Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club - Newsletter Vol 2 No 3 - Autumn 1964
PENYGHENT POT
It all started way back last January when a number of
half drunken potholers voted to appoint a certain person as honorable ‘Meets Secretary’. Unfortunately
that particular person has a very vivid imagination on the capabilities of club
members and thus the most strenuous of all meets lists was written. In the first instance
it was written of the mighty Dowber Gill passage and
in the second instance it was written of the great Little Hull Hole. It then
came to pass that it was written of the words ‘Penyghent Pot’ and the honorable
meets secretary was cursed. It then came to pass that the day of the descent of
Penyghent Pot and a number of brave men set off one Saturday and camped out ready for an early start at dawn
the following morning. Not surprisingly when we arrived at 10 a.m. the next
morning they were just setting off. After an unusually early start we set off not far behind
complete with exposure suit, knee pads, thick a:xle grease on hands and a
terrible amount of tackle. The crawl thankfully came at the beginning and with
the help of the knee pads the first pitch was soon reached. Here knee pads were
discarded and the next part of the pitch being all pitchs
of various depths was a big change from the first half of the pot. The way down
was well marked with numbered tags on each ladder until the seventh pitch where
all numbers failed to follow their correct series. Trouble then arose between
the ranks as the two main parties met. A fierce clash at the twelfth pitch as
the bull met the gate when a ladder was found to be missing. However this problem was soon overcome and
the party again went on its way to the sump.
However the luck of the Gods was with one member who
was testing his new ‘Exide’ which he boasted would last sixteen hours. Just
before reaching the sump it suddenly went dim and finally out within a space of
only five minutes. This however didn’t deter him and he carried on to the sump
with the help ‘Ecceles’.
The bottom was reached by most members.
The bottom reached and the only thought was to reach the surface. The first party
reached daylight at 6-30 p.m. and the last people who had completed de-laddering
reached the surface at about nine. A most enjoyable trio which was marred by the loss of a wrist
watch in the crawl.