Langcliffe Pot - 30th December 2001
Bob Bialek (Dalek) & Yassen Roussev : 12.5 hours
Up at 05.55
Temp. outside -3 degrees C. Yassen made
us a cooked breakfast. Away at 07.40, Kettlewell
for 08.45.We were already in our clean caving kit at home (Big
Softies-Yeah).
Began the walk up from gravel heap at 09.00. Took the
left hand route up via gates to top of hill & then crossed over to our
right. Over one very low wall & climbed over another one. In the area at
approx.9.40. Spent an hour looking around for entrance. Mistook one that looked
as if it had collapsed. Checked out a nearby rift in a shake hole. Choked! Went
back one hole and found our entrance. Frozen boulders needed bashing in order
to dislodge them. Icicles hung all around the small opening, necessitating
breakage to gain the small crawl & pitch. The pitch or hand line climb down
was very slippery indeed. Shuffle down to head of first proper pitch. Bolt put
in, then abb down to small ledge of second pitch.
Another bolt then again, abbed down on our belay
belts, to small chamber. Scrambled down a rift to reach the proper passage.
Mainly crawling for 40 mins to reach Hammerdale Dub. 25 mins
walk/stoop to Dry Way, then 15 mins crawling to pop
out into Langstrothdale Chase. This is a lovely tall
and meandering passage, taking 30 mins to negotiate
boulder piles and various obstacles en-route to Boireau
Falls Passage, high up on the right. Time for our Pick n’ Mix Snack and a drink
of juice.
Yassen always had his headset coming loose and falling off! Negotiated the flat
out squeeze after the squirm down a squeeze to reach Boireau
Falls Chamber. Now here lay the first tricky bit. A drop down an inverted
funnel (fun on the return) to an antechamber
to another drop and flat out crawl in the streamway. Here, there were
boulders all around to make it just that bit more difficult. This was nothing
compared to what was to come! Gaining the head of Nemesis Pitch, I found my 100
foot rope there, still in the same place, high up on the left on a hidden shelf
in my plastic bag for protection. All it needed were 2 Maillons
to loops I had left on the rope. A nice ledge to start the hang from & Yassen got down first. Rope pulled up & on with my Harny/Fig 8. So it was that one kit sufficed for the both
of us.
LHS for first choke-prelim. It was still a struggle in
the Proper Choke, first part. A triangular hole on the pelvis was tight. I was
thankful that we had only to carry a mini SRT bag each, and one provided the snacks
for us both. On previous occasions I had taken one, and even two full tackle
bags to bring in supplies for necessary exploration with my temporary
explorers. They were Mick Forrest (Kenny Taylors son), Pete Hall & Neil Pacey, Pete & Sara Spillet
(BPC), and on occasion, just myself.
Continuing through The Choke, I noticed that the duck
was low today. On some occasions it was desperate going through, either way! I
nearly lost my fleecy hood & Yassen broke his
strap on one Miner’s knee pad! A large water-logged chamber at the foot of the
slope down from the triangular hole, required crawling to reach a low arch and
climb up over boulders. Everything around oneself looked precariously &
dangerously loose! More so at the point where one had to go down onto a metal stemple, which of course held everything together. Holding
our breaths, and with racing heartbeats we gingerly stepped onto it and into
another lowish chamber. Soon we reached a solid
looking wall but a huge block of stone forced us to clamber up and traverse
around it at height to finally pop out into the tall and impressive passage of Gasson’s Series. All this took us about 45 mins to get through, and we could relax more now that the
crux of the trip in, was over.
I noticed that my left elbow gave me
a sharp pain on trying to bend it to any degree. This would give me much more
Aggro next year, when I had to forgo any more caving after Easter, so that I
could have it operated on to remove any damaged cartilage, in there.
Bypassing Poseidon Sump Passage to continue to my
camp, I’d set up some time ago, we reached “The O.K. Coral”.
Here, we found all the cooking gear strewn all over the place. Now, it was that
water reached this part and washed away all my cups etc, lodged into rocks
nearby. Pools remained in further passages & the dry food store had
perished. I’d take two bags of gear out later and would need to organise a team
to come back to clean up the rest of the place. So now, it seemed that Global
Warming was working it’s Insidious Way into My Project and it would never be
the same again. A free climb up by a fixed rope was OK, as was the climb down.
Through the boulders at The Agora and now through to Silver Rake and Streamway.
Another 15 mins to the bouldery area and with the
time at 5pm we decided we had better make our way back. A snack of chocolate at
The Agora & Nemesis Choke. It was 6pm and it took us 42 mins
to get through. I got up first. No cows tails were required as a foothold was
gained on the ledge. Chest Jammer off, easy now. Lowered all gear down to Yassen. He took ages to get up. Away at 8.10. Up BF Squeeze but Yassen unable without assistance. So back down again, and
up as last one. Back at Langstrothdale Chase climb
down we finished The Pick n’ Mix off. 9pm! Half hour to Dry Way and 13 mins to get through. At Roads Junction he was 10mins
behind. My left knee was badly bruised now. So it took us 58mins to get thru to
the entrance pitches. My FX5 light was now fast growing dim. 10.43pm. I free
climbed the pitch up. Yassen hand lined up. This, only
to save time kitting up! Both of us hand lined the second part up. Left my bolt
in. The last part, to gain the ledge and out, proved to be a bitch. We
staggered the gear on my rope. I up first. Chest not wanting to go through. An
icicle barred progress so a stone smashed it up. It was FREEZING now. Told
later that it had got down to – 10oC! I had to line Yassen up. We used
both our Belay Belts. Yassen was out for
11.45. Freezing conditions meant that we were unable to coil the rope up. Snow
was thick on the ground and Yassen slipped twice.
Jogging down, I was unable to get a mobile signal through to Clare. Drove down to petrol
station phone box. It was out of order.
Here we got changed now as it was well after 12.00,
and past our call out time. Drove over to Threshfield
and the phone box there was OK. Apparently Clare had rung Mike Cooper at 12.00,
as arranged; but he was not in. Then Bull Pot Farm. Ian Watson (Watto) answered and told her to ring Skipton
Police Station. A full rescue was in progress for an Oxford Girl Student (Rosa)
who had abbed down the 4th pitch of Pool
Sink and lost control of her Descender, breaking her
Pelvis on landing! On driving off Clare rang me on my mobile phone (signal
gained now). She’d be putting a Curry on now. It was 00.45. Yassen
was asleep in the car. Main roads were OK now, doing 70 mph. Arrived Home at
01.40. We stayed up until 05.00, excited as we were about the day out and glad
of our return. I was last to turn in. Washed and charged FX5’s up and furry
suits into washing machine. Thighs & quads killed me. Left knee bruised,
left elbow unable to move, neck hurt on twisting as did lower back! Not to
mention that I was covered in cuts and bruises, especially on chest & back!
Yassen was joking of course, when he said about doing
it all again. Got up at 11.00. After breakfast Clare insisted on getting beers
in from Asda. Yassen stayed
in reading my Darren Diary. Met Ian
Watson (Watto) outside in car park of Asda. I was told it was Keith Sanderson (BICC) who had
eventually phoned up CRO first. The Police would have checked to see if car was
still there (Kettlewell). Yassen
stayed another night and I took him to The Pudsey Train Station the following
day. Nuff said!
Dalek