Vulcan Pot route, Nick Pot
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Fun evening trip down Nick Pot via the less frequently visited Vulcan Pot route, which includes the 2nd deepest underground pitch in the country (after Titan I believe).
After meeting Tom in Horton, drove up to South House Farm, which allows the allotment to be reached within 25mins of fairly flat walking 🙂
Dawson’s entrance was soon located, and I set off in to the crawl with Mr. tacklebag filling the passage ahead. Although not long, the entrance crawl is rather awkward, being sideways crawling in a narrow rift with plenty of twisty bits and a couple of narrow sections which I believe some people call squeezes. Of course, Mr. tacklebag did his best to ‘enhance’ the pleasures of the crawl 🙂
I recommend taking three ropes for Vulcan (35, 60 and 35m – see Mike Cooper’s book “Not for the Faint Hearted”), as this means you can split the tackle up into two tacklebags, which would be easier than taking a 120m rope through.
Needless to say, after around 15 or 20mins we arrived at the first pitch which had a knotted rope in-situ and can be handlined.
Vulcan Pot then followed, and an awkward slot soon opens out over the ~98m pitch. A short, 15m or so, abseil gains a ledge, where a short traverse and y-hang can be rigged for the next 60m drop to trouser flake. This 60m section is very, very impressive, being in a huge shaft! From trouser flake, there is around 20m to the floor.
With the sump ticked, we headed out. Wasn’t long before we were back in the chamber above vulcan and then in the crawl, which was a bit more awkward now the bags were that bit heavier, but it did seem shorter and we were soon back on the surface to a calm, pleasant night.
Then back to the Craven for beer! Superb 4hr trip. Ideal for a slightly more energetic evening trip!!! Jolly good
Comments
would have been an even better trip had the chippy in ingleton been open, for some reason it appears to be shut on tuesdays. Any chance of writing an official letter of complaint?
tom baker
Thursday, 05 April 2007
I agree. Im sure Chris & Si would write a formal letter from ULSA??
Mike Bottomley
Thursday, 05 April 2007