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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett
(EPC) and Phil Baker (Masson
Caving Group)
We arrived at the parking
opposite Braida Garth in
Kingsdale at lunchtime to find dry and settled weather. Phil had done
Rowten
years before but I'd never been in there so was particularly looking
forward to
this trip. We crossed the wall and headed uphill to find the very
impressive
Rowten entrance shaft. I rigged the first few drops to land on the rock
bridge
that spans the huge shaft. An easy traverse along a muddy ledge leads
to another
pitch head, a rebelay and then a short descent leads to a swing into a
rift
beneath the muddy ledge. Here a straight drop can be rigged from
opposite walls
of the rift allowing a spectacular descent to huge boulders jammed
across the
shaft. Impressive place this! One of the biggest open shafts in the
country and
it has a distinctly Jurassic Park feel about it. Phil took over the
rigging here
and a pitch head at the left hand end of the boulders leads to a tricky
swing
into a cross-rift. Here some easy traversing on good ledges leads to
the final
drop into the streamway at the bottom. We had a quick trip to have a
look at the
Rowten sumps before heading out up the rope. Despite not doing many big
SRT
trips recently, the journey out of Rowten didn't feel too bad. I
suspect that's
because the vertical sections are broken up by short sections of
traversing
which allow a bit of time to recover. The trip took three hours in
total and we
emerged to fine afternoon sunshine. We stayed the evening at the YSS
hut,
Helwith Bridge which provided excellent and reasonably priced
accommodation.
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