A foul day for foul pot

Saturday, 23 February 2008

Given the dire weather, I wasn't particularly enthused for a trip to the dales to do sell gill, juniper or rift again etc etc. However, a recommendation from sam late on friday night and the arrival of a keen and enthusiastic german saw us destined for Foul Pot, a relatively recent addition to Fountains Fell (i.e. isn't in northern caves) which although fairly short, reaches a modest depth of around 120m.

After picking up some ropes from Horton we proceeded to fountains fell. A 10-15min walk saw us up at the entrance, which is close to echo pot. None of us had much idea of what to expect.....all i had were the ropes lengths and rigging info, but good and easy progress was made down the cave. At the bottom of the second pitch, a short section of narrow rift proved too much for mark and so he set off out leaving martin, john and myself to continue on.

Beyond the rift, a short crawl led to a superb section of streamway with impressive straws in the roof, thankfully well above head-height. The fine 30m third pitch was soon reached, and careful rigging required to avoid rope rub. The second half of the pitch was suitably moist!

Another two pitches followed, the last of which dropped into a large chamber. A pleasant section of passage followed down a climb and some cascades to the final section of passage to the rather squalid sump.

Then back out, with plenty of stops for photos. As John wasn't carrying anything, we managed to convince him to bring one of the old ULSA bags out, which is now at the craven hut. There is still plenty of crap down there to bring out though.

Good progress saw us back at the entrance for around 6.30pm after a very enjoyable 6.5hr trip. Given that we were taking photos, a trip time of around 4 - 6hrs seems reasonable. Grade-wise, 3-4 seems about right.