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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
| > Home > Newsletter > Caving > Gaping Gill |
Gaping Gill(How not to go caving).Our leader, Steven and I travelled over to Clapham fully legal with our shiny permit. My discovery that my neoprene socks were still airing on the radiator at home wasn't too much of a worry. We paid for the 'nature trail' rather than our usual route via Clapdale Farm, which isn't a right of way. We made good time with 3 tackle bags full of rope to Wade's Entrance into Flood Entrance Pot. The forecast had mentioned heavy rain and flooding, but Ingleborough had got off lightly - a shame as we wouldn't have the opportunity to find a definitive answer to the perennial 'Is it called Flood Entrance because it floods, or because you can do it in flood?' As we were kitting up and Gareth was fighting with his newly acquired Inox generator (I warned him they are exciting!), I suddenly had one of those sinking feelings. A quick check round and yes, we (well I really) had left the rigging kit in the car. Minds raced with solutions - at least an hour and a half to the car and back, no way we could do Wades without, would we be reduced to crawling into Beck Head Stream Cave? We then worked out that Bar Pot could be rigged very economically and with a krab or two each, we could manage to get down there - problem solved. We shuffled over to Bar Pot; Steven rigged the entrance using 2 krabs at the Y-hang and descended the pitch. We had decided to take the spare tackle bags down for safety and I pulled the rope up to lower them down. I added my own kit bag for good measure, one final check 'No, don't need anything from there' and lowered the bags down. I then went to get on the rope and discovered a space where my descender should be! Steven offered his as a quick solution and this was pulled up on the rope. It actually made life easier as it is a 'Simple' and doesn't lock as the 'Stop' does - this makes it better on restricted pitch heads. Once down I retrieved my descender from my bag and Gareth grunted a bit getting down the head of the pitch. We left the spare bags of rope and continued down to the big pitch. Gareth's turn at the sharp end this time and quick work was made of the rigging - 2 krabs again. At the bottom of the pitch we abandoned SRT kits and took the trade route (SE Passage and S Passage) to the Main Chamber. The sight never fails to impress - the largest chamber in Britain with a 365ft waterfall crashing down the daylit shaft. We took a while to admire the view. We wandered across the floor of the Main Chamber and climbed up the West Slope and into West Chamber. Steven manfully investigated the climb up and Pool Traverse. Our next objective was Mud Hall and to locate the route into Mud Hensler's. We made our way down the fixed chain and followed the traverse rope round to the far end of Mud Hall, then down to the bottom to see the latest additions to the mud sculpture display. Back up the slope and into Far East Passage and I soon recognised the muddy slope leading to Mud Hensler's. Alison and I had once spent 4 hours going up and down this bit of passage, investigating every nook and cranny and not finding the route. It's easy enough when you know it, but doesn't look as if it goes until you're in it. Time was marching on now and we discussed the return route. The shortest would be Mud Hensler's, Hensler's Master Cave and New Hensler's to emerge at the foot of Bar Pot - a satisfying circuit, but quite high on the crawling (and crawling in liquid mud) scale. I decided that caving straight from night shift was beginning to take its toll and wimped. We thus reversed our outward route. The scene at Bar Pot made us cringe - a group of students (some on their second underground trip) being given their first taste of vertical caving. Whether they had their characters built or were put off caving for life I don't know, but we didn't think the noises they were making indicated much enjoyment. We made an uneventful exit and marched back down to Clapham. It wasn't quite the intended trip, but I think we all enjoyed it. My main problem now is trying to dredge up something someone else has done worthy of the Golden Welly award. As the current holder, there is no way I'm nominating myself, despite my best efforts to earn it. Paul Brooks |