Wretched Rabbit to Holbeck Junction, via Spiral Staircase Passage

From Ease Gill

Wretched Rabbit Entrance Series[edit | edit source]

A short crawl soon leads to a series of climbs, rigged with handlines (February 2016). The initial steep 3.5m climb is rigged from a scaffold bar. Below is an easy 2m step down onto a ledge. [An inlet and a bedding plane crawl enter on the right here.] A further 4.5m climb, steep for the bottom half, lands on another ledge. The final 5m climb is less steep, with good footholds.

At the bottom of the climbs is Big Rift. 30m ahead is a side passage to the right [which soon leads to a rope climb]. Just ahead is a 3m-deep hole, lined with boulders, with an inlet entering from the right. Ahead is the traditional route. Descending the hole leads into Spiral Staircase Passage.

Spiral Staircase Passage[edit | edit source]

Spiral Staircase Passage is reached by descending the obvious large hole at the end of Big Rift in Wretched Rabbit. This descent is sometimes wet, and becomes impassible in very wet weather.

Ahead is a crawling passage, which gradually enlarges to stooping then walking. After about five minutes, a junction is reached, just after some formations. [To the left soon leads to a pitch, re-joining the normal route below.] The normal way on is to the right. Soon, a stream joins from the right. A short climb followed by a crawl soon leads to a climb down onto a pile of stacked rocks in a larger passage.

[To the left leads to the bottom of the pitch noted above.] [Turning right then right again leads into a rift with a climb down into Eccles Bypass, leading to the Borehole, Slit Sinks and New Slit Sinks.] Turning right from the stacked rocks leads to a balcony looking down into Green and Smelly Passage, which leads to the connection with Pool Sink and to Holbeck Junction.

Green and Smelly Passage[edit | edit source]

From the confluence of Spiral Staircase and Eccles Bypass, a balcony looks down onto a chamber, split by a ridge. The way on is a short traverse to the right, followed by a climb down between boulders. This drops into Green and Smelly Passage. [Doubling back leads into the split chamber noted above; an obscure crawl at floor level leads under the ridge into the other half of the chamber.]

A few metres ahead, a streamway enters from the right [which leads into Lower T-Piece Passage in Pool Sink]. Walking passage (with the water flowing in an oxbow to the left) leads to a small chamber. A crawl leads to another chamber. [To the right is a dry route into Lower T-Piece Passage.] Ahead leads towards Holbeck Junction.

Green and Smelly Passage to Holbeck Junction[edit | edit source]

From the confluence of the Pool Sink and Spiral Staircase/Borehole routes, the passage continues as walking passage, with the water flowing in an oxbow to the left. After two minutes, a pool is reached at the junction of two joints: turning left then immediately right, a stoop leads into a 6m high chamber with the stream flowing from the right. A few steps downstream, a dry passage to the right provides the easiest way to Holbeck. [Continuing ahead, a wet crawl leads to where the stream disappears ahead. A dry crawl to the right leads to the main streamway, where it hits a choke.] Taking the dry passage leads to a step over boulders, followed by a gentle descent to Holbeck Junction.