Down Alum Pot main shaft via the Long Churn Entrance.
We parked at entrance to Braida Garth on the Kingsdale road and headed up past Valley Entrance to Simpsons Pot (Grid Ref: SD 69623 77864 375m). The first few pitches, called five Steps, we freeclimbed until we reached the pit. The Pit is thr first big pitch you come to and it is important to traverse over this and not abseil down it. Now the pitch series begin properly and you are fully to committed as you start pulling your ropes down. As we descended the 9m deep Storm Pot we were faced with a sump, however if you look back on yourself a duck can be found in the wall, it is preferable (although it may feel strange at the time) to go through this feet first - you stay a lot dryer. The rest of the pitches are fairly straight forward until you reach Slit Pot (30m). This can be rigged standing in the chamber and then it is a case of wriggling through the slot and dropping out on the pitch. The Swinsto water now joins from the right and then there is one last small pitch (freeclimb!!). At the bottom of this dropping down to your left through clean washed boulders gains the wet section of Philosophers Crawl. Eventually you reach Master Junction and the Kingsdale Master Cave (KMC) River. Following this downstream to a sump and a 4.5m climb up the right wall (there is a dodgy looking in-situ rope) gains the roof passage of Valley Entrance. There is however one last duck/wet section before daylight is reached. An excellent classic through trip. We used a 30m rope for all the pitches apart from Slit Pot where we used a 60m rope.
After finding Diccan Pot was too wet we headed across to Lower Long Churn cave which after a short pitch breaks out into the side of the Alum Pot main shaft. From here we traversed along the right hand wall and crossed over the bridge, we then traversed across the shaft a bit further before making the final free-hanging descent to the floor. We then followed the water down to the sump and watched the huge amount of water pounding down the Diccan pot route - glad we didn't do that route now. On the way out we met up with and got stuck behind quite a few groups of differing abilities.