to drop a rope.

Paddy, Steve, Tom and Damian set off down Centre Route, while Ami, Jasmine and I turned left for BUSS Route. I had often wondered where the red in situ guide rope led at the top of the Double Bucket shaft, and it didn’t disappoint. An airy diagonal abseil leads to a spacious ledge, and soon we were moving off down a narrow tube. A step over a hole in the floor leads to a small second pitch (Mud Pot). From here we climbed down into another chamber, then rigged an oxbow on the left which led to a sizeable shaft.

Hanging around at the top, I could that the shaft was split by an arete after a few meters. The right hand shaft (Fossil Pot) looked wet, so I opted to descend the left shaft (Thread Pot). It took 4 deviations from small naturals to minimise the rub, but I reached the bottom. I could see through into the base of Fossil Pot, but would have to abseil blind through a heavy curtain of water to get there, and there was nowhere to rebelay the rope. I waited for a little while, having seen lights flashing somewhere above, but no one materialised. I realised that this might have been Jasmine and Ami’s torches, rather than the other team, so I reascended.

Back at the arete, I was ready to retreat, but Jasmine spotted lights at the base of Fossil Pot, so I headed down. I got to a point about twelve meters off the deck where the torrent of water entered the shaft. There seemed no way of deviating away from it without rubbing the rope on the overhanging roof higher up the shaft, so I reluctantly accepted that this exchange would have to wait for drier conditions.

‘ABORT, PADDY!’

‘COPY THAT!’

I jugged back up to rejoin the others, slightly guilty that I’d had all the dubious fun of exploring the big shafts. Jasmine was keen on derigging the rest of the route, so I gratefully overtook her and followed Ami back up to the top of the Double Bucket.

Back in 3 Ways Chamber I had a chat with Paddy and Steve, who had had to do a clever bit of rigging and knot-passing only to get soaked at the bottom of Fossil Pot (much appreciated guys!)

We all headed out to a clear evening.

BUSS Route is definitely worth a look if you want to see a different part of Notts Pot, and nothing on it is too difficult. But it’s probably a trip for low water conditions, unless you really, really like water.

Thanks all for another good evening out!

11 February 2026

By Tom C In Day Trips

Gavel – Glasfurd’s

James, Ami, Scott, Jason, Chris G, Maz, Tom

After our last club trip here where we’d planned to do Short Drop then onwards into Gavel was cut short due to a soggy and sad looking team appearing at the Gavel traverse, there was some hesitation that tonight might end up the same after the rain we’d had.

But arriving at Leck Fell we talked ourselves into at least popping down for a look at the low section in the Gavel streamway for peace of mind. A chilly walk deposited us in the shakehole and Ami was quickly on the rigging, then on to the next pitch to show us how it was done. Maz, on the other hand, launched enthusiastically onto the in-situ line down the alternative pitch, and while we all quietly slipped past his curses he thought better and came back up for the conventional descent.

Onwards we headed and were surprised at how tame the streamway was once we reached it, and we chimp-walked along to the lovely chamber that we always forget is really nice. We were soon through the low dunk in the stream and wriggling through into Glasfurd’s. We marvelled at the earth-moving that had recently taken place to open the mud sumps of upstream and definitely didn’t poke our heads up into the new chamber.

While James went for a wee we pressed on through the various squeezes and the series of chambers, some more surprised at getting through than others, while some opted to sack them off altogether and enjoy a chat in the pretty first chamber.

