Trip Reports

By Jason Clements In Day Trips

Goyden Grovels

Having visited the jewel of Nidderdale (aka “Stinky Goyden”) on a number of occasions, I was interested to try out John Gardner’s new route at https://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/route29.shtml which promised to show off some of the more esoteric parts of the system.  Ray hadn’t been before, but said he didn’t mind where we went, which he may have regretted before the end of the day.

From the entrance, we headed towards Cap Left crawl, to find the entrance well-blocked with timber, but the guide assured us there was an easy bypass up a rift on the right, and indeed there was.  We visited Pillar Pot, just to look at the sump at the bottom, then returned to Cap Left Crawl, Cap Left Tunnel and a “cosy” crawl leading to the ladder at 10’ climb.  But no ladder for us, more crawling via Pool and Boulder and Carbide Tin passages through the Labyrinth, the way marked by a helpful high-vis jacket someone had left.  “Navigation is now straightforward” says the guide, and it might have been had we spotted the step up to the bottom of the 20’ pitch.  Despite it being “elegant”, we managed to crawl past it twice before Ray spotted it.

After luxuriating in being upright for a moment, we headed off to Mud Pot, thence to a climb up to a “wriggly” passage. The guide says “enter this with difficulty”, and it wasn’t kidding!  I adopted my usual thrutch and flail technique, which eventually worked, then you have to perch on a rock flake and post yourself into the wriggly passage, without slipping head-first down the 5m drop below.  Ray looked at this and sensibly decided he didn’t fancy it, so after a bit of wriggling, I turned round and had no option but to dive down the climb.  Fortunately Ray did a good bit of catching, so I landed safely.

20-foot-pitch
Enter-with-difficulty
Entrance

Now what? I thought it would be fun to climb up the 20’ pitch (it was) and then there’s some pleasant walking passage and we arrived at the top of the 10’ climb, which is only a few metres from 5-ways chamber, and an easy way out to the main chamber via Labyrinth passage.  However, despite having a survey (albeit now sodden and disintegrating), I’d got disorientated and confidently led off in the wrong direction, arriving back at the 10’ climb after more flat-out crawling.  Fortunately Ray had a cooler head and correctly deduced the right way (basically, the only one we hadn’t tried yet), and we were soon heading for the sound of the main stream.

Then it was a fun romp up the river (still low) and the climb back out to the entrance, and the welcome sight of daylight!  It turned out we hadn’t been underground as long as it felt, so we treated ourselves to a pint in The Crown in Lofthouse, which was most welcome!

Thanks to Ray for the photos.

By Tom C In Day Trips

Easegill Open House – Pool Sink

Ami, James, Jasmine, Jason, Josh, Paddy, Pete, Scott, Tom

By the grace of the Red Rose we were once again up at the farm for a tackle-free trip. We really hope this becomes an annual thing! We’ve made good use of it and got down loads of stuff we don’t visit as often as we should. 

We decided on Pool Sink and marched over Casterton Fell, some of us for the second or third time in 24 hours. Midges were out in full force so we dove straight in to the tight entrance passage and all nine of us successfully folded ourselves correctly around the Z-bends, and recongregated above the first pitch to get kitted up. We usually do this as a pull-through but being hard-rigged this time we had a little fun getting past the quite wide deviation, especially those lacking in the gangly legs department. At the bottom we battled our way up the various inlets until we found Magpie Grotto, and had a moment of ceiling gazing. Someone pointed out that with the number of instructors we had out tonight, the outdoors industry in the North-West would crumble if anything were to happen.

Onwards and downwards, we enjoyed the lovely series of pitches and realised we’d forgotten how nice this route is (especially without carrying tackle). Before long we were down at the ground floor and scrambling through the bacon slicer, hitting the junction with the route in from Spiral. Left we headed, and we all chose different routes up the climb to the Eccles Bypass. We split, with some torturing themselves with the pitch bypass and the more sensible folks prussiking up. Cracking view looking back down the Wretched climbs at a string of KCC winding their way up them, with Rope Free-s echoing round the Big Rift. Sadly we missed last orders so we just fed the midges and called it a night.

