Pippikin Pot - 12th Dec 2009

Saturday December 12th 2009

Members present: Ben Reynolds,  Luke Gardiner,  Nicola Gover,  Richard Gover,  Simon Herrod

Oh dear we don't seem to have endeared Luke to this cave! I enjoyed it in hindsight, and enjoyed about the first half on the day, then I got a bit demoralised by the never-ending rift and extra climb and streamway some of us did!
The lovely farmer up at Leck Fell Farm not only let us park in the farmyard and walk across his land, but also let us change in the cowshed (the cow free side) out of the wind! Found the entrance fairly quickly (follow the wall down til it kinks, walk right and slightly uphill until you see a shakehole with a tree and go upstream in the dry streambed til you find it) and the fun began!
The first few squeezes were fairly easy (to the scaff bar, across the bedding plane/rifty bit with the hole at the end, and through the eyehole (feet first is best!)) and i took my SRT kit off for the next one (our limit last time) although i dont think i needed to and i had to put it back on at the pitch head immediately afterwards! Another small squeeze then on to the hardest one (I thought) where you squeeze downhill onto a scaff bar then climb down. I managed the squeezing fine and got to the scaff bar, but then basically fell on Rich when climbing down! I then had to sit down for a while so I wasnt sick-exerting yourself downhill with pressure on your stomach with a hangover is not good!
Another pitch and squeeze or two and we were on our way to the last pitch. Turns out this is by means of a really small rift where I had to take off my harness then my helmet, and then we three at the back managed to climb down a big hole and continue into the streamway when we should have stayed at the top! Realised after a while but then we lost Luke who was in front. Found him at the bottom of an awkward squeeze down that turned out to be near impossible to get up again! A bit of stress, a harness removal and a pull up later and he was up :-).
Climbed an impromptu pitch to get out the hole again and then we were at the last pitch, where i got stuck on my SRT stuff and got very tired! I was a bit grumpy by this point! Luckily we were now in the Pippikin streamway and I knew it wouldnt take long to get out. Completely lost all strength but managed to crawl out to a beautiful sunset, then climb back up the frosty hill to the barn, and dinner!

What I have learned: Do not do Pippikin on no sleep and enormous amounts of Golden Pippin. Do not continue into the streamway. Get an Omni.