Depot Passages, inwards

Depot Passages, inwards

From the junction with Wretched Rabbit Passage, a narrow ascending rift leads off, passing a survey tag after 3m. The floor becomes more bouldery, and the route passes below a couple of jammed boulders, to reach a boulder slope up to the left. Ascending the slope leads into a chamber with a black cross drawn on the wall. Straight ahead, a narrow rift leads, after a couple of metres, to a 1m step up. A very short crawl leads to the top of a 4m aven, dropping into Depot Passage 1.5.

At the bottom of the aven, a very short crawl leads to a junction. Going left, passes a chamber off to the left [containing an aven], and soon reaches Ahaa Chamber, a 5m diameter decorated chamber.

[To the left in Ahaa Chamber enters a choke.] [Straight ahead leads to a 30m crawl to a choke.] The way on is down to the right, near the point of entry, close to a stal pillar, and 2m to the right of a stalactite in the ceiling. A 3m descent down the rift drops into a small chamber, the start of Flashbang Crawl. A constricted descent over calcited boulders reaches a squeeze down over calcite flow. Beyond is another squeeze, at the start of an inverted-'T' shaped passage. A small crawl continues. After a few minutes, a junction is reached. Going left leads immediately to the top of a 3m climb (rope in situ, February 2017).

Below the climb, is Depot Passage 1. Rift passage passes an unstable-looking boulder slope on the right, to reach an awkward 2m climb down into a small chamber. Ahead, narrow walking rift leads over breakdown. A crawl over breakdown at roof level, or a crawl below, unite. Continuing walking passage lowers to crawling. This reaches a squeeze over boulders [or a small wriggle round a bend at floor level]. Hands-and-knees crawling reaches a fork: the easiest route is to the left, where continuing crawling over cobbles pops out into larger passage, meeting the other route from the fork.

Ahead, easy crawling in a 1m high bedding plane goes round a bend to the right. Soon, the top of a 2m climb is reached. [Going left leads to Depot Passage 2.] Descending the climb reaches Stop Pot.