Thanks again RRCPC!

By Ami S In Day Trips

Easegill Open House – Cow Pot to County Pot

Ami, Scott, Jasmine and guest appearance by Red Rose member Ian

The original plan was to go for the big one – Top Sink to Pippikin – but frustratingly the weather forecast was showing an incoming storm, sending that plan out the window.

Scott, despite a lot of Easegill experience, hadn’t been down Cow Pot so we opted for this rather fun route. As the Open House was on, we went into Bull Pot Farm to put the call-out on the board, where we found Ian looking for a trip, and he swiftly became team member No.4.

Having recently done Cow Pot’s sneaky route, I set off first, meaning I had a chance to check out the start of Aardvark route. I really fancy this one, but today I found a sign in place saying the anchors aren’t safe and won’t be fixed until Sept, so I guess I’ll have to wait.

Impressed by Ian’s speedy (and clearly experienced) descent, we were confident we were in for a good trip. Down the awkward squeeze (unrigged, which was no problem as we weren’t planning on coming out of it) we were quickly on to the traverse leading to the pitch head. No sneaky route today – direct route straight down to the floor. The second y hang is certainly exposed, and I can’t help but wonder what on earth you stand on to rig it. Perhaps I’ll give it a go next time.

The drop directly into Fall Pot was as impressive as expected and a lovely long pitch with great views, though I think all of us were spun around by which way we were facing when we entered the chamber.

From Fall Pot, Scott took over the navigation. As the rain hadn’t yet begun, we dropped down to the stream-way to start with, and to show Jasmine the sump as she hadn’t been before. We then speedily headed up stream, admiring some amazing formations en route, until we reached the Oxbows, where we climbed back up to the upper level via a particularly inconvenient climb with an in-situ handline. Why do they put the knots everywhere except where you need them?

From there we scrambled our way through some impressive chambers. Ian had a phenomenal knowledge of the system’s geology, pointing out some intriguing features, such as the fact a whole, huge passage just ‘stops’ – a mystery that is clearly on his mind. He also showed us to Diamond Hall – one I think Scott has been keen to see for a while. There were a lot of lovely crystal formations along one wall – well worth the little detour if you’re ever nearby. Apparently he was digging there years ago when they uncovered a large passage beneath, which promptly caved in almost the moment it was discovered. A first-hand reminder of how many undiscovered treasures there still must be in Three Counties!

We continued on through the maze with my sense of scale and direction long since lost. We debated our original plan of Wretched Rabbit, but it was decided County was prettier and more fun. Onwards through the winding streamway to County (how had I forgotten it is that narrow?) and out, gratefully with a lot less ‘up’ than it seemed we should need to do.

Out into the rain and another excellent trip complete. An inspection of the surveys in the hut reminding us just what an awesome system it is! Thanks for Red Rose for the organising and rigging.

By Sophie C In Uncategorised

Kendal Scrambling Club – Jack’s Rake

Ami, Yolanda, Kate, Will, Paddy, Pete, Dave, Sophie 

It was such a beautiful nearly-mid-summer day that we decided to break with tradition and stay overground for a scramble. After some debate we settled on Jack’s Rake, a classic Lake District trip. It was a beautiful, if somewhat sweaty, walk up to Stickle Tarn and the foot of the Rake. Cutting an impressive diagonal slash across

Pavey Ark, Jack’s Rake can look daunting form the bottom but it is a pleasant little route and the eight of us, and one dog quickly shinned up to the top of the fell for a rest and some cake. The it was a quick canter down the gully to the pub for a well deserved pint. 

