Brisk walk through Braida Garth farm and up the scar soon saw up on the top looking for the entrance,
Luckily Ade had put the coordinates on his watch and after a poke around the entrance to vesper was found,
Andy , Lukasz p, Nicola And Lukasz L attacked spectacle pot.
Ade lead and after a pause to remove his croll
Set off on a sideways squirm followed quickly by James Barradale with a head first dive into the entrance!
Tight going eventually lead to slightly more roomy passage with some low wet crawls and squeezes!,
5 or 6 quite technical pitches followed the the penultimate requiring a committing reach across the pitch to reach the bolts rigged by James but we all rigged a pitch on the way in!.
On the last pitch we heard the spectacle pot team rigging the adjacent pitch a short distance away!
The last pitch dropped us onto the great rubble heap below!
We decided to omit the last dodgy looking pitch to the sump!.
Soon we were joined by the spectacle pot team looking much wetter than us and talked about the wet flat out crawl and the crux of the cave splutter crawl which is basically at the bottom of the first pitch and nearly at the surface!
Conversation ensued and Ade and James opted to return through vesper followed by Lukasz P and Nicola W,
I pondered for a while knowing that if I couldn’t pass splutter crawl it would mean returning through the wet crawls , re rigging and then waiting for the team to re rig vesper to get out !.
Looking at Andy I decided that the size difference wasn’t that great and hoped that I could make it out!
Fingers crossed we set off , Lukasz, first ,me then Andy who stripped the ropes,
On the first pitch I carefully negotiated a large loose looking flake which decided to peel off just as I passed it resulting in a big boom,
Luckily no harm done as Andy was well away from the pitch bottom,
This pitch is known to be loose!
The wet crawls were a little grim but not too bad and progress was soon made to splutter crawl an onion shaped passage just big enough to allow access!
Andy first and Lukasz who had already passed it earlier then me!
The start in reverse is tricky with an old iron ladder leading to a tricky crawl over a narrow rift to the crawl proper!
Pushing a tackle bag didn’t make things easier!.
Wriggling maggot like makes progress until a slight narrowing and a dip in the passage is the crux with the wash from the tackle bag flowing back over your face and little room to avoid it made things interesting to say the least!.
Moving in the superman position was the only way forward progress was possible in such a narrow passage and eventually I emerged into a larger passage way with a little relief!.
A few tricky climbs lead the the entry pitch and the rewarding smell of fresh air and a great sensation of doing a grade 5 through trip!.
Well done to all , and thanks to Andy And Lukasz for returning back through Spectacle pot making the through trip possible .well done to Lukasz P and Nicola who also managed the exchange and thanks to Ade and James for the rigging and a great trip through Vesper !
Time ! I don’t have a clue but prob not that long!.
Pics don’t include spectacle as Lukasz put my phone on his dry box due to the nature of the passages !
Cheers everyone involved!
Words & pictures by Dave Williams