17 December 2025

By Scott In Day Trips

Lost Johns – Sink Chamber via Dome Alternative

Pete, Ray, James, Dave, Jasmine, Scott

A manky night indeed. Yet more heavy rain, but The Kendal were unperturbed (mostly). Six of us made our moist way to Leck Fell. The plan: to reach Sink Chamber in Lost Johns via a mini exchange between Dome and Dome Alternative.
Unfortunately I somehow left out the short rope for Vestry pitch, so Dave was doomed to run out of rope before the base of Cathedral unless we changed tack. The exchange was abandoned, the Dome rope urged into early action, and we all committed to go up and down Dome Alternative. This charming little route starts with a pleasant crawl in what seems to be completely the wrong direction, before emerging into a parallel shaft and tunnel which eventually brings you to a window halfway down Dome pitch. I quite like it, but most people seem to prefer the more straightforward route after their first go. Anyway, it claimed an early victim in Ray, whose knee was playing up during the crawl, and he beat a reluctant retreat.
Five continued down into Shale Cavern. Dave rigged the last pitch into Sink Chamber, and we descended to take in the view of the very lively waterfall from Monastery Route. We didn’t hang around long, and James and Jasmine did a cracking job of derigging the pitches.
The way out was not without interest, for the stream in the entrance series had risen while we explored, and was pretty sporting, though not quite enough to hinder our exit.
Another good trip – thanks to all who came out in such rubbish weather!

3 December 2025

By Tom C In Day Trips

Lost Johns Exchange

DID THE EARTH TREMBLE FOR YOU IN LOST JOHNS?
Scott, Tom, Ami, Ray, James, Maz (Report by Maz)

This was cave option number three for me. The original plan; on the list anyway, had been to go to Red Moss Pot. However, drier weather earlier in November had necessitated a switch from the original (Calf Holes) which made snorkel and fins no longer necessary in RMP. I had planned to go to Calf Holes to reccee it, but well, just hadn’t.

So I asked Tom if he had any suggestions and for some reason he came up with Lost Johns.
Now its been a while since I’d done this and perhaps the terror of the traverse had receded, so off went the emails.

A few souls braver and more skilled than I signed up, and a Dome/ Centipede exchange was suggested. Scott, Ami, James, Ray, and new father Tom turned up. Sporting a sleek post partum Dad bod, he got in his excuses early, saying he hadn’t caved in the last 3 weeks. A lie no-one believed.

The team split with Ami and James going down Dome, and myself, Ray, Tom and Scott took Centipede; the uneven split being my displeasure at doing anything other than straightforward SRT. A few paces in, and I remembered the traverse. I needn’t have worried however, as I (ahem) breezed effortlessly and silently ahead.

After a short period, Team efficient peeled off and we descended the pitches. Kind words of encouragement were offered to our returning caver, but he soon got the hang of it! Soon we were at the bottom of the big pitch. After waiting a bit for the other two, Tom decided Daddy duties superseded the needs of his mates and up he went. How selfish.

Ray had informed me we’d probably have a bit of a wait, but it was not to be. Speedy 1 and Speedy 2 aka James and Ami soon appeared and a ceremonial hand over of baggage (myself) ensued as I chose to go back the same way.

James confidently predicted we would be out long before the other two. But he hadn’t taken into account my SRT skills. With Ami derigging, we moved back up the ropes and on to the traverse. Again I demonstrated the utmost calm, composure and ethereal movement along this section. I could tell the others were so pleased to be caving with me again.

Back at the vehicles, James’ prediction proved untrue with Ray and Scott waiting patiently for our return.

An hour or so later, there were strange things going on 3km beneath Lancashire. Maybe it was tectonic movement, maybe it was isostatic rebound, or maybe it was the thud of boots at the bottom of the big pitch. Whatever it was that triggered it, an earthquake measuring 3.4 was felt across the region.
Personally, I blame the cavers of KCC. We await the call from the British Geological Survey….

5 November 2025

By Scott In Day Trips

Notts Pot: Adamson’s – Centre Route Exchange

Dangling tonight: Ami, Jasmine, James, Scott

“The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.”

Anyway, it had stopped raining for the first time in days when we met on a dark Leck Fell. In fact there were distant fireworks, this being Bonfire Night and all. We had a brief discussion about whether to bother exchanging routes with only four of us? James expressed a slight preference for exchanging and was justly rewarded with two rope bags for the walk in (thanks James, I was keen on exchanging too!)

Jasmine rigged down the entrance shakehole. The bedding plane crawl wasn’t as soggy as I’d feared, and soon Jasmine had us all down safely in 3 Ways Chamber. Here we separated into two factions – Ami and James on the Centre Route, and Jasmine and myself on Adamson’s.

