Hurnell Moss Pot

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6th December 2012, Me and Olly Rees

After yesterdays disaster in Large Pot I wanted an easy vertical trip. The forecast was for snow and sleet in the afternoon and our original choice of Aquamole had the possibility of us been stuck in Kingsdale, unable to drive back up the hill. We settled on Hurnell Moss Pot, mostly because it was vertical and partly because a bloke in Inglesport cafe assured us that it wouldn’t be wet.

The walk up to Gaping Gill was as pleasant as ever. After meeting at 10 in Inglesport, driving to Clapham, kitting up, walking up, talking to passers by and finally finding the cave it was after 12. Good job it was basically straight down and back up.

The new way in is loose so we went in the original way. It’s a bit of a short crawl to a restricted pitch head followed by a short drop to the second pitch. This drops a bit and then traverses one wall in a fantastic rift before dropping 27 metres down the Poseidon Pitch to the Poseidon Ledge. An easier traverse leads to the third 33 metre pitch which is a continuation of the Poseidon Pitch. It’s an impressive place and well worth the visit.

At the bottom there is a climb down to a suddenly narrow rift which soon leads to a sump, blocked by rocks. The cave is a grade 4, probably because it can take a lot of water. On our trip it was relatively dry and very easy. It’s a short trip, it took us about 2 hours down and an hour and a bit up. The walk up and down is almost as long, especially in the snow that greeted us on our exit.

There’s a survey at cavemaps.org