SRT Trip

Only a few remaining patches of snow on the distant Ingleborough left a reminder of how things were just a few days ago. Spring finally seems to have arrived in the Yorkshire Dales.

We'd picked a fine day for our first SRT trip for quite a while, the chosen venue being Bull Pot of Kingsdale. There was a real warmth in the sun as we packed ropes & prepared kit for this vertical outing.

There were a good few cavers out & about in Kingsdale, cashing in on the fine conditions, so we parked up at Yordas Wood and took a slightly longer but less steep route up towards the limestone outcrop which marks the location of Bull Pot. Upon arrival we were mildly disappointed to be, apparently, sharing the cave as there were a set of ropes already in-situ. However, it was only later we discovered that they had been left in place by a University group the previous day & we did indeed have the place to ourselves - assumptions!!

It was good to put rigging skills back into practice & the series of abseils were really enjoyable. Below are a couple of photos of Alan Rainford abseiling on the third pitch on a very slick new rope!

Like many of the caves in the West Kingsdale area the vertical development of Bull Pot is impressive & its always good to pause for a few moments just to try to "take in " the environment that is being interacted with.

To be honest, it didn't really feel as though it has been a few weeks since a last SRT trip & the prussik out of the cave went smoothly.

The photo below is of Paul Brown approaching the foot of the first pitch as we were ascending back out of the cave, the one below it is the view back up the first pitch, ours is the rope on the right.

Back on the surface it really had turned into a very nice day!