Topic

Although this was rather a Black Rose trip, two participants were technically YSS members so I dare to write this trip report up.

We all meet at Inglesport for a proper breakfast and some discussion above the Black Book of Death. Despite the nice weather we stick to our previous plan and that is Trapdoor. It's a fantastic day with sun shining over the white hills with a majestic Lake District in distance. Getting changed is rather unpleasant but we soon feel warmer as we walk uphill. I feel relieved once we find the right shakehole since my toes are falling apart. We abseil down the entrance pitch to find the cave heat...

After a few minutes we hit the first obstacle on the trip: the Ripper. All of us make it through except for Don who must call it a day here. Four of us carry on. Without any difficulties we pass the Gripper and soon emerge at the Striper. Alex goes through with the big beast with another 70 meters of rope followed by Chris. After a few attempts this seems to be a stop point for Chris. Second Chris makes it through without any difficulties and it's my turn. I try head first, feet first and it seems to be hopeless and I'm almost sure that I have to turn around. Luckily I give it another go and pass! We carry on to the last two pitches: Magnetron and Electron. And to the bottom.

The way out is much much harder I find. The three squeezes are not too bad but all the other bits which I barely noticed on the way down are hammering. After five hours we are back to the surface, just at the right time for a fantastic sunset....and bloody cold blizzard.

It's a proper grade 4 when getting changed it's not over! Alex's car strikes because of the cold so I have to push him downhill to get it started. All in all, a good day out in a nice cave!

Party: Don, Chris S, Chris C (BRCC), Ales, Alex R
Trip time: 5 hrs

What features n particular made the exit so difficult Ales, I did not get through the Ripper last time I went down, but have started to loose a bit of weight and might make a return trip with you someday. Did you get to 'they think its all over'?

Got all the way down. We looked at They think it's all over but it seems to be quite mental, a massive swing is necessary, even Alex Ritchie tried a few times. You need probably to 'laso' a stalactite on the other side

What features, the climb up below the bottom squeeze is difficult, and the crawl above 3rd to last pitch as it involved some interesting manoeuvres to get tackle through.

I wrote a trip report on the "other" website:

www.brcc.org.uk/forums/topic/trapdoor-pot-31012015/