adep
Member
Went on a trip down Lancaster hole yesterday 15th Sep to the Minuretes via the high level passages of Montagu east and west yesterday, forecast was rain till 4 but nothing to heavy, when we entered Fall pot the water fall from Cow pot was gushing in from high level, we dropped down the streamway from Montagu at various points to have a look and it was obviously flooding and rose about 8 inches in half an hour, on our return from the Minuretes to exit via Lancaster again there was an ominous silence no sound of the from the streamway at all, I knew what that meant!!, the main streamway had now fully backed up and was no longer flowing but filling up.
Crossing from Montagu East to West, the water level was about 15ft below the lowest point of the crossing, so that meant it had risen about 20 odd feet in a couple of hours along full length of the streamway, to say I was shocked was an understatement.
When we got back to Fall pot, it was flooded upto a point maybe 15ft below the balcony from Montagu and you could see none of the main boulders on the floor of Fall pot and Cow pot was in full flood.
One of our team was willing to swim to the other side about 60ft, but we convinced him it was not a good idea due to unknown currents and swimming with full SRT kit on, this was about 4pm. We decided to sit it out and monitor the levels before attempting any other exit, after half and hour it was definitely going down, after two hours it was low enough to cross on the lhs looking from Montagu, at this point the white memorial plaque was about 5ft above the water, on reflection we could have got across the same point when the plaque was about 1ft out of the water.
All very sobering stuff, whilst I knew Fall pot did back up and flood on occasion, I had no idea it happened this fast and after only a few hours of heavy rain, apparently the river in Ingleton rose about 10ft the same day, the path from Bull pot farm was a river on the way back.
We were lucky I guess as we were only delayed a couple of hours, but if it had kept raining we would have been there much longer and it went through my mind if it kept raining as hard, would it ever flood into Montagu??, our options of retreat into the higher parts of the system could have been cut off if the water came high enough to flood the connection from Montagu west to east.
I can sense the critisesem now, shouldn't have gone down in those conditions etc, but does anyone else know of instances when the whole streamway flooded in 4 hours, we weren't the only ones down there either as there was a team doing the same route but coming out of County, they made it I assume as there was no cars around on the surface.
Crossing from Montagu East to West, the water level was about 15ft below the lowest point of the crossing, so that meant it had risen about 20 odd feet in a couple of hours along full length of the streamway, to say I was shocked was an understatement.
When we got back to Fall pot, it was flooded upto a point maybe 15ft below the balcony from Montagu and you could see none of the main boulders on the floor of Fall pot and Cow pot was in full flood.
One of our team was willing to swim to the other side about 60ft, but we convinced him it was not a good idea due to unknown currents and swimming with full SRT kit on, this was about 4pm. We decided to sit it out and monitor the levels before attempting any other exit, after half and hour it was definitely going down, after two hours it was low enough to cross on the lhs looking from Montagu, at this point the white memorial plaque was about 5ft above the water, