This part of Penyghent Gill can be a lesson in alliteration if you like that kind of thing.
Two of us (Dunc & Rob) headed down the very steep bank, past Swan Dike towards Snool’s Hole. This was first on our list followed by Slut cave, Slit Cave, Slit Pot, Slab Pot and a look at Snorkel cave. So with Snool’s, Slit, Slut, Slab, Slit and Snorkel, it wasn’t that surprising that we got confused!
Anyway, the entrance to Snool’s resembles the wet descent in Roaring with a waterfall going down a drum. For the record, NC states it’s currently blocked but it isn’t. The way on is a nice chamber followed by crawling to flat out crawling until the Grimbit is reached. The name is not an understatement and is awful. After getting 3/4 through, my mouth was full of silt and I backed out. Dunc didn’t fancy it so no further progress was made (shame because it sounds good after this). Note: more removal of silt from the Grimbit is required and make sure you wear a neofleece in this cave.
Back out we headed towards the other S’s. We found Snorkel easily, had a look inside, moved on. We came across Slit Cave easily and moved on again to locate Slit and Slab Pots. We thought we found them when we found 3 holes but these were blocked with debris so we mistakenly assumed that was that. Bugger, we were few metres misplaced! Easily done in the pitch black.
So we headed back to Slit Cave. I went in and wriggled through a tight-ish bit to a chamber where there appeared no way on except an awkward free climb so I went out again. Dunc got the survey out which suggested the free climb was the way on. Back in again and up the free climb. This is not the easiest free climb but not the hardest either. The way on is good with a few cascades and some crawling until a too tight cascade blocks progress. It’s a shame someone hasn’t widened this section really.
So a bit disappointing that we didn’t locate some of the caves we had intended to visit but a return is certain as this is an interesting part of Penyghent Gill with a lot of short caves of moderate difficulty.
Beers were had in the new pub in Settle (my van).
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