Pippikin Pot
Sunday, 23 December 2007
A late start on sunday morning saw us wondering what adventure to embark upon today! John fancied doing Pippikin as he hadn’t done it before, and so we decided on a ‘proper’ trip down the cave, rigging all the pitches and visiting the Pippikin sump in waterfall chamber.
And so, 7 ropes were packed and we set off for a spot of breakfast at Inglesport. We didn’t get up to Leck Fell House until around 2pm, but a very pleasant walk in the glorious sunshine saw us at the entrance before 3pm.
Good progress was made down this most excellent of potholes, with John enjoying the entertaining sections such as the head-dive on to the stemple above the 4th pitch. Didn’t take long to rig the pitches and soon enough we were approaching the Hall of the Ten.
Following the streamway through the choke (bit dubious in couple of places) soon saw us in a fine section of stooping/crawling streamway. This soon degenerated into a section of easy canal passage. Another fine section of streamway ended at a short pitch and exposed 4-5m climb into waterfall chamber – very impressive with a large waterfall crashing in at one end. The sump was ticked and then we made our way back to the hall of ten. It is worth taking a couple of long slings for the climb.
Then back out of Pippikin, which was great fun and easier than expected.
An excellent trip, and well worth doing ‘properly.’ The lower streamway below the Hall of the Ten is well worth visiting, and can be easily done from Mistral as well as Pippikin.