Present: Jakub Dominikowski, Rosie Hendriksen
Duration: 6 hours 22 minutes
Trapdoor Pot is quite an interesting place. I have heard of a few people going there and having an enjoyable time. Quite unexpectedly before we begun our torture in Peterson, Rosie suggested going to Trapdoor the next weekend which I could not say no to (after all I am a caving addict and have problems saying no, especially to places I have never been).
This was really exciting for 2 major reasons:
1- Trapdoor is a cave and caves are cool
2- Trapdoor was the only major cave on Dowlass Moss that I have not bottomed yet. I absolutely hate walking up Dowlass Moss and this was my opportunity to remove any reason to go there (well that didn’t last very long).
Unfortunately, some weekend arrangements fell through meaning we did not do Curtain Pot on Saturday (womp womp), so we met up at the YSS Saturday night. After a morning meal consisting of 2.5 Bagels (the 0.5 being a courtesy of Rosie), half a can of beans and a concerning amount of cheese we were ready to leave. It’s not very often that the morning is faff free and on this occasion the lack of faff was very much enjoyed (well we woke up at 7am and left by 8.30 (am), not bad right?).
Getting changed was also faff free, I was quite pleased with the smelly undersuit I stole from YUCPC. The walk, although short, was not very fun. It quickly reminded me of what running feels like and why I don’t do it very often. Anyway we managed to locate the right hole fairly quickly with some navigational aid. At arrival, there was no trapdoor on Trapdoor, disappointed we decided to go back to the car (like that would ever happen).
The entrance to Trapdoor is quite narrow and immediately lands on top of a 6m drop. Thankfully there are good belays around, I specifically chose the one that reminded me of the rock bridge in Alum (only 20x smaller). The theme for this trip was set- loose boulders everywhere. Caves like this are approached best with a degree of blissful ignorance and neglect to what a large boulder could do to your head. I like to think that all the rocks are made of styrofoam. Social distancing should also be adhered to, it is quite easy to unknowingly knock down a lethal package (it feels like there is an attraction force between helmets and falling rocks).
From the chamber an easy down climb reaches a flat out wriggle which lands on top of a 2m climb. I found that getting into this wriggle is quite awkward, although this could be due to my bones being not very bendy. After climbing down the Foam “pitch” (it would make more sense to call it a climb), we quickly reached the first squeeze called The Ripper. At first we were slightly confused as there were multiple holes to crawl into. A quick look at the topo resolved this and the way on was the highest one, which required an easy climb. Despite being narrow, The Ripper is quite easy although our tacklesacks required quite a lot of effort to be pushed through. There is a little chamber to put SRT back on, and just above through a narrow slot up, “That’s Better” pitch is reached (quite accurately named). I was warned that the bolts are quite far away, but I did not find this to be an issue (you can secure yourself by pretending your leg is a piece of trad gear).
At the bottom of the pitch the FTSE choke is quickly reached. Unfortunately, as we were climbing down through it I decided to look up. There appears to be a van sized boulder defying gravity, however below it is a 1m plank of wood which reintroduced the feeling of safety. Until the next major squeeze the caving is about the same, quite narrow and mostly vertical. In the context of size The Gripper is indeed major. We both kept our SRT on for this one, I needed to wriggle around a little bit whilst Rosie just slid straight through like there were free brownies waiting at the bottom.
We got past the next 2 pitches with relative ease and reached probably the hardest bit of the cave- “The Stripper”. I heard stories of a certain individual undressing to get through this (I wish I was there to see it 😉). To get into The Stripper you have to slide 2 meters down a narrow rift and then “whale” yourself into The Stripper which is a short sideways thrutch. The rift which you slide down continues for at least another 2 meters and dropping bags into it would definitely cause some problems. We were both quite worried about The Stripper being difficult and requiring quite a lot of energy. Thankfully we both passed through it with ease. At the time Rosie didn’t really believe that this was the right squeeze, I suppose a Stripper for each of us wouldn’t be too horrible.
Following this are 2 really cool pitches called Electron and Megatron. Here the cave changes character and it’s actually quite surprising that 2 hours of squeezing lead up to quite nice pitches. Whilst descending Megatron I spent around 10 minutes looking for a deviation that I later found out does not exist (read your topos people!). Avoiding rope rub here is quite scary, the walls are very sharp and flaky. It felt like breathing on them would cause rocks to fall down. This pitch drops into a massive chamber. Sitting around on the top of the muddy I noticed something unusual. I have never seen any formations in the caves on Dowlass Moss and seeing one in Trapdoor was a bit unexpected. This is also where I decided to say Trapdoor is an easy cave. At the time I felt like I had done harder non-black book trips.
Rosie was quite right in telling me not to jinx it. Since most of the difficulties are vertical, coming out requires significantly more effort than coming down, I guess you don’t have gravity to help you. The squeezes themselves are not that hard; it’s mainly the bits in between that make it a physical undertaking and carrying a bag each does not help. With each trip I’m starting to realise that caving is a team sport. It’s really nice to have someone help you out with a bag.
Anyway, it took us a bit longer to get out then to get to the bottom. Not the easiest trip but definitely far from being the hardest trip I’ve done. Now having done all major caves on Dowlass Moss I can safely claim that Trapdoor is my favourite on that part of the hill.
Jakub Dominikowski