Photos by Will, Dave and Paddy 

 
By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Notts II (Gour Inlet)

Ami, Pete, Maz, Ray

I’d had my eye on Gour Inlet for a while. It looks substantial on the survey and includes all sorts of climbs, traverses, pitches and even a (hopefully) drained sump. What’s not to like? Having finally decided to put it on the meets list, I wasn’t sure if anyone else would share my enthusiasm. I needn’t have worried. At one point we had 9 people signed up for the trip, although some of those preferred the more traditional Notts II tourist trip. In the end, only 4 hardy souls turned up. This was particularly unfortunate for Maz as he was one of those who preferred the tourist trip, but found himself unexpectedly on the Gour Inlet team. To be fair, he didn’t take too much convincing.

As mentioned previously, the inlet includes various traverses and pitches, so we found ourselves unusually descending the entrance climb in SRT kit and carrying tackle sacks. I had a feeling that most, if not all, sections requiring tackle would be pre-rigged, but we couldn’t be sure.

Once down at the main drain, we set off downstream. The 1st hurdle to overcome was finding the right place to climb up into the inlet. We passed Inlet 14 (with it’s particularly ropey ladder hanging down). About the same distance further downstream, the passage is bridged by some clacited boulders. Gour Inlet is above these.

The next hurdle is the climb up to reach it. Looking at both the upstream and downstream approaches, it seemed that the best place to start climbing was a short way downstream of the boulder bridge. The climb looks intimidating, but turned out to be easy enough. It starts with some bridging between the walls, before transferring onto the true left hand wall and finishing up a flowstone cascade. I climbed up first, but stupidly forgot to bring the rope with me, so Ami then climbed up with the rope. While I was tying it around a convenient boulder, Pete had climbed up. Poor Maz was virtually forced to use the rope to at least get some use out of it, even though he was presumably quite capable of climbing without it.

We then set off into the unknown. According to the NC3 description, the inlet starts with 180m of stooping passage. This is a bit generous. I have no reason to doubt the 180m, but I found myself crawling a substantial amount of it.

Eventually we came to a climb down. A short distance further is the sump. Again according to NC3, there is engineering designed to keep this drained. Would the engineering still be working? None of us (with the possible exception of Ami) would have been going any further if there was less than a foot of airspace. Luckily(?), the engineering was still working, indicated by the occasional belching sound coming from the pipework.

While the “sump” had plenty of airspace, it wasn’t exactly pleasant – a sign of things to come. From this point it all becomes a bit of a mudfest. Before long, we reached the 1st traverse (over Pit Pot). As I had almost expected, this was equipped with a fixed rope. There was some debate about the state of the hangers, maillons and rope, but apart from that it all looked good enough to use. So we decided to leave our tackle there, deciding that the rest of the passage would also be rigged.

The traverse over Pit Pot would have been easy enough if we weren’t all so covered in mud. The 18m drop focused the mind somewhat, but we all made it over. The passage continued, never big, but always muddy. Eventually we came to a 2nd traverse, again pre-rigged. This one was even worse, largely because we were covered in even more mud by this point.

Not far beyond the 2nd traverse are some upward climbs. The longest of these (maybe 3m or so) was equipped with an electron ladder. I found this the most terrifying bit of the whole trip as I have seen enough of these break over the years. Thankfully this one managed to hold itself together long enough for us all to get up (and eventually back down) it.

At the top of the ladder is a small muddy alcove with another short climb up into a crawling passage. Maz decided he had had enough at this point and suggested I come past him. Past him?? I couldn’t even get to him. I don’t know if the soles of my wellies are particularly slick, but I couldn’t make any forward progress at all. In fact, I was in serious danger of falling back down the ladder. Eventually, I did manage to pass Maz, but really struggled to get up the next short climb.

Ami and Pete were still within earshot up ahead, but what they were going through didn’t sound pleasant, so I decided to stop with Maz. You can have too much of a good thing. The brave heroes at the front went on for a bit. The description is really confusing, but they think they reached Intimate Chamber. At this point, it was unclear whether they were supposed to climb up or down, so wisely did neither.

Maz and I set off out and were soon caught by the others. The traverses were even more “interesting” with our additional layers of mud. I was particularly keen to see if the “sump” was still drained, fearing that we may have knocked the pipework sufficiently on our way in to stop it working. Thankfully, reassuring belching could be heard as we approached. The “sump” at least washed us off a bit.

