The morning after the annual dinner at the Crown in Horton-in-Ribblesdale, we sat around the breakfast table discussing our plans for the rest of the day. Previous post-dinner breakfasts have featured dog attacks and revelations of landlord infidelity, but this year’s was a more tranquil affair. Six people initially said they would be underground, but the number soon whittled down to just two: Xaaaaaaaaaaaaandah and me.
We walked from the Crown to Haytime Hole, very easily found by following the Pennine Way and where there is a barn close to the wall on the left, just head up the dry stream bed to a large shakehole. The entrance is a short flatout squeeze into a chamber and the 1st pitch. Alex rigged the pitch, using a sling in the chamber, and a bolt partway down the rift. Looking at it on the way down, we could have easily free-climbed this pitch so we did that on the way out. There were then a few entertaining climbs, one of which had a useful in situ handline and led into a big chamber with some loose rocks to get past. Some more climbing in the streamway brought us to a point where the stream disappears into a hole in the floor, with dry passage looping round over the top. We followed the dry passage and arrived at the foot of the waterfall, to find a very wet climb down. We decided to take the alternative dry oxbow, which was a longer route to the impressive Helm’s Deep. A short crawl from here led to the sump.
On the way out, we took all the wet alternatives to our cowardly dry inward journey, thus we climbed up the wet climb and through the hole in the floor. We free-climbed the pitch with ease and joy, and were back at the pub just after 12. This is an excellent short trip and could easily be done without SRT gear.
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