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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett
(EPC) and Chris Schofield (EPC)
Stayed at Stainforth Youth Hostel the previous night (which is very
nice by the
way, has a brilliant drying room) and since neither of us had been in
Gaping
Gill before decided to put that rather serious omission right. Parked
in Clapham
and walked up to the cave entrance in trainers (it's a long way in
wellies).
Trusty Warmbacs in full effect in case we were mistaken for
Yorkshiremen. Once
over the twin stiles spent a bit of time poking around in the bottom of
a dig in
the first shakehole before finding the actual Bar Pot entrance. In we
went. Note
to self - don't throw your tackle bag down the entrance next time
because it
almost disappeared down the first pitch. The first pitch is tight at
the top but
not desperate and once down a few metres opens out nicely down to the
floor.
Spiralled down from here towards the top of the second pitch. A bit of
shall we
say 'eccentric' rigging here led to the pitch-head proper. There's a
mixture of
P-bolts, Spits and Rawl bolts everywhere but found a nice hang off the
two
P-bolts on the RHS looking down the pitch. Past a rebelay and down to
the
bottom. Brilliant pitch this. Totally dry and a really nice place to be.
A friend had told me that route finding isn't a problem and so it
proved to be.
The climb down to SE Pot was uneventful and we motored on down through
Pool
Chamber (you can easily identify Pool Chamber cos it's where the water
goes over
your wellies) and follow the draught into the Main Chamber of Gaping
Gill.
Incredible place - every caver should visit at some stage and Bar Pot
is a
really nice simple route in.
The journey out was uneventful except for a mild battle with the
'eccentric
rigging' at the top of the second pitch. The top of the first pitch
just needed
a bit of thinking about but was fine.
Compared to the Tatham Wife trip the previous day this was physically
much
easier and substantially more impressive underground scenery. A nice,
dry, half
day trip.
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