Shrapnel pot - 28/01/2022
Unfortunately I could not get anyone interested, so not wanting to sit around and do nothing as John was away ice climbing I decided to do a solo trip down an often overlooked alternate route, to Hunt pot. I brought my own ropes a 50 and 25 as I don't know the code to the tackle store yet. I had not forgotten how far it was and prepared myself for the two mile trudge to the entrance, provoking much interest from walkers going up Penyghent.
I entered the little cave that is the entrance a short horizontal cave, ending after 20ft. The way on was down a hole just as you come in. Looking down I concluded two things 1) It was very wet looking rift, 2) There was nothing to rig off except a rusty scaffolding bar.
Thankfully there is a ledge just 2m down, which had a fixed anchor on the opposite wall, which I tested to be solid and looked in good nick. The rest of the initial drop was indeed wet, but thankfully you can just about stay out of the water. This first drop is all also quite easily climbable, if you don't want to trust your life to the metal bar, but be careful near the top as it's not called shrapnel for nothing!
A short rift passage follows, and I was beginning to wonder if my 50 would get me down, I had simply guessed how much was needed as I could find a rigging topo anywhere and only had NC2 ladder lengths to go off. I did not even know if it needed spits or not, but so far it was on fixe anchors, so I took a risk and abandoned my spanner and spits.
After the horizontal bit is a y-hang down what looks to be a very tight bit, that did not look much bigger than my welly. However, it was not too bad, I managed it after a bit of faff as the tight stuff is annoying with new Stop handle design. Thankfully there's a nice ledge to stand on to get back out again, though was kind of in the way on the way down. This hole is definitely easier than large pot for comparison, considering I still had my phone in my pocket and my stop was not on a cows tail for this, and it don't have that akward approach.
Down the hole it really opened out into a large shaft (glad my stop was not on a cow's tail) and 2 rebelay's took me away from the worse of the water and into the shaft proper, a further 50ft descent to the side of a waterfall (deviation sling in-situ) and I was at the bottom of this shaft on a large ledge.
I was not certain where the connection was to Hunt but I concluded it was not on that ledge after some ferreting. I rigged the next drop from a y-hang on the far end of the ledge, which dropped me past an open rift on a likely looking ledge, down towards another ledge. It was at this point the rope ran out (though I had tied it to the 25). Thankfully however, I was only a few meters above the floor and it was an easy climb, so I untied my lower rope, as I did not think it would be enough for the lower drop if rigged from back here here. Instead, I tied my rope to a natural half way along and proceeded to the y-hang. Unfortunately, the hang does not avoid the water for the bottom half, I got pretty soaked. From here there was a very loose looking hole, but I did not feel like doing it solo. (It just degenerates to a wet, flat-out crawl from what I read).
I took some selfies and proceeded back up the waterfall and up a few meters to the ledge I passed earlier. I traversed along and recycled my 25m rope to use it for a much drier drop down into Hunt. I noticed on a ledge still 10m from the floor that there was flood derbies up here!
Bottom of Hunt is an impressive place but it was time to head out, as I was feeling the cold thanks to a huge rip in my oversuit. I had to do the bottom pitch twice as I forgot to tie the bag to the rope, but other than that it was an uneventful, though wet exit. The squeeze not causing me too much issues either thanks to the ledges you can stand on.
Trip time 3 hours
Rigging suggestion
Entrance pitch series: 55m rope - 6 crabs, 1 snap gate, 1 sling
Lower "wet pitch": 25m rope - 3 crabs and 1 sling if using natural.
Pitch into Hunt 25m rope (can use same one as wet pitch). 3 crabs, 1 sling (though there is in-situ tat, I preferred my sling).
