[Don]

‘The last time I had done FOUL Pot, it had rained so much that the lower part of this pitch had felt like a battle for survival, but this time, despite a few days of quite heavy rain, it was just a bit drippy.’

You must have gone up a different pitch than me because this was one of the wettest pitches I’ve ever had the pleasure to ascend. Some might even call it epic.

[Don]

Yes, the trip took place on 15 July 2020. I had so much fun caving with Sharman that I lost complete track of time and the day.

[Don]

What a wonderfully coherent account of our adventurous trip down to the sump. It was very enjoyable. Both the report and the trip.

I very briefly want to add something. The original plan was to do an exchange between the BT route and Centre route. As only three people showed up on Saturday morning though, we decided to do Centre down to the sump, and then Scaife and I would do BT on the way out. In the end we didn’t, mainly because of a mixture of time and tiredness. I did, however, crawl – without tackle – to the head of the first pitch, which had four new bolts in place. I’m assuming that the other pitches have been bolted as well. If the route truly is deserving of its name (bloody tight), then the tight section must start below the first pitch as the section leading from Three Ways to the first pitch was not difficult at all.

[Don]

Brief reports aren’t my specialty, unfortunately. Well, unfortunately for others.

[Don]

You may be right, Dunc. I thought Illusion and Dale Barn had already been connected via Perfidia, but that the connection brought you out in a short dry section somewhere between two of the sumps in Dale Barn, meaning there wasn’t much caving to be done there without diving gear. I though I read this somewhere a long time ago. I’ve probably got it wrong.

[Don]

I’m still having problems. Yesterday and today were better, but there are still problems.

[Don]

I’d like to check out the connection with Dale Barn Cave. I think it’s called Perfidia Passage.

[Don]

My stomach started to feel really unwell this afternoon. I’m starting to think it might be a result of the water that I accidentally swallowed a couple of times when going through the ducks. Has anyone else had any issues?

[Don]

Both were good trips. There’s a certain sense of satisfaction that comes from doing two trips in one day.

I don’t think the water levels in Bucket were really any lower than normal. If they had been a couple of inches higher a couple of the ducks would have been free dives. The water in Crystal Cave was definitely lower though. That being said, the gravelly flat-out crawl that connects Crystal Cave with Dog Hole had more water than I remember from previous trips. And it was considerably tighter, presumably from earlier flooding washing in gravel.

[Don]

Yep, you got it. There were literally four places where we went wrong. The biggest time waster was going up the wrong pitch from Duke Street II on the way to Jupiter Cavern. The trip is a lot easier going the normal route as you simply have to turn left (virtually) every time you come to a junction.

[Don]

I should point out that Sharman and I split tackle bag carrying duties (well, sort of). The report makes it sound as if I did all the carrying. Without the two of us helping each other – one person pushing and the other person pulling – the bag wouldn’t have made it. This is especially the case in Numpty Rift.

The trip definitely has a lot of variety. I was reading through Northern Caves earlier and there are a couple of other Grade 4 trips in Ireby that sound like fun. One is NE Inlet, I can’t remember the name of the other one.

[Don]

You need to be quicker and boulder with your responses. When you don’t respond, I sometimes wonder if you’re giving me the coal shoulder.

[Don]

You two are such losers! With a capital L.

Why did it take you two weeks to respond to my wittiness, Alex?

[Don]

I’ve only bottomed Gavel once but I really enjoyed the last pitch. There aren’t many other pitches I’ve been down where you have the option of descending 100 feet and landing in a deep sump pool. It was really windy down there from what I remember.

[Don]

Yes, it was a good trip. I’m completely worn out today. Everything hurts.

I still think that the second squeeze in Pippikin (i.e. the squeeze after the initial drop down squeeze just after Cellar Pot) must be the most strenuous squeeze that I’ve ever done. And I’ve done it four times. It took what seemed like forever to squeeze through it. I had to inch my way through.

Extreme Ways is a trip that I would do again as well. It would be interesting to journey to it via Link Pot and out Mistral. That would be pretty strenuous. You’d only have to rig Link Pot entrance pitch though.

[Author]

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