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Short Drop / Gavel Pot

Paul - Alison - Nick - Chris - Mike

Paul had kindly put me forward as "leader" for this one. It does not add up to much thankfully as he ends up bringing the kit for the trip, and all I do is coordinate the time to meet etc.

We seemed to have settled on Bernie's for breakfast now, as Inglethefts is pretty dire; though only Nick and I hit the trad brekkers. We did wonder if they had sneaked next door for breakfast as they had only a piece of cake with us.

Up on Leck Fell the wind blew in the parts only the privileged have reached as we hurriedly changed into our little yellow suits. Alison went into "teacher mode" and had me counting up the slings and maiyons and the rope lengths and in the order I would need them. Bloody hell, this was getting serious, I had thought Paul would have just got on with it as he always does. This leader thing was taking on a more serious note. All dressed up we trogged off downhill glad to be moving in the chilly wind beneath the grey skies.

A hand-line was rigged from the fence down to the pitch heads for those who felt a bit exposed on the steep wet descent.

Paul suggested we split into two parties and rig Short Drop and Gavel. No way out now, I had to rig Gavel at the eyehole entrance. I looked apprehensively across the sloping muddy grassy traverse to the abyss, made all the worse by the tremendous roar of water rising up from below.

Things did not feel real; this was not my usual place.

In my foggy mind I at least could remember a figure of eight for the first P hanger but I had to have a few rehearsals for the infamous bowline on the bight. Paul announced I would need to do some alpine butterflies knots.

Four people however well intentioned, all directing you with their versions of how to tie a knot is not good, especially standing on the edge of a long dark drop with half their offerings drowned out by the noise of water. In exasperation I almost reached the point of heaving all the rope over the edge, but managed to hang on to sanity. My thanks go to all, but primarily to Chris who cracked the "code" for the butterfly and Paul who calmly talked me through the way to adjust everything so it looked half respectable rigging. Rome was not built in a day.

I was ready to go, and the audience watched me launch myself onto my first Y hang. It felt and looked right. Alison and Chris could see there was no more excitement to be had and so they shuffled off to descend Short Drop. Down I went to find the deviation and the sloping floor. Nick and Paul followed.

We all met up again as I laid a hand-line to the second pitch. Another Y hang, executed slightly faster than the first. All down safely and all that was left was the climb down the stacked deads where another hand-line was rigged to replace the piece of string that was already in situ. At the bottom anyone who had SRT kit on, abandoned it happily as this was the end of the pitches for us today, just when I was beginning to get the hang (no pun intended) of it. ?

We moved down into the impressive stream canyon but soon found ourselves bent double and for a short while on all fours in the cold water. Yuk .. I hope there is not too much of this. It did not last for long and we paddled on. At a 90-degree left bend we could see the climb up to Glasfurd's Chamber. In reality it is a series of chambers, and the more you push through to the next one, the greater is the reward.

Donald Glasfurd died from the effects of an accident in Cow Pot the same day the chamber was discovered. When his friends emerged to hear of his death they kindly named the chamber after him.

We left Glasfurds for later and continued to follow the stream. The pretties are big and the roof of the stream chambers are dramatically white and are now being covered by a dark brown substance. There must be almost every type of cave formation in this system. We followed the stream to a small waterfall pitch just before the traverse to the big pitch. A diversion along the dry oxbow bypasses the waterfall pitch. This was as far as we were to go today.

Back at Glasfurds we entered the chambers. This place takes your breath away at the unexpected size and quality of the formations. Definitely show cave standard. Thank heavens the access is beyond most mortals. Moving through the chambers their entrances become flat out uphill fun squeezes. I peered into another one and just saw another low squeeze. "Is it worth going on I asked Paul? "I reckon so" he replies. On I squeezed and grunted.

Naturally he was right. I cannot put it into words the beauty of these further chambers, with their large translucent curtains, columns of all sizes and lots more. We just sat and looked, and my only wish was for a camera.

I entered the water at the far reaches and filled my boots with freezing static water and returned. Nick was encouraged to go in with promises of sights of great joy. Paul pointed out a small climb up out of the water to a passage that they both entered.

Ten minutes later they returned covered in mud. Nick later confided it was a bit grim and that he had got a bit stuck. Returning through the now downhill squeezes imitating the movements of a seal seemed to work very well, apart from Chris who preferred to the backstroke method.

We returned without incident and "assistant leader" Paul rigged the climbs for Chris with a ladder. At the head of the top entrance pitch it was now dark as we emerged. Nick kindly pointed out that I de-rigged this pitch a lot faster than I had rigged it .. How kind I thought .. And thought no more.

The walk back up the moor warmed us up a bit and one of those extra fast clothing changes was executed back at the car park.

Brilliant day .. Brilliant trip.

Mike Peters

Last Modified: 7 May, 2003