Following old reports on the UKCaving forum regarding an aven in the roof of Geology Pot which lead to a "well decorated chamber" and some bolt climbs, myself and Luke set off for an explore.
I knew that a roof passage leads off from a few metres back from the head of Geology Pot which takes you to a roped traverse line over the Pot, but we'd never been across this nor seen a survey of what may lay ahead. All i knew is that this is potentially an extremely exciting area, with prospects of climbing up to a higher bedding plane and soaring over East Canal in mature phreatics towards Peak!
Choosing the lazy option of surveying back, we gingerly made our way across the dubious ropes and up a calcite ramp the other side. The bolts at the top looked awful, as did what was left of the carabiner. Here the aven carries on up but looks like a quite exposed climb. Ahead the ramp continues on up, under a low arch, into a tall rift chamber. The draught through this arch was strong, which as very surprising as no previous report had mentioned any draughts up here.
We each scaled the rift cavern as far as we dared, me up the northern end and Luke up the south. I got about 10m up where I squeezed myself into a small inlet tube which unfortunately didn't go very far. Making any further progress up the rift from here was very unlikely, so i started surveying back. Luke managed to get up quite high but also got hit with obstacles and in the interests of alcohol we headed out, tying in the survey at the bolts at the top of Geology Pot.
If it wasn't for that draught i doubt i'd return to complete the climb...