Bull Pot, Kingsdale#
Saturday 14th January 2012
Grade III Depth 79m Length 213
Jonathan Tompkins, “Water” Mark Stoneman
3.5 hours
In the back of my head was a plan to do at least two caves in West Kingsdale but it never happened. Mark was little bit late turning up, I hadn’t cleared the ice on my windscreen and we weren’t quite sure where to park as the grid reference put the cave on the wrong side of the road; it’s SD 702787, not 707787 as it says in Top of the Pots. So we parked near Yordas, packed the bags and strolled up to the cave, mostly going on Mark’s memory.
After a hastily arranged callout time with Henry it was 11.30am, having planned to set off at 9. Must get more organised for bigger trips! Using Henry as the callout was a stroke of genius; not only was he reliable but he was working so he’d be jealous! Mark had carried the infamous yellow bag up the hill and when I asked him if he wanted to rig he quickly chose the first two pitches. He must have a plan. The first pitch is easy, a straight drop down a dry open shaft. The only difficulty is deciding which bolts to use as there are a lot.
At the bottom is a short bit of passage and then a constricted traverse to the head of the next pitch. The first bolt of the traverse is just over the edge of the drop. It’s not really a problem because the rift is narrow so it’s easy to wedge yourself it but it’s a bit unsettling. Just up from the bottom of this pitch is a ledge and a narrow slot; this is the third pitch and this is where Mark let me take over. Luckily it wasn’t as narrow as he remembered and because it was wide you could still keep your elbows out and operate your descender. There is an alternative to this pitch which looks like it involves a short bit of passage and a traverse, eventually landing in the same place. I suspect this might be a bit drier than the normal pitch.
Another high level traverse marks the start of the fourth pitch. It’s never quite holdless but it is awkward in places. There is a deviation not far from the bottom of the pitch but it took a fair few swings to get over to it. Turns out there was a bolt higher up which I missed and which made this swing easier. This pitch looks like it gets wet.
To get to the final pitch involves following the passage and when there’s a choice, follow the water down to a narrow rift. The guidebook describes it as “follow the passage to a junction. Turn left.” It’s more like “follow the passage to a hole in the floor where the water goes and climb down it”. You actually double back underneath where you’ve just come from. This is the start of the most awkward bit of the cave. It’s tight, sometimes too tight to turn your head and with not very good foot holds. The final Y hang is a relief and I certainly wouldn’t want to rescue someone along there. Our rope wasn’t quite long enough to reach the flood of the chamber. We had a 30m, as the guidebook suggested but I think it was cut to 30m when Mark bought it and it’s subsequently shrunk. Luckily there was a big foothold to stand on just where I needed it. This last pitch and the final chamber probably gets very wet. There was some mud up the walls which suggested it flooded to quite a depth. There is no way on at the bottom and looking at the map afterwards we were probably at the same height as the car.
Returning wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, probably because Mark derigged all the awkward pitches. I did at least carry the yellow bag down the hill. To get back we walked down towards the scar and isolated trees and then slightly down valley to a gate, right next to a perfectly good parking spot!
The Marton Arms has recently reopened so we felt it was only right to pay a visit. They always have a great range of beers and whiskeys and I think they had at least five different real ales, one of which was one of my favourites, Moorhouses Black Cat.