Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4616

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC) and various members of the Masson Caving Group

I'd travelled up to Yorkshire a day before the rest of the Eldon and was hoping to get into Lost Johns; a cave I'd not been in before. In Inglesport in the morning it seemed like most cavers in the cafe were going to be in Lost Johns so we needed something different to avoid the likely queues. There had been a fair bit of rain over the last couple of days so we had to pick our cave. The Twilight Zone route in Notts Pot sounded like a good dryish SRT trip and we went for that. The other three blokes I was with had all done this route before but I'd never been in Notts Pot so it was a good opportunity to see a new cave. We drove up to Leck Fell and got changed in cold rain. Walked over to the entrance, a large shakehole about fifteen minutes walk from the Leck Fell parking, and abseiled in. The first pitch is quite short and is split by a rebelay on a good ledge. This landed us in the bottom of the shakehole and an obvious passage leads off under the wall. After a short crawl there's an easy handline climb down leading to the Main Chamber. This is where various routes go off and the Twilight Zone route follows an easy rising traverse which leads to a pitch-head after a short distance. Abseiling down the pitch past a deviation leads to a swing into the side of the shaft where there's a connection with a parallel shaft. Possible to abseil past this rebelay but look out for some tat which helps the rigger pull himself over to the bolts. Rebelay here and abseil down partway before another swing into a window leads to more straightforward abseiling to reach the Lower Streamway. From here a gently rising traverse leads to a cramped pitch-head with three bolts to rig from. Another swing partway down allowed us to gain a ledge system and another rising traverse. This leads to a neat pitch-head and pitch down in a very impressive chamber with loads of water falling out of the roof. A deviation half way down kept us clear of most of the water. At the bottom of this pitch a final short pitch leads to the two final sumps. On the way out I heard a shout from above and saw something fly past. Arriving at the top of the pitch I met another group on one of the traverses and apparently someone's head torch had come past me after coming off a helmet. The rest of the trip out was uneventful although there was definitely more water on the handline climb on the way out.

The Twilight Zone route in Notts Pot is an excellent SRT trip which has some entertaining traverses and pitches. Plenty of good technical SRT and you're on rope almost all of the time.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4285

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Dan Hibberts (EPC), Col Walsh (Masson Caving Group)

After substantial alterations were made to the top of the 12m rift climb beyond the Bag o' Worms on the previous trip the intention of this trip was to go in and stabilise it all. More scaff, planks, clips and other equipment was carried in and ferried carefully up the 12m climb and into the chamber at the top. Whilst Dan and Col made a start on installing some scaffolding in the top of the rift I went to fetch equipment from the end of the cave. Good progress was made with the scaffolding and eventually a sound frame was built to support the two side walls and roof above the exit from the climb. Whilst this part of Hungerhill still needs to be treated with care the situation at the top of the 12m rift climb is undoubtedly better than before.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4296

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Dan Hibberts (EPC), Sam Townsend (EPC)

The aim of this trip was to give some support to the loose rock near the top of the 12m rift climb on the far side of the Bag o' Worms. At the top of the climb is a boulder choke and after a number of trips through this choke by various Eldon members over the previous couple of months we were keen to stabilise the boulders here for the future. One of the most worrying spots was just as you entered the chamber at the top where the route lay underneath two large and one small boulder that seemed poised to fall if disturbed. A large upright slab on the left side (looking down from the top) also seemed to be resting on these and there was some concern that if we moved the three in the middle of the choke this large slab would fall into the hole blocking the exit. A sizeable quantity of scaff bars, clips, planks and other equipment was carried in to join the other stuff that was already in the cave and we transported the kit up to the chamber above the 12m rift climb. After a bit of digging another scaff bar was needed so I went down to the Bag o' Worms to retrieve that. A loud bang shortly after signified some major alterations in progress and it sounded as though things had taken a turn for the worst when Dan and Sam let me know that they had sealed themselves in. At this stage there was nothing I could do except turn my light off and wait. Fortunately we could communicate quite easily by shouting and the amount of rock heading south made me think that spirits were still high. After a quick look up underneath the bottom of the choke I retreated back to the Bag o' Worms whilst Dan and Sam took steps to free themselves. During this period there were some large bangs as sizeable pieces of spar and limestone came down the rift. Another shout from Dan that things weren't going well gave some cause for concern but we weren't expected out until midnight so there was plenty of time for them to dig themselves out. More rock hammered down the rift until eventually a hole big enough to climb through was created and Dan and Sam made their way carefully down out of the choke. The three boulders that we had been climbing underneath on previous trips had been dropped to the floor of the chamber and digging forwards by Dan and Sam into the slope above had essentially created a new wider and easier way in to the chamber. It seemed sensible to give all this some time to settle so we exited back up Deep Space and out of the cave.