Depth 385ft
Rigging topo
Thrupe Lane Swallet was to be the scene of our annual Christmas/New Year caving trip for 2010. Often we head to South Wales but with the recent snowfall and cold weather we decided to stay local and head for the Mendips.
The cave entrance lies on Thrupe Lane between the Villages of Measbury and Crosscombe and was first entered in 1974. There is a small lay-by where cars can be parked and at the time of writing there are no access arrangements and whilst the cave is gated there is no key required.
The cave itself is pretty vertical in nature and ideal for SRT resembling Yorkshire potholes. Thrupe boasts the one of the largest pots on Mendip at 197ft. Atlas Pot can be descended via the High Atlas route (where caution is required as there is a real danger of falling rocks due to the loose nature of the take off points at the pitch head) or from the Marble stream way further down. This was to be our Target.
Mark and Andy picked me up at 08:30 on a cold damp December morning. After a stop for breakfast in Asda (and some funny looks as I was wearing my fleecy having not been warned about the breakfast stop!) we soon found ourselves following the narrow Mendip lanes. Snow still covered the ground in places from the recent heavy falls experienced across the country.
We pulled up at the lay-by and started unloading the kit. The dairy farm remained quiet and no one seemed to be around. It’s a shame the old couple who used to own it are not still there as they kept an eye on people coming and going and would warn cavers planning to take the High Altas route if there were other parties in the cave lower down that could fall foul of falling rocks in the Atlas Pot area.
This was where my plan to wear the fleecy came good and meant I didn’t have to endure the cold air whilst getting changed and had a head start. I soon had all the kit on and the SRT kit ready to go. The ropes had been pre knotted and threaded into the bags to make life easier so I made my way to the cave to go on and rig the first pitch whilst Andy and Mark continued to change and try and work out how to put on their SRT kits!
With the gate propped open with the usual handy log I commenced rigging the pitch. The first “P” hanger is actually on the wall on the right just outside the cave and then the rope crosses the passage to traverse the left hand wall. Only 10-15ft in and you soon find yourself at the pitch head with two “P” hangers to take the “Y” hang. The shaft is only 30ft deep and an easy descent. Mark and Andy soon caught me up and we made our way past the turning on the right to High Atlas and on through the second gate into the tight and sharp rift passages that head vertically down. An awkward section of cave that can tear oversuits and catches the SRT kit wherever possible.
We soon found ourselves at the boulder jam that marks the head of Perseverance Pot. There are two ways on here, Perseverance is directly below you to the right as you climb down and Slit pot directly in front slightly to your left. A squeeze through boulders needs to be done with care as the deep rift of Perseverance lies below. A jammed scaffold bar provides the ideal point to tie in before placing a “Y” hang on the obvious “P” hangers in front of you at the pitch head. The descent of the pitch needs to be done with care as it’s very narrow at the top and sharp in places. As you descend the walls widen somewhat to make for easier progress.
We soon found ourselves at the bottom of the pot and I descended into Cowsh crawl only to find it all but sumped. Only a few inches of airspace was visible and the sound of falling water was loud beyond. This was the first time I had encountered anywhere near this amount of water in the crawl and was quite surprised. I slowly climbed in and found the water over knee deep and icy cold, obviously melt water from the snow thaw above. Within minutes my feet were throbbing with the cold. To negotiate this we would have to lie in it and totally immerse ourselves. Not a nice thought. We had a chat and discussed what we wanted to do. The thought of having to go through this wasn’t very appealing and the amount of water we had experienced throughout the cave didn’t really bode well for the descent of Atlas Pot from the end of the Marble stream way. So we chickened out and opted for a slow ascent out taking photo’s along the way and an early trip to the Hunters.
Perseverance proved as challenging as ever, with limited space to prusik out and jagged edges in a tight rift progress can be slow. Mark and Andy opted to free climb it which is probably easier to be honest! Annoyingly my Pantin kept coming off the rope, typical as when I try and kick it off I can never manage it!
Steady progress de-rigging and we went soon we found ourselves at the surface again. A brief stop for some photo’s and a quick change it was not long before we were sat in the Hunters enjoying a Chilli and Butcombe dinner.
We were a little disappointed that we hadn’t got as far as we wished but vowed to head back in the spring when conditions were a little dryer and warmer!
