Link Pot, Easegill
Scott Nixon, Darren Mackenzie, Tim King, Pete Blamire, Chris Downham
Scott lead for this Link Pot trip, heading for Cairn Junction, Serendipity and the Easy Street streamway
Ireby Fell Cavern
Ray McGarry, Tim Donovan, Helen Hooper, Darren Mackenzie, Chris Downham, Scott Nixon, Tom Calpin, Sophie Cunningham, Bob Cattley, Nick Davies
A grand day out down Ireby during the heatwave, moving like a slick machine (some via Ding Dong Bell, some via the Shadow Route) down to Duke Street before heading up into Whirlpool Crawl for the thankless slog through to Ireby 2. At this point most of the party in their haste turned right and visited ‘Duke Street 3’ aka a chilly swim to a sump, while Ray and Tom turned left for Duke Street 2. Efficient retreat back out for Sophie’s poisoned hot chocolate on the surface, tainted by no-brand rum from Ryelands
Bull Pot, Kingsdale
Chris Downham, Bob Cattley, Tom Calpin
Quick SRT leg stretch down to the 4th pitch in a thunderstorm.
Boundary Pot, Easegill
Jason Clements, Darren Mackenzie, Tom Calpin, Yolanda Aze
None of us had done full Boundary before, with Jason itching to get it over with after several failed meets list appointments over the years. Him and Darren had tried it once in damp weather, only to be turned back by a section of ‘washing machine’ passage in the entrance series.
We slogged over the fell to the second highest entrance to the system, and slid through the entrance bedding. Down a climb, down another, right, left, down another climb, through some flat-out and acute corners, I lost track a bit to be honest. But eventually we popped out at the top of an airy traverse round a pot in a chamber and a free-climb down. Through a cross-rift into Fusion Cavern and into bigger stuff. We made our way past some fantastic crystal false floors and into Hiroshima.
We found the Manhattan connection without much difficulty up on the ledge, and popped down into upper Easegill. Made our way up to Nagasaki but ended up going upstream from here trying to find the route onwards, eventually getting to Limerick Junction before realising our mistake. We headed back in the right direction out Nagasaki and through the little canyon for a quick visit to Easter Grotto, Yolanda’s first visit there.
We’d have loved to go back out of Wretched at this point, but sadly due to the blockage it’d have to be County. This took longer than I remembered and by time we popped out of the entrance flap we were all knackered.
Roger Kirk
Bob C, Scott, Tom C, Jason
The trip started with a bit of confusion – I’d said to meet at the Ribblehead Car Park, thinking of the lay-by on the road, unaware of the proper car park down a track, almost underneath the arches.
When we were finally assembled, we wandered over the moor, led by my Garmin – finding the cave without its assistance in the dark would have been a struggle. Navigation is straightforward, you just follow the water through the cave, pretty much all crawling at first.
After a while you have to lower yourself into a low crawl half-full of water (brrr!). Turning right out of this leads you – oh! back where you started… I tried again (double-brrr!), this time noticing the unattractive snug continuation to the left (“The Tube”). As the water was not too high, I found this ok in my right side, and after a couple of metres you get to a slightly roomier passage. Tom found this awkward, and after briefly wallowing without the benefit of neoprene, decided to back out.
The cave does improve a lot after this (sorry, Tom!) – though never spacious, there are some nice meanders and traverses and some attractive flowstone formations. Arriving at the middle entrance, Scott popped out to see if Tom was around. Surely he’d have gone back to the warmth of the car? But no, he was nearby the lower entrance, so he came back in to have a look upstream, while the remaining three continued following the water.
The next section is reasonably short, which was good as it consisted mainly of crawling in water (which hadn’t got any warmer). Meanwhile, Tom had exited and hopped overground to the third entrance, and his light at the end of the tunnel of was a welcome sight.
One more section, to entrance 4 – shall we do it? Might as well tick all the boxes… It was only 20 or so metres, but it was more crawling, in cold water on sharp rocks, a test of the knee pads. Mercifully soon over, and it wasn’t long before we were sat in the Railway Inn, as near as we could get to the fire. Joy!
