Langstroth Pot
Party:- J. Wilkinson, D. Ellwood, R. Ellwood, P. Llewellyn,
Norma, Jenny, Mike Smith and . Mick Farnworth.
(Eventually)
After riding up with Hodge on Friday night I enjoyed a pleasant night in the ‘George’ at Hubberholme. Breakfast was partaken at the pub and then we assembled the gear. Naturally, as soon as we set off driving up Langstrothdale, it began to rain and Pete used this as an excuse to delay starting till Norma turned up so that he could watch her getting changed.
Johnny and I had been down before and the entrance was located quite quickly. The entrance series was exactly as I remembered it from my last trip --- a real swine. Eventually everybody was at the slot, which provided a lot of amusement watching Johnny wheezing and gasping his way through. The next pitch had a constricted take-off but it rapidly developed into a large rift of 40’. The second pitch followed almost immediately --another 40’ into a big chamber.
The passage from here is reminiscent of Easegill and the walls are covered in remarkable helictites. This twisting, narrow passage then degenerated into a crawl for 200’ and then there was another wet pitch, this time about 20’. Further short pitches led to the top of another wet pitch into a big rift chamber. At the top of this pitch was an inlet which was followed up to some beautiful long straws, l5’ long. This passage was very strenuous though well worth visiting. We then descended the pitch. The large rift chamber led to a canal passage about 8’ high and 4’ wide. The walls were decorated with immaculate white flowstone formations. The last pitch was a real beauty. The canal shot over a couple of cascades and then burst out through the right hand wall into a huge bottle shaped chamber with the water crashing onto the floor 50’ below.
A magnificent passage led to the sump which was only a few hundred feet away. Slowly we returned, meeting Mick Farnworth on the way who had descended after us and had caught us up. It had stopped raining when we regained the surface so we changed slowly and drove down to the ‘George’ for a well deserved pint.
Richard Ellwood