Present: Anthony, Jenny, George, James C
We arrived an hour and a half late at Bull Pot Farm and, with only Jenny remotely interested in caving, frantically set about galvanising support for getting underground before the inevitable happened and everyone decided to crawl back to their pits for the day. Eventually Anthony kindly agreed to cave with us. Martin was feeling tired after driving us about two days in a row (he and George had taken me climbing for the first time the day before!!!), and decided not to cave.
With the weather vastly improved compared to the previous day, we decided to stick to our previous plan of rigging both Cow Pot and Lancaster Hole, meeting at the bottom of Fall Pot, and then heading roughly in the direction of Cape Kennedy. Jenny and I decided to enter Easegill via Cow, with Anthony and George going in through Lancaster.
George and I both got rigging practice, with George rigging both the Lancaster entrance, and the traverse route at Fall Pot, and me rigging the Cow entrance pitch. Never having rigged before, it was good practice for me because the pitch had both a re-belay and a deviation.
We finally got underground at about 2.30 (earlyish by DUSA standards!) with Call-Out arranged for 10pm. The first difficult bit we encountered was a long, round, tight tube, which sloped down at about a 50 degree angle. A fixed handline had been rigged to make it easier. Using a combination of gravity and intense wriggling I just about managed to fit through. Looking back up the tube I suddenly realised that I was VERY glad that I was going out through Lancaster, as I didn’t fancy climbing back up again! Eventually we reached the highly exposed Cow Pot main pitch, which consists of a traverse onto a breath- taking 46m pitch into the vastness of Fall Pot, far, far below. Jenny rigged and eventually we were both safely down to the bottom of the rope. With perfect timing, George and Anthony arrived at the exact same time. On the way, Anthony had taken George to see the Collonades.
All present and correct, we pushed on towards Stake Pot, resolving to cave for another hour before turning back. The high level fossil route was really exciting because only a floor consisting entirely of wedged-in boulders (and a lot of mud) prevents unlucky cavers from plummeting to their death in the main drain far below. Stake Pot itself is permanently rigged and descends to an intermediate level above the main drain. I’m not sure which is worse: SRT on the incredibly thick rope that was rigged here, or SRT on Mark Shinwell’s 9mm that we used in Lost John’s. Here, it took about 5 minutes to descend a pitch that must have been 5m high (tops).
Sticking to the right hand wall as we continued along the fossil route, we eventually found the entrance to the Stake Pot Inlet, which leads into the Stake Pot (Earby) Series. Anthony swiftly lead us through a bewildering set of passages until we reached the fixed ladder at Cannuck Climb. As we progressed I confidently chipped in with an exciting commentary on where we were now, and what should be round the next corner. Needless to say I managed to be completely and utterly wrong almost every time: “I think this chamber is called ‘The Pit'”, said I smugly. “It’s Brew Chamber actually”, replied an exasperated Anthony. The realisation was quickly dawning on me that, without Anthony to show us the way, my so-called ‘map’ of this area (the one I’d spent ages making during the previous week) would have proven about as useful as… Well, let’s just say that the words ‘Cat’, ‘Flap’, ‘Elephant’ and ‘House’ spring immediately to mind!
Anyway, we eventually found the Long Gallery and located the subtle slot in the corner to get down to the streamway below. An exciting traverse is followed by an equally exciting climb down to reach Rat Pit Chamber. From then on a short crawl leads to the head of the 88′ pitch, which is permanently rigged and drops down to the Wormway for those attempting Easegill traverses from Cumbria to Lancashire. Here we stopped for a conference. We had already passed the time we’d set for turning back and yet we still hadn’t reached Cape Kennedy. Remembering the old adage ‘Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.’, we proceeded on the basis that “Another ten minutes won’t do any harm!”, and so traversed around the head of the pitch and into the passage opposite.
Progress continued past some proto-crystal-pools and, very soon, Maple Leaf Junction is reached. From here the right branch leads to Ramsden’s Crawl and the left leads through a tight squeeze to Maple Leaf Passage. We headed this way and almost immediately found the beautiful crystal pool that was enthused about in the guide book. We rapidly located the tight upward slot on the right- hand side of the passage, which we knew led to Cape Kennedy. Climbing up it, all the hands and knees crawling needed to get this far suddenly becomes more than worthwhile as, almost without realising it, you enter the HUGE chamber that is Cape Kennedy. The stals are spectacular, and are still purest-white and untouched (i.e. no bugger can be arsed to crawl all the way there)! When we had all gathered, we realised that we had to turn back immediately in order to make Call-Out. I was slightly gutted at this, because I knew that just round the next bend was the equally spectacular Fire Hydrant Chamber, which in turn was quickly followed by the electrifying Straw Chamber.
I had also earlier been challenged by George to attempt a passage called “The Grind”, which is about half a kilometre of tight and grotty crawling to a sump. I have to admit that the prospect appealed to the masochistic part of my nature, just because it looked so gloriously pointless! In the immortal words of Anthony Day: “If you want to go and look at The Grind, as far as I’m concerned you’re on your own – it looks rubbish.” This, along with the exploration of the ultimately fruitful Mortuary Passage, and a trip down the Wormway to the bottom of Echo Aven in Link Pot, would have to wait for another day.
On the way back out I think it was safe to say we really nailed the Stake Pot series! I don’t think I’ve ever crawled that fast in my life. I was absolutely knackered by the time we got back to Stake Pot, and my shins and knees are now shot to buggery! We eventually made it back to Fall Pot and Jenny and I went out through Lancaster with Anthony and George reluctantly going out through Cow Pot (I’d just reminded them about the squeeze-climb). Anthony, who’d done Cow Pot before, had the following choice words of wisdom for the prospect: “Yeah, I notice that we’ve definitely drawn the short straw today: It was a complete c**t last time!”.
Anyway, to cut a shortish story even shorter, the route back to Lancaster Hole took us through Kath’s Way and then Bridge Hall. And I obtained some useful de-rigging practice at both Fall Pot and then the Lancaster Entrance Pitch. We arrived back at the farm for 8.30pm, followed 45 minutes later by George and Anthony, who were zealously cursing the tight bit in Cow Pot.
All in all a brilliant little trip (possibly my favourite yet!) with a bit of everything thrown in: huge pitches, crawls, climbs… I’d like to go back one day with a bit more time and really explore the Stake Pot Series to death. We’ve probably only seen no more than 5% of what it had to offer. Fantastic!!!!
James