Cave : Bull Pot, Kingsdale
Date : February 2001
Speleologists : Martin Beale (HPCC), Tom Brunt
Style : SRT
Grade : 3/4
Equipment : 30m rope, 120m rope, 50m rope, 21 maillons, 4 slings, rope protector, 3 8mm bolts
Cave time : 4 hours
Approach time : 15m + 15m
Quality : **

We arrived at the entrance to Bull Pot as the snow was starting to fall. A beautiful blue skied morning had turned into a grey afternoon with the storm clouds threatening. It was pretty obvious that it would snow rather than rain - the ground was hard frozen.

There are a multitude of bolts around the entrance shaft. The CNCC rigging guide makes it look like you should use anchors outside the shaft and then deviate immediately once you are in the shaft. It seemed to be a better solution to fire up a very wide Y-hang across the shaft (I had to pass the rope to Tom to clip in one side of the hang!) and to descend from there. With the rig that I had, the 20m rope was only just sufficient : it would be judicious to take a 30m rope for this entrance pitch.

A little meander led down to the top of the second pitch. You actually climb up to the Y-hang for this pitch, rigging from the top of the trench. The pitch lands you about 15m lower. There is a ledge tantalisingly out of reach. The rigging guide is correct when it says that you have to pendulum across, but "pendulum" almost seems like too grand a phrase for this step that is only just out of reach.

The third "slot" pitch is aptly named : there is a slot in the floor of the ledge. This has to be the best way to go on (as opposed to the gully). The slot is not at all tight either in descent or ascent. The main issue would seem to be getting the Y-hang correct such that the rope drops right into the slot itself. The first section looks narrow. At a single rebelay bolt (which does inspire quite a bit of confidence), the shaft enlarges and you drop another 10m to the floor of the shaft.

The fourth pitch is the best pitch of the entire hole. I started off by traversing about 8 feet above the floor of the stream. There are a few bolts to help here with the traverse line. You then drop towards the stream before the pitch head itself. On the way back up this section, it just seemed to be easier to walk through the stream (maybe this tactic is only OK in lower water conditions). A Y hang across the shaft allows a drop well out of the water. As the water looks like it is getting closer, there is a deviation from a P bolt out in the shaft. It was quite difficult to rappel diagonally out to the bolt and then to clip the rope in. There did seem to be enough friction and the odd hold on the walls to help gain horizontal distance. Brute force made up where finesse lacked. I dropped down again until I got near the water again. I was expecting another deviation down here, but all I could find was an old spit. I put a bolt in here and used it as a deviation. It wasn't a very satisfactory bolt, but it felt like enough (the consequences of it failing were not bad).

The longest section of streamway follows the base of the pitch. After a little downclimbing, the passage suddenly switches back to the left. A boulder jams the start of the passage. We slipped under the boulder into the streamway. We thrutched along the bottom of the streamway until a second drop. I slithered down this (assuming that I could get back up) and continued forward. I was going to slither down the next steepening, but things didn't quite seem to be matching the guidebook description - the slither would have been long and tight. I decided to tie the rope into an overhead boulder jamming the passage and proceed from there on the rope. I traversed horizontally from the boulder in the roof above the ever deepening trench. I was more confident I was going the right way as I passed some old spits in the left wall. It seemed like it would be better to save my last bolt than use it here when not in extremis. This proved to be a good decision. I thrutched and knee barred my way above the deepening trench until I was above a descendable drop. There was a single in situ P-bolt for the drop and some spits (they looked like Elliot red bolts). I constructed a Y hang across the shaft from the P bolt and my final bolt and descended the narrow trench to the floor of the shaft. This was the base of Bull Pot. There were a coupe of little sumps leading on, but they looked particularly small and uninviting.

To avoid a rub point, Tom had to pull the rope in the final pitch to one side as I ascended (I might have got away without Tom's assistance if I'd deviated from a flake on the way down). I slapped the rope protector on the rope at the rub point (thankfully in very smooth rock) and continued up.

The ascent from the boulder at the upstream end of the fifth pitch rope was pretty technical. I wedged myself in with arm and knee bars and udged up. Having my knees on the left wall (looking upstream) seemed to do the trick. I reached a crimp and then a hand sinking jam in an undercut flake. From the undercut flake, I could squirm horizontally to the sanctuary of the upper stream bed. As Tom was battling through this section, I was able to see that there were a few P bolts in the upper level of the stream passage. It looks like you are meant to rig this whole section at a higher level than we were at. This would mean that you wouldn't have to free climb this little step, but could go up it on a rope.

The ascents of the upper pitches were uneventful. The fourth pitch is best as it is the most continuous. The third slot pitch is not a problem as it is wider than it seems on the way down (I had been worrying about the slot a little when in the lower reaches of the pothole).

At the bottom of the entrance shaft, there were little patches of snow on the rocks. I popped out of the top of the shaft into a winter wonderland - there was about an inch of snow covering everything. The ropes were frozen (thus obviously cold) at the top and our rucksacks were buried under the snow. We walked through the snowy fields back to the cars and then gingerly negotiated our ways down the road to the Marton Arms. Both Tom and I managed good little skids at the Marton Arms T junction. Discretion proved the better part of valour on the rest of the journey to Preston!