Langcliffe Pot.
Date:
Thursday 24th January 1991 Team:
Pete Hall, Neil Pacey, Dalek (PC)
When I
phoned Neil on Tuesday to find out if he would come to the farm on Wednesday he
said he might go down Langcliffe Pot with Dalek on Thursday. I was slightly
nervous about caving with Dalek again (nuff said) but nevertheless packed
plenty of carbide and munchies and hitched to the farm. When I got there Neil
and Dalek announced that we would be camping overnight in the pothole, they had
the situation under control and all I needed was some warm clothes.
The access
is a bit dodgy to say the least so we packed our gear in rucsacs and set off up
the hill trying to look like innocent ramblers. After ten minutes a tractor
came up behind us and we rushed to hide ladders, tackle bags, cars of petrol
etc. but he passed without incident. We continued till we were in the next field
to Lanqcliffe Pot and a Land Rover came up the fell so we dived for cover. We
watched from behind a rise in the fell as he drove around spreading out hay.
Dalek thought it would be a good idea to try and get closer (god knows why) and
looked like something from the Saudi desert as he ran round and dived into
holes to avoid detection, amazingly he got away with it but the next thing Neil
and I knew, the farmer was coming straight for us. There was nothing to do but
face the music.
“What are
you lads doing here’?”
“Oh, Just
going for a walk up’t fell.”
“Your not
going down them potholes are you?”
“No, Just
a walk!”
“You are
going down them potholes aren’t you!” It
was pretty obvious because nobody walks up Great Whernside that way.
“No, nc!”
we replied.
“What have
you got that can of petrol for?”
“Oh
that.....er....we’ve got a cooking stove and we’re having a brew on’t top!”
“How long
are you staying up there?”
“Oh, Just
till this evening.”
“Well make
sure you don’t go down them potholes!”
“No, we
wouldn’t do that!”
The
entrance climb is best rigged with a ladder, the two short pitches which
followed and Slaughter Aven which then followed dropped into the crawl of Strid
Passage. After 45 minutes the Langcliffe Pot inlet, Stagger Passage, entered on
the right and soon we popped out into the main drain from Skifare inlet at
Hammerdale Dub. Downstream was mostly walking to the Wet and Dry ways, the Dry
being preferable. Then it was Langstrothdale Chase where you can walk/scramble
with a tackle bag on your back for a full 45 minutes then a short but awkward
crawl pops into E4oireau Falls chamber which leads to the Nemesis pitch.
We then headed towards the Nemesis boulder choke. Dalek had been a bit cagey
about this bit Just saying that it meant a total soaking. Crawls and squeezes
connected boulder chambers until a climb down led to the water, running under
the choke. Neil and I weren’t too worried because “It’s never as ‘ard as what
yer fink!”. However after watching him for about ten minutes I began to get a
bad feeling. Eventually we all got through and assembled in the chamber
beyond.. We were very wet and cold and gripped up including Dalek who had been
down seven times before!
Fifteen minutes of caving brought us to the “OK Corale” a typical camp with
loads of mess. We got the stove working, had some brews and a scoff (Spaghetti
Bolognaise) before continuing on to the end.
Soon the
Agora was entered, a large chamber with superb formations at the far end a
climb down through flowstone led to Aphrodite Aven with gour pools in the
floor. The whole of Gassons Series was reminiscent of OFD in
The choke
wasn’t quite so horrendous on the way out but was still quite technical and we
emerged at about 6pm, totally knackered to a frosty night. Went down to
Kettlewell and left a message at the caving shop to say we were out then we
went to the pub and had some well earned beer. Finally got back to the farm at
about 10.30 after 28 hours of potholing.
Pete
Hall.
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