The aim of the trip today was to banish some of Mike's Demons from his last little escapade in there
last year. We arrived at Bull Pot farm, where Daz was looking a little nervous at the prospect. We
soon speed walked across the fell and dropped in down Link Pot without a hitch. We did not find it
tight or awkward going down.
We left the rope rigged in case the wallows were sumped. They were not. Mikes brilliant guesswork
got us through network of crawls for us to emerge after some wallowing & crawling at Dusty
Junction. Daz seemed to be having a bad day and was lagging behind a bit by this point. We pushed
on along through the easier passages of Pippikin, until reaching Hall of the Mountain King. It was
at this point that Daz decided to call it a day. After making sure he could find his way out Mistral
entrance we set on up the pitch using the in-situ rope.
The guide describes the pitch as 20 metres but the rope part is only 15 metres long as you start off
quite far above the floor. Good job the rope is not long as I am forever nervous about this pitch,
seeing how old and rusty the crabs are! Shortly after this pitch another shorter pitch is climbed some
7 metres. At the top of which the rope carries on up to parts unknown. I was leading now (although
from behind) and pointed the way on past the rope, to a climb up. Once up the way on is through a
slot on the left in the boulder slope.
We Followed this a bit though some tight flat out bits taking the right fork at the only junction to
emerge at the top of the 4th pitch in Peterson. We traversed over this easy traverse and made our
way up the 3rd pitch. It was at this point while turning around on this rather tight pitch I managed to
chip a tooth on the wall, doh!
Now the cave gets interesting Mike led the way into Roly Poly and after some thrashing about made
his way though with Chris's help. Chris then went in and after him. After a little supporting action
from me, it was my turn. It was interesting for me as I had a huge bag (not connected to me) to
manhandle up the climb into Roly Poly. I managed it climbing up the other-side of the small
chamber, before jamming my bag on a ledge. I then climbed the climb part way up and passed the
bag over my self into the rift.
Progress was hard at first as the bag refused to cooperate but it eventually accelerated to very slow.
Every foot of progress required stopping to either re-manoeuver for the next corner/S-bend or to
free the bags from the rift. This crawl would be remarkably easier without tackle.
We finally made it out, taking as long as it says in NFTFH (30 minutes). I could not be bothered to
put my muddy SRT kit back on and decided to free climbed both pitches. The free climb alternative
for the lower pitch requires a person of small physique as it consisted of two tight vertical holes to
squeeze though. The upper pitch had to be chimneyed up by following a crack up the wall. This
climb only requirement is bravery as it is exposed and has little to no holds.
Anyway the trip was successful one for three of us and demons were indeed banished for Mike. Daz
was a bit pissed off with him self but I do think he would have liked Roly Poly!
Trip time three and a half hours to four hours. Two and a half for Daz.
