Topic

Good turnout for this one with eight of us in total, after parking up in Clapham and walking up via Trow Gill we soon found ourselves in the shakehole ready to set off. After passing the first two pitches we soon found ourselves at the start of the third pitch, which is quite tight and thrutchy and involves some very colourful language. Once down this pitch the 4th pitch soon follows and from the bottom of this pitch to the point where Christmas Pot enters can be described as entertaining with its wet crawls, tight traverses and several up and down climbs. At the end of this section the going gets a little bit easier and fairly soon we found ourselves at the top of the last pitch, after dropping this and two minutes of caving we arrived at Sledgehammer Pot. After dropping so far through the boulder choke and looking at the tight slot which was the way on to the sump we decided to call it a day and head out.
Trip time 4hrs30
Susan Blackburn, Nigel Steel, Chris Tate, Stu Weston, Phil Baker, Pete James, Ales Hrabec, Keith Mason

Down was sporty, up wasn't Gravity helps, so does baby oil...

Bloody hard crawling, in fact I cannot remember standing up much at all

Fantastic trip - Cheers Keith and Phil

Glad you enjoyed it dude, now you need to do Christmas Pot
Have a word with Anthony, he's got it booked for the 17th November

Very nice trip, it was a good experience to pass all the tight PASSAGES (!) and the bloody pitch...

...and thanks guys for fantastic rigging!

Ales wrote:

Very nice trip, it was a good experience to pass all the tight PASSAGES (!) and the bloody pitch...

Think you have missed the letter 'R' out of passage

17th Busy that day, washing hair haha

Cheers Keith maybe do Xmas Pot at Christmas hehe

An excellent trip, thanks to everyone for taking part, excellent rigging Keith and thanks for de rigging Stu and Ales. Pete we hopefully have a permit for 'its a (christmas) cracker' for the Xmas party in Dec, i must catch up with Alex on that one.
Bit of background on Grange rigg:
Explored in 43 by BSA included Arthur Gemmil (of Gemmil & Myers 'Underground Adventure' fame) and R D Leaky (of Mossdale fame) and was called AG pot short for Arthur Gemmil Pot. It had been suggested (but not proven) that the cave links with Ingleborough cave. In 1962 Christmas pot entered Grange Rigg at the far end of Battleship passarge wich enabled digger easier access to the end of GR. At a later date P5 was extended and entered GR the dye testing in P5 led to Ingleborough cave thus indicating that these caves do reach Ingleborough cave but the physical connection has not been made at time of writing.
David Heaps in Potholing: Beneath the Northern Penines has classed Grange Rigg as a Super Severe along with Spectacle Pot, Quaking, Dowbergill and Simpsons Pot. Bearing in mind this system was introduced as a guide in the days of laddering the caves and when there was no Valley Entrance to get out of Simpsons. Heaps tells us that in 1946 an ex paratrooper died in Grange Rigg of heart faliure from exhaustion. He had difficulty climbing the last pitch and fell. Heaps claims that no injury was sustained during the fall, although time to retrieve him from that point, took its toll and he died near the entrance.

Sounds like well done to all, Grange Rigg is not an easy trip. I am also glad I am not the only who turns the passage blue at the 3rd pitch.

I reccomend its easier naigbour for a decent trip (Pay Sank). It links at the bottom to Grange rig (through that tight slot) so its feasible to do an exchange with GrangeRigg/Chrissmass pot.

nsteel wrote:

An excellent trip, thanks to everyone for taking part, excellent rigging Keith and thanks for de rigging Stu and Ales. Pete we hopefully have a permit for 'its a (christmas) cracker' for the Xmas party in Dec, i must catch up with Alex on that one.
Bit of background on Grange rigg:
Explored in 43 by BSA included Arthur Gemmil (of Gemmil & Myers 'Underground Adventure' fame) and R D Leaky (of Mossdale fame) and was called AG pot short for Arthur Gemmil Pot. It had been suggested (but not proven) that the cave links with Ingleborough cave. In 1962 Christmas pot entered Grange Rigg at the far end of Battleship passarge wich enabled digger easier access to the end of GR. At a later date P5 was extended and entered GR the dye testing in P5 led to Ingleborough cave thus indicating that these caves do reach Ingleborough cave but the physical connection has not been made at time of writing.
David Heaps in Potholing: Beneath the Northern Penines has classed Grange Rigg as a Super Severe along with Spectacle Pot, Quaking, Dowbergill and Simpsons Pot. Bearing in mind this system was introduced as a guide in the days of laddering the caves and when there was no Valley Entrance to get out of Simpsons. Heaps tells us that in 1946 an ex paratrooper died in Grange Rigg of heart faliure from exhaustion. He had difficulty climbing the last pitch and fell. Heaps claims that no injury was sustained during the fall, although time to retrieve him from that point, took its toll and he died near the entrance.

Nice bit of info there Nigel