I had a little look at Notts pot a few weeks ago and rigged down to the lower stream way. A few messages later and myself, Jonny and Chris had come up with a plan.
Chris wanted to do a dive from the bottom of Notts pot so we rigged it on his ropes and helped deliver some cylinders to the sump at the bottom, and left it rigged for a future dive.
A short walk getting blown sideways across leck fell. The wind was measured in Hektor(the dog) ear flaps, it was precisely 10 flaps a minute. We soon found the entrance. A short descent saw us into the entrance crawl and down the little climb. Another short pitch put us into three ways chamber. Where we decided to take the centre route.
Rigging this off the bolts in the ceiling we dropped down to the next pitch, that starts with a large natural stone pillar, to start your traverse line. A descent to the lower stream way, being wary to drop on the right side of the hole to avoid a sumped duck.
This is where the fun started, we were looking for the bolts and on spotting one we climbed up, an exposed rift on looking back we had missed a few of the bolts that were hidden by the ledges, the y hang for the pitch dropped us through a small slot then into a larger chamber this was fine on the way down…
The last of the pitches was rigged by Jonny a nice descent in a circular chamber, with a small waterfall drumming away. Then finally a small pitch to the final sump.
We departed with the dive bottles after looking at the fine Yorkshire tea. And started on our journey upwards. Stopping off at the balcony on the way back up the big pitch, a careful walk around the edge to have a look at the Ireby fell sump.
We continued our journey on up, until we reached the small slot at the top of the pitch head. This involved some groaning and some swearing from Jonny. Who then waited to watch/laugh at me struggle my way through. Chris took the easier option which we had both missed a slightly larger spot a little bit further back.
We then encountered a bit of tight rigging, I don’t know who put that in… a bit more slack in future would make this a lot easier to ascend. I’m sure Jonny described it as a piano string.
An excellent trip with lots of laughter. A trip I would definitely go back and do again and maybe even leave a bit more slack next time …
Trip Report & Photos: George Tolley
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