Gor dam it. It's been a month since we bottomed Five Ways and I've still not written it up. In that time we've started (and probably binned) another dig on another fell. However, other reports on here have inspired me to get on with it so here goes again. There is so much going on this summer - whoopie doo.
We finished our last trip with Stone Age Pitch left wide open but with the team and drill batteries exhausted. Our return was swift and the top bolted and rigged. I was lucky enough again to bag first go, but before heading to the bottom I traversed to the ledge, or bridge as it turned out. I could see immediately that it looked down onto the top of the next pitch but it was too constricted to be worth trying that way. Straight down was only 6m or so to a couple of steps down and around a corner. Here a long rising gash in the floor heralded the next pitch. Again it was a little too narrow at the top and needed enlarging. All nine of the team came down bringing all the gear with them. Apart from the gash onto the next pitch it was pretty spacious and easily held all nine of us.
Dave capping the gash and the team queuing patiently
Descending the Deceiver
I did a stint of capping and then retreated to the back and Dave took over. As usual it took more capping that we anticipated but Dave was soon ready to descend. The drop was another shorty of around 8m. At the bottom Mick declared the way on to be big enough and rigged the rope. He did manage to squeeze down past a bulge but certainly had a struggle on the way back up. Anyway it was a split drop of 10m, quite spacious at the bottom, but only leading to a very small draughtless crawl. The rest of the trip was spent enlarging the pitch head. Dave named his pitch the Deceiver and Mick named his the Pincher (nothing to do with a certain Tory MP at all - oh no).
Looking down the Deceiver
Bones pushing the bitter end
The team slowly headed out, clearing up the debris, and removing the excess tools.
We returned a few days later to have a more thorough look at the end. Bones gave it a really good go but the tiny passage lowered to barely let the water get away. Although the survey has yet to get this far down we expect we are at a similar depth to that where other pots in the area fizzle out. I think we have called it a day. We have removed all our kit anyway.
Still to do is complete the survey, maybe take a few more photos and get resin anchors installed. I'll keep you posted on how this pans out. I don't think we have any objection to other cavers having a look as long as they are careful of the ropes etc. Hopefully as we get towards autumn we'll have a CNCC rigging topo available.
A final video of the bottom taken from a ledge a few metres from the floor. Cheers