This is actually a nice cave, short but with plenty of interest, but probably best done in the Summer, and not forgetting the neoprene!
Lancaster Hole to and from County Pot
Peter B, Tom C, Bob C, Tim D, Miranda, John, Chris H, Tim K, Ray, Scott, Gareth, Jason
Miranda’s Lancs to County trip had suddenly become more popular with trips to Lost John’s and Pippikin being discouraged by the wet weather. To avoid congestion, Peter, Tom, Bob, Tim K, Ray, Scott and I headed off to County to do the trip in reverse.
The plan was to go via Poetic Justice to Stop Pot, but the water levels on the way made it likely that route would be too wet for safety, or at least comfort. So we decided to go for Manchester Bypass, Scott and Tim being reasonably confident of the route, There were some mutterings at the back, The Bypass having a reputation of being tight and awkward. But all agreed to persevere, at least until Brown and Smelly chamber, which is reached by turning up to the right from the PJ streamway just before the climb down towards Spout Hall. A few twists and turns lead to a rift chamber with an iron ladder and before long, the chamber – Brown but not noticeably Smelly.
From here, a knotted handline leads up to a rift you need to climb up. This is snug, but not too bad, if you face the right way. I didn’t, but a helping hand from Tim got me there. At this point, Tom and Bob decided to turn back for an early bath. The rest of us now came to Spangle Passage, which I’d remembered from an earlier trip – somewhat small, but entertainingly wriggly. Soon emerging into Old English chamber and diving back down into a slot in the floor, it’s not long before any misery is forgotten and we were rewarded by the glories of Mainline Passage. In fact it was so good, we ignored the wide, low turn off to the right and carried on to the window overlooking Snail Cavern.
Retracing our steps, we turned off to Mainline Terminus, and set off on the familiar (in parts) high-level route. At this point, we met Chris and Tim D heading in the opposite direction, the other three having turned back at the Minarets. They confirmed that water levels in the streamway were high, but preferred the rigors of Manchester Bypass to going back over the high-level route, which they said was “really shitty”. That cheered us up.
The humid conditions had made everything greasy, but not that bad, I thought, although it always seems further than I remember it being… Eventually we reached Lancaster Pot, and there was quite a substantial shower coming down the pitch instead of the usual drips. Ray was out first, I followed, and was at first surprised at how keen he was to get back to the farm. But after a minute or so in the driving sleet, I quite came round to his point of view, so off we went, very grateful to be changing in a nice warm drying room. It was only an hour or so later, when we spared a thought for our comrades Tim K, Peter and Scott who hadn’t yet returned. Should we put down our drinks and go to see how they fared? Fortunately the dilemma was solved by their appearance, and we returned to relaxing with a clear conscience!
Heron Pot – 29th May 2019
Darren M, Scott, Tom C, Jason
Darren kindly offered to lead this trip, opting for the high-level route in case of wet conditions. It had rained most of the day, but water levels in the becks were reassuringly low. We were soon at the pitch, where I dangled for a while for Darren to get some photos (not necessarily of my best side!) from below. Scott had the job of lighting me from above while balancing on the tiny ledges at the pitch head, not easy when you’re trying not to look down! Tom later mentioned the traverse to the pitch had got his heart racing – I assured him his was not the only one.
I recalled the guidebook mentioning a high-level Phreatic Inlet, so we decided to find it. At the first right-hand turn, I sent Darren up a fruitless climb in the roof, but there was another turn soon after, at which we managed to climb up to a promising passage – except Tom, who was exploring downstream. The passage went some way to a nicely-decorated chamber with another awkward climb out of it. Scott conquered this and slithered along a narrow rifty passage above for a little way before returning. It might be worth returning to pursue this to the end, but the guidebook doesn’t hold much hope of ‘marvellous things’.
