Lost John's Cave to Leckfell Master cave (via Dome)!!!

Sunday August 31st 2025

Members present: Asher Goodwin,  Erika Lang,  Flynn Robertson,  Will Barlow

the day started not too early with an 8am start at the pre-packed car. we made it to inglesport promptly and enjoyed a good greasy second breakfast before we headed to the cave.
we managed to get down to the cave by 11.30 (a whole hour earlier than predicted yay) we were slightly concerned that the rain would make it so we couldnt make it down final, but the entrance stream was practically bone dry which gave us hope for reaching the master cave!

i had been quite silly and forgot my kneepads so was excited for bruised knees, however i managed to avoid crawling entirely during the entrance series. this was my first trip that i actually had any kind of responsibility so i experienced the joys of lugging a tacklesack with 85m of rope in it (it felt like walking an incredibly annoying dog). the descent and battleaxe traverse passed with no great issues and we soon got to the bottom of valhalla, the furthest i had been into lost johns previously as we forgot the rope for final. cautious of the weather and predicted rain on the surface we went down final into the master cave for a quick look around and some photos - it was very awesome and felt pretty cool to be at the bottom on my third try!

i sped back out to get up valhalla without slowing everyone down too much, also went up candle and shistol to wait for the others so we could swap around a bit so i could derig! erika went in front of me to be a very good derigging advisor and we yapped the whole time. derigging went smoothly and actually not that slowly, until the cathedral pitch deviation....
after unclipping the sling (and holding on tight) i completely forgot there was a large ledge quite close and i slammed into it so hard that will asked me what the loud thud was. (and he was a pitch an a half away...)
the rest of the derigging went just fine and we made it out into a nice dry and light leck fell! (at 6.45pm)
we finished off with rehmans by the skipton canal :)
10/10 trip