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Grange Rigg Pot (4 January 2025) 14 Jan 2025 12:40 #21828
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- LukasLangowski
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Meets list trip for Saturday was Grange Rigg Pot/ Christmas Pot. However, night before, despite large number of people present at the hut, not many were keen for a Black Book trip, especially taking into account long walk in to the cave in wintery weather conditions. I've counted three possible participants for a Grange Rigg including myself. Looking at the 'strength' of this team and the fact that none of us been there I went sleep assuming that it's not happening and we will join other team into Notts Pot (fine for me since I've never been there either).
Everything has changed in the morning with arrival of Phil -keen as a bean for a harder trip. We Are Back Into The Game!
Soon ropes were bagged, we headed to Clapham and started long uphill walk to the cave on a frosted track. "Here's the crazy ones" -some dog walker comented. Just about right! Thanks to modern technology, shakehole and the entrance -blocked by large boulder were located with no isuues. Warmed up by uphill walk we've put SRT kits on and entered cave. Matt, Phill, James and myself at the end. With Matt wanting to rig and no objections from Phil -definitely sharpest knife in this drawer- we've arrived at fitst pitch. After short traverse above ever descending stream we abseiled down what turnsout to be a fine dry pitch, soon followed by another one, this time very short. As we followed down the passage, it was getting narrower to the point where one can comfortably stand, but passing would be impossible. At this point progress has stalled.
While queuing up for whatever is in front of me I took an opportunity to check CNCC route description stating that before third pitch there should be a "puddle under a black calcite arch". Quick look over James' shoulder made it clear: that's where we are. Eventually Matt and Phil got down the rope, James started his fight in a rather tight rift. At least I had a chance to have a look at oncoming battle. Only one thought: "Is this where the fun starts?" Not sure what type of fun, yet!
Within next few moments it became clear that James is quite not happy with rather narrow rift passage. One thing is to force yourself down, coming back up might be an issue. He decides to bail out, regreting not joining team heading to Notts Pot. With all that, I've proceeded to the pitch head performing suprisingly smooth descend to rejoin remaining two companions in widening passage and stream dissapearing somwhere under the feet. Looking for the bolts for the next pitch we followed the passage steping over couple deep potholes untill anchors matching CNCC rigging topo were found. One short pitch followed another one just after few metres. Second one out of those two had a good quality in situ rope, so we decided to use it and soon it turned out that this pitch is more of an narrow chimney that can be climbed down using rope as handline.
Soon after that, passage became "egg-timer shaped" and at this point I've realised that rigging topo we followed made us bypass fourth pitch and wet crawl! Inconsistence between CNCC rigging topo and route description became apparent but rather than going back up in search for a "fourth pitch" we just carried on Anemolite Crawl, fine hands'n'knees crawl passage with narrow rift between legs -wide enough to keep you alert but too narrow to fall/get stuck into it. Crawl ended soon with rather sporty 3m climb down into Battleship passage and then another, less significant climb up to the roof and back down into streammway, just to face a little dilema: carry onwards into low, wet crawl or try yourself into dry and tight sideways passage. Matt and Phil opted for crawl but at this point I was determined to stay dry. In no time I found myself on the other side with the rest of the team soon backing up from the crawl and following my steps.
We found ourselves in a spacious chamber where Christmas Pot enters from aven above. In a search of next pitch we followed down very well decorated passage. Until now decorations were scarce, making it hard to believe we are still in the same cave. Impressive! After that and some climbing down between car sized boulders last two short pitches were tackled landing us at the bottom of wide rift.
By the time I've finished descending last pitch, Matt was already snooping down short scramble on collapsed blocks to what supposed to be way towards "Drain Pipe". Several metre long and narrow rift seemed impossible at the begining but widening up a bit further down. Despite signs of traffic, instead we turned our attention to hole between colapsed blocks just to the right. To maximise chances of success we decided to drop SRT kits and Phil -most entusiastic on this new, little task/adventure, proceeded into the "play area".
Legs first, he dropped down the hole and then using worm-like moves carried on for couple of metres on his back into unknown, still legs first, passing connection into a tight rift we all were dreading of. Waiting for a development, listening to the noises of fight between man and a cave, suddenly we can hear: "It's a dead end!" At this moment we all realised that the way on is into a rift through that little connection, hoping that at this point, gap is more inviting than from position where me and Matt were standing. After performing a u-turn that would make more than few yoga instructors impressed, he carried on short distance just to dissapear behind the corner. Without any further waiting I've followed Phil's footsteps into some sort of s-bent connecting to "Drain Pipe" -fine, shoulder wide passage, almost perfectly round, with small gutter at the bottom filled with water. Few metres of that and I've arrived in fairly large and tall chamber where Phil was waiting for me had he already checked out the sump -small puddle of standing, muddy water in the corner.
While waiting to see if Matt is following us, I've noticed a window around three metres above the floor. Following a quick assessment of holds, I've climbed up just to come across new passage heading into the darkeness. It resembled a portal to Darbyshire so unkeen for a muddy games I've climbed back down thinking this must be connection to the Pay Sank. Assuming that Matt is not joining us, we headed back to the bottom of last pitch where we found "Mars bar hacksaw" and than started our return journey to the surface with myself de-rigging.
Maybe not the fastest but steady pace brought us back to the to the entrance with only one major break -the bottleneck at third pitch, where Matt had to temporarily remove some of his garments allowing him smooth transition through the upper -tight part.
