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Trip to Heron Pot -- 6 May 2007

Group: Paul, Mary, Dave

The weather looked dull but settled as we headed off to Ingleton to call into Bernies for some gear and Inglesport for a late breakfast. We drove up Kingsdale, parked at the side of the road near Yordas and changed into caving gear. We crossed the field and Kingdale Beck (which was dry) and headed up towards a likely stream. A GPS proved very useful and it wasn't long before we found a appropriate looking hole at the side of the stream
[Heron Pot] Paul & Mary at entrance [Heron Pot] Paul & Dave at entrance
A quick check by Dave showed it was not worth donning SRT gear at this point as there seemed to be quite a bit of streamway and some of it was a crawl. We dropped down the entrance and entered the crawlway just behind the entrance boulder. The passage was low but fairly dry and occasionally opened up so you could stand up.
[Heron Pot] Start of rift after entrance crawl [Heron Pot] In the upper riftway
After a short while a T junction was reached, the RHS passage was low and contained the incoming stream. Downstream the passage became a highish rift very reminiscent of the crabwalk in Giant's Hole. Progress in the narrow rift was fast and quite a few pretty formations were encountered.
[Heron Pot] The T junction looking upstream [Heron Pot] The T junction looking downstream [Heron Pot] Coloured Stals in rift passage [Heron Pot] Peculiar ochre-like deposit [Heron Pot] Roof covered in myriad water droplets [Heron Pot] Big Stal and blade [Heron Pot] Flowstone deposits on walls [Heron Pot] More flowstone deposits on walls [Heron Pot] Pretty fluted stal blades [Heron Pot] Blades and flowstone on walls of passage
A little further on a pair of Eco hangers in the roof mark the start of the first pitch and Dave rigged a Y hang and clipped rope rope into a stop. A slightly awkward squirm around the corner and up reveals a little alcove with the next anchor and directly opposite the Y hang for the pitch. It didn't take long to rig this and have the party drop down the pitch.
[Heron Pot] Initial Y hang for first pitch [Heron Pot] Paul at top of first pitch [Heron Pot] Mary near top of first pitch [Heron Pot] Mary most of the way down first pitch
The second pitch is very close to the bottom of the first pitch. A quick look around showed a single Eco hanger on the nearby wall and a pair of Eco hangers arranged for pull-throughs and nothing else. A bit more investigation with some rope protection revealed more anchors high up on the RHS after a climb up and these were rigged with a Y hang. From this position we could not see where the rebelay mentioned in the rigging guide was situated. As it happened there was very little water and the Y hang was fine on its own. When we got to the bottom of the pitch we could just make out an Eco hanger on a buttress around the corner from the free hanging rope. It would take a bit of a pendulum to reach it!
[Heron Pot] Paul about to leave top of second pitch [Heron Pot] The circle shows the rebelay/deviation anchor
At the bottom of the pitch the streamway continued as a high rift before becoming a low crawl in places. We could feel a definite draught and carried on till we reached a very low section with a polished floor and a couple of inches of water. At this point it seemed hardily worth continuing to the exit near Gaze Gill as we would have to return to de-rig the pitches and it would have meant getting a lot wetter. The lower section does have some nice pretties and so is worth a visit.
[Heron Pot] Straw stals and bosses in lower riftway [Heron Pot] Straw stals and bosses in lower riftway [Heron Pot] Massive flowstone curtains in lower crawlway [Heron Pot] Pretty forest of stals in horizontal rift
We retraced our steps, prussiked back up the pitches and de-rigged. After changing we headed to the Marton Arms for a well deserved pint.

Note: If doing a through trip would be worth taking an extra short length of rope or couple of long slings so that the climbs up to the pitch heads can be protected.

Overall trip time 4 hours including the walk in each direction.