Little Hull Pot#
17th December 2018 Me & John Martin
Grade 4, 98m deep, 1097m long
This cave gets good write ups but is often described as neglected. It’s a great trip, well worth seeking out.
To get to the entrance don’t bother following the bearings given in various guides. After the final gate on the walled lane from Horton turn left along the newish Yorkshire 3 Peaks footpath which follows the wall and at the first dry valley turn right. Look in the shakeholes and you’ll see the entrance. It needs dry weather as just after the entrance is a rift followed by a hands and knees crawl with lots of flood debris. If there’s a stream flowing into the cave and unsettled weather, or rain forecast, go elsewhere.
The first pitch is easy; a short abseil and a swing through a window brings you to a traverse described as “with almost no footholds”. In fact there are sufficient footholds to make it very easy to rig the traverse. There’s a short drop after this with a biggish swing to get to a rebelay if there’s enough water to warrant it.
The second pitch is by far the best and one of the most entertaining I’ve done. Just after a large pillar and a blind bend is the direct pitch, do this if you want to get wet. Alternatively belay to the pillar and then bridge up and towards the drop to reach a bolt. Once you’ve rigged this you bridge across the passage with the enormous drop on your left, facing a slot with a bolt in the ceiling at the lowest point. There is a small stalagmite on the right just before the slot; I tied an Alpine Butterfly in the rope, clipped my cowstail into it and looped it over the stal for a bit of extra protection. It wouldn’t stay on the stal forever but it would help if you slipped before getting into the slot.
Once in the slot it’s possible to rig into the next bolt, alternatively prejudge the amount of rope you need whilst safely bridged across the passage. The slot isn’t too tight but sliding through like superman onto a balcony overlooking an enormous rift is fantastic. Your next job is too lean out over the drop and rig a Y hang on the opposite wall. Having a midrope loop in the right place makes this much easier. There’s also a bolt high above the Y hang; I’m not sure what this is for although I used it to make a big footloop to make the return easier. I had a moment of trepidation looking across the rift to the Y hang whereas in fact it’s not as far as it looks and not as bad as it looks.
There’s two bolt deviations on the far wall, 7 and 15m down, the lower one has an insitu piece of tat. I missed the first one but it didn’t really make much difference. This is a great pitch in a large rift with some really nice formations under an overhang,
We fully intended to got to the sump but we didn’t make it in the end. John managed to fit through the canal bypass squeeze whilst I crawled through it and got cold and wet. We found the climb up to the muddy traverse but I was put off by the crumbling footholds as John climbed it, he was put off by the muddy traverse and I wanted to be back in time for a family pre-Christmas Christmas meal. So we turned around.
Highly recommended trip, I’ll return to get to the sump.