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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
| > Home > Newsletter > Caving > County Pot |
County PotA sleek group of 3 met in Leyburn for a trip to County Pot. County is one of the easier ways into the extensive Easegill system of interconnected caves. Its entrance is well above the gill itself, so it's fairly good in wet weather, but there are inlets in different parts of the cave that take water from many sources. We had noted that although the lower part of the gill was dry, the upper part was carrying a small stream. The first part of County Pot is a delightful, winding canyon, with short climbs. Once down the first 4.5m pitch (an easy ladder or short, straight forward SRT pitch) it offers a choice of routes of varying difficulty and destination. We chose to climb down into Broadway, a spacious streamway,and walk downstream a short way before branching off right at Oxford Circus into Showerbath passage. After a brief shower, we followed the twisting passage to Confusion Corner. Paul inspected the climb down and felt that there was enough water going over the spout to make it unpleasant, so back-tracked and suffered some confusion in locating the dry by-pass. I accidentally found it whilst poking my head into a hole at a lower level and 'Bob's your uncle' we arrived in Spout Hall via the dry route. Feeling fortified by the earlier second breakfast we'd had at Inglesport, we decided to go up the chimney thrutch into the flat-out crawl of Poetic Justice. (Whilst we were scoffing Martin Holroyd appeared in the cafe and although meeting a fellow hard-man-of-caving to go off to do some digging, being the humble gent he is, he grabbed a coffee, joined us at our table and asked what we were getting up to.) Jamie was the first to attempt to levitate up the flowstone smoothed chimney. Having not been in County before, he didn't know what he was letting himself in for! It provided Paul and me with several laughs, listening to the grunting and watching Jamie's feet slide back down again time after time. Once he'd admitted defeat, I had a go. I blame the large slab of sweet delight I ate after the second breakfast,with the tea refill, for my poor performance. Having not managed to reach even the point Jamie had, I finally stood on Paul and was shoved up to a place where I could just about get a hand hold and scuttle off the top to post myself into the crawl. Jamie soon joined me having got up in the same manner. Paul surprised himself by struggling miserably - clearly exhausted by the sheer weight of his 2 fellow cavers - and had to be given an assisted handline, set up by Jamie with me pulling on the rope as well. A drop leads down to another short pitch (5.4m) which we descended, then headed off right into White Line passage for a bit of sporting fun as it was bringing in a considerable stream. We battled our way up the passage against the swirling water flow, which although only about knee deep, was really turbulent in the narrow passage and threatened to take your foot from under you as you forced it down to solid stone underneath. Paul's eyes were blazing with enthusiasm as he came back from inspecting the next cascade. Jamie and I were wilting a little from the cooling effect of the fast flowing water, so we all retreated. The refreshing nature of the water seemed to confirm Paul's idea that what was going on outside was a slow thaw and release of the previous week's rain that had been trapped in the ground, that would explain the stream encountered in the upper part of the gill, as it had been dry the past few days. Once back out of White Line passage, brief consideration was given to following the stream down to Eureka junction, but considering the already reduced temperature of 2 of the party and the thought that an increase in water levels could be possible as thawing progressed, it did not seem sensible. Instead we headed back up the pitch and returned to Spout Hall, the chimney providing little difficulty on the way down. The sheer exertion of chimney and watery experiences had caused Jamie's blood to surge into a state of confusion, so disturbing the delicate balance of blood to last night's alcohol ratio that had allowed him to proceed relatively unhindered. He was now cold, pale and nauseous. As I'd been feeling much more cheery since putting on my balaclava, I suggested that Jamie borrow Paul's. This seemed to do the trick as a short while later we were all heading up from Platypus junction (I think I saw the platypus) up Razor passage grinning like Cheshire Cats - what a great route! At one point Paul thrunged his way up a narrow, watery climb unaided, I was assisted from above and below and Jamie moved upward holding onto my long cow's tail, while I pulled and Paul anchored me in the passage. A short while after Toadstool Junction we were back in the Broadway at the foot of the climb to our exit route, having completed a round trip. We were back out in the daylight after about 4½ hours. We replaced lost calories in the Marton Arms and revelled in the good feeling that comes from the pulling together (sometimes literally) that makes a good caving trip. Alison Adams |