Explore Hull pot

Alex

Well-known member
Finding little help in my club for an evening trip, I am wondering if there is any interest in someone joining me down Hull pot on Thursday at around 6:30pm to explore the passages at the bottom that are apparently un-pushed or at least rarely visited. A drought period is needed to explore it and that is what we have.

I have considered just soloing it and I may still do that, however there is a 100ft pitch and I suspect I won't be able to rig it without a drill if it's not been descended in many years. Anyone with a bolting kit want to help me? Or at least tell me what the rigging is like?
 
You can rig the pitch ?en solo? quite easily like I did back in 1985. Take a selection of slings, wires etc and don?t expect ?dot to dot? P-hangers. There might even be the odd old 8mm bolt. Enjoy.
Unfortunately I can?t make it due to an old age shoulder injury!
 

Alex

Well-known member
Ahh so can be rigged off naturals, okay that is sounding more do-able then. I doubt the bolts would be much good from 1985.
 
Just don't drop the rigging gear or the rope or your SRT gear in the canals on the way in.
Great place and as you say rarely visited - unjustly.
Huge potential.
 

Alex

Well-known member
Due to changing weather forcasts I am now going TONIGHT, if I can convince anyone to tear themselves away from the world cup.

Thanks for the info Psycocrawler. Northern caves says there is deep water, is this out of depth water? I am not a great swimmer in my caving kit.
 

Alex

Well-known member
Hmm I don't think I am going to risk the rain, its a pity I wanted to look down there. But it needs to be on a day with no rain. Even if the risk is 10-15% that is a 10 - 15% of death a chance which I am not willing to take.
 

Alex

Well-known member
Well I managed to get down with a couple of mates. However there is still loads of water and the damn did not seem to make any difference, we only managed to divert about half of the water. The passage looked sumped but there was a very small air space in a side rift that was not useable, so it still was not dry enough it seems.

High hull was fun, that did not need the dam in action, it was wet but not dangerously wet.

 

Simon Beck

Member
Alex said:
Well I managed to get down with a couple of mates. However there is still loads of water and the damn did not seem to make any difference, we only managed to divert about half of the water. The passage looked sumped but there was a very small air space in a side rift that was not useable, so it still was not dry enough it seems.

High hull was fun, that did not need the dam in action, it was wet but not dangerously wet.

Good effort getting up there and down, esp with the dicey forecast!
 

Speleodroid

Member
Hi Alex.

How was the rigging on the big pitch in Hull Pot?

Think i saw your group yesterday. Was out for a run, and just saw a head disappearing into High Hull Cave and a rope on High Hull Pot. Have done the Pot a couple of times. Nice little trip, and very seldom visited i suspect.
 

Beardy

Member
Speleodroid

I'm pretty sure that when we did it many years ago,
We rigged of good naturals well back from the edge, and used ladders and line
With the lifelining party lying in the bedding above the pitch,
I remember that the rock out over the pitch looked "interesting"
but it sounds like Pyschocrawler managed to fettle something else to rig string off.

Beardy 
 

Inferus

New member
Speleodroid said:
Hi Alex.

How was the rigging on the big pitch in Hull Pot?

Think i saw your group yesterday. Was out for a run, and just saw a head disappearing into High Hull Cave and a rope on High Hull Pot. Have done the Pot a couple of times. Nice little trip, and very seldom visited i suspect.
We didn't get to the big pitch in Hull. There was quite a bit of water and our dam building efforts made little difference, so abandoned the idea and headed off to the High Hull area.
Alex was rigging the pot whilst me and Rob went for a grovel in the cave - after we'd removed some grass and soil hiding the entrance!
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Alex said:

Thanks for flagging that up Alex; I read it with interest. You mentioned the possibility that water levels were up slightly but I bumped into someone today who had camped at Horton yesterday and they confirmed there had been no rain. (Ingleton got clobbered with half an inch but not Ribblesdale - the rainfall amounts are on the CDG website - VisBot page).

I think it's always like that - an exceptionally wet trip, even in drought. (Remember, it's a Leakey discovery!) In "normal" to moderately wet weather I suspect it's a non starter. Descriptions of the place, together with details of the brief window of opportunity when the sump became unroofed, form the basis of Chapter 2 in the Adventures Underground book, published in 2017. There is a very useful drawing of the extension (made when the sump receded right at the end of the 1976 drought) in a detailed article in BCRA Bulletin 15, February 1977, pages 7-8. Those involved were Dick The Potter, Johnny Wilkinson and Phil Papard - so there are people you could ask directly about it, if you want it from the horse's mouth.

I think you were right to be wary of going in there at all, if there was any chance whatsoever of rain.
 

Simon Beck

Member
Simon Beck said:
Good effort getting up there and down, esp with the dicey forecast!

Pitlamp said:
I think you were right to be wary of going in there at all, if there was any chance whatsoever of rain.

Pitlamp's closing comment has just made me realise how badly interpreted my own comment could be. I wasn't congratulating Alex on visiting a dodgy pothole in dodgy conditions, as it sounds. But more for making the effort to get up there, even though it was looking like a non starter.
 
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