The hole had been pushed to a point where there appeared to be a connection between Pay Sank and Christmas Pot via a section of cave called Grange Rigg.
Our job (Roger, Malcolm "The Face of British Caving" and me) was to descend Christmas Pot while colleagues descended Pay Sank and make the first ever connection between them.
After descending the filthy, frozen and stone-littered entrance, Christmas Pot turned into an attractive shaft followed by awkward progress through a boulder-choked rift before arriving at a small chamber. A pitch followed by twisting, decorated streamway and further short pitches lead to "the Drainpipe". The connection with Grange Rigg and Pay Sank.
A formation in Christmas Pot
The Drainpipe exists below an area of fractured and unstable rock which shows signs of recent movement and is exactly as it sounds. Arriving first on the scene I descended into the boulder choke toward the Drainpipe and mindful of the possibility of even more recent movement, retreated to await the arrival of my colleagues. Roger found the area too tight and Malcolm began prospecting another area of the choke. On finding a likely spot Malcolm invited me to descend, which I did, to find myself twenty feet down, in very constricted space, under many tons of patently unstable rock. Apprehensive about the situation, again, I retreated with care.
Malcolm then had a look at the Drainpipe himself and removing his harness, descended into the choke. It was then that a voice from "the other side" - Dave - mentioned that he could see Malcolm's boots. Thus encouraged and intoxicated with "connection fever", Malcolm bravely inched through the constriction to make the first ever connection - Christmas Pot to Pay Sank via Grange Rigg. Well done Malcolm and the diggers of the BPC!
Photo courtesy of the Black Rose Caving Club/Duncan Jones.
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