I had intended on rigging the 15m traverse on the approach to the metal staples, but didn’t really spot it and we ended up just doubling back on ourselves to find the right place. A scruffy pitch brought us to an oxbow on the right, and the start of the first section of Birthday Pot ( down a hole on the left). I’d be quite interested to come back at some point and explore De Profundis, another route which diverges from here.

Birthday Pot is in 3 sections, the middle one being the most pleasing, and it lands only a metre from the base of Centre Route, at the time occupied by an Ami. It was a bit soggy down here, with the water from Left Hand Route emerging nearby. We exchanged pleasantries while we waited for the other two to descend – my main contribution being to mention that I’d brought Wagon Wheels for everyone, but left them in the van by mistake. Jasmine arrived, but no James? I eventually went up the last two small pitches of Centre Route to see how he was doing. It turned out that the rigging had been a bit tight on the final section after adding in an extra anchor, and he’d wisely decided not to swing around under the waterfall for too long trying to escape, and had backtracked. A bit more fiddling and he was then able to get past, and descended to the bottom. At this point I pondered that I hadn’t realised that Centre Route actually took this much water… clearly I hadn’t been there in wet conditions before. The cunning thing is that the water only appears at some late point on the first pitch, and then departs down a convenient hole before the base of the last pitch, some it comes as a delightful surprise…

Jasmine followed me up, very competently derigging the 60m rope, and we swapped bags for the top pitch of Centre. While she derigged the last bit, I spotted the traverse that I should have rigged to get to Adamson’s, and climbed up it in time to meet Ami again. This traverse is a bit polished, and I didn’t climb back down the same way afterwards.

In a fit of remorse for letting James carry two bags on the way in, plus not considering that Centre Route might be rather wet and then finally denying everyone a Wagon Wheel at the lowest point of the cave… I set off out with two tackle sacks, reflecting that at least I’d eaten a Wagon Wheel before the trip began (this was originally earmarked for Tom, but he cancelled last minute and thus forfeited his sugary snack).

It wasn’t too long before we were all back on the surface. A good trip, with everyone rigging bits and pieces. Maybe a BT route – De Profundis exchange next time, if there are any takers? 🙂

29 October 2025

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

A Flushing through Short Drop

Tom, Maz, Chris G, Sophie P, Sophie H, Billy, Vikki, Ray

With incredible foresight, Paddy declared himself unable to lead this one weeks in advance, so I took the reins for what should have been a nice relaxed wander through Short Drop and, hopefully, an extension to see the pretties of Glasfurd’s Chamber in Gavel Pot. Tom even volunteered to rig the Gavel entrance and the 2 pitches down to Glasfurd’s.

All such hopes were in doubt as the heavens opened while we were getting changed, soaking everyone before we even set foot underground. For a while it was really pleasant to be in the cave. Until we started the crawl that is. Water levels in this were unpleasantly high and were a definite sign of things to come. Water was thundering through the narrow rift passage after the crawl, which was quite fun, but every short downclimb seemed to end in a deep pool. Some of these pools seemed almost bottomless. Poor Sophie P managed an almost complete submerging in one.

As the passage got bigger, so it became more pleasant. But how wet was the pitch going to be? As it neared, the sound seemed to suggest it would be very wet indeed. Last time I was in SD, there was a fixed rope, but no such convenience this evening. The pitch was quickly rigged and Sophie P offered as a sacrificial rope dummy. Would she disappear into the waterfall never to be seen again? Thankfully no. The rope hung largely free of the falling water. However, there was little avoiding the deep pool below. Most people got a bit of a dunking here until they were able to scrabble back onto dry land.

After everyone else had descended, I thought about leaving the pitch hard rigged and just coming back for the rope on a drier day, but opted for a quick rerig as a pull-through. Thankfully the rope pulled down easily enough and we were on our way again. Most people were really starting to feel the cold by now after waiting at either the top or the bottom of the pitch for quite a while. The prospect of visiting Glasfurd’s was definitely starting to lose its appeal.

