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Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett
(EPC) and Phil Baker (Masson
Caving Group)
We chose Grange Rigg Pot
after reading the description
in Mike Cooper's excellent book 'Not for the Faint-Hearted'. However,
the
weather forecast was for mid-afternoon rain so we had to get a move on.
By late
morning we were striding up through Trow Gill and up towards the
entrance to Bar
Pot. The Gaping Gill winch meet was on and we could see a small village
of BPC
tents scattered around the top of GG. The diagram that Mike provides in
his book
saw us to the entrance to Grange Rigg without any problems and we got
kitted up.
Standing at the entrance, where two surface streams join to tumble
underground
we decided that Grange Rigg was probably a cave where the lower reaches
could
flood dramatically. With this in mind we wanted to be out by 3 O'Clock
and set
ourselves a turn-around time accordingly. Two hours in, allow three
hours out
and we wouldn't get stuck! We dropped into the comfortable sized
entrance and
followed the stream down to a traverse and the top of the first pitch.
This 14m
pitch is a clear hang down a fine shaft and lands in the streamway at
the
bottom. A narrow passage leads down to the head of the second pitch
(3m) and a
short crawl leads to the third pitch (5m). This is descended in two
parts with a
ledge halfway down and the top of the pitch is particularly awkward. We
spent a
lot of time looking for a way down the fourth pitch (11m). It turns out
that
there are three options for the fourth pitch and we explored all these
and more
before finally descending the correct one on 8mm Spits. From the bottom
of the
fourth a low crawl leads to some egg-timer shaped passage. By the time
we
reached here our two hours were up and we turned around. Everything was
fine on
the way out and we were greeted by fairly persistent rain on the
surface. Shame
not to have reached the bottom of this one but plan to return on a
drier day. An
exchange trip between Grange Rigg Pot and Christmas Pot would be
excellent.
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