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

Sunday August 31st 2025

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

Cautious of the heavy and frequent rain we had had during the week, our flood-proof cave of choice for our Sunday trip was, of course, Lost Johns’. Since all of us had been to Lost Johns’ previously, yet none of us had actually made it all the way to the Leckfell master cave, we decided today would be the day we all made it down. To provide some interest and variety I suggested taking Dome, as Will and Flynn had only seen Centipede.

I rigged most of Dome before handing off to Will who continued rigging from Dome Junction. The legendary Battle-axe traverse was made considerably easier by Will’s careful rigging, as well as the Valhalla pitch which has some potential rope-rubbing areas, all of which Will managed to avoid. Descending Valhalla was very impressive, as was the final pitch which has a lovely pool at the bottom. We explored a bit of the Leckfell master cave, stopping for some pictures and snacks before heading out.

Will derigged until Dome Junction, after which I supervised Asher and tried to give helpful tips for derigging deviations. This went pretty smoothly until the second deviation, which Asher derigged and then swung quite hard into the wall opposite, making a pretty loud bang. Thankfully he was not seriously injured, his pride probably more so than his back (as implied by his immediate “Please don’t tell Will!”). Looking back through my camera the next day I noticed I managed to catch Asher’s swing in a photo, which will be in the gallery for this trip :) We made it back up to Will and Flynn, who had heard the scary bang and were relieved to see us both alive and unharmed. We continued on, out the cave and emerged into beautiful Leckfell once again.

As this was my first Dales cave after coming back from Slovenia, I expected to have a difficult time finding anything very interesting after the incredible caves I saw there, but Lost Johns’ as always came through and it was a great trip. We celebrated with high-fives and a Rehman’s dinner down by the Skipton canal before heading home. Everyone popped into mine to see Bertha, my new toad (this being Flynn’s first introduction), and Will attempted to ethically remove some spiders from my house but they all saw him coming and quickly ran away. But I had such a good day that this did not bother me too much, and I fell asleep dreaming of a Dome/Monastery exchange which would finally complete my exploration of Lost Johns’ Cave.