Shrapnel Pot
Sunday, 21 January 2007
Fine trip down what is probably a fairly rarely-visited pothole. Indeed the guidebook description makes it sound a little grim, so it was definitely worth a look.
Arrived at the entrance to Hunt Pot to find a rather impressive stream sinking down the classic main shaft. Shrapnel is higher up in the side of the shakehole, and the entrance consists of a hole with numerous scaffold bars holding up the loose crappy roof….Nice!
Just inside the entrance a muddy slope leads down to top of broken pitch, and suprisingly, a fixed hanger. I wasn’t expecting to find fixed bolts in such a place, but this was a pleasant surprise. There are
some dodgy looking boulders here, so one needs to be careful.
An inlet also enters above the first pitch, presumably carrying some of the water from the main stream before it drops down Hunt Pot’s main shaft. The cave opens up considerably after a couple of short drops to become a pretty impressive shaft, with a rather large waterfall crashing down it.
Several large ledges break up the descent and allow you to keep clear of the waterfall. Once at the bottom of this, a small hole gives access to short pitch which is choked at bottom.
Then back out. Part way up, a quick dash under the raging torrent and very short crawl leads to a large rift. A short 4m climb leads to the top of a pitch into the bottom of Hunt Pot’s main shaft, where a spectacular waterfall could be seen.
Soon back on the surface to horizontal snow/hail which thankfully soon stopped, then back to Horton for several pints in t’crown before heading back to Leeds.
Images
Rigging Topo
Posted by: Mike Bottomley
Size: 63kb
Width: 594 pixels
Height: 914 pixels
Posted: 22 January 2007