13/03/20 – 15/03/20
Five of us set off across the moor to Lancaster Hole on the Saturday morning full with an excellent breakfast, marred only slightly by the subpar cereal on offer. Rob and I had been into Easegill a few times now but it was all new for McBain, Ed and Syd (not counting a trip down County 30 years ago), so we decided on the Lancaster Hole – Wretched Rabbit trip via Wilf Taylor’s.
Hole in the ground found, rope rigged and down we went. We had a quick detour to the Colonnades and then off through into Wilf Taylors Passage and along the crawls. It was a relief to break through into the cascade section and find that the stream wasn’t flowing – as it had been very wet the previous few days.
The short abs were dispatched, the insitu ropes looked decidedly worn with several frayed sections having to be tied out, but we soon found ourselves down in the Main Drain. Ed momentarily lost sense of direction (because he’s not a caver) and was about to wade off into the sump before being called back and we headed upstream, up the cascades, through the pools and up to Stake Pot.
The High-Level route was a bit of a grind, up over boulders, round boulders, under boulders, up a muddy slope, down a muddy slope. We were particularly careful not to unknowingly do a 180 turn and end up where we’d been about 30 minutes earlier, as we’d somehow managed last year when we were doing the Top Sink – Pippikin trip. Cave-wormhole successfully avoided, we climbed down the ladder into Stop Pot and followed our noses out of Wretched Rabbit. We emerged back out into daylight, having avoided the worst of the day’s weather and celebrated by watching Syd fall over into the beck. Retrieving our rope from Lancaster Hole, we headed back through the cold wet wind to Bull Pot Farm.
A good trip, with a special mention to Syd, for coming out of caving retirement for the 3rd time and Ed S who was “only going as far as the Colonnades” because of his injured knee, but ended up doing the entire trip.
Sunday saw only 3 of us caving (Rob, Mike & Ed S) and we decided on a quick ropey-dangly trip down Cow Pot. This involved a nice open entrance pitch before sliding down through a tightish vertical slot into a crawling passage which eventually led to the head of the main pitch. Following a traverse across the top of the pitch head, the main hang was rigged from the far side and an impressive decent was made via a few re-belays into the very centre of Fall Pot.
Ed headed straight back up the ropes from Fall Pot, slightly concerned about getting his J-Lo back through the early squeeze, while Rob and I took the opportunity to ferret down through the boulder choke into the Main Drain – now quite a bit higher than yesterday.
Back at the squeeze, SRT gear off, Ed wrestled his long arms and levers through with some encouragement from Rob and made it back through into daylight. After ascending the entrance pitch, we made it back to the hut, showered, then headed home.
Good weekend!
Mike P
Derbyshire Pennine Club 