D
DaveL
Guest
I was staying in the Dales over New Year and opted to do Corky's Pot (the new GG entrance recently opened by the BPC) on New Year's Day, with a group of Cambridge and Red Rose cavers. On the way down, it was a very pleasant trip. On the way up, it was less so.
While we had been down there, it had rained heavily on the surface, and the water levels had gone up sharply. The SRT pitch out of Mud Hall was extremely drippy, and some of the crawls were a great deal less pleasant with several inches more water in the bottom. Much worse was to come, however: the last three ladder pitches (Arnold's, Picnic, and Anniversary) were all utterly miserable, with the full force of the water falling on our heads and insufficient room in the shafts to move out of the way. We finally emerged totally drenched and borderline hypothermic, and only recovered through an intensive course of medication with ale and chips in the New Inn.
So: if any of you are contemplating a trip to Corky's, go for it - it's a great cave - but take an extremely careful look at the weather forecast first!
(If any of the original BPC digging team are around on this forum, perhaps you could enlighten us as to how often this happens? Were we just unlucky, or does it get this wet often?)
While we had been down there, it had rained heavily on the surface, and the water levels had gone up sharply. The SRT pitch out of Mud Hall was extremely drippy, and some of the crawls were a great deal less pleasant with several inches more water in the bottom. Much worse was to come, however: the last three ladder pitches (Arnold's, Picnic, and Anniversary) were all utterly miserable, with the full force of the water falling on our heads and insufficient room in the shafts to move out of the way. We finally emerged totally drenched and borderline hypothermic, and only recovered through an intensive course of medication with ale and chips in the New Inn.
So: if any of you are contemplating a trip to Corky's, go for it - it's a great cave - but take an extremely careful look at the weather forecast first!
(If any of the original BPC digging team are around on this forum, perhaps you could enlighten us as to how often this happens? Were we just unlucky, or does it get this wet often?)