Boxhead Pot - Lost Johns Pot

A superb trip, one of the finest I have ever done!

We were really efficient, arriving for breakfast at Bernie's for 9:45am! Mark, Gary and I were joined by Rich, Steve and Ellie. The intention was originally just Boxhead Pot however the decision was made to go for the exchange with Lost Johns (via Centipede route). I was sceptical, owing to the complicated nature of this exchange however we decided to give it a go, and after a quick breakfast we were on Leck Fell, cold but thankfully not raining.

Gary, Mark and I went down Boxhead. The spectacular entrance pitch was amazing, and Gary quickly headed down to start rigging the main pitch and into the Kendal Flyover. We had a failed attempt here last year, however, conditions were much drier this time, and after 20 minutes of searching, Gary found the swing into the rift, and we promptly made our way down. The pitch is amazing, a beautiful free-hang down a spectacular shaft. As I abseiled down I wondered if there was actually any bottom to it (the spray from the water made visibility poor)! We reached the rift, on the right hand wall, about 20m up from the actual floor (which we could just see by this point), and we swung into it without any difficultly. Another short pitch, followed by a final 3m pitch to a muddy ledge was followed by a crawl leading off at floor level (the Kendal Extensions). Route finding along this crawl and the subsequent network of passage all the way to Lost Johns was much easier thanks to the excellent 'Not For The Faint Hearted' description. A short way along the crawl, you take the right branch and the passage becomes keyhole shape, requiring traversing high up until a constricted downward climb is reached, with an in-situ handline. Below this a crawl through water reaches a refreshing low wallow to pop up in a decorated chamber. More crawling and stooping followed, with a sharp left hand bend shortly after a very high aven, to eventually reach a broken climb up using an in-situ handline the book described this as a fascinating climb, and it certainly was! At the top, squeezing through blocks brought us up into the huge passages of the Leck Fell Master Cave, where we met the other group and exchanged navigational instructions.

Onwards from there, the passages remained impressively large, and then the next pitch was met with an in-situ rope in thankfully good condition (we had brought a rope for this however we sent it back with the other team when it turned out not to be needed). Abseiling down this brought us into probably one of the most spectacular huge and well decorated chambers in Yorkshire, which was both breathtaking and awe-inspiring. The roar of the Master Cave stream could be heard below. A climb down blocks gained the stream, and a short stomp (via a short stoop/crawl), reached the junction with the Lost Johns water on the right (marked by a cairn). Just up here the roar of the water increased and the bottom pitch of the Lost Johns was soon reached. We were so happy, not only to have successfully navigated the trip, but also to have found such a gem underneath Leck Fell that we previously had no idea about! I'd done Lost Johns several years back but only to the bottom of the final pitch  I had no idea what amazing passage lay only just beyond here!

Lost Johns was a slog upwards - we'd been going for nearly four hours without stopping for more than a minute, and derigging Battleaxe traverse was highly draining, especially after the prussic up Valhalla pitch (approx 40-50m). However, the satisfaction of completing the trip overcame the tiredness, and we rattled up Lost Johns in no time, exiting the cave with a total trip time of only about 5.5 hours, arriving to the surface for the last glimmer of daylight. The other team had emerged only half an hour earlier.

To finish the day off in the best possible way, we went to the Game Cock in Austwick for pizza, beer a warm fire and great company (you can't ask for any better an end to a hard days caving), and then arriving back in York at a very civilised 9pm.

This was a truly amazing trip, with a bit of everything. You get a stunning entrance pitch, followed by a spectacular main shaft in Boxhead, some pleasant crawls, some route finding challenges, exciting climbs, a short but refreshing wallow in water (which turns out to have been greatly welcomed in advance of the extensive horizontal cave ahead), an amazing master cave with stomping streamway, huge chambers and flowstone, and then a superb ascent up Lost Johns with the infamous Battleaxe traverse and then easy going pitches to the surface. Probably my favourite trip in ages and would definitely like to do it again perhaps in reverse this time.