Bar Pot - 17 Jan 2009

Saturday January 17th 2009

Members present: Chad B,  Kevin Francis,  Lucy Dablin,  Matt Gosling,  Mike Rippon

Wow! What an epic caving trip down Bar Pot to see Gaping Gill with ‘Team Rhythm’ (Matt, Kev, Mike, Lucy and Chad). Matt G, our leader and rigging machine seemed to admire his rigging more than the cave lol! :p That entrance to Bar Pot was tight, I thought I was stuck at one point but after much wriggling and cursing I was through, Kev said that all us fresher’s made the common newbie mistake of trying pass the pitch head standing up rather than sitting down and lowering ourselves down… next time then! Once through the tight stuff I descended into the opening and had a good look around I just said, ‘wow this is amazing’ which got a chuckle from Matt and Mike at the bottom of the first pitch (Entrance pitch ~ 13 m). After we were all down it was through the Greasy Slab and off to the traverse leading to the main pitch. The Main pitch was a massive smoothly formed pothole (~ 30 m), nature looking at its finest in an unfamiliar way to me. Mike and I were fascinated. Now all the descending at been completed the anticipation of seeing Gaping Gill was increasing…. After quite a bit of scurrying and crawling around though some passages we entered Gaping Gill. Breathtaking! The sight, the sound of this huge water fall typifies why people go caving. We all turned off our lights and looked up to the top of Gaping Gill to see the water cascading down from the top of the hole in the ground; I couldn’t stop looking at this amazing sight!!! During our picnic in the chamber we started playing around with chemiluminescent lights sticks and fluorescent jackets (yes I know Kev had to dress me :o ) Lucy had the rhythm with those light sticks. So after our sight seeing it was off out, certainly as lot more physical than coming down. Those prussics just have to get done, Matt and Kev were great with the amount of advice they were giving us. Quite bizarre at the top of the main pitch, I was the second one up; Matt was on the traverse line… as I was clipping in to the traverse line off the pitch rope a random lone caver appeared, Matt thought it was Andy G from the team doing Flood entrance and shouted out ‘who the bloody hell is that…. Andy?’ It wasn’t and soon he disappeared off…maybe Matt scared him off lol! think Kev saw him at the Greasy Slab area, not what you expect when trying to get off the rope. The Greasy Slab was a real arse to get up, did not like that one. Then it was up the last pitch to get out, probably found it easier getting out the tight bit than I did getting in, however I did stop and think how am I going to get up any further at which point Matt popped his head over and told me to get out to the side, looked and there it was the way out, using the traverse line, my hand jammer was very useful in dragging me out. Every one was out, spirits were high despite the drizzle and gusty wind… it was such a nice day beforehand. What a fantastic journey into the unknown from start to finish, everyone was just so happy with how the trip went, everyone should see Gaping Gill!!! Team Rhythm - on it! Thanks guys. 8) 8) 8)