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22/3/2015 - Little Hull Pot 22 Mar 2015 19:50 #15246
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- brianc
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After we decided we were doing Little Hull Pot we discovered that it was rigged by Jason. Keith kindly called him to see if we could use the rope and thankfully we were - although the price was that we were to carry two cylinders to the bottom of the cave.
Undeterred by this Stu and I drive to Ingleton at 9 in the morning to meet Jason and pick up the cylinders. We then headed back to the school house to pick up the third member of our part only to discover that Carole (a new member) was there waiting for us. Now a group of 4 we jumped into the car and set off for Horton where finding a park was remarkably easy.
Leaving the cars we headed up the track towards the cave in some beautiful weather. Marcus (another new member) and I were in the lead and we found the cave quite quickly thanks to some good use of google earth and the cavemaps site the night before. We were soon kitted up at the entrance and with only a minor pause to sort out the club SRT kit (which I might add has a freakishly long cowstail on it) we headed inside.
At this point all my fears about carrying dive cylinders underground started to come true. I have recently been learning to dive and they always tell you to be careful with pressurised cylinders and here I was banging them around the place - for the first 10 minutes every time I heard one bang against a rock I clenched a little/lot.
Marcus in particular wasn't very helpful and burst out laughing when he turned around to find me cradling the cylinder in my arms to stop in banging. He did say it was a technique he had never seen before! He was also responsible for a lot of the banging that had me on edge throughout the cave. However, I did what Jason said and made sure I pushed the end of the tank first so that the valve was protected. I comforted myself with the thought that if the valve was to break and the cylinder shoot off then at least it would get Marcus out of my way.
We reached the first pitch and all got down it without much hassle although I think Marcus really wanted to put the deviation near the bottom in. The second pitch had very little water going down it so rather than traversing over it as the rigging guide said we just went straight down. It's a lovely shaft and we got down a bit quicker as Stu abseiled down beside Carole on the other rope.
All good progress so far but then we reached the duck. To be far the duck was quite dry but we had all heard of the bypass and wanted to give it a go. It was fairly obvious where the bypass was and we were soon going through it until we hit a bit of a pinch point at a flake you have to go around. Marcus figured out he could get through feet first so I tried to follow. It took me about 3 attempts and taking off my chest harness to do it (although that was probably me being a wimp). The only way I can think of describing it is like getting a hug from someone who is definitely holding on to tight, touching more of you than you'd like and is causing a rising panic as they are not showing any signs of letting go despite your best efforts at wiggling away.
Anyway we got through but Carole, probably wisely, decided she didn't like it. I crawled through the ducks to show them it wasn't bad but her and Stu decided to head back anyway. I went back through the ducks (I didn't feel like another hug) and Marcus and I trundled along the passage. Despite being told by Jason that we should go up the rope hanging in the passage we thought we knew better and keep going. Unsurprisingly that didn't work very well so while he tried various to get around some rock I went back and up the rope to some high ledges. I continues along the ledge to find Marcus puffing and panting as he tried to climb up from where I had left him. To be fair he did it but it didn't look like he found it easy!
I was incredibly happy to drop off two non-exploded cylinders at the top of the last pitch and we quickly dropped it. I made a point of landing quite quickly just because I could without the cylinder. We climbed up the chimney, did the sandy crawl and were soon at the sump which, from my vantage point, looks quite nice.
As the others had already turned back we didn't delay long and were soon on our way back out of the cave. It was mostly uneventful although Marcus did comment that he missed the instrumental background noise that the cylinder had provided to the earlier part of the trip (can you see why I was so tense ?
).
When we got to the second pitch I went up the waterfall while Marcus went up the "proper" route which saved some time - I then promptly wasted that time by the amount of faffing I did while trying to coil the rope - all while standing in a knee deep pool of water. From there on it was plain sailing, for me anyway, and once I saw Marcus reach the rebelay at the first pitch I headed for the exit.
I found Stu and Carole sitting there in the sun having a lovely time so I joined them for a few minutes until Marcus arrived and then we scooted off down the hill. Good trip, low water and lovely weather for the walk - what more can you ask for!
