Members present: Alex, Don, Sharman
After a quick breakfast at the Olde Naked Man Cafe in Settle, we headed for Horton where Sharman found a convenient place to park just across from the path up to Penyghent, while Alex and I opted for a more scenic spot just on the edge of Horton. The weather wasn’t great – lots of cloud – but it didn’t stop the hordes of walkers. After an enjoyable walk which included a heated discussion about the pros/cons of Brexit by two of our group, we soon found the entrance of Little Hull Pot. I headed in first. The first pitch was quickly reached, which I rigged. Rigging the traverse was a bit tricky, as was swinging out to reach the rebelay halfway down, but it was all good fun. The second pitch is reached almost immediately after this. Despite the low water levels we opted for the high route, which Sharman rigged. Alex and I were very impressed with his rigging in the sense that it takes a lot of nerve to rig the y-hang, which requires a giant step across a 100 foot drop to the bolts on the opposite wall. Rather unsurprisingly, Sharman forgot/didn’t care enough to fasten two of the krabs. Rather surprisingly, he did decide to fasten the krab on the deviation, which made the descent even more fun and time consuming.
Once all three of us were at the bottom of the big pitch, we climbed/abseiled down the next small pitch and made our way through the very wet and low crawl that follows. Next came an awkward traverse which starts at the exact point where a rope hangs down (though this rope isn’t actually of any use for getting on the traverse). The traverse itself is easy apart from the climb up to it and the beginning section where the traverse is very wide. The traverse ends in a muddy chamber where an in situ rope leads down the final 40 foot pitch, which has a a rebelay about 15 feet down. A short crawl from the bottom of this pitch leads to an awkward climb up to a short section of passage which ends at a sump. Though there was an in situ rope, none of us could be bothered to go up the climb, so we turned around and headed out, with Sharman derigging the big pitch and me derigging the first pitch. The trip out was uneventful and the walk back to the cars was even more uneventful. Sharman and Alex were arguing or talking about something the whole way back but it was so boring that I didn’t even pay attention, so I couldn’t tell you what it as about.
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