Present: Lydia Miller, Tom Green-Plumb
Duration: 8 hours
Day two of our three days at Bullpot Farm !! After the semi relaxing day before, it was time for a difficult trip, and after finding out from Chris that we did not in fact need nuts as the black book suggested, Trapdoor Pot seemed a perfect option. Dry, nice and long, squeezes, several pitches, it had everything we were looking for, so we were up at 7:00am to conquer it. After breakfast and packing ropes etc., we drove over to Cold Cotes to attempt to find the correct parking space (I had definitely never been over there before). After guessing which way was east, we found a layby and hopped out to see if there was a gate nearby. There was! So we were in the right place, hooray!
We got all kitted up (while listening to my caving playlist, which apparently Tom did not consider hype music) and set out to actually find the “small and uninviting” Trapdoor Pot. I had read that the cave was about 25 minutes away from the parking area, which didn’t seem too bad, until to my dismay I realized that it was in fact 25 minutes uphill towards Ingleborough. I was absolutely drenched in sweat and suffering less than halfway up (but Tom offered to unburden me by taking Keith which, honestly, lifesaver–who knew half a loaf of banana bread and two bottles of water were so heavy ??). We trekked on, Bob Marley now playing from my phone to hype us up for the rest of the journey. We found the enormous shakehole relatively easily and headed back and left to try to find the smaller one containing Trapdoor. Tom found it fairly quickly, so I headed over and kind of collapsed on the ground for a bit to catch my breath.
By this time it was past 10:30, so I grabbed a tackle sack to go ahead and start rigging the entrance pitch (there were far too many spider webs for my liking !!). It was definitely narrow at the beginning but once I got through that it was an easy drop down. Found the hole to climb down (and got a few rocks kicked onto me) then got to Foam Pitch. The fact that the massive boulders above my head were held up by foam and a dream did not fill me with confidence !! I got down that climb as quickly as I could without knocking anything loose. Tom also commented on the foam, being very careful not to touch any of those ones.
Now at the bottom of this we came to the first of the three squeezes: The Ripper!! It was a sideways squeeze that I managed to get through with my SRT kit on, after which Tom handed through the bags. I told him he’d probably be able to get through with his SRT kit on as well (oops) which I was then proven wrong about when he got stuck in the ripper… I gave him a bit of a push so he could reverse out, after which he took off his SRT kit (very speedily given his new triact, might I add) and was back through the ripper in no time.
I meanwhile began rigging That’s Better Pitch; I would like to say an extra bolt or two would be greatly appreciated by short people who can’t reach the first bolt unless we are fully hanging above the pitch!! It was mildly scary to be hanging above the void as I rigged the Y-hang, but all worked out fine. At the bottom, I started down FTSE boulder choke while Tom stayed at the top (on thin ice having already kicked rocks on me before) and reached the body sized hole in the ground, which did have a scaffold bar right above it so we just assumed that was the one we were meant to rig off of for the FTSE Choke Pitch (oops)
I had a very awkward descent on the rope down more scaffolding until I reached a little chamber big enough to sit in, at which point I looked directly in front of my face and saw two bolts staring back at me. Ah, so that made a lot more sense as that last bit definitely did not require a rope. Tom undid the rope and tossed it down to me so I could rig the actual pitch this time !! I shoved the tackle sack and Keith through the hole in front of me before awkwardly descending into the hole myself, which was very much a struggle as the angle was very difficult to actually reach my descender. There ended up being a good place to sit down right through the hole (and right above another scaffold bar which I assume is the original point mentioned in the black book that you’re meant to rig off of) so I suggested Tom not rig his descender until that point to make it a bit easier (once again, oops… he probably should not listen to my advice at this point as he was blind going through the hole and said he felt like he was very close to just falling down the pitch).