Members: StuW, Brian, Marcus, Carole
Time: approx 3 hours 15 min (excluding walk to and from car)
Undeterred by this Stu and I drive to Ingleton at 9 in the morning to meet Jason and pick up the cylinders. We then headed back to the school house to pick up the third member of our part only to discover that Carole (a new member) was there waiting for us. Now a group of 4 we jumped into the car and set off for Horton where finding a park was remarkably easy.
Leaving the cars we headed up the track towards the cave in some beautiful weather. Marcus (another new member) and I were in the lead and we found the cave quite quickly thanks to some good use of google earth and the cavemaps site the night before. We were soon kitted up at the entrance and with only a minor pause to sort out the club SRT kit (which I might add has a freakishly long cowstail on it) we headed inside.
At this point all my fears about carrying dive cylinders underground started to come true. I have recently been learning to dive and they always tell you to be careful with pressurised cylinders and here I was banging them around the place - for the first 10 minutes every time I heard one bang against a rock I clenched a little/lot.
Marcus in particular wasn't very helpful and burst out laughing when he turned around to find me cradling the cylinder in my arms to stop in banging. He did say it was a technique he had never seen before! He was also responsible for a lot of the banging that had me on edge throughout the cave. However, I did what Jason said and made sure I pushed the end of the tank first so that the valve was protected. I comforted myself with the thought that if the valve was to break and the cylinder shoot off then at least it would get Marcus out of my way.
We reached the first pitch and all got down it without much hassle although I think Marcus really wanted to put the deviation near the bottom in. The second pitch had very little water going down it so rather than traversing over it as the rigging guide said we just went straight down. It's a lovely shaft and we got down a bit quicker as Stu abseiled down beside Carole on the other rope.
All good progress so far but then we reached the duck. To be far the duck was quite dry but we had all heard of the bypass and wanted to give it a go. It was fairly obvious where the bypass was and we were soon going through it until we hit a bit of a pinch point at a flake you have to go around. Marcus figured out he could get through feet first so I tried to follow. It took me about 3 attempts and taking off my chest harness to do it (although that was probably me being a wimp). The only way I can think of describing it is like getting a hug from someone who is definitely holding on to tight, touching more of you than you'd like and is causing a rising panic as they are not showing any signs of letting go despite your best efforts at wiggling away.
Anyway we got through but Carole, probably wisely, decided she didn't like it. I crawled through the ducks to show them it wasn't bad but her and Stu decided to head back anyway. I went back through the ducks (I didn't feel like another hug) and Marcus and I trundled along the passage. Despite being told by Jason that we should go up the rope hanging in the passage we thought we knew better and keep going. Unsurprisingly that didn't work very well so while he tried various to get around some rock I went back and up the rope to some high ledges. I continues along the ledge to find Marcus puffing and panting as he tried to climb up from where I had left him. To be fair he did it but it didn't look like he found it easy!
I was incredibly happy to drop off two non-exploded cylinders at the top of the last pitch and we quickly dropped it. I made a point of landing quite quickly just because I could without the cylinder. We climbed up the chimney, did the sandy crawl and were soon at the sump which, from my vantage point, looks quite nice.
As the others had already turned back we didn't delay long and were soon on our way back out of the cave. It was mostly uneventful although Marcus did comment that he missed the instrumental background noise that the cylinder had provided to the earlier part of the trip (can you see why I was so tense ?
).When we got to the second pitch I went up the waterfall while Marcus went up the "proper" route which saved some time - I then promptly wasted that time by the amount of faffing I did while trying to coil the rope - all while standing in a knee deep pool of water. From there on it was plain sailing, for me anyway, and once I saw Marcus reach the rebelay at the first pitch I headed for the exit.
I found Stu and Carole sitting there in the sun having a lovely time so I joined them for a few minutes until Marcus arrived and then we scooted off down the hill. Good trip, low water and lovely weather for the walk - what more can you ask for!
Members: StuW, Brian, Marcus, Carole
Time: approx 3 hours 15 min (excluding walk to and from car)
