Langcliffe Pot

nobrotson

Active member
This cave had been on my to-do list for quite some time, and with the final day of good weather before the rains came it called to be explored. After failing to find any willing accomplices, and after being sent on a wild goose chase around Leeds by other ULSA members, myself and George set off for Great Whernside, with a very psych-inducing D?n?B playlist to get us pumped. The weather was outstanding, though not quite as clear as the other day when I had been doing some GPR in Tom Lord?s field near Langcliffe Quarry. Just as we arrived at the parking near Scargill House, I received correspondence from Alex Ritchie asking if we wanted to help him carry scaffolding into Mossdale with him and Mr Beck that evening. Unfortunate timing: it was 1 before we set off for the entrance so no chance of making that.

The walk up was very pleasant, made even nicer by me not wearing a wetsuit. The views of Littondale and Upper Wharfedale were outstanding, and the top of the fell felt very remote before even setting foot in the cave. After a point even the sound of the sheep disappeared and the rustling of long grass in the wind was the only punctuation to the stillness. The entrance was found easily with the direction of Mike Coopers NFTFH description, which was absolutely excellent and invaluable in allowing us to complete the trip successfully. We kitted up and I set about rigging the entrance pitch. There is an abundance of bolts to rig from, and I only saw a need for 2. The rebelay bolts on the ledge were very hard to see in the gloom and mirk of the place, and I started feeling apprehensive about our endeavour. The bottom of the shaft absolutely stank of shit. No chance of a drink for a while, then. George followed down and, leaving his SRT kit at the base of the pitch, we headed downstream into the Craven Crawl. We had decided to take only 1 kit with us to Nemesis pitch to minimise weight, and carried only 3 double decker bars and a spare pixa 3 and batteries in addition to rigging gear. We would be moving fast, we hoped. It was 2pm when we got underground.

The Craven Crawl was an annoying height, halfway between flat out and hands and knees. Water levels were clearly very low and the water looked very dirty. The oppressive black colour of the water and walls, along with the sharp, abrasive nature of the limestone, made me feel quite unwelcome in the cave. We pressed on as quickly as possible, and soon we were in Stagger Passage. This went by reasonably quickly and we reached Hammerdale Dub after around 20 minutes caving from the entrance. This section of passage was a pleasant change to walking size, and reminded me of parts of river passage in the Picos or in Penyghent area caves. All the passage was a similar triangular shape, and boulder collapses from the roof seemed common. Wire in the passage (presumably from the 1972 rescue) was present along all the passages so far and greatly aided quick route finding in the Kilnsey Boulder Crawl.

Soon we were in Langstrothdale Chase, which I would not really describe as ?highly enjoyable?. The rock is sharp, the hading angle of the passage means that stooping and bending over is often required and it is by no means particularly easy caving compared with somewhere like Easegill. The canal sections provided welcome relief as I was very warm, wearing a 5mm wetsuit and a 3mm jacket and moving reasonably swiftly. Soon we reached the dry passage on the right, which meant crawling with the bag again (joy). After getting a bit lost in the bedding plane after overshooting slightly, we arrived in Boireau Falls Chamber, where some good examples of cave memorabilia were observed. We continued on into the squeeze here, which required a 3-point turn and a slide out backward over a particularly arsehole-ish rock which was very painful on the back. We were then at the Nemesis pitch, which, to my great disgust, was rigged already, meaning I had carried 30-40m of rope for nothing.

After descending the pitch, we dumped the SRT kit and bag, which made me feel much lighter. We were about to enter what I thought would be the crux of the trip, the Nemesis Boulder Choke. This huge choke is known for being very unstable and prone to change and collapse, so we took it very steady, moving one at a time through the obstacles. In general, the water is followed until you reach a small chamber where there are some big metal struts on the floor. From here, some string kindly laid by Alex and Simon guides the way to the narrow rift down and out of the choke. We navigated this section in under 15 minutes with basically no wrong turns, which really surprised me. From here, we arrived at the waterway confluence which flows into Poseidon sump, which we decided to go and have a look at. This section of the cave is clearly much older, and the first formations of the trip were seen. The sump pool itself is very frothy and the area smells of lime, presumably due to boulder impact on collapse. We climbed around and up to the muddy chamber on the far side, and mused over how many people had been stood here in the last 40 years. Almost certainly less than have stood on top of Everest in that time!

Back in the streamway, we soon arrived at the start of the Sacred Way, which marks a huge change in character of the cave. For the first time, the cave becomes truly silent, the water left far behind, and the sandy character of the passages was akin to something you might find in the caves of the Picos, the Austrian Alps or parts of GG. There was a lot of equipment for cooking and sleeping in this area, looking like someone?s camp. We soon reached the area of up-and-down in the narrow rift just before the Agora, where we did a few climbs which weren?t necessary. The Agora itself is very pleasant, and the formations are excellent. We descended into Aphrodite Avenue past more formations, and discovered, to our surprise, water, which looked very static. It was not clear where the source of this water was, which could just be due to the very dry conditions. We were soon navigating the Silver Rake, which was not very pleasant as we were getting a little tired by this point and the boulder scrambling was not easy going. There is not any room for error so far into a cave of this nature, so slipping was out of the question.

However, our excitement picked up somewhat when we reached the Dementor sump and the Fearnought Streamway, which to my great surprise was flowing towards us. We headed upstream and then heard an immense rumbling noise, which for a split second I thought was a flood pulse and nearly pooed myself. However, it was merely water flowing down a 3m cascade, which is easily bypassed over the top by an earlier climb. We headed on upstream, checking out both boulder chokes (both drafting strongly inwards ? higher entrances!) and a couple of very dead sounding muddy sidepassages. This done, we had a double decker each and then began the long journey out at around 6:45.