It was a relief to eventually hear the sound of the main drain as we approached the top of the climb back down. As we had a rope (well, quite a few actually), it seemed foolish not to use it. Fearing that an attempt at a pull through type arrangement would result in a stuck rope, the last person had to down climb unaided. This actually turned out to be even easier than climbing up. So I would suggest that a rope probably isn’t necessary at all, unless your party includes a particularly unconfident climber.

Ami chose to have a bath while the rest of us made our way out. The exit climb was made even more interesting than usual due to the pointless tackle getting stuck just about everywhere possible.

Would I recommend Gour Inlet to other parties? Absolutely. It was a fun trip. It may even get better further on. There are some reasonably-sized pitches. I would like to get to those at some point, maybe after a bit more research on the route. Would I go back anytime soon? Absolutely not. The memories of all that mud will fade, but it will take time.

By Dave In Day Trips

Yordas

Dave, Ami, Paddy & Yolanda

On a bit of a windy, cold, almost raining evening, the four of us met up in the usual layby, and organised Paddy’s Krabs and Dave’s Rope for a firm Wednesday favourite, we had initially hoped to do the top entrance but recent rainfall put a damper on this, so we opted for the more traditional mid entrance. A wise choice as once we’d quickly made the streamway there was a fair bit of water coming down from the direction of the top entry.

Dave cracked on rigging the Chapter House traverse, with only a couple pauses for a head scratch and pensive “how did Ray do it last time” moment. Without much ado the bottom of the waterfall was reached by half 7, with the rest of the team duly filing down for a nice quick trip. We explored the show cave, with Paddy and Ami opting to follow the water out to the bottom exit before looping back to the cave. 

With only minor discussion around who was de-rigging, and Ami coming out the winner, we started on our way back out with Ami doing a cracking job on the derig, swapping to Yolanda for some practice on the first pitch, and the squad all back in daylight by 9pm!  The pub beckoned but everyone was keen to make tracks as this small cave sure packs an SRT punch. 

Photos by Paddy

 

 

By Sophie C In Day Trips

It’s a Cracker

Tom, Ray, James, Paddy, Sophie

It’s fair to say that this little cracker was definitely not what we had in mind when we met for a hearty Inglesport breakfast. The plan was to pop down Meregill, a trip that had been eagerly anticipated since it appeared on the meets list back in February. So after breakfast, the five of us regrouped in the lay-by by the Hill Inn, kitted up and scampered (maybe scampered is pushing it?!) up the hill to the entrance. Tom rigged the first pitch and descended, with the rest of us keen to follow. But his head quickly appeared from the depths again and he reported that due to resent rainfall there was in fact more mere than gill and that under the circs it might be wise to reconsider the plan. There was some chat about using the alternative entrance but this would have meant splitting the team and we were keen to stick together. 

What about an alternative… Hardrawkin? Too wet. Sunset? We do it a lot on a Wednesday night and the suggestion was met with limited enthusiasm. T Wife? Bit of a trek. How about heading to Lek and doing Lost Johns right to the bottom, or maybe a cheeky little exchange? Yes. We yomped down the hill, piled into the cars and headed for our plan B.
 
On arrival at the usual lay-by we found that there were already two groups down Lost Johns. That, we thought, might somewhat cramp our style. Not to be deterred it was onto plan C… What about  It’s a Cracker? Described by the CNCC as both ‘very pleasant’ and ‘splendid’, it certainly is a cracking little trip. 
 
Ray led us straight to the entrance like a pro. It’s an interesting looking wooden hatch in the side of a shake hole next to the fenced off area of Lost Pot. 
We quickly climb down through scaffolding and past some rather sizeable spiders. Wiggling over some cobbles and climbing down into the waterfall, we were soon at the first pitch, Paparazzi Pitch, which is as stunning and photogenic as the name suggests. Paddy expertly rigged the pitch and we were all on our way. There are two deviations here to avoid getting too soggy, but catching the second one proved rather tricky as the walls on all sides seemed far too far away to push off. This led to some rather frustrated, mid-air acrobatics from Sophie and Tom but thankfully not for long.
 
