On Saturday 21st of May we had a permit for the cave in the yard, Robinson’s Pot. I stayed at the YSS for the weekend with Carolina and Dave Coulson and we met Mike, Sharman and Xaaaaandah at Darnbrook house. It’s quite an easy entrance to find, being pressed up against the wall of the house.
We laddered the entrance, which seems far more sensible than rigging it for SRT, then explored the cave, through warm, dry crawls, low, wet crawls, a free-climbable 10 foot pitch and into the main streamway. Sharman and Mike then disappeared into thin air and the rest of us explored every nook and cranny (except for the remarkably long section Mike and Sharman had found which wasn’t on the survey- we all thought there was nothing to see beyond the duck, but those two spent about two hours there), all meeting again at the foot of the ladder, just as we had decided we may have to go looking for them.
Next we went to Darnbrook Pot, which is found by following the darn brook from the darn house until a dry stone wall is met on the left. Just before the corner of the wall, above the shooting hut, about 100m from the wall is a shakehole with a log over the top. We put a ladder on this for the slippery but straightforward climb down, then followed the streamway in both directions. A very exciting and enjoyable cave and we just made it down in time to get to the cheesemonger in Settle.
On Sunday I went to Sell Gill with Dave and Carol and did some Berger training by going up and down the pitches. Dave shot off into the sunset and then Carol rigged the entrance pitch without a helmet. Danger danger! After we had sufficiently exhausted all the possible SRT scenarios we went for a quick trip down Haytime Hole, a fun trip that requires no gear.
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