Echo Aven to the 88' Pitch

From Ease Gill

Echo Aven to the 88' Pitch[edit | edit source]

Note: the lower streamways flood to the roof in very wet weather, in particular backing up from the sump.

A streamway, The Wormway, leads off from the base of Echo Aven. A stooping/walking passage passes two small inlets on the right. A boulder in the passage can be squeezed past or clambered over. Soon, a larger inlet is met entering from the right, The Grind.

Shortly beyond, a short muddy oxbow soon regains the stream. A mix of stooping and crawling passage continues. After about four minutes, Sausage Junction is reached, where a large inlet enters on the left; [ascending this leads to pitches, which need pre-rigging, up into Ramsden's Crawl.]

Two minutes further downstream, another stream is met, entering from ahead. [The combined waters run to the left, and sump almost immediately.] Continuing upstream leads after a few minutes to the foot of the 88' Pitch. [Cellar Passage enters from the right.] The pitch is currently permanently rigged (April 2016).

At the top of the pitch, a junction is met.

  • Turning right leads towards Long Gallery, and the route to Lancaster Hole.
  • Turning left leads to Maple Leaf Junction, leading to Maple Leaf Passage and Ramsden's Crawl.