Hunt Pot

It was a cool day, which was good for the relatively long walk up the Pennine Way track towards Penyghent. We veered off the path as we approached Hunt Pot and were soon ready to follow Keith after he set off to rig the rope on the wall of the large open slit in the limestone.After he had shouted the usual “rope free”, Karen followed down the impressive pothole.
Pete Wagstaff and I were sitting in the shelter of a small overhanging section of limestone as it was a bit drizzly and after I saw Karen disappear over the edge I walked over so that I could hear her shout “rope free” meaning I could then take my turn.
Soon, I heard Karen's shout and after saying “see you later” to Pete, who was still sitting in his sheltered spot, I dropped down the rope for a few metres to where there was a “Y hang”. I clipped in my cowstails and waited until Karen had cleared the next section of rope.
I watched as Karen got off the rope on a wet ledge where Keith was also waiting. They shouted up to wait a bit as Keith was having to rearrange the rope.
He prusiked back up a short way and rigged a belay under a ledge above the wet one where Karen was still waiting. I was watching this going on below through my legs and then spotted some movement a little lower and to one side near the waterfall pouring down the open shaft at one end. It was a dipper! It had flown from somewhere below and landed on another small ledge on the opposite wall of the shaft.
Eventually Keith had abseiled back down again and shouted up “rope free” so I continued down the rope and passed a deviation. As I was nearing the ledge where the other two were still waiting, I heard them saying they were not going any lower!
So, I stopped a short distance above them and they explained that Keith was having trouble reaching the bolts, which were on the wall opposite the ledge. I changed over and prusiked back up to the surface.
As I was getting back out of the shaft I could hear Pete chanting something which I couldn't quite hear due to the noise of the waterfall.
As I walked towards him, still sitting in the same spot as before, I could hear him chanting “chip butty, chip butty, chip butty...”! He was getting chilled and was ready for a trip to Bernies!

Soon the others were back and we set off to get those chip butties!