On the surface we were welcomed by freezing temperature but at least it was breezy making windchill even worse. Without further ado we rushed downhill towards Clapham in hope that brisk pace will help us to warm up a bit.
Trip time (inside the cave): 7.5hrs
Team: Matt, Phil, James, Lukas
Everything has changed in the morning with arrival of Phil -keen as a bean for a harder trip. We Are Back Into The Game!
Soon ropes were bagged, we headed to Clapham and started long uphill walk to the cave on a frosted track. "Here's the crazy ones" -some dog walker comented. Just about right! Thanks to modern technology, shakehole and the entrance -blocked by large boulder were located with no isuues. Warmed up by uphill walk we've put SRT kits on and entered cave. Matt, Phill, James and myself at the end. With Matt wanting to rig and no objections from Phil -definitely sharpest knife in this drawer- we've arrived at fitst pitch. After short traverse above ever descending stream we abseiled down what turnsout to be a fine dry pitch, soon followed by another one, this time very short. As we followed down the passage, it was getting narrower to the point where one can comfortably stand, but passing would be impossible. At this point progress has stalled.
While queuing up for whatever is in front of me I took an opportunity to check CNCC route description stating that before third pitch there should be a "puddle under a black calcite arch". Quick look over James' shoulder made it clear: that's where we are. Eventually Matt and Phil got down the rope, James started his fight in a rather tight rift. At least I had a chance to have a look at oncoming battle. Only one thought: "Is this where the fun starts?" Not sure what type of fun, yet!
Within next few moments it became clear that James is quite not happy with rather narrow rift passage. One thing is to force yourself down, coming back up might be an issue. He decides to bail out, regreting not joining team heading to Notts Pot. With all that, I've proceeded to the pitch head performing suprisingly smooth descend to rejoin remaining two companions in widening passage and stream dissapearing somwhere under the feet. Looking for the bolts for the next pitch we followed the passage steping over couple deep potholes untill anchors matching CNCC rigging topo were found. One short pitch followed another one just after few metres. Second one out of those two had a good quality in situ rope, so we decided to use it and soon it turned out that this pitch is more of an narrow chimney that can be climbed down using rope as handline.
Soon after that, passage became "egg-timer shaped" and at this point I've realised that rigging topo we followed made us bypass fourth pitch and wet crawl! Inconsistence between CNCC rigging topo and route description became apparent but rather than going back up in search for a "fourth pitch" we just carried on Anemolite Crawl, fine hands'n'knees crawl passage with narrow rift between legs -wide enough to keep you alert but too narrow to fall/get stuck into it. Crawl ended soon with rather sporty 3m climb down into Battleship passage and then another, less significant climb up to the roof and back down into streammway, just to face a little dilema: carry onwards into low, wet crawl or try yourself into dry and tight sideways passage. Matt and Phil opted for crawl but at this point I was determined to stay dry. In no time I found myself on the other side with the rest of the team soon backing up from the crawl and following my steps.
We found ourselves in a spacious chamber where Christmas Pot enters from aven above. In a search of next pitch we followed down very well decorated passage. Until now decorations were scarce, making it hard to believe we are still in the same cave. Impressive! After that and some climbing down between car sized boulders last two short pitches were tackled landing us at the bottom of wide rift.
By the time I've finished descending last pitch, Matt was already snooping down short scramble on collapsed blocks to what supposed to be way towards "Drain Pipe". Several metre long and narrow rift seemed impossible at the begining but widening up a bit further down. Despite signs of traffic, instead we turned our attention to hole between colapsed blocks just to the right. To maximise chances of success we decided to drop SRT kits and Phil -most entusiastic on this new, little task/adventure, proceeded into the "play area".
Legs first, he dropped down the hole and then using worm-like moves carried on for couple of metres on his back into unknown, still legs first, passing connection into a tight rift we all were dreading of. Waiting for a development, listening to the noises of fight between man and a cave, suddenly we can hear: "It's a dead end!" At this moment we all realised that the way on is into a rift through that little connection, hoping that at this point, gap is more inviting than from position where me and Matt were standing. After performing a u-turn that would make more than few yoga instructors impressed, he carried on short distance just to dissapear behind the corner. Without any further waiting I've followed Phil's footsteps into some sort of s-bent connecting to "Drain Pipe" -fine, shoulder wide passage, almost perfectly round, with small gutter at the bottom filled with water. Few metres of that and I've arrived in fairly large and tall chamber where Phil was waiting for me had he already checked out the sump -small puddle of standing, muddy water in the corner.
While waiting to see if Matt is following us, I've noticed a window around three metres above the floor. Following a quick assessment of holds, I've climbed up just to come across new passage heading into the darkeness. It resembled a portal to Darbyshire so unkeen for a muddy games I've climbed back down thinking this must be connection to the Pay Sank. Assuming that Matt is not joining us, we headed back to the bottom of last pitch where we found "Mars bar hacksaw" and than started our return journey to the surface with myself de-rigging.
Maybe not the fastest but steady pace brought us back to the to the entrance with only one major break -the bottleneck at third pitch, where Matt had to temporarily remove some of his garments allowing him smooth transition through the upper -tight part.
On the surface we were welcomed by freezing temperature but at least it was breezy making windchill even worse. Without further ado we rushed downhill towards Clapham in hope that brisk pace will help us to warm up a bit.
Trip time (inside the cave): 7.5hrs
Team: Matt, Phil, James, Lukas
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