Saturday - 26th February 2000
People present - Pete Dale, Duncan Jones, Iain Simpson, Roger W, Katie R

Got to farm, packed tackle, persuaded RW and KR to come with us. Drove up to masongill met DJ and IS got changed and waited for RW and KR to arrive. Still waiting they hadn't turned up so set off for the entrance. As we neared the hole into the underworld who should I spy hurtling along the lane but Roger we watched him park up and… nothing was happening he didn't even get out of the car was he waiting for us? Why would he? The cars parked down... oh yeah I forgot due to my lack of walking stamina (unless it's downhill) I had parked at the top of the lane which meant that it was out of site from where he was. So after a lot of ridiculous waving and jumping we gave up and descend into the gloom.

For all those out there who haven't been down large pot (why not?) don't be put off by the rumours of tight nasty bits and stories of people being abandoned in New Rift (Any ideas Duncan?) It is exactly as its name suggests Large! Well deep anyway oh yeah and a couple of awkward bits not to mention the second pit… Well as I as saying it's a good trip.

Upon finding the entrance shakehole you find a steel lid hiding the darker secrets of what lies beneath. Opening the lid a scaffold pole is spied which the rope is belayed off. The first 8m are easily freeclimbed but is just as quick to abb down the rope. Once at the bottom there is a short climb of 4m using the previous pitch rope as a handline. After realising how unlarge the cave now seems to be getting you slither through a narrowing of the passage to the head of the second pitch 18m. The top is adequately spacious to start with but soon grows to impressive dimensions once at the bottom. (Note the fossils in the cave walls) You are now confronted with two short pitches into Thornton Hall where several ways lead off one of them to the connection with Rift. Following the water downstream a short distance you come across a collapse where the way on is to climb up and traverse out to the head of the 3-rd pitch A traverse line is rigged to the take off of this 23m pitch where a deviation at -7m is optional (pride forced me to use this even though water levels were amazingly low) You land on a spacious ledge where an awkward take off for the last 4m lands you in another large chamber with two routes available 'Flake Aven Route' and 'Red Herring Series', we'd packed gear for the latter.

After an awkward traverse to the top of the pitch Duncan rigged it and we descended once at the bottom we waited for Iain, and waited… and waited… We knew he wasn't far behind so we carried on down the pot. A short climbable drop which we rigged for the sake of it leads to a short length of passage passing beneath where Flake Aven enters another short decent of 5m lands you at the start of a shingle crawl in the stream, with a calcite squeeze chucked in for our enjoyment! Unfortunately for us the last pitch is soon reached and bottomed. (Rigging guide says there is supposed to be a rebelay halfway down but none was found (probably coz the walls were covered in a thick layer of mud!) Anyway the rope didn't rub, as you are able to keep it off the wall all the way down. At the bottom the passage meanders off in grand proportions but typically sumps just around the next corner. Duncan made a comment on all the mud covering the entire passage possibly due to it normally having a lot more water entering the system! We remembered the low crawl and calcite squeeze, further back up the cave and unanimously decided to head for the surface incase of a sudden downpour. (Better safe than dead!!) Wondering where Iain was when we reached the bottom of the big pitch we heard a faint noise from above (I forgot Iain's lack of enthusiasm for big pitches).

Party reassembled we made our way up the next pitch with Duncan Following behind De-rigging. As me and Iain Waited In Thornton Hall we heard Various expletives echoing from the depths of the pot (spose we should of helped with the tackle bags). Well this was it we'd reached the hard bit Iain went up first, and after he'd forgot to unclip his cowstail and got stuck yours truly ascended the pitch to help him out. Duncan up safely and the rest of the cave de-rigged successfully. Oh I forgot to mention the race up the entrance shaft, one climbing the other prussuking.

Well that's it large pot bottomed, we all agreed that it wasn't as bad as last time, but then we didn't do an exchange trip this time, come to think of it? We didn't last time either! But that's another tale.

Go on give it a go! Don't believe the rumours get to the bottom of this classic pothole. You'll feel you've been caving. An excellent trip!!!!