Dry Caving on a Wet Weekend

In view of way the weather had been across the country for a week and the dubious forecast for Saturday 28th April, we decided to visit Rowten Pot.  It carries a lot of water and can be dramatic in flood, but a cunning route for descent on ropes keeps you well away from the water falls and the trip is impressive, not alarming – as long as you are not of too nervous a disposition.  In the event, it turned out that rainfall had been low in the area around Ingleton despite the downpours everywhere else, and Rowten Pot was positively benign.

A descent of Rowten Pot and the subsequent ascent involve some technically awkward manoeuvres.  Right near the start it is necessary to pass a rebelay (a point where the rope is attached to a bolt in the wall) in a place where there are no footholds and no handholds.  It all has to be done using just the ropes.  In two places, the upper rope comes to a rebelay at an angle, rather than straight down: on the way down you have to pull yourself across; on the way up you do not have the convenience of a rope coming straight down from above to assist with the changeover itself, and when you are ready to move on and let go of the belay point you swing off into space.  A further entertainment in Rowten Pot is that at one point you enter a slot in the ceiling of a big overhang, shuffle along it trying not to think about the drop, and then abseil out of it from bolts located at the other end to ensure your descent is clear of the water.  This descent alone, and hence later the ascent, is somewhere around fifty metres.  All the members of the party bar one had had lots of experience in single rope technique (SRT) and had visited Rowten Pot more than once before.  Kevin was new to SRT apart from one training session.  He got on fine, despite the challenges.

We came out to brilliant sunshine and after we had returned to the campsite for showers we went on a walk of couple of miles or so before ending up at the local pub for our evening meal.

The following day we had been planning to take some novices to Long Churn caves, but Long Churn can get rather more than interesting in wet weather and the forecast was dire.  So instead we went into the Wretched Rabbit entrance to the Three Counties cave system.  Our novices were a tough bunch and we ended up climbing the ladder out of Stop Pot to the upper series of caves well beyond the end of the Wretched Rabbit passage itself and spending some time up there.  In consequence the round trip about lasted five hours – longer than usual for relatively inexperienced cavers.  Adrian positively romped through the trip and we kept forgetting this was only his third trip underground – his first with us.

The most daunting parts of the trip by far were the trek across the moor to the cave and back, in a howling gale and intermittent rain and sleet.  We all survived this frightful experience but it did much to reinforce our belief that being underground rather than overground has much to recommend it.

Ready for another adventure?

GOC Shop

From hoodies and t-shirts to bags, bottles and bears - show your love for GOC with our gear from Spreadshirt.