pwhole
Well-known member
Martyn G, Jane and I visited Odin last night to begin a long-term photographic project, only to find a serious and potentially very dangerous collapse has occurred in the entrance section. We were last in a month ago, so it's fallen since then, but it would be interesting to see if anyone's been in more recently, to try and work out exactly when this happened. I know others have been in 2-3 weeks ago, so it's happened within the last fortnight, definitely. Needless to say, if it had collapsed during a trip, there could have been a death, as it's on an unprotected section.
It's right at the base of the first handline climb, approx 50 metres into the mine - the entire floor has disappeared into a crater approx 2.5m X 1.5m in size, leaving a ragged drop of approximately ten metres straight down - the walls of this hole are a very, very crumbly shale/rock mixture and are still falling in. Having a drill with us, we managed to traverse across it and just about made the climb up (trickier now with a ten-metre hole directly beneath you) to rejoin the normal route to see where it's all ended up, and - it gets worse - it's all landed right in front of the stempled passage that links to the Cartgate, and has also taken out the first two stone stemples, which are now somewhere in the pile.
Luckily, the passage itself is intact, but the heap of large deads, gravel and mud that now partially blocks it is very, very unstable, and is still moving. Therefore, the stempled passage (and, by implication the Cartgate and beyond) are currently not safely accessible.
By good fortune, the 'pit of uncertain depth' mentioned in the guide at that point is right beneath the heap of rubble, and so much of it can be safely dumped in there, once the situation has been assessed and stabilisation work (if possible) has been done. But at the moment, it's very, very dangerous, and we would recommend that folks please keep out until the relevant authorities have been informed (which we're doing right now) and the situation clarified.
For more information, please contact Martyn Grayson, DCA Projects Officer, on 0797 695 3089.
There's some photos of the collapse here:
http://www.pwhole.com/photo_galleries/private/Odin_Collapse/collapse.htm
It's right at the base of the first handline climb, approx 50 metres into the mine - the entire floor has disappeared into a crater approx 2.5m X 1.5m in size, leaving a ragged drop of approximately ten metres straight down - the walls of this hole are a very, very crumbly shale/rock mixture and are still falling in. Having a drill with us, we managed to traverse across it and just about made the climb up (trickier now with a ten-metre hole directly beneath you) to rejoin the normal route to see where it's all ended up, and - it gets worse - it's all landed right in front of the stempled passage that links to the Cartgate, and has also taken out the first two stone stemples, which are now somewhere in the pile.
Luckily, the passage itself is intact, but the heap of large deads, gravel and mud that now partially blocks it is very, very unstable, and is still moving. Therefore, the stempled passage (and, by implication the Cartgate and beyond) are currently not safely accessible.
By good fortune, the 'pit of uncertain depth' mentioned in the guide at that point is right beneath the heap of rubble, and so much of it can be safely dumped in there, once the situation has been assessed and stabilisation work (if possible) has been done. But at the moment, it's very, very dangerous, and we would recommend that folks please keep out until the relevant authorities have been informed (which we're doing right now) and the situation clarified.
For more information, please contact Martyn Grayson, DCA Projects Officer, on 0797 695 3089.
There's some photos of the collapse here:
http://www.pwhole.com/photo_galleries/private/Odin_Collapse/collapse.htm