Giants Sumps

[steviet_scg]

Whilst searching for a Caves & CAving #39 (http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=13609.0][url]http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=13609.0[/url]) - I started reading old mags and found this snippet.

Descent - #101 (Aug/Sept 1991)

'Also in Giant's, Ian 'Buster' Wright and Alan Medhurst have located an unrecorded sump near East Canal. Apparently, there are two flooded potholes, and they are not sure if these connect. The possibility that one of them goes elsewhere is exciting'

Does anyone know what came of this?
Cheers
Steve

 

[danthecavingman]

Just a guess but could it be North Rift sump? If I remember rightly Moose dived something like this but it didn't go....

 

[Pitlamp]

I don't think it was North Rift Sump - I'd dived that before the report in question and Ben had had a go at getting through by bailing and digging. (It was some time later when the Stockport Caving Club succeeded in passing this obstacle.) I can actually remember Buster talking about these possible sumps at the time and I would have explained about North Rift if it'd have been the same one - but I obviously thought at the time that it wasn't. Sadly, Buster passed away several years ago but of course Alan is still around in the Peak District.

I remember wondering at the time if Buster and Alan were talking about the small muddy pool at the base of the final pitch of the Filthy Five Series - but this is choked at 1.2 m depth (which is recorded in CDG Newsletter 73 (October 1984) page 16). Neither the most recent Peak District Sump Index nor the later update to the index mention these sumps of Buster & Alans, possibly suggesting that they were mistaken for sumps when it fact they weren't (bearing in mind that great fluctuations in the level of East Canal can cause confusion).

I guess your best bet is to search out Alan and ask directly.

 

[steviet_scg]

Thanks Dan and Pitlamp - I agree it probably isn't North Rift as this is above Geology and so quite a way from East Canal - and the explanation given makes a lot of sense.

Cheers. 

 

[Pitlamp]

H'm - I just realised that explanation of mine is also inaccurate I'm afraid.

I failed to notice that the Peak District Sump Index also lists "Salmon's Sump", located at the base of a 10 m shaft some 5 m along a crawl leading off from the junction of South Rift with the Filthy Five Series. The shaft continues underwater to a bouldery floor at -2.5 m. A descending continuation of the rift has been followed to -5 m where it gets excessively narrow and unstable.

The references are CDG Newsletter 108 page 18 and Descent 113 page 19. I think this may be what Buster and Alan reported noticing. The diver was actually Shaun Puckering (on 17-5-93) and Moose was on the trip, along with John Beck and Andy Smith. It got called Salmon's Sump because the first person to report it originally was the late Les Salmon.

Speaking of North Rift Stevie - and your dry extension beyond it - any progress lately?

 

[bograt]

Seem to recall back wall of east canal split into two at low water, what was the level when Buster & Alan reported this?
Re- iterate previous advice, ask Alan.

 

[steviet_scg]

Thanks all.

Pitlamp: re: North rift - we abandoned any attempts to work on the choke beyond the sump. After you kindly helped us remove a few problem boulders a load of silt came down the slope and filled in the sump again. We spent a long time digging the same bit of passage that we'd originally dug open. 

When we finally got back through the sump the choke at the end was quite solid and would have needed a fair amount of work to make further progress. It's not impossible but it's beyond a sump with a nasty squeeze involved and there's a lot of silt and boulders ready to block the exit.  In fact, last time I went through a load of silt collapsed into the sump and I had to wait patiently for about an hour whilst the sump was dug open.

In all probability the sump will be blocked again now.

 

[Pitlamp]

Thanks for the update - nobody can say you lads haven't tried; good effort!