K Mason
Having had a breakfast at the school, it was off to Clapham to try to find somewhere to park, then after getting changed in the freezing cold we set off for the long walk up to Grange Rigg going via Trow Gill.
Once up on the tops we quickly located the shakehole and dropped into it, thus giving us a bit of a break from the cold howling windOnce we were all kitted up and ready for a hard days caving, we dropped into the entrance and started to make our way downstream where we started to warm up a little bit. But unfortunately this didn’t last for long, as after dropping the first and second pitches and some crawling we came to the start of the third pitch.
This involved lying down sideways in the very wet streamway to pass a low calcite section prior to the pitch head, and then to gain access to the pitch involved a tight awkward section which meant a lot of pushing thrutching and swearing to get passed it. Once we were all passed this and at the bottom it was only a few meters to the head of the fourth pitch.
When we had all dropped the fourth pitch and were starting to shiver with the cold, we weren’t looking forward to the next section which was a long low flat crawl in the very wet streamway with a low flake about halfway along to get under, which meant getting very very wet. It was at this point that some of the party nearly sacked it, but with a bit of encouragement we were soon all through it and on our way again.
We then carried on towards Battleship Passage using the upper level, which consisted of a tight meandering rift traverse, rather than using the lower level which would have meant more crawling in an even tighter wet streamway. Once in Battleship Passage we made our way on through to the final pitch of Christmas Pot, which involved some thrutching and a few acrobatic moves but at least we were out of the streamway.
From this point we carried on through some well decorated sections of passage and sporting free climbs to reach the final pitch. Once down this and at the top of Sledge Hammer Pot we decided to call time, as the amount of water that was about would not have made the last section an enjoyable part of the trip.
So having turned around we started to make our way back out, with all of us thinking what fun the crawl in the wet streamway and the third pitch would be to pass in the other direction. Suffice to say we all passed them without too much trouble and we were soon carrying on making our way back to the surface.Once on the surface the only thing left to look forward to was the long walk back to Clapham and getting changed in the freezing cold rain. Then it was back to the school for some well earned grub and a few beers in the Helly. Isn’t caving great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trip time 5hrs (not including the walk up and down)
Lee Langdon, Lisa Wootton, Stu Weston, Keith Mason
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