BLACKNOR HOLE- portland

portlandcaver

New member
well from the way it is being jazzed up it looks as tho blacknor fort may be under new ownership, with a bit of sweet talk the owners might let cavers rebolt the cliff!  :D if they put a sign up saying that cavers do so at their own risk so there is none of this "lawsuit" crap! fingers crossed  :read: would really love to do through trip to sandy some time and hopefully if a few necessary strings are correctly pulled it might be a possibility and this beatiful cave reopened to bring back some quality caving to island again!
 

Oceanrower

Active member
You can rig from the top easy enough - just don't leave the belay across the footpath  :spank:
or learn to climb 6b and do it from bottom up  :tease:
 

portlandcaver

New member
yes but what exactly do you prepose to anchor from  :confused: the p bolts are cut so theres nothing to anchor to unless i suppose you use a trad climb protection into the rocks on the other side of the footpath but i think hikers and dog walkers might get a bit funny  :ras: as for climbing from the bottom, feasible but after climbing up caving the through trip to sandy would probably kill you! :sleep:
 

Oceanrower

Active member
Ok, I know I'm going to get told off for this, I know it's illegal to leave a rope across a footpath etc, etc.  :spank:

BUT - there's a lot of very substantial concrete posts t'other side of the path holding the chain link fence. A sling, a maillon and a quick pull through to the top bolt on the climb.  :eek:

Not that I'd do that of course  :coffee:

Let the flaming begin.....
 

Oceanrower

Active member
portlandcaver said:
as for climbing from the bottom, feasible but after climbing up caving the through trip to sandy would probably kill you! :sleep:

That sounds like a challenge - anyone about this wekend?
 

Ed W

Member
Oceanrower, not trying to start a flame war, but attaching ropes to the fence posts was one of the main reasons leading to the ban on climbing/caving on this bit of cliff (or at least to the top of it).  For info the fence posts are set into the earth glacis of the old fort.  This bank of earth is apparently structurally important for the fort and frequent attachment of ropes was starting to make some of the posts wobble and so damaging the glacis.  This was along with the problems of ropes across the footpath on the cliff edge and various other antisocial behaviour by a few.

As previously noted, all of the anchors on the cliff edge have been chopped.  As to climbing up, I am sure it could be done.  However, I suspect that it would be much simpler to climb to Queen's Entrance rather than Main Entrance.  There are (to my knowledge) no anchors at QE, but you could always exit via Main Entrance using the anchors there for a retrievable abseil.

As to climbing back up from Sandy Hole.  It is possible to get up Squezy Rift, indeed this was the only option prior to the linking of the two caves.  It is naffing strenuous though and more importantly will inevitably drag a lot of mud up into Blacknor Hole, which for the most part is pretty clean (at least compared to Sandy Hole).

If the ownership of the Fort has changed, then we have an opportunity to regain access to an unusual cave, and fine sporting trip - so long as no-one upsets the landowner before negotiaions can even start!  Tread carefully please.
 

dorsetcaver

New member
I visited the cave recently and found that new bolts had been installed at the top of the cliff; old P hangers lower down still in place. Need to replace old raw bolt in Sandy Hole entrance.

 
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