Returning to the pitch bottom, we realised we hadn’t made a plan with Tom – which way had he headed? In the end, Scott nobly volunteered to get wet going out the downstream entrance in case Tom was waiting there, while Darren and I ascended the pitch. We found Tom waiting for us at the entrance – had he gone up the rope first? No – he had pushed on out of the wet exit on his own and come back to meet us. Good effort! As we walked down the hill, we met a dripping Scott and returned to the cars in what passed for daylight, low cloud having descended as we walked back. Still, a good trip, and nice to find a ‘new’ section of a familiar cave.
Hardrawkin Pot
It was a beautiful evening to be on Inglebrough. Gareth, Darren, Andy J., James and Sophie headed for Hardrawkin Pot in the sunshine. A little climb down led to some interesting passage, decorated in places with milky coloured glittering rock. This quickly led to the head of the first pitch. Trip reports online suggested that this was going to be an abseil down a booming great waterfall. Due to the dry weather this summer however, the decent looked pretty dry. A second pitch led to a sump. Then it was back up and to the Marton Arms (they apparently have a better gin selection than the Hill Inn *rolls eyes*) before heading home – Will this do Darren?!
Lost John’s to Notts II
Bob C, Tony B, Jason
A few months back, I read an online report of a pull-through trip from Lost John’s, exiting from Notts II (Iron Kiln Pot, if you want to be pedantic), I thought “Really? That sounds fun!”. Having got the new Northern Caves book for Christmas, there seemed to be enough information to find the way.
The quiet period between Christmas and New Year looked to be an ideal opportunity for a proper trip, but only Bob and Tony took the bait. We discussed doing a pull-through, but in the end caution prevailed, and we rigged normally following the Centipede route.
At the bottom of Centipede, well near the bottom, I was surprised to find – the end of the rope. Odd, the topo called for a 60m rope, and I had brought a – oh! – a 50m rope from the tackle store. Well, that 5 on the label looked awfully like a 6 without my glasses. A good shelf allowed us off the rope, but the final 3m is sheer. What to do? Sacrifice the rope allocated to the final pitch and abandon the through trip? In the end, we tied on a piece of cord I carry ‘just in case’ and that was just enough to get to the ground after Bob had taken all the slack out of the rope from Mud to Centipede.
Not long afterwards, we were at Groundsheet Junction, where we stopped for a welcome cup of tea and bourbons (thanks, Tony!). I’ll describe the route from here in case anybody fancies the trip.
Turning left upstream, the next landmark is Lyle Cavern, which none of us knew (apart from Bob, who had been there 40 years ago!). It’s about 200m upstream – look for a small roped climb on the left. (You’ll see a rope on the left over a big calcite buttress about half-way there – ignore this).
Follow this rope about half-way and turn upslope to the right – this is the bottom of Lyle Cavern (we went to the top of the rope and spent some time fruitlessly looking for the way on – there’s plenty of passage there, but not the one we wanted – I was keeping an eye on the time and voted to head back out Lost John’s, but fortunately Bob spotted the way on as we were retracing our steps).
Going up the boulder slope, there’s a calcite slope on the right, described as an “exposed 3.5m climb” but there was a rope, so we used it. Further up, a rope hangs down from a high aven. This is supposedly a 19m pitch, but it seemed quite a long 19m.
At the top, go straight on up a rift, with some lovely helictites – called Helictite Rift (!). This involves some steepish climbs, but nothing too challenging. As it levels out at the top, you reach a prominent T-junction. Left leads into Boxhead, but straight on is West Passage, tall, decorated, easy, although there are big holes in the floor.
At the end is a boulder choke. It looks unpromising, but if you stay on the right-hand wall and crawl upwards, you come to a small chamber. Then go up again, over where you came in, to reach a second chamberette. You now look for a slot down against the left-hand wall, but it’s not the first obvious slot (I confidently went down here and was dismayed to find the way blocked by rubble – had the choke collapsed? Would we have turn back? No…). You go a little further and find a tight calcite slot. Now is the time to take off your SRT kit, as this is the start of engineered route through the choke to Notts II.
