Boggarts Roaring Holes
Friday, 9 March 2007
Almost two weeks without caving (a rarity for myself) meant I jumped at the chance to join Tom and Ben for their friday afternoon trip. Ben suggested Boggarts, a pothole on Dowlass Moss close to Trapdoor which was extended in 2001 and now offers a fairly deep, mostly vertical trip.
The cave involves around 9 pitches, with the largest being around 24m. There isn’t much horizontal caving, except for a few short crawls or sections of narrow(ish) rift. Some of the pitch heads offer some minor entertainment, with rigging and getting on the rope involving some ‘head-first’ related acrobatics. As Mike C says in his book, “there is an amusing assortment of awkward pitch heads and rigging dilemmas.”
The rigging is mostly off exploration studs, which are a pain in the arse in my opinion!!
Care is required on Fever Pitch and the fifth pitch in particular, as there isn’t a huge amount to rig off. Also, the stud at the top of the second pitch is unusable (i.e. it rotates and nut is rusted on).
The bottom was reached, then back out with Tom and John de-rigging, with us all back at the entrance for around 11pm, after 6.5hrs underground.
All in all, a pleasant trip! Cheers guys.