In attendance: Dunc & Rob

We called and congratulated Pete and Shelley on their new arrival before heading up Leck Fell. Lo and behold, it suddenly grew very cold and then it started snowing! Great, so now we were bloody cold getting changed (not in the van this time). A couple of lights then appeared coming across the fell which turned out to be Mike B having just done Notts Pot too – a strange coincidence on a Thursday night in February.

It’s very rare to see Dunc complaining of being cold, but he was, so I packed the ropes and off we went. Finding Notts isn’t hard but it was made especially easy by following Mike B’s footsteps which resulted in our quick arrival at the entrance. Dunc rigged the crazy rope-rub 1st and the over-rigged 2nd pitch. Our route followed the traditional Adamson’s route, up the slope and short climb leading to the next pitch. Again, much over-rigging and in fact, this is virtually a free climb (we did on the return). Suggested rigging (lite version) for these first 3 pitches: 15m, 15m, 15m, 5 krabs.

You have 3 options at the bottom: Birthday Pot, the Acrobat route (according to Dunc) and the De Profundis route. We were going down De Profundis using John Gardner’s new p-bolts and route plan. Fair play to John, the position of the bolts and description were very good. The First pitch is quickly followed by the very impressive big pitch down a dry aven and into an equally dry chamber. I used a 45 metre rope for the first 2 pitches although John Gardner suggests a 20 m and a 28m (7 krabs + 1 deviation krab).

The way on is a squeeze of sorts below the pitch into a small stream, requiring some slightly awkward manoeuvring which immediately brings you to the next pitch (Pandora on the De Profundis route). This is basically part way down Birthday Pot and can be rigged from bolts in the wall with a couple of deviations (2 krabs, 2 dev.) Only a 20 metre rope is required to bottom this pitch, but a 35 metre rope is required if you want to continue down the next short pitch (plus 2 more krabs). The De Profundis route ends at the bottom of Pandora pitch.
“From the Depths” arrived 2 men, greeted by stars, happy for their evening jolly down an enjoyable and alternative route down Notts Pot.