Topic

Nigel's second excellent suggestion saw 9 of us heading over to Wharfedale for a trip down Langstroth Pot, which several of us had not done before.
Once kitted up we split into two groups of 4 and 5, and set off for the walk up. The group of 5 going in via the original top entrance leaving the other 4 to go in via the middle entrance, with the plan that they would rig from pitch four to the bottom and leave it rigged for the other group
As our group set off from the top entrance, it soon became clear the description in the guide book was pretty accurate and after passing all the wet crawls, squeezes and other obstacles we soon arrived at the second pitch .
At this point we had decided to pull thru as nobody fancied making the trip back out via the top entrance, once we had rigged the pitch, the fun then started as due to the tight nature of the pitch head, it meant I ended up stripping all the gear off my harness and using an italian hitch on my cow's tail but after several minutes I managed to squeeze through it and get to the bottom to be quickly joined by Rich.
After waiting for 25mins whilst the other 3 tried to get through, they eventually shouted down that they were heading back out . So after throwing us the ropes down we head off to an easier 3rd pitch once down this and gear bagged back up we set of along the narrow winding rift....nice to be stood up for a change.
We then bumped into Alex and Stu who had wandered upstream for a look and after informing us where the middle entrance came in and that they had left it rigged we set of for a quick trip to the bottom.
All short pitches and fairly easy caving, compared to the entrance series we had come through...... soon saw us at the bottom and looking at the line disappearing into the first sump . It was at this point we turned tail and headed out for the middle exit, derigging as we went and as we surfaced we were met by the others who had had to endure the entrance series again to make their exit.
An excellent trip, well done Nigel for putting it forward
Trip time 4hrs
Nigel Steel, Rich Rae, Susan Blackburn, Pete James, Keith mason........top entrance
Alex Wallman, Stu Weston, Emma Beecroft, Brian Cullen.......middle entrance

sounds like a good trip
note to self : use middle entrance when i do Langstroth

Excellent trip and entertaining drive there and back with Nigel at the wheel (out and back via Hawes) with rubber being burnt on at least one steep section

Not to mention some exciting rigging on dodgy spits, bolts and naturals down some sportingly wet pitches.

A few photos here: picasaweb.1d5920f4b44b27a802bd77c4f0536f5a-gdprlock/106045156823276013663/YSSJan2012

I was less than surprised to discover (after the trip) that the middle entrance had previously collapsed...