Marble Steps Pot Gully Route

Friday November 7th 2025

Members present: Ben Wellington,  Elly Masteller,  Erika Lang,  James Goldberg,  Sophie Brazil

This trip was my first of three trips on our NPC weekend, and was my first time caving on the Friday of a weekend away! We set off with spirits high at 9am, stopped for a quick breakfast in Skipton, dropped our rucksacks at the NPC, and began the drive up to Masongill.

We chose to do the Gully Route to the Main Chamber and back. This meant it was short enough for us to get back to the hut at a reasonable time but also long enough to be a worthy trip.

James led us in with his rigging, followed by Sophie, Ben, Erika, then me. The entrance was stunning and very dry. There was no rain or wind, just overcast skies which didn't dull the expanse of green foliage surrounding us. Erika even spotted a lone purple mushroom amongst the ferns! We had a bit of time to sit while the entrance traverse line was rigged, during which Erika and I began singing. She asked me if I knew Hamilton, to which I responded "I've had it memorized for 10 years," which then prompted an entire afternoon of us singing Hamilton songs together.

Soon everyone left my gaze as they descended into the cave proper. The Hamilton jam ended as I wanted to focus on rigging my descender. I recall Erika remarking at how large the rebelays were, saying that they were "weird," and I must agree. They were much larger than I expected, and at one point I wasn't sure how to actually make my way to the knot. I eventually put in my hand and chest jammers and prussiked up to it.

Finally I joined everyone in the Main Chamber where we took a photo, examined the next passage which we were not venturing into, ate a snack, and sang more Hamilton (with James joining in now that he could hear us properly). I asked to derig, since I had not done it yet, and Erika agreed to walk me through the first few pitches.

Sophie led our ascent, since they had a rescue kit, followed by Ben, James, Erika, and finally, me. Erika mimed derigging the bottom pitch, then moved beyond the rebelay and waited for me at the top of the next one so that I could be within eye sight. I easily derigged the bottom half of the cave. The largest of the rebelays gave me a bit of trouble, but after a very ungraceful yet controlled swing away from the bolt, I was able to continue as normal. We emerged from the Gully Route after dark thanks to the early sunsets, but this gave us a fantastic view of some fireworks that were being set off down in the village.

More Hamilton was sung in the car on the way back to the NPC.

The trip was a very fun little SRT route, and I'm very glad I was able to derig it!