The lower extensions (Gassons series) went by faster than anticipated, and we were at the base of the Nemesis choke in under an hour. The choke was again easily navigated, and we were back at the base of the pitch in under half an hour. At the top of the pitch, I reluctantly picked up the bag again and continued to the Boireau Falls squeeze. Reversing this squeeze was one of the most unpleasant caving experiences I have ever had. My legs got stuck when reversing back around to go back up, and after a lot of swearing and some pain I was back up and through. Here, we wasted a good 5 minutes finding the way out of the choke (it is very obvious if you don?t go too high up) and we were then back in Langstrothdale Chase, which seemed to last forever. At this point, I began wishing we had brought more food. Moving the bag began to feel quite taxing, and the Kilnsey Boulder Crawl was a chore. At the end of Hammerdale Dub, we were both quite out of it, and managed to miss the left turnoff and continued on up Skirfare Inlet for about 5 minutes before I realised our mistake. Stagger Passage and the Craven Crawl went by very slowly, with numerous breaks, before the smell of shit surfaced again and we knew we were nearly out. The cause of the shit smell was found to be a dead rabbit at the base of the shaft (lovely) and the fresh air and full moon at the surface was absolutely glorious. We exited just before midnight, meaning the trip took 10 hours. Feeling tired but very accomplished, we started on the walk back.

We should not have felt so accomplished. I stupidly did not bring map, compass or GPS, so the walk back was a very haphazard, convoluted and moronic affair which took us around 90 minutes. We ended up on the road South of Mile House, and walked up and down the road a few times before realising where we were. After fuelling up on some much needed biscuits, we headed to the 24 hour Tesco in Skipton where further tit fuel was acquired and wolfed down. Back in Leeds for 3am, we were shattered but very pleased to have done the trip. This cave clearly has absolutely massive potential for further discoveries, and I believe surface prospecting and investigation of nearby shakeholes will yield great results. The Black Keld Mastercave awaits!
 

Alex

Well-known member
Yeh I did none of the line lining. Though I thought Simon had done some of it.

Its a long trip to the end as I know and well done for completing it.

I agree entirely the passageway after Nemisis is very much like a foreign cave. For those who have done it, its very much like the passage deep inside Fresnado cave in Spain, Matienzo.

That Boireau Falls squeeze is also a right pain, until you learn how to do it. I found the best way, was to lie down in the stream reverse round the corner past the squeeze, roll over then come up forwards with your back to the slope. This gives you enough push to reverse the move.
 

Simon Beck

Member
I was involved but felt Ian deserved the credit for bringing the reel of line and having the idea in the first place - i wouldn't have bothered otherwise.
 

Simon Wilson

New member
Have you anything more to report? I would like to see more news of Langcliffe Pot. I understand there have been quite a few trips down they recently by various people.
 

Alex

Well-known member
Not been in since last year, been unconfirmed rumours of capping by people unknown. I must stress this is UNCONFIRMED.
 

Simon Wilson

New member
Alex said:
Not been in since last year, been unconfirmed rumours of capping by people unknown. I must stress this is UNCONFIRMED.

Since my Descent article in 2015 in which I reported that we could not get through, the blockages have been removed and there have been quite a few trips. In particular there were a series of diving trips in summer 2016. I guess that the "rumours of capping" might refer to the clearance of the blockage in 2016.

The clearance of the blockage has to be applauded. The route through the boulders was opened up by digging and was bigger in the past. Because it is only there because it has been dug open it is perfectly ethical to make it bigger than it is at present. Anybody who wants to go and enlarge it would be doing the caving community a favour. If it is done it should be publicised.
 

Simon Beck

Member
Simon Wilson said:
The clearance of the blockage has to be applauded. The route through the boulders was opened up by digging and was bigger in the past. Because it is only there because it has been dug open it is perfectly ethical to make it bigger than it is at present. Anybody who wants to go and enlarge it would be doing the caving community a favour. If it is done it should be publicised.


Although I'm undecided fully on the subject and won't be sharing my views on this one here, I do think your above comment is just giving people an excuse to go and take the piss.
 

Simon Beck

Member
A friend of mine visited the far reaches of Langcliffe yesterday, solo and onsight (may well be a first!?). His description of the journey through the Boireau Falls choke was enough to confirm the rumours are untrue. Well done Andrew!
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
Simon Beck said:
A friend of mine visited the far reaches of Langcliffe yesterday, solo and onsight (may well be a first!?).

Iain Gasson had a pushing solo trip during the original explorations on the 25 July 1970 when he investigated the draughting passage above the New Fearnought Streamway waterfall. I believe that Tony White also had a solo trip to the end around the same time (but I may be wrong about that).
 

Simon Beck

Member
langcliffe said:
Simon Beck said:
A friend of mine visited the far reaches of Langcliffe yesterday, solo and onsight (may well be a first!?).

Iain Gasson had a pushing solo trip during the original explorations on the 25 July 1970 when he investigated the draughting passage above the New Fearnought Streamway waterfall. I believe that Tony White also had a solo trip to the end around the same time (but I may be wrong about that).

My mention of it maybe being a first was the fact it was done onsight.. Both Tony and Iain had been there before, Iain the day before if i recall from the journal.. There's always bloody one isn't there although JG is forgiven for being a massive knob! He can't help it..
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
Simon Beck said:
My mention of it maybe being a first was the fact it was done onsight.. Both Tony and Iain had been there before, Iain the day before if i recall from the journal.. There's always bloody one isn't there although JG is forgiven for being a massive knob! He can't help it..

Mea culpa - apologies!
 
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