This goes on for quite a long time (apparently 140m, but that doesn’t sound long enough!). It’s often awkward and squirmy, never spacious, but never desperately tight either and there’s never any doubt about where to go. The amount of scaffolding is quite awe-inspiring. Quite a bit of time was spent passing the tangled web of SRT kit between us – a small tackle bag to put it in would have saved a lot of effort.
Eventually, the choke ends and there’s a short crawl through muddy puddles which emerges into big passage. This is (at least I think) Bruno Kranski’s, where the pitch from Voldemort comes in, and running water can be heard. We felt elated to be on, or near, familiar territory. Very soon we were in Sir Digby Spode’s Inlet, and a knotted rope handline took us down into the Notts II streamway.
From there, it was a familiar meander downstream, up the rifty inlet on the left to get to the engineered climb emerging into a frosty night.
It had taken us 7 hours. This was a bit disappointing given that the guys who had written the original report had (so they claimed!) taken only 3, but had we followed the way unerringly it would have been an hour or so less. Possibly more importantly, if Bob and I were 30 years younger, we might have been a bit quicker!
Boundary Pot – At LAST!
Helen H, Andy J, Tony B, Jason
Boundary Pot and I have a history of failed attempts due to high water and quailing spirits, so I was not over-optimistic when we gathered on Sunday. There had been plenty of dry weather in the past few weeks, but more recent rain. However, the walk up the bed of the beck was encouraging, in fact the pool at Pool Sink was completely empty, which I hadn’t seen before.
Entering the second chamber in the entrance series, I was delighted to hear – nothing! Normally some water either babbles or thunders down the next climb, but it was completely dry – so the trip was on!
We quickly passed the bone-dry ‘Tacklesack passage’, as I think of it, on via Savage’s bypass and into a chamber where at last we heard the sound of water – a bold step over the top of an inlet waterfall is required. This was as far as I’d been before, so from here on, guides (3 of them!) were consulted at every turn, although navigation is actually straightforward at this point.
Passing through Fusion Chamber, with its impressive pitch that we’d bypassed, we soon came to the area round Boxing Day Aven. This was a lovely section of cave – as well as lots of clean stal formations, there were abundant brown crystalline deposits that I was unfamiliar with. At one point, a shelf of this stuff looked like the Grand Canyon in (extreme) miniature. Further on, the passage was divided horizontally by a false floor of crystals. To avoid walking on this, we crawled through the canal beneath it, including a brief complete ducking at the end. Looking back, it was plain that most folk had stayed dry and gone over the top. However our dampness was soon dispelled by a warm glow of self-satisfaction at our top cave conservation conduct!
Before long, the character of the cave changed as we arrived at the large rubble-strewn Hiroshima chamber. There were warnings about unstable boulders here, but we passed without incident, down the scaffolded shaft, traversing upstream in the roof of a rift and following a boulder slope up into Nagasaki chamber, another huge bouldery void. (I imagined having Superman’s height and X-ray vision – the land under Easegill must look like an enormous Swiss cheese!)
At this point, there was some doubt about which way to go on. Eventually Andy’s compass settled the argument and we followed him downslope. A series of climbs, up, down and traversing led to the Assembly Hall, with increasing confidence about the route (though not on my part – had I been leading, I would probably still be there!). Some of the climbs were not without interest, but some in-situ knotted ropes helped out.
From there, we (apparently) followed the White Way to Holbeck junction. At a subsequent climb up, Andy demonstrated the wisdom of not standing beneath a climber when a large flake he was using as a foothold parted company from the wall and narrowly missed Helen. Soon afterwards, we came to a pile of stones beneath a climb and I suddenly, and for the first time, recognised our location: we were at the end of Spiral Staircase passage. From here, it was the familiar meanders and the final gymnastics of the Big Rift to the Wretched Rabbit exit.
Exiting in warm sunshine, I was immensely chuffed to have finally made this trip, found that it more than lived up to my expectations, and it took well under 3 hours underground. And that included a number of photo stops – thanks to Tony for taking the trouble to document the trip.