The Braemoor description says "The way on is through an obvious muddy crawl a couple of metres from the rope, into a boulder-strewn descending passage." How would you phrase it?For some reason nearly all descriptions of the route from Small Mammal to Bar Pot seem to be a little bit light on details... particularly the first bit where there are various places to go (briefly) wrong e.g. (if my memory is correct) when heading away from the pitch heading left rapidly ends (which is fine) but I know various people (including myself) who then after turning right have carried straight on and started descending a tight rift that goes on for just too long becoming tighter and more unpleasant as you descend...
I've just looked at the notes I wrote after doing it: "the way on is on right, a downward crawl then down climb to Flowstone Chamber". My memory of the crawl (which will be less accurate the my contemporaneous notes and could be of another part of the cave) is that it started with a short boulder slope then flattened out to a gently sloping bedding about 80cm high, and the down climb was something like a 2m step.How would you phrase it?
I've just looked at the notes I wrote after doing it: "the way on is on right, a downward crawl then down climb to Flowstone Chamber". My memory of the crawl (which will be less accurate the my contemporaneous notes and could be of another part of the cave) is that it started with a short boulder slope then flattened out to a gently sloping bedding about 80cm high, and the down climb was something like a 2m step.
I've found it quite interesting how many different ways cavers describe or remember the same cave.
True. I had actually prefaced that in my notes with "The scaffolding on the left is Stile Pot" which would define the orientation.The problem with saying the way is to the right, is that it depends on which way one is facing when one gets off the rope.
I think I am also confusing various rifts in various places (namely the rift that takes you down towards Whitehall, and some other horrible rifts off Whitehall itself).
Wondered that myself, when there I was sitting at the bottom of the first pitch waiting for someone who really struggled to manage the chimney squeeze top section.The problem with saying the way is to the right, is that it depends on which way one is facing when one gets off the rope. Apart from that, yours is practically the same as the Braemoor description. However, if someone comes up with better phraseology then I would be happy to change it.
Now is the right crawl, but is it climbable without rigging?
I'm not really with you, but Stile Pot does allow one to exit from the bottom of Bar Pot entrance pitch without tackle (but with a lot of grunt).Wondered that myself, when there I was sitting at the bottom of the first pitch waiting for someone who really struggled to manage the chimney squeeze top section.
I was pondering that very crawl (to the "right, opposite side from the scaffolding) and wondering if it offered escape and was the route to small mammal (and if that was free climbable) if he was permanently wedged and we had to wait for a few days like pooh bear stuck in the entrance of Rabbit's burrow.
Now I know it was the right crawl, but is it climbable without rigging?
The top of bar is much much worse than the flat out crawl to small mammal. Or maybe I'm a larger caver.I never bother with small mammal (apart from once a year, when I'm ticking every entrance off at GG) because I find the flat out crawl annoying and Bar Pot is a perfectly good & easy way to avoid it. However, I suffer the crawl for the sake of Stile, because the fun of Stile makes the crawl worth it