Penyghent Pot - 13th Mar 2010
Saturday March 13th 2010
Members present: Chad B, George Bunyan, Marcus Roby, Marion Holloway, Steven Spall
Report by Marion Holloway
Our drive over to Ingleton was interrupted by a short detour via Kirby Malham, caused by an accident just outside Settle, but thankfully didn’t lose much time. A quick breakfast and shiny thing shop in Bernies (where I almost trod on the dog :s ), and a call out set for 4am meant we were ready to head off on our way to the cave.
After asking the farmer where to park, we found space in the Bradford caving club car park (more on them later!) and had one of the most pleasant changes I’ve experienced to date. We met a caver called Tony who chatted to us and tried to sell George some wellies, stopped to chat to the farmer and then started the walk up to the cave. We took a slightly roundabout route up the hill, following the wrong side of the wall, but thankfully found the cave with little difficulty. I found the walk up really tiring in the heat of the sun, even without my oversuit on properly. Now I know why they call them boil in a bag!
We got to the cave in good time, probably heading underground at about 1. A short clamber down some scaffold, a short crawl and another climb (with footholds like a ladder – brilliant!) and we reached the canal. To say it was pleasant would be a lie, but I had expected worse. The water seemed quite low, with tide marks about 3 inches above the current water level and, despite the cold, I warmed up quickly as I tried to keep up with Chad ahead of me. Ten or fifteen minutes later and we reached the first pitch head, swiftly rigged by Chad and neatly descended between two waterfalls.
The next passage had a low ceiling, meaning even I was forced to stoop for most of it. It was nicknamed “easy passage” on the rigging guide, but my back was soon disagreeing! This led past a couple of short, easy climbs down some cascades to the second pitch, conveniently located round the corner from the top of the waterfall.
Next there was a short passage with some deceptively shallow wading and clambering to the third pitch, hidden under the rock to our left. By the top of this pitch was a Mars Bar wrapper full of a new species of Mars Bar. Maybe the biologists can tell us what they evolve into in a cave environment.... This was the first time i’ve had to follow a traverse line lying on my front and I got a bit tangled with cowstails and legs in a knot behind me and my head seeming to want to dive down the pitch of its own accord. A good bit of wriggling later and I was the right way round and on my way down. The bottom of this pitch led straight onto the fourth, with a short traverse line. I didn’t realise there was a ledge next to the pitch head and took a leap of faith over the edge. Thankfully my feet found it and I was soon zooming down into a large cave. This was by far the best pitch and I managed to get up a good bit of speed on the way down!
Once everyone had made it to the bottom we headed on down the rift, past an unsuspecting frog (it seemed quite happy in the wet!) and followed a few easy climbs up and down (I really liked the number of footholds in this cave!) to the fifth pitch. This was where the rigging started to get a bit scarier, involving naturals and spits. I got a bit stuck on my cowstail on the fifth pitch and it took about 5 or 6 attempts to get it out. I wasn’t the only one though; apparently Marcus had exactly the same problem! A few more short and easy climbs down and we were at coffin pitch (No. 6) which needed a wiggle between two flakes at an interesting angle. At the bottom, Chad and I headed onwards to get on with rigging the next pitch, and I did my first traverse with a tackle sack! A bit hairy to say the least! With Chad’s words of encouragement, a bit of patience and a quick yank I was at the top of Flake. Well named! The rigging consisted of a loop around the top of rock. There were no footholds and my legs were way too short to reach the opposite wall. In the end I gave up trying to lower myself onto the rope and let gravity do the hard work.
At the bottom of Flake, the way on looked even more hairy. The next pitch head was a short climb down a waterfall, again rigged off a rock and nothing else. I was really unsure about heading on: as Chad pointed out there way little he could do to help anyone getting off the top of that pitch. I decided it was probably best to leave the cave there and after a short discussion we decided that George, Steven and I would head out whilst Chad and Marcus headed on down to the bottom. Rather them than me!
Getting back out was a bit of a challenge. The top of flake pitch was a good foot or so under the ledge and my getting off it was more down to George’s efforts than mine! A few yanks on my harness, back across the traverse (thankfully no tacklesack this time), a couple of uneventful pitches and climbs later and we were back in the large chamber (with the frogs). Was it my imagination or did the waterfall seemed heavier than on the way down? And did the seat we waited for everyone on before have water dripping on it? When I’d got up the top of the long pitch, I realized I was right. The third pitch, which had been barely even a trickle on the way down had been transformed into a gushing tower of freezing cold water! I put my hood up whilst waiting on the traverse and I was glad of it! Even in my PVC I got absolutely soaked and frozen on that prussic. I thought it would never end: it was only about 20m high, but because the walls were narrow, prussicing was slow work. I didn’t envy Chad and Marcus having to carry tacklesacks up there too!
When I met Steven at the top of the pitch he seemed worried about the water levels in the canal. I was a bit scared too. Seeing so much water where there hadn’t been any before, and hearing Chuck’s warnings from Thursday ringing in my ears, we headed on but I was contemplating a long wait for the water to subside in one of the upper chambers.
Thankfully we were lucky. After the top of the second pitch, it was obvious that the water level was still below the tide marks we’d seen on the way in, which gave me confidence that the canal would be the same. On getting to the top pitch I saw that it was only an inch or so higher than on the way down. With renewed spirits, I headed on down the crawl going as fast as I could. I was freezing cold after the long wet pitches and just wanted to get some dry clothes! Not much later I was standing on the surface waiting for Steven and George to complete the last climb up the scaffold. We walked quickly back down the hill (on the right side of the wall this time) and back to the car to get changed for about half 9.
We feasted on flapjack in the car and then slept for a couple of hours until we were woken up by Chad and Marcus at about half 12. As we were shanking ropes some of the guys from the Bradford Caving club drove into the car park and invited us in for a cup of tea and a chat. They were lovely and friendly and suggested we spend a weekend away there sometime! (The common room has leather sofas and wifi.... any takers?) We had an uneventful drive home and a stop at Bodrum’s to see Skipton’s finest on a Saturday night (were they ALL born in a field?!) and were back at the container for about 4.
In all, I really enjoyed Pen-y-gent pot, and I’d love to go back in a year’s time and make it to the bottom! I can’t believe how much my caving has improved since my first few trips (Lancaster Hole....) and it was really satisfying to feel confident in the sections I did manage. Big thanks to Chad for an awesome trip!
