Marble Steps Pot

Wednesday, 7 November 2007

Superb evening trip down this Dales classic, giving the craven ladders an airing...

Arrived at the cottage just after 6pm following a quick stop in Settle for a very fine meal of sausage, chips and curry sauce!! As we/I finally decided to do the trip on ladders, 12 ladders were chucked in the car along with four ropes for self-lining/SRT if needed and an assortment of rigging gear, then off we sped towards masongill.

Dan's car conked out just past ingleton (it had been cutting out a few times on the journey thus far), and so a few minutes were spent trying to work out what was wrong. Tom impressed with superior knowledge, spouting foreign language (carbaretta, fucked etc..), and somehow it started again and we continued on our journey.

Soon enough, we were all at the classic entrance and I set off sorting out the ladders, which involved descending a short distance to a heap of ladder, throwing it further down the gully and continuing on to the next heaped pile. Soon enough, the bottom was reached and the others descended. Most of the gully is easily free-climbable with the ladder providing a useful 'handline.'

Continuing on, quick progress was made to stink pot, where the ladder was found to be just over a metre short. Then the traverse and short passage to the '90ft pitch. This required four ladders and provided a very fine ladder climb.

Then the final pitch and climb to the bottom and the sump, which was reached in just under 2hrs from the surface. I'd read quite a bit about the potential of this sump but couldn't remember what it looked like......looks inspiring!

Then back out, with tom and myself proving that ladders are much more enjoyable than SRT, and steve and dan opting for a ladder/SRT mix of ascent......Ladders are awesome aren't they Steve????

Good progress was made up the pitches to the bottom of the entrance pitch, where a log was found spouting some impressive looking mushrooms. Then back up this, pulling up the bottom of the ladder as I climbed to avoid problems with hauling it from the top. Worked well!! The rather misty surface was reached just after midnight.

A quick detour round by Horton to clean the gear saw us back in Leeds for just after 3am.

Fine trip! Definitely worth doing on ladder!