A team of five assembled early at Bull Pot Farm for this classic through trip. Just a few icy patches where left on the paths, and most of the recent snow had now thawed. Lancaster Hole had several ropes down it already, but with everyone abseiling stright down from the top with no re-belays we were all down in about 30 minutes.
After a quick detour to see the Collonades we headed to Fall Pot (seeing some other cavers leaving up the far slopes as we arrived). With two young cavers in our team (Andrew and Matty) we protected the slippery fixed rope descent with a top rope.
Heading into Montague East we briefy stopped to enjoy the spectacular formations at Bob's Boss and Painters Palette before carrying on to Stake Pot.
The Painters Palette in the Hight Level Series
Once again we top roped the youngsters across the exposed descent and re-ascent at Stake Pot, and then continued past the minarets before stopping for a bite to eat. Ian was overheating and briefly stripped down to his undies much to everyone elses amusement! I won't put the photo of this on here, but you can see it on the slideshow!
The Minarets
Exiting the Minarets
Passing through the silent Cornes Cavern and Monster Cavern soon we were at the fixed ladder leading us down into Stop Pot and everyone had a drink of water from the river. A cold section in quite deep water in the Stop Pot boulder choke took us downstream to Eureka Junction.
Mark tackling the boulder choke in the main streamway at Stop Pot
All that remained was the long twisting passages of Wretched Rabbit, always good entertainment, everyone seemed to have plenty of energy left to tackle the awkward climbs and crawls of this classic bit of passage.
In the Wretched Rabbit Meanders
After roping the lads up the last climbs we arrived on the surface at twilight, 6 hours after starting. A very good effort for a team of 5 including two novices annd two 13 year olds! All that remained was to walk back across the moor in the fading daylight and then return to Lancaster Hole to get out ropes.
Sounds like a good trip, especially with the mixed team. I like the sound of Steak Pot (see topo) is the recipe going to be put on the blog so we can all try it at home?
in 1971 i was a member of the earby pot hole club. i was lucky enough to to be a member of the team that discovered equinox chamber , plus a few other passages etc: I am too old to pot hole now, but i have very fond memories of my time with the club pushing new passages etc:. Barry Cooper
I was a member of the Red Rose CPC....who pirated the new Earby find and hid behind rocks when we heard them coming. Of course we were discovered! Good fun at the time - the Earby Series was one of the first big steps in creating todays Three Counties System
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Sounds like a good trip, especially with the mixed team. I like the sound of Steak Pot (see topo) is the recipe going to be put on the blog so we can all try it at home?
in 1971 i was a member of the earby pot hole club. i was lucky enough to to be a member of the team that discovered equinox chamber , plus a few other passages etc: I am too old to pot hole now, but i have very fond memories of my time with the club pushing new passages etc:.
Barry Cooper
I was a member of the Red Rose CPC....who pirated the new Earby find and hid behind rocks when we heard them coming. Of course we were discovered! Good fun at the time - the Earby Series was one of the first big steps in creating todays Three Counties System
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