<explorers></p><ul><li>CUCC 1980 (Team Sunbeam) to bottom</li><li>1982 to push bottom, but no new passage found.</li><li>Entered from 152 in 1985, Ibbeth Perilous Pot route connected 1987</li></ul><p></explorers>
<underground_description>Entrance is <b>huge</b>. A sizeable dry valley develops into a canyon which is full of snow. The canyon ends downstream in a solid wall, where the rigging point for the entrance pitch starts by the aforementioned tree. A short drop leads to a ledge where a stretch to the left (facing the rock) reaches a rebelay in a fine position on the impending wall. From here, drop 21m onto a large snow slope, then 10m further to the flat snow floor of a large chamber lit from above by the shaft.</p><divclass="centre"><ahref="others/l/113day.htm"><imgsrc="others/t/113day.jpg"alt="(photo (23k jpeg))"width="130"height="200"/></a></div><p>The way on is up a climb of 3m to a horizontal passage. There is an area of hading rifts, not fully explored. The first hole descends a ramp over treacherous ice and rubble for 30m to the head of a pitch, <b>Ibbeth Perilous Pot</b>. A second parallel ramp connects to the same point. Both these ramps suffer from loose rock and are best tackled with a handline. The main pitch drops for 20m in a series of steps, best rigged. A final 13m drop then lands on a rock/ice blockage <b>Marathon Ledge</b>, which at one time contained the original explorer's helmet and lights, dropped from the head of the pitch. A hammered route past the blockage leads to two short drops, then a 6m pitch into the Opera House (see below).</p><p>A descent of the second major hole from the entrance is the normal route and leads to a ramp down, traverse across and the head of <b>Point Five Gully</b>. The gully is decorated with ice formations early in the season, as are all the useful hand- and footholds on the following ramp, so a rope is recommended to descend <b>Fox's Glacier</b>. At the foot, about 60m below the entrance chamber, is a low bouldery chamber, and a low arch leads to a larger chamber, <b>Barnsley Methodist Chapel</b>, which is 20m high and 30m long.</p><p>The Chapel is floored with large boulders at one end, but an obvious low sandy passage to the left leads to the head of a 14m dry rift pitch with a bouldery takeoff. The pitch is free-hanging after the first two metres, to a gravel-floored chamber opening off the rift. Water entering high on the right takes a floor trench 10m deep which may be traversed above to gain the <b>Balcony</b> of the <b>Opera House</b>, an impressive 20m diameter, roughly circular chamber. A 12.5m pitch (awkward takeoff as rigged in 1980) gains the bouldery, sloping floor. A scramble down boulders and a further 7m pitch over a very large boulder leads into a rift, where an awkward 10m pitch with natural belays and joke bolts leads to a flat mud floor at a larger section at the head of a pitch. At this point the draught changes direction, the cave becomes clean, and a stream is met falling from an inaccessible (and out of sight) passage, apparently at the same level as the pitch head.</p><p>Down the pitch, a rebelay (which is a very long stretch to rig unless you're very tall) avoids the worst of the water on <b>Purple Pit</b>. Quite possibly this could be rigged as a deviation (we didn't do these in 1980). There is a long section to a large ledge, from where the pitch leaves the fault it has been following and heads down a series of short steps with rebelays a few metres apart. At the bottom of this section, 60m below the start, a further fault is met at right angles, with twin holes in the floor. The first one is wet and nasty, while the second is tolerable. Both unite and go off to the left in a diminutive streamway. To the right above the holes is the entry point from <ahref="152.htm">Bananehöhle</a>(152), explored in 1985.</p><divclass="centre"><aname="ppitbot"href="others/l/purple.htm"><imgsrc="others/t/purple.jpg"alt="(B/W photo (58k jpeg))"width="134"height="200"/></a><p>Simon Kellet at the top of the short dry pitch below Purple Pit </p></div><p>The diminutive streamway ends shortly in a tight sump, but before this, a climb up leads unobviously to a traverse and then a crawl trending back over the entry point, <b>Müsli Crawl</b>. A nu
