Crock Pot

02/12/15

Back to Waterfall Swallet, this time to have a look down Crock Pot.

Now a bit more familiar with the place, we wandered down to the shake hole to find the water much higher than last week; there now a very obvious lake forming in the base of the doline. It was forecast to rain all evening and was already drizzling, so we initially thought twice but decided to have a cautious gander down anyway.

Found the entrance up and to the left of the waterfall and headed down through a few crawly and srambley bits to a small slot which dropped down into the Miner’s Rift. We’d brought a ladder and headed off in search of Echo Pitch which we found after a few squeezy bits and a climb up above the pitch head. Following the narrow rift down, it’s quite a surprise to pop out into large, impressive rift chamber at the bottom with an obvious scaff dig in the floor. After furtling around for a bit, we headed back up with the intention of finding North Rift and the enticing sound of the falling water. Scrambled down Flake Pitch then squeezed through the bottom, narrow section of the rift to find where the water cascaded out of the boulder choke before sinking back into it at floor level. Rob stayed above and we found that you could almost squeeze through the choke at Miner’s Rift level down into the rift itself. Intriguing little place.

Headed back out to find that the stick we’d jabbed in to mark the water level had washed away and we could visibly see the water rising within the shakehole. Got changed in torrential rain and headed to the Miners. Another good trip, and quite a contrast to most Stoney caves, there’s no mud and it’s clean! Along with Waterfall Hole, definitely worth doing. (Mike, Rob)

Mike P