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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC) and Phil Baker (Masson Caving Group)

We chose Grange Rigg Pot after reading the description in Mike Cooper's excellent book 'Not for the Faint-Hearted'. However, the weather forecast was for mid-afternoon rain so we had to get a move on. By late morning we were striding up through Trow Gill and up towards the entrance to Bar Pot. The Gaping Gill winch meet was on and we could see a small village of BPC tents scattered around the top of GG. The diagram that Mike provides in his book saw us to the entrance to Grange Rigg without any problems and we got kitted up. Standing at the entrance, where two surface streams join to tumble underground we decided that Grange Rigg was probably a cave where the lower reaches could flood dramatically. With this in mind we wanted to be out by 3 O'Clock and set ourselves a turn-around time accordingly. Two hours in, allow three hours out and we wouldn't get stuck! We dropped into the comfortable sized entrance and followed the stream down to a traverse and the top of the first pitch. This 14m pitch is a clear hang down a fine shaft and lands in the streamway at the bottom. A narrow passage leads down to the head of the second pitch (3m) and a short crawl leads to the third pitch (5m). This is descended in two parts with a ledge halfway down and the top of the pitch is particularly awkward. We spent a lot of time looking for a way down the fourth pitch (11m). It turns out that there are three options for the fourth pitch and we explored all these and more before finally descending the correct one on 8mm Spits. From the bottom of the fourth a low crawl leads to some egg-timer shaped passage. By the time we reached here our two hours were up and we turned around. Everything was fine on the way out and we were greeted by fairly persistent rain on the surface. Shame not to have reached the bottom of this one but plan to return on a drier day. An exchange trip between Grange Rigg Pot and Christmas Pot would be excellent.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4042

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC) and Phil Baker (Masson Caving Group)

We arrived at the parking opposite Braida Garth in Kingsdale at lunchtime to find dry and settled weather. Phil had done Rowten years before but I'd never been in there so was particularly looking forward to this trip. We crossed the wall and headed uphill to find the very impressive Rowten entrance shaft. I rigged the first few drops to land on the rock bridge that spans the huge shaft. An easy traverse along a muddy ledge leads to another pitch head, a rebelay and then a short descent leads to a swing into a rift beneath the muddy ledge. Here a straight drop can be rigged from opposite walls of the rift allowing a spectacular descent to huge boulders jammed across the shaft. Impressive place this! One of the biggest open shafts in the country and it has a distinctly Jurassic Park feel about it. Phil took over the rigging here and a pitch head at the left hand end of the boulders leads to a tricky swing into a cross-rift. Here some easy traversing on good ledges leads to the final drop into the streamway at the bottom. We had a quick trip to have a look at the Rowten sumps before heading out up the rope. Despite not doing many big SRT trips recently, the journey out of Rowten didn't feel too bad. I suspect that's because the vertical sections are broken up by short sections of traversing which allow a bit of time to recover. The trip took three hours in total and we emerged to fine afternoon sunshine. We stayed the evening at the YSS hut, Helwith Bridge which provided excellent and reasonably priced accommodation.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Pete Pollard
Cavers: Pete Pollard (EPC), Nige Strong (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Dave Gledhill, Bill (RRCPC)

Me and Nige got a lift with Jase and we met up with Dave Gledhill at Inglesport. Over breakfast we had a quick chat with Bill who went through details of the trip. We entered Ireby Fell via a relatively new route called Bubbles, the reason for the name is interesting and very funny. Our aim for the day was to pass the sump at the end of Duke Street . When we arrived we found that ‘The Dingles’ had been hard at work building a large dam and installing a system of pipes and a brilliantly simple but effective pump. They had already been pumping for quite some time when we arrived and we got stuck in to give them a rest. There were about 13 of us all together and a great team effort paid off in getting the sump low enough to then pass a pipe to the far side and siphon off the dammed up water. The Eldon crew were amongst the first 10 ‘dry’ cavers ever to enter this new passage and we felt very privileged to have been given this opportunity. We were fairly restricted for time but did have chance to have a good mooch round the cave. Back at the Wheatsheaf we met up with some of the party we had entered with and had a bit of a chin wag. I know we all enjoyed it and would like to say a big thank you to Bill, Dave, The Dingles and all the others involved in making a thoroughly great days caving.

 
1. The team in Ireby Fell.