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Marilyn and
Gaping Gill - 15/11/2008
Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Dave
Gledhill (EPC), Sam
Pemberton
(EPC), Pete Pollard (EPC), Faye Hartley
Four of us met at the
Inglesport cafe in the morning for the usual debate about what we were
going to do. The options were Boggarts Roaring Holes, the Marilyn
entrance to Gaping Gill, Long Churn - Alum or a bit of a tour of
Kingsdale. Asking around a few people in the cafe no-one seemed to know
much about Marilyn but we'd got a vague idea that it didn't flood badly
so went for that. Parked in Clapham where we met Faye who's friends
hadn't turned up and walked to Bar Pot. Marilyn is nearby and the lid
is certainly an impressive piece of metal fabrication. We rigged the
top and headed down the entrance pitch - a simple short hang down to a
ledge. The next pitch is a bit constricted (similar to The Narrows in
Nettle Pot) but short and goes past a couple of rebelays/deviations to
land at the start of a short crawl. At the end of the crawl is the head
of Niagara pitch. This has a slightly loose top but is fine with care.
Niagara pitch dropped us in above pitch three of Disapointment Pot and
we followed the stream down past the final three pitches. From the
bottom of Disapointment Pot we followed the water down to Hensler's
Master Cave. Without exactly meaning to we followed the water
downstream and through a very unusual coffin-shaped passage to arrive
at the foot of the ladder that leads to the Far Country. Our directions
now sent us back to where we had arrived in the Master Cave and
slightly upstream to find the passage leading to Hensler's High Aven.
From here we entered Mud Hensler's Passage with its two easy ducks and
on to Mud Hall. I'd not been to Mud Hall before and it's an impressive
sight. A load of lights were coming towards us on the far side of Mud
Hall which helped to give scale to the place. We followed the traverse
lines around to the the far side of Mud Hall and followed the route on
to the bottom of Main Chamber with it's impressive waterfall. Pete
enjoyed a run through the water before we continued on to traverse
underneath the big pitch in Bar Pot. From here some interesting wet
crawling along New Henslers Passage leads back to Hensler's Master Cave
and the bottom of Disapointment Pot. The de-rigging was all
straightforward and we exited at about 18:00. No rain in the evening so
the walk down through Trow Gill was quite pleasant.
A very varied trip and an excellent way to see a large part of the
Gaping Gill system.
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