Once at the bottom, Park Bench Pitch, is quickly reached and James took the lead rigging work great style and finesse. Again this is a spectacular little pitch and takes the intrepid caver down into the gallery of Lost Pot. A satisfying scramble over some boulders lead us to the third pitch where Tom took over and beautifully rigged to the bottom. Following him down, we had a quick look around before the turning round and heading back out to the fell. 
We popped up back into the daylight and headed for The Pheasant Inn for a few beers
 
(this, at least, had always been in plan A) before making our merry ways home. 
 
As for Meregill, there’s always next time….
By Tom C In Day Trips

Washfold Pot

Ray, Pete, Scott, Tom, James, Dave, Steve. Report by Steve

With Washfold Pot being a longer trip more suited to a weekend and the knowledge of rain due around midnight we opted to only a pack 55m rope for the first pitch and take a short 12m rope as back up, as suggested by the NCNCC notes. If we got as far as the third pitch we’d consider it a successful recce trip.

We managed to avoid talking each other out of it and headed up to the cave, probably not taking the ideal route over, rather than round, the limestone pavement to find the entrance around 30 mins from leaving the cars at Selside lane.

The first climb down into the cave was enough to tell us this cave was going to be a bit different.

Following the water downstream soon found us in a canyon passage, occasionally tight, awkward but manageable once we’d settled into it. We initially missed the climb up out of the stream but it was fairly obvious that you couldn’t follow the water so a quick back track found what we thought was the roof level bedding crawl and tight squeeze. After some selective expletives and a bit of thratching around we got through the squeezy bits to the tight squeezy bit. The way on being to remove the helmet and squeeze through the right hand side where the water could drip on your head straight down the back of your neck. I feel there’s something calming about being able move your head about even if your body is fairly stuck. It wasn’t the first time we’d removed the helmets for short tight bits but care was needed as on each occasion they could have easily been dropped down into somewhere inaccessible.

The passage opened up and dropped back into the streamway about 5m below. It was an awkward climb down but plenty of room for everyone. A quick look round the corner showed the stream falling away and some anchors in the roof, the sound of falling water confirming we were at the top of the first pitch.

Called ‘the depot’ it’s the suggested place for putting on SRT kit. Given what we’d just come through I think I’d have taken it off long ago if I had of set off with it on. We tied into an old rusty bolt in the roof (not shown on the topo) just because it was there. We had a 55m rope for the 48M pitch so thought why not. It was a good 2 – 3 M of traverse before the large flake where the rigging guide starts. You wouldn’t fall down the pitch but could end up well wedged. The traverse at roof height to the Y hang bolts takes the rigger right out above the pitch where a dim light is appreciated as it’s a long way down. Easy enough to get cows tails in but then awkward to get the Y hang sorted. The addition of a loop for getting off on the way out took another bit of extra rope but surely 55m would be enough.

On what we thought was a dry day following very little rain, there was a fair amount of water spraying and with the pitch dropping right through it was enough for my memory bank to kick in and remind me of the deviation about 6M down. There was some tat already tied round a chock stone in a horizontal joint about 6M down so it was soon clipped into. The descent was still wet and finished on a wet ledge full of spray with my descender hard up on the stopper knot at the end of the 55 M rope – longer legs would have been useful. A quick climb down and into the stream passage to avoid the spray and it soon warmed up.

The way on is obvious following the water and eventually climbing up into a false floor to where a large boulder had a bit of polypropylene rope tied round it. Fortunately it also had a 9mm static rope which on inspection looked fine, so we used it to descend the 9m back into the streamway. Its likely it could be climbed but was certainly easier with the rope. Downstream continued with a low crawl in water, plenty of airspace on this occasion but plenty of water to get into. Given the time (nothing to do with flat out crawls in water) we chose to turn around at this point eager to get out and cancel the midnight call out arrangement. The fixed rope was a bonus going back up the climb, its isn’t mentioned in the CNCC notes or the topo as the ‘second pitch’ with optional rope is after the wet crawl, so I’d be tempted to take TWO optional spare ropes in next time just in case.

