Hensler’s to Marilyn
Saturday 25/5/19
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Carolina Smith de la Fuente, Alex Ritchie, Joe Boner, Louise Anderson, David Botcherby, Louise Baddeley

On a sunny winch meet day, Carol, Xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandah and I walked up to Gaping Gill to meet an ever-increasing number of Bradford Pothole Club members, and join them on the rigging trip down Hensler’s Pot. It’s a very enjoyable cave – down the fixed ladder at the entrance, some easy crawling with a “duck” that was no more than a shallow pool, then four short pitches all close together, a bit of a longer crawl with a birth canal that prompted an astonishing out of the blue confession by Mr Ritchie, then another pitch to some lovely decorations and a final, 38m pitch. We had a quick stomp down Hensler’s Master Cave – a passage that you just want to go on forever – then exited via Marilyn, into fog and rain. That duck might have some water in it now.