Jean’s Big Naturals and The Molestrangler – A short bimble to Jean Pot and Stile Pot

Present: Jakub Dominikowski, Toby Graham, Tom Green-Plumb

Duration: 3 hours

A 5am wake up and a 2 hour train later I arrived at Horton, seeing Tom and Toby very cozy in their car. After the usual amount of faff (having to open and close my dry bag twice (thanks)) we set off, meeting a four-legged beast on the way. Of course my first instinct was to protect Toby from this vicious creature. It would make a nice cave snack, but the farmer got to it before I did. The rest of the walk was uneventful, excluding the constant complaining (Its gaping gill duh) and some minor navigational issues. I looked down a shakehole and thought this can’t be it, a 31x11x4 m shakehole should be quite obvious right? Well 20 minutes later Toby and Tom managed to find a hole with a collapsed dig, at that point I got a glimpse of a phone signal. It turns out that the first hole I looked down was indeed Jean. Jean did not appear to fit the described dimensions which I’m sure has misled many of its previous visitors.

With a 30 minute delay we reached pitch one and this was the first encounter with Jean’s big naturals. There were some shiny bolts at the entrance, which did not reflect the state of the naturals encountered. The spike used for the descent was tiny and unsettling. In fear of falling and being hit in the head by rock I descended as quickly as possible. Tom followed, exclaiming “My nan can dress knots better than you”. How rude, I would like to see your nan hang off Jean’s naturals.

SRT kits off and into the hard times crawl we go. This is not the only time Jean would give us a hard time. The crawl itself was not as tight as we expected, a bit of sideways thrutching and flat out crawling, although the gritty mud was not very enjoyable. Following this are 2 easy drops and an upward traverse to pitch 2. Jean had a lot to offer, there was a beautiful assortment of naturals available to one’s delight. Oh and by this I mean there was one tiny sharp flat spike and a spinning bolt which appeared to be super good enough. I’m of the opinion that spinning bolts are good, they equalise the Y hang and hence make rigging more efficient. However the spike was a bit problematic. It was high up and required an exposed climb just next to the drop. I was unsure if the sling would actually stay on it once I got on the pitch so I warned others not to jiggle the naturals.

Safely down, the 3rd pitch was just around the corner. The rigging here is described as back up to a chokestone and a bolt in the roof. Unfortunately, the bolt was not an option as it was a spit and we did not have any hangers. Since when do we need to bring our own bolts to the cave?!? So we had no choice but to use the chokestone. Now Jean has so far been very impressive with its naturals but this exceeded all our expectations. This “chokestone” was a tiny pebble stuck in a rift above our heads. I slapped a sling on it but decided that free climbing the pitch is safer, still clipping into the rope for a bit of mental comfort. Glad we did not have to use it as a quick tug on the rope proved that the pebble will fall out.

To our dismay the rear of Jean’s treasures were guarded by the 4th pitch. All the bolts here were spits. Free climbing the 9m pitch was not an option as it was narrow at the top and dropped into a large chamber. Body belaying and taking it in turns to bottom the cave was not a good one either. The best idea was to wedge a boulder at the top of the pitch to use as a natural belay but we did not want to spoil Jean’s natural beauty and potentially block the only way forward. A quick search for any spicy naturals left us scratching our heads and so after a short break (cannot go without Toby getting nakd) we decided to leave Jean alone.

On the way out the only suitable course of action to avoid embarrassment was to free climb the pitches. Of course Toby and Tom cruised up all of them and I chickened out on the 2nd one; Jean’s big naturals have traumatised me enough. The hard times crawl is slightly harder on the way out. At the end of it there is an upward sloping sideways bit and this made me think that quaking pot might actually be hard, I guess there is only one way to find out 🙃.

Disappointed in our early exit, a visit to the molestrangler was required (I desired this deeply for months). Stile pot has been on my radar for a while, particularly because it’s another way to avoid Bar pot and given its on the way, the only correct thing to do was to go down it. Thankfully my gorgeous companions did not require any convincing.

The entrance to Stile pot is a downward slope which lands you on top of something that looks like a pitch. It’s quite narrow at the top which makes inspecting the drop difficult, but if you commit to dangling above the 4m void, you will quickly realise that it is indeed a free climb- a bit awkward but doable with care. The cave continues as a downward slope with some climbing until the molestrangler is reached. This is a 70 degree, polished 3 meter climb down with an in-situ handline. I always imagined my first encounter with the molestrangler differently. From all the photos online I assumed that this would be quite a serious undertaking but in reality it was no different than a slide at a playground.

Shortly after, a 3 meter scaffold down climb is reached, followed by some easy crawling with an awkward turn around and a 3 meter scaffold climb up. This gets you to a chamber where the pitch from Small Mammal pot lands. The main route to Bar pot continues as a downward slope opposite from where you entered the chamber. Eventually another small chamber is reached where a short crawl under the right wall gives way to another small chamber. Here the way on is on the left via a climb up to a V-shaped rift which quickly turns into a flat out crawl. Bearing left in the crawl reaches an easy climb down into yet another chamber. Again the way on here is a crawl on the left which ends abruptly at the top of the grease slab.

Upon reaching the top of Big pitch we decided to continue towards Wades (like getting muddy in Jean Pot was not enough). Opposite of where you enter the big pitch there is a 4m climb up with an in situ rope, this reaches the Horrocks Stearn Crawl. This is quite strenuous, it starts off as easy crawling but quickly turns to a flat out crawl in glutenous elbow deep mud, yummy. It brought pleasure to my heart hearing how delighted Tom and Toby were, although in my mind I was questioning why we were here. Soon after the muddy pool about 8 meters of narrow oval shaped passage is reached with a tight squeeze somewhere in the middle. This is done on one’s side and being covered in glutenous mud makes this very physical as you slide down the rift. However, by doing this, you can get to the top of South East Pot without any SRT, how cool is that.

Anyway, caked in mud and with no interesting passage to go on into we decided it was time to turn around. The in-situ climb down was quite scary as it’s right next to the big pitch and being covered in mud makes it very slippery. On the way out the molestrangler was a bit more difficult. It’s basically like climbing an off width crack, there are no footholds to push off from and you have to jam your body to move up. For a non-climber this might be quite difficult, but thankfully the in-situ rope is there.

Walking back we were getting quite a few weird looks from walkers, some of them being curious where we just came from. Who would have guessed that being covered in mud attracts attention. Apart from the constant complaining about the walk and a short dispute with Toby about where the lake starts, the remainder of the walk was uneventful. We did have to jump over a fence to avoid the gift shop, I’m sure the owners would not appreciate three mud beasts rummaging through their property.

Overall, I think Stile pot is a great alternative to Bar pot or Small Mammal pot, not the easiest but by far the most interesting. This is a good option if you do not like Bar Pot first pitch which I somehow managed to avoid during my caving career and with this new found gem, I intend to keep it that way.

In regards to Jean pot, its naturals are definitely not for the faint hearted.