At this stage the team was down to three, James, Dave and myself. I’m not sure exactly when others turned round but completely understandable as its certainly different type of Wednesday night fun. The pitch went on forever, and was a git to get off, after that I found the way out much more pleasant and achievable which will be partly psychological, partly survival mode and highly likely because I wasn’t de-rigging it ! So much so that I went straight past the entrance climb for quite a way before turning round and back tracking. Fortunately there was still some daylight for me so I dropped a rope down the climb just to indicate where it was for the others (worth noting for next time)

James and Dave got back to the road around 2300hrs after initially going underground around 1930hrs so a good 3 hours to get to the wet crawl on the way to pitch 2 and 3. I personally wouldn’t fancy the first pitch if it had more water on and as for the state of the cave if you got as far as the wet crawls to decide they had low air space, well…..

From the mixed comments by all after the trip we may not be rushing back, but who knows…

By Will Burnett In Day Trips

Gaping Gill – BPC winch meet

Team: Ami & Will

Route: Stream Passage to Bar Pot via Main Chamber

After a couple of last minute drop outs and a very rubbish morning weather wise, Ami and I met in Clapham in pretty high spirits ready for a good day out. We had no specific plan, Ami had been in once before when the winch meet wasn’t on and I’d been the previous May with Ray and Claire where Ray took us in Marilyn and out Small Mammal. Ray had recommended Stream Passage to us as one of his favourites, so we sort of had that lined up but thought we’d get up to the tent and see what was what and go from there. We had a dry walk in luckily and quickly found ourselves at the tent gearing up ready to go. With only a couple of teams on the board but headed different ways we were on for SP so quickly navigated our way across the fell to the entrance tube.

The first pitch only short but with an interesting squeeze before the final descent which Ami breezed through and I not so much! The following 3 pitches were continuous and we leapfrogged each other for the photo opportunities before finding ourselves quickly in Stream Chamber. From here we worked our way to the main chamber with a few stops along the way to check the route description, confidence certainly reinstalled when we met a couple of children that had come down the winch in Sand Cavern – we must be getting close! After arriving in the main chamber we sat and spent quite a bit of time chatting to others, taking pictures, having a snack or two, and just taking it all in!

Ready to leave, we thought we’d aim for Flood Entrance as neither of us had done that before but new we could get there fairly easily and quickly, and we didn’t fancy too much more navigating and crawling through the unknown! Before long, we were crawling through the unknown and out came the description to aid navigate. We somehow ended up in a maze of crawling passages thinking we’d truly made a cock up and we’re going to have to double back to the main chamber and then we ended up on the ledge at the bottom of Flood Entrance main pitch, exactly where we wanted to be! However, there was a party descending and informed us there were 4 behind the leader so we thought we’d keep heading along the passage to Bar Pot. Here, another party were mid ascent and so onward we went again to SE Aven where we found some peace and quiet and a free rope to ascend. Up I went first to get some good shots of Ami climbing and right as she was coming into shot another team of two had just worked their way through sideways slot travers that we had to come. After a brief hello and passing in the best place on the route we could have asked for, onward we went and worked our way one at a time through the slot and then up through the boulders to the first pitch of Bar Pot. Ami patiently waited for me to manoeuvre myself through the tight-ish pitch head before then showing me how it’s done. A few minutes more of scrambling and we surfaced, still in the dry to walk back to the tent and sign out before making our way leisurely back into Clapham. Another fantastic winch meet experience!

I must also add, having gone last year on a Saturday to the BPC event and seeing huge crowds and queues with waits of hours long, this year certainly seemed a lot less congested and public friendly. Well done and thank you again to the BPC.

