With a long weekend in Yorkshire on the
cards, we had two objectives – to link up the parts of the Easegill through
trip and for Brendan to try out his new flashguns and electronic controller, which
promised to revolutionize photoshoots.
The plan was to go in via Top Sink and either
work our way through to County Pot, which Brendan assured us would be
pre-rigged, or go back out of Top Sink to retrieve the ropes. Mark and Brendan
were hoping to take photos at Easter Grotto, a beautifully decorated part of
the cave. We got changed in bright
sunshine and joked about avoiding sunburn by getting underground.
None of us had ever been into Top Sink but
it was easy to find. A rusty scaffolded entrance led shortly into a narrow
‘crabwalk’ type rift which at points proved a bit too snug for any of us to
stay upright. We had with us two ropes, three SRT kits, two camera boxes and a
bag full of tripods and other accessories, and found this rift hard going to
say the least! We were relieved to reach the first pitch, Walrus Pot, where
there was only room for one at a time to put on their SRT kits.
Once down the pitch we found ourselves back
in the same kind of rift. Struggling with all our baggage, our spirits fell as
we contemplated either returning the same way or coming out of County Pot and
doing the long walk overland (plus the two rifts) at the end of the trip to get the ropes.
I came up with the idea of having an ‘easy Monday trip’ - leaving the ropes
in situ until then, using it as an ideal excuse for a pitch photo while we retrieved the ropes, and this
suggestion was happily accepted.
Once we were down Penknife pitch we made
good progress following the various descriptions which we had printed out. With
no major problems we arrived at Easter Grotto, which has a roof absolutely
covered with straws, and many strange ‘wasps nest’ formations. The boys opened
their camera boxes. Disaster! Brendan’s camera box was full of water, and all
his new flashguns were swimming. With one of the objectives of our trip foiled
already, we still had to see if we could find our way through to County Pot.
We investigated a flat out crawl leading to
the Palace, but decided against it as we were not sure how tight it would get,
and the seams on Mark’s oversuit had already decided to part company. He spent the rest of the trip trying to hold the front of his suit together as it had come apart where I had taken the zip out. Deciding
to take the route through the Assembly Hall, we eventually made our way via
Stop Pot to the stream way, which we then followed.
En route to County Pot, Brendan pointed out
the turning off to Wretched Rabbit. “Good job we’re not going that way with all
this kit!” he said. “County Pot will be a lot easier”. Well it didn’t seem overly easy, and when we
finally arrived at the foot of the pitch, Brendan looked like he was ready to
give up. “It’s not rigged!’ he exclaimed, ‘There’s no rope!” He stared up the pitch, waving his arms around
as if he expected a rope to miraculously appear from above, but to no avail.
With no choice now, we had to retrace our steps
and go out of Wretched Rabbit. Wriggling through the tight passages and up the
various climbs, we passed bags and boxes from one to another until at last the
end was in sight. As I approached the entrance opening I was surprised how
light it was outside, considering the time of day. Little did we expect to find
snow falling!
A long, slow walk back to the van was
alleviated by a few snowballs but it was three tired, hungry, cold cavers that
eventually got back to the Bradford hut for a late dinner.
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| Easter Grotto |
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| Easter Grotto |
Present: Jess Burkey, Mark Burkey, Brendan Marris
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