A short distance downstream we saw Tom’s light at the end of the traverse from Gavel. A very welcome sight indeed. So began the long process of getting everyone up the initial climb, across the traverse and up the Gavel entrance pitch. While awaiting my own turn, I took the chance to derig the pitches down to Glasfurd’s. I was glad to see that Tom had only rigged the first of these, so that I didn’t have to go far down.

Thankfully the weather was much more pleasant on the walk back from Gavel, although there were grumblings in the ranks about it being quite uphill… and a long way. Clearly we had descended quite a long way through Short Drop. It felt quite late and I wondered if we may be in danger of missing our callout time, but it was only 10pm as we stragglers got back to the cars.

I’d never been to Short Drop in such wet conditions before, but looking back at it now from a nice warm house, it was sort of fun. I’m hoping the trip has whetted the appetites of some of our newer members to go back and have an explore up some of the numerous inlets.

25 October 2025

By Tom C In Day Trips

It’s A Cracker > Notts II

Dave (big), Dave (regular), James, Jason, Ray, Tom

The logistical difficulties of rigging a Leck Fell through-trip makes them less common on our meets list, but with the Two Daves bravely coming forward to enjoy an SRT-only bounce trip while de-rigging out it didn’t seem so hard this time round. Boxhead and LJ were potential entrances on the list, but in the end we decided on a less usual option – It’s A Cracker.

After Inglesport breakfast for some we met up on the fell, the through-trippers parking at Notts II for an easy walk out, and we reached Cracker to find the Daves already busy at work at the head of the first pitch. It was good to see Regular Dave back out again, and reassuring to hear him checking whether his Simple was on the right way while dangling over the 50 metre drop.

Down Big Dave’s beautiful rigging of Paparazzi we headed, and on to Regular Dave’s equally beautiful ropework on Park Bench pitch. What’s not to love about these pitches? Our diligent riggers headed off to the final pitch while the rest of us regrouped and followed them down. In a matter of minutes Big Dave had an elegant rig across to the Kendal Flyover including a tyrolean guide line, we were truly spoilt.

At this point it was time to part ways, with Daves heading back north to the sunny fell above. The rest of us de-kitted and packed ourselves in tight for the gruelling crossing that lay ahead. Into the Cresta Run, we quickly reached the climbs down to the lower level. Ray took on the first downclimb, but at the first sound of difficulties James and I scrambled over the top of him to head for the larger gentleman’s rope 30 seconds further on. This proved to be horrible, with the combo of muddy gloves and muddy rope making it a bit of a hope and prayers situation. We somehow got down unscathed but were unhappy. If I do this trip again I’m either taking a bit of tat to rig as an in-situ mini pitch, or at least leaving my SRT kit on a little longer and down-prussiking the knotted handline. The other two headed down their choice of climb, Jason of course taking it head-first apparently.

Next follows 45 mins or so of general wriggling, muddying, ducking and routefinding through the complex of the Tate Galleries. Luckily we had a Ray with us who unerringly led us through from memory. Eventually we reached the bottom of the fearsome climb upwards into the Lyle Cavern High Level series where our KCC forefathers had lifted a boulder and discovered all this nonsense 40 years ago. This involves a well-polished near vertical gully heading up just over 10 metres, which was strenuous. Some found a jammer was a good reassurance on this (they just about fit on the current in-situ handline).

All up and well, now we could enjoy the 10 minutes of pleasant well-decorated walking in the middle of the trip. It was nice to match this up with where I’d been a couple of months ago with Scott when trying the 3 Counties connection out for size, and before long the pretties ran out and we were at the muddy scrabble up to the ‘vestibule of pain’ which affords a quick break before starting the connection. We slid through mostly solemnly, cursing every bag-catching rock as the connection drank our energy, and dreaded to think what might happen if we met a party heading the other way.

A final dunk through Bruno Kranski’s and we were back in the welcoming lap of Notts II, and made a speedy exit through comfortable and familiar territory, to emerge to the two Daves waiting for us. I assumed they were after their free pints for derigging, but it seems they just didn’t want to take the ropes back for cleaning. We made our way to the Pheasant at Casterton for a well-earned pint by the log fire. Cheers all!

Tag: Leck Fell