Write up and pics by Will


By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Bull Pot Kingsdale

James, Pete, Maz, Paddy, Ray

More often than not in recent years, we seem to have limited club trips to the first 3 pitches of Bull Pot, either due to water levels or to make the trip more novice-friendly. With a crack team and with water levels very low, however, we were determined to get to the bottom this time. Originally, 8 people had signed up, so I packed tackle for the main pitches, as well as variants of the 1st and 3rd. In the end, 3 had failed to make it (mostly due to work commitments), leaving us with 5. We still took all the tackle, intending to rig the variants.

After a very pleasant and leisurely change, we set off up the hill. The others obliged me by taking the sweeping path out to the right, making the walk up slightly easier. A plan was hatched whereby I would rig the main pitches, while Paddy would rig the variants. So I set off down the 1st (also with tackle for the 2nd & 3rd), closely followed by James with tackle for the 4th & 5th. The idea was for us to race on ahead and see how far we could get before being caught by the others.

Meanwhile, Paddy (who had never been in Bull Pot before) set about rigging the Monolith variant of the 1st pitch, followed by Pete, who had done this variant before. It’s a great little alternative and Paddy seemed suitably impressed. He rigged straight down to the ground from the final y-hang – a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It’s possible to stop a bit higher up and join the traverse line to the 2nd pitch, but why would you? Well, because just around the corner, literally a few feet away, you have to climb back up to the traverse line anyway.

James and I made short work of pitches 2 & 3, rigged (as usual) with a single rope and dropping down the slot. The 4th was bone dry – not even a single drop of water. I set about rigging the traverse at the top, only to discover that I no longer have the flexibility to get my foot onto a necessary step to reach the final y-hang. Hmmm. After some, presumably comical, shenanigans I managed to get there. James was very diplomatic. We used the 1st deviation, more out of habit than anything else. Thankfully there was no need for the 2nd.

Further up, the “wisdom” of leaving poor Paddy, who had never been in Bull Pot before, to rig the 3rd pitch alternative was exposed as the pure idiocy it undoubtedly was. Of course, he assumed the slot was part of the 2nd pitch, so shot straight down it, as you would. My fault entirely for not considering this obvious outcome. Oh well – pointlessly carrying some unused rope down a cave never hurt anyone.

James and I could now hear the others behind us, so sped on to the final pitch. I must have gone a bit low to reach the start of the initial traverse as the first anchor seemed a bit close to the pitch head – well, slightly over it really. Only when I looked back at a higher level did I see the actual 1st anchor. Oh well, too late to go back now. The initial traverse is quite constricted, which makes things particularly awkward with my reduced flexibility. Thankfully things improved a bit after the drop onto the lower traverse line. Soon, both James and I were at the bottom.

James had a bit of a poke around to see if the passage carried on, but didn’t get very far. Unusual for him. I was sure I’d have to physically pull him out of some hole or other. Perhaps he’s learned something from Hazel Grove Cave a few weeks ago.

Soon, Paddy dropped in to join us. Then Pete. Nice one! Maz decided the initial traverse on the last pitch was a bit snug for him. Fair enough. He did incredibly well to get down the 4th for the first time.

Then there was nothing left but to set off out. I went first. Getting back across the 2 traverses on the last pitch seemed much easier on the way out and I soon joined Maz and we made our way out together. Paddy derigged the bottom 2 pitches. Apparently he had some fun on the “first” anchor of the bottom pitch being as it was too close to the actual pitch for comfort. Sorry again Paddy. Not to worry – his skills were more than up to rigging a little closed safety system. Nice.

At the front, I went up the 4th pitch first as Maz wanted someone at the head when he got there. We then made our way out, via the standard 1st pitch, without too much drama, picking up the unused 3rd pitch alternative bag on the way. James was close behind, but separated from us to derig the Monolith variant on the 1st pitch. Special mention must go to Pete. Not only did he get to the bottom, but he also derigged the top 3 pitches.

All in all, a very successful trip. Thanks all for making it a great evening.