9th December 2006
People present - Duncan Jones, Rob Santus, Dominick Mennie

Weather: Cold, some ice around.

What, a full trip report for County Pot? Surely not…
Yes, it’s true, I decided to write an account of our somewhat varied trip in County. We had a blank weekend and nothing planned as a trip, so during the week and having just purchased the very good Trident Survey created by the Red Rose a trip to Trident was in the back of mind.

The rather persistent rain through the week forced us to think carefully about our trip that Saturday and County seemed like a respectable choice.

After arriving late on in the day we got kitted up and headed over a semi-icy fell to the entrance, all went well to the pitch whereupon my choice of ladders showed up as being a mistake! A 5m ladder does not reach the bottom of the pitch, so we all had to endure a short clamber off the ladder about two metres off the floor, thankfully ledges are easy to find and it went without trouble.

Our first aim of the day was Battle of Britain Chamber, from here we headed for Splash Chamber and the small hole which drops into Whiteline passage by means of a scaffold pole. A quick nip upstream reaches the aptly named Puzzle Junction. We then headed downstream and then back upstream in Key Passage, finding the climb up into Paper Floor Passage. We all made a visit to Bedstead Chamber, Dom being kitted up decided as he had his SRT kit on he would go up the pitch and have a nosey around whereas me and Rob consulted the survey, decided it wasn’t worth it and waited for Doms return.

Heading back down Paper Floor passage we soon reached the 5m pitch, from here some more passage and a climb hits Whiteline Passage. At this point another passage leads off, which non of us had ever noticed or entered previously and this was the nicely decorated Whiteway.

After that brief detour we soon hit the normal County route and on downstream to Eureka Junction, evidence of recent flooding was all around us! Heading upstream to Stop Pot we had a number of options; Carrot Chamber/Manchester Bypass, Spiral Staircase or some obscure thing Dom had read about in Northern Caves3 – Depot 1.5 and its connection to Wretched Rabbit….

We ummed and ahhed about it then decided that as none of us had been into Depot 1.5 we should at least give it a go..

After a short route finding operation and all three of us deciding the passage we were in was 1.5 we ploughed onwards, the going wasn’t too bad to start with. Eventually after a climb, passage split and further split in the passage we hit Flashbang Crawl, which is quite low going, the smallest and most awkward part being right near the end just before you hit Ahaa Chamber.

At this point we assumed we were in the right area, as all we had to go on was the faint dotted line which connects this area to Wretched Rabbit, fingers crossed we slowly but systematically explored all possible routes – the one that won was the awkward 4m climb which leads to a slot down onto a loose slope and one of the streamways, which when followed downstream soon reaches the cascades on the usual Wretched tourist route.

An uneventful trudge brought us to the surface on a cold, clear evening, a fine end to a fine if alternative days caving in one of the more popular pots.

Duncan Jones