Whitewell Pot/Cave
Saturday February 7th 2015
Members present: Adam Walmsley, Catherine Moody, Sarah Jefferys
Report by Catherine Moody
The faff began when, having got to the parking layby specified on the permit, I remembered that we'd been given info that there was space for a couple of cars at Tip Wood, and I hadn't arranged with Walmslers at which of the two options we were going to meet. Wem and I had got there early so enjoyed the lovely sunshine and views at the top of the hill for a bit. I noticed that the Forest of Bowland doesn't actually contain all that many trees. After meeting time (11:45) had passed, I turned the car around (quickly, as it was a fairly blind summit) and drove back down the hill to see if there was any sign of Walmslers. Nope. I had to go into the village to find space to turn around again, and was worried he'd scoot past without us noticing, and then seeing that we weren't at the wood would carry on to the top of the hill, which would inevitably lead to further faff. Another quick turn around and we went back up and parked by the wood. While we were waiting we thought we'd wander down to find and have a look at the entrance. Here, it transpired that we would need a spanner to remove the gate over the entrance pipe. I had fully intended to bring one but had managed to forget; Wem had looked at hers while packing and actively decided she didn't need it. Seeing Walmslers drive past we headed back to the cars. The thought of bringing a spanner hadn't even occurred to him. Bums. Now what? Walmslers could drive back and collect his spanner from home, but that would take an hour or more. We decided the best/quickest option would be a road trip to Clitheroe as Walmslers knew a hardware shop where we could find one. On arrival, we quickly found the tool section but lo and behold, there was a gaping hole on the wall where the 13 mm spanners should have been! Thankfully we found a small adjustable one and off we trundled back to Whitewell. Walmslers got changed at lightning speed then proceeded to climb a tree while Wem and I had a more leisurely change then sent him off to start undoing nuts. A fair while later, the gate was finally off and at about 2pm, we were in.
The pipe leads down to the original entrance then a short drop. Walmslers started heading down the obvious passage, remarking that it looked a bit tight and horrible. I remembered from the description (handily provided with the permit, along with a survey) that this wasn’t actually the way on (I think it leads to the Upper Series) so looked for an alternative and sure enough found a couple of concrete lintels and scaff bars down a slightly hidden passage further to the left. In theory the whole cave can be done without gear, and this is what we initially intended to do (albeit it with a couple of ropes of unknown length just in case), but when leaving the dump that morning I elected at the last minute to borrow a BPC ladder as per the rigging guide and was glad that I’d done so - though we could have just gone and got our SRT kits out the car if we'd felt so inclined. The first pitch has a decent number of footholds but the pitch head is a bit awkward and exposed so I whacked our only sling (I had another in the car but forgot to bring it and couldn’t be bothered to go back and get it. Who needs back-ups? Ahem. We are good cavers, honest...) round a lintel and attached the ladder. With the other two body belaying, I half laddered/half climbed down the short pitch into the chamber. A step in the wrong direction here finds you in quicksandy type silt, a mistake both Wem and I made, accompanied by a short squeal. Next, a short crawl leads to the second “pitch” – a series of small chambers with smaller sections in between. Footholds were in abundance so I started heading down. At the second constriction, which was narrower than the first, it belled out below and I couldn’t see many obvious footholds beneath, nor how deep it went. I called up that a rope would be handy, but they might as well rig from one of the naturals further up, since I’d let gravity help me down the previous little bit. It was at this point that Wem sent a football sized boulder flying down the pitch past my head. After a plea to be careful, they rigged the random rope that Walmslers had brought (with some weird snapgate attached with what looked like inner tube – he said he just found the rope in his garage, as you do) and sent it down and I rebelayed off another of the many naturals. It turned out the climb wasn’t too bad but it was nice to have the security of the handline. A couple more rebelays and we were at the final (~3 m) drop, which I didn’t fancy the look of so much so sent Walmslers first in case we needed to stand on him. Climbing half way then jumping seemed to do the job though.
Next was a narrow slithery tube down to the sump; turning right just before it pops out into a chamber into which water flows down a ramp. Up the ramp and under the arch leads to a T-junction. On the approach I could hear Walmslers giggling and it turned out he had found a mud sculpture of a man's face. At the junction I sent Walmlsers off left first, with Wem following; the sounds coming from in front of me weren’t encouraging but I told them to get on with it. I soon found out what the fuss was about when the flat out, wet muddy crawl lowered to a wet muddy squeeze and water started rushing into my suit. Uck. A bit of hip wriggling and squealing and I popped out to join the others in a small chamber with another ramp. A little further on round the corner is another wet squeeze after which the passage bends round a corner and out of sight. I took my helmet off and poked my head through but it seemed even tighter than the last and what I could see of the passage didn’t look inviting (i.e., it was small and wet). The others certainly didn’t fancy it either so it was about turn to explore the other direction.
The flat out crawling the other way from the junction was at least dry and quite fun, but again the passage doesn’t last too long before ending at a silted section, though it does increase to walking size for a while. On the way back I spotted a hole in the roof with a window into a small aven. I couldn’t see any lights from the others ahead so I assume it doesn’t connect with the main passage and it would be interesting to know if anyone’s ever had a proper look up there. We passed some more mud sculptures, these ones a bit ruder, as well as two outlets (marked as choked on the survey). As we neared the t-junction again, Wem asked “does this way actually go anywhere?” “Yes, the exit; it’s the way we've just come!” Silly Wem, she wasn't having a good day.
Back at the arch at the top of the ramp there is a way up over the top which leads to a couple of avens and a tiddly grotto. On the right on the way up to the avens though is a small window which leads back to the bottom of the main pitch – well, to a few metres above the bottom of the pitch. We sent Walmslers the mountain goat through first and he declared that the climb down was fine so we followed, making a nice little round trip and avoiding the slithery section which I imagine would have been rather a pain on the way back up.
The climb back up the pitches, as is generally the case, was much easier on the way up and rather fun and the rope became fairly redundant. We declared the lifeline on the ladder redundant too and just got on with it. (We are good cavers, honest. We’re not usually this cowboy. It’s probably for the best that Rachel didn’t come though...) At the bottom of the entrance pipe, the remnants of the old entrance provide a nice concrete platform for shanking ropes and coiling ladders (whoever had coiled the ladder last had done a shoddy job – I've now made it beautiful!) Back out the entrance at about 5pm, we spent an age rebolting the gate, Walmslers retrieved his car keys from the safe hiding place under a pile of leaves, and then we headed back to the cars where we were treated to a glorious sunset while we got changed. Splendid! Oh, and Walmslers climbed another tree.
