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

Sunday August 31st 2025

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

We arrived on Leck Fell with minimal delay and shortly set off from the car after changing for the pleasantly short walk to the cave. Erika was to rig the first few pitches, so led the way with the 3 of us in tow. A short walk down the relatively dry stream, we reached the first short pitch down towards Dome. The short rope down led to a short walk before we reached the next short rope, Vestry pitch. Followed in quick succession by Cathedral pitch, which provides a rather nice descent. Next up was Dome pitch, the rigging providing nice access to the window through to the passage where Centipede and Dome meet.

Despite Erika’s flawless rigging, the baton of rigging was passed to me from here. Dome junction pitch provided very little resistance, nor did Candle and Shistol. A short distance ahead we reached the start of the infamous Battle-axe traverse. An awesome traverse across 15 anchors, really fun to rig. The y-hang for Valhalla requires you to thread the needle a bit, to avoid rubbing on either the rock just below the y-hang, or a ledge a few metres down. After a minute of careful y-hanging, I made the descent. An awesome 40m later, I reached the bottom. It was relatively dry down there, compared to my last visit where the bottom was very comparable to that of Diccan. So a quick scout allowed me to determine that Final pitch was indeed passable, something that we were unable to do on my last visit here. The anchors for Final took a minute to locate, I was a bit thrown off by two random IC anchors that were positioned quite high above the stream. With a little help from Erika they were eventually found, rising above the stream, leading to the pitch head. A nice short pitch leading down into some shallow (on this occasion) water.

With the pitches now complete, we had a quick bimble into the master cave, including a stop for some photography. Not wanting to hang around too much, we began to head back out. First up for derigging was me, Final pitch was ascended and derigged with haste. Valhalla also provided minimal difficulties for us, everyone making it up in good time. At the top of Valhalla some good teamwork allowed for some efficient rope packing. We had a good system going derigging Battle-axe as well, I would be derigging and Erika was packing the rope as we went, allowing record time Battle-axe derigging. Candle and Shistol was the last pitch I derigged, before handing over to Asher. From here Flynn and I took the lead, making it up Dome Junction, Dome, and Cathedral with relative ease. Whilst waiting near the top of Vestry, I heard somewhat of a bang, followed by some indistinct voices. Being unable to hear what was going on, and also slightly worried, I started to head back to make sure everything was ok. Fortunately Flynn, being slightly closer than I was, was able to make out Erika asking Asher if he was ok, which he was. I later found out that this was Asher bashing himself into the wall opposite the Pulpit deviation after derigging it. The rest of the way out was straight forward, and went without issue. Emerging onto a very pretty Leck Fell completed the trip, high fives all round to mark the occasion.

Overall really enjoyable trip, good vibes and great teamwork.