We successfully got to the bottom of the pitch (hooray!) so we were able to continue on to the second squeeze: The Gripper. While not super tight, this one was kind of interesting because of the crawl right after it, and I dove in head first–felt like I was penguin sliding into this low crawl. It worked though, and we both conquered the gripper (2 out of 3 done yippee!). Plus, there was barely any water so we only got a few drips flowing down the squeeze. The end of the crawl after the gripper led us straight to the next pitch, and I went ahead and rigged that without any issues.
We now came to yet another crawl, which at the end of I once again dove through headfirst and ended up almost entirely upside down (and being laughed at by Tom whilst in my janky handstand). I shuffled forward like you would in a wheelbarrow race and eventually got into a somewhat more normal position at the top of Millenium Pot. I looked around for somewhere to rig the handline off of for the drop down Millenium Pot, but for the life of me could not find anything, so I traversed forward to where the free climb started to see if there was anything over there. At this point Tom had come through the crawl and kindly pointed out that where I had just been sitting would be a great place to rig the handline from (and I had completely failed to consider it as an option) so he went ahead and rigged from there. I ventured along down the free climb and ended up just bridging across for the last bit since I couldn’t see any footholds. Tom made it down with no issues and we were on our way!!
We went through some more narrow passage (which kept getting more and more narrow!!) before coming to a point where there was either a hole continuing down the rift or, about halfway down, a very small looking squeeze. We double checked the route description and came to the conclusion that the very small squeeze was in fact the third and final squeeze: The Stripper. I was a tiny bit cocky having gone through the previous two without removing my SRT kit, so I stuck my head in and tried to get through before realizing that was slightly terrifying and a bad idea!! I reversed back out and had to take my SRT kit off in quite possibly the most awkward place I could have found (one misstep from falling into the hole while also faceplanting the wall in front of me). I finally got it off though and took my helmet off too in order to get through. Tom suggested I try going through feet first, but it sloped up a bit and feet first did not seem like the way to go for me, so I went back to head first. I got my head and chest through fine and just narrowly avoided getting my legs wedged. The first bit was definitely the tightest, and once I got through that it was fairly easy to get all the way through and I perched there above the climb to grab the tackle sacks from Tom and make sure he didn’t get stuck.
Tom was a bit smarter than me and had already taken his SRT kit off at the bottom of Millenium Pot, so he tried to go through head first but also had some issues with his legs being stuck in the hole. He turned around to face the other way but still had no luck so decided to go through with his feet first. This worked out, and I saw his boots inching towards me as he got through the first really tight bit. He popped out eventually!! I headed down the climb (which was less of a climb and more of a slide down a hole since I found a grand total of zero footholds!!) followed by Tom, and minor celebration that we had gotten through all the squeezes, hooray !! (and, unfortunately, minor dismay that Tom’s phone screen had gotten cracked by the squeeze)
We continued on our merry way into yet another crawl. I led, carrying Keith with me until I found the top of Electron Pitch. I didn’t realize it would be so soon, so I backed out again so we could put our SRT kits back on. Tom went ahead after putting his on (damn triact) and started rigging the pitch. I followed once I’d gotten my SRT kit on, by which point he was already through rigging the rebelay a meter down. When I got to the rebelay I did notice that he’d missed the other bolt on the opposite wall for a Y-hang, but oh well, too late now!! Tom was rigging Megatron Pitch when I got to the bottom of Electron, and he descended for a bit before stopping about halfway down. I tried to figure out what on earth he was yelling about, but it was really echoey. Eventually I got that he was concerned about rope rub and was looking for the deviation that was supposed to be there. I remembered that the CNCC description said that that deviation had fallen out, so he looked around for anything else he could use. Finding nothing, he decided to descend slowly to make sure there wasn’t any significant rope rub.
It ended up being fine, as the rope was just far enough out not to rub against any of the sharp rocks, and he continued on down. I got down as well, which was lowkey a struggle as the rope absolutely did not want to go through my descender and it may have been the slowest descent known to humankind.
But we were now at the bottom of Trapdoor Pot!! We had made it!! We found a nice spot to sit and opened Keith to find out how the banana bread had fared. Surprisingly, the half loaf was entirely intact, so I put on some Bob Marley and we had a nice picnic of banana bread and water.
It was now time for the ascent back out, which I think we were both dreading a little. I kept the Bob Marley going as Tom headed up Megatron and I followed to derig. Tom also managed to rerig the rebelay on Electron with the actual Y-hang using the other bolt while I was derigging Megatron, so it was marginally safer for my ascent. At the bottom of the climb before the stripper, we took our SRT kits off in preparation for the squeeze. I tried to climb up first but very much failed, so Tom offered his knee and then his shoulder as I still could not manage to get up there!! The shoulder did the trick though, and he passed up the tackle sacks before climbing up himself while I made my way through the stripper.
Going back was much easier than going through the first time and I got through fairly quickly. I did have some awkward maneuvers to get the bags from Tom (every day I dream of caving without tackle sacks). He got through the squeeze easily as well, and up we went to Millenium Pot. Now when we got there, I looked at the free climb and thought, eh, I don’t really think I can do a free climb at the moment, so I fully intended to use the handline to ascend. Tom free climbed it and I passed up the bags to him before heading over to the rope. Except the rope was in quite a narrow bit, which meant I had trouble pulling the rope through my chest jammer. I struggled for several minutes attempting to ascend this tiny few meters while Tom laughed at me from above, and I was definitely losing it at this point. I got about halfway before realizing getting through all the way to the top would require fitting through an even narrower slot that would have been kind of horrific. So screw it I’ll just free climb. I down prusiked (which was also a whole thing) then headed around to climb up, which was so so much faster than whatever the hell I had just been trying to do. Tom gleefully informed me that my faffing score had just skyrocketed, but hey, at least I was finally at the top of Millenium Pot (although the faff did not stop as I attempted to get Keith and the other tackle sack up through the crawl at the top of Millenium) !!
We continued on, Tom derigging Ready to Roll Pitch as I went ahead through the gripper to wait at the bottom of FTSE Choke Pitch. I went ahead up the pitch after making sure that the gripper failed to grip Tom. I did get to the top of the pitch where the scaffolding bar was and almost kicked it entirely loose with my knee, so thank god for the actual bolts on that pitch!! I did also spend a few minute lamenting to Tom the fact that I was not a gym bro, as that tackle sack was so heavy to lift up and push in front of me through the hole at the top of the pitch 🙁 I managed though and got through, heading up to the top of the choke so I wouldn’t kick anything onto Tom. I did hear some vaguely disconcerting sounds coming from the pitch as he derigged, which I later found out was, once again, the tackle sacks being mean!!
We got up That’s Better and through the ripper, which I thought felt a bit tighter on the way out, but that may have just been the banana bread, idk. Still made it through without taking the SRT kit off though, so I call that a win. Tom got through as well, and up we went through Foam Pitch. I still did not trust that foam so we climbed that quiiite quickly.
At the top of Foam Pitch I very confidently kept on climbing onward and upward before coming to a dead end, oops! I very much thought this had been the climb down to get to Foam Pitch but apparently was wrong, so Tom climbed back down to the top of Foam to check out any other holes we could climb up. He found one !! He went ahead and climbed up there, followed by the bags, followed by me, and we kept on going (the correct way this time) until we could see daylight!!
I headed up the entrance pitch and was once again very very not happy with the amount of spiders I had to pass to get through the narrow bit at the very top!! I passed them though and struggled up through the narrow entrance before collapsing onto the grass to wait for Tom to derig. I once again heard disconcerting noises from the pitch because the tackle sack had gotten stuck, causing Tom to have down prusik half the pitch to go free it (once again, these damn tackle sacks). I saw his head pop up though and let him know that if he could get out and derig within one minute we will have completed an exactly 8 hour trip !! He successfully did, so we ended with a very satisfying 8 hour 0 minute trip!!
The walk back to the car was easy (and thank GOD we were going downhill this time), got changed quickly and headed back to Bullpot for a much needed cup of tea and banana bread scraps 🙂
Lydia Miller