Can anyone shed any light on the following please:

I was bored waiting about at the bottom of Cathedral in Lost Johns, when I decided to have a scrat up the rift that leads towards Dome pitch. A good way up 20 or 30ft there was a crawling sized passaged leading back towards Cathedral at least I thought it did. I followed this passage to a pitch down in a parallel shaft. It had no bolts old or new but did have a good couple of naturals. As I was bringing a bag out I went back for the rope and rigged the pitch with that rope off said naturals. It was about 40 - 50ft and landed in a rift passage. I followed this downstream (I did not have time to climb the aven upstream, it looked free-climbable). The passage went under the passage leading to Dome I think I was below that small hole in the floor to come out of the shaft wall half way down Dome (I think). This again had not anchors or spits or any naturals unfortunately so I could not continue my off beat adventure.

To cut a long story short has anyone been down here before, what's the pitches name? Its quite a nice route and may make a good little alternative to the normal Dome route, though would require more rope as you climb up first.

Hi Alex,

I posted something very similar on here 2 or 3 years ago now; I think it's the same place we're talking about, and no, it wasn't 'new' even then.

Oh well, it would still make a good alternative route and yes it sounds like the same place. A very seldom visited place I guess. I felt like I was back on expedition dropping pitches off naturals.

Found ya post it was more than 4 years ago, time flys eh?

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=12770.0

We went that way a couple of weeks ago, although we actually used a rope hanging down Dome to do the round trip as there are no obvious naturals giving a decent hang on the bottom pitch. We were actually thinking of putting a couple of bolts there. I call it the Dome Alternative.

There are a couple of passages going off at the bottom of the first pitch. The first is through a small hole in the wall which leads to a stream passage with a trickle coming down a free-climbable aven to where it gets tight, and disappearing into a narrow slot. The aven you mentioned gets a little tight.

It's a good alternative for those who, like me, are too old and too infirm to get back up the climb between Dome and Cathedral.

Maybe your next little project John? But other than maybe a devi hanger I think we should leave the upper pitch on naturals.

Alex said:

Maybe your next little project John? But other than maybe a devi hanger I think we should leave the upper pitch on naturals.

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I agree - the naturals are fine on the top pitch (it's even got a thread back-up a couple of metres back), but it could do with a deviation on the opposite wall to prevent rub at the top. It's a fine pitch, and an interesting alternative.

Incidentally, I meant to mention in my last post that the two inlet passages below are probably associated with each other, as the hole in the wall passage goes up and back towards the one you mentioned.

When you drop the last pitch, it looks as if  the hole in the wall of Dome Pitch which leads back towards Dome Junction, is the continuation of the Dome Alternative Passage and that it was the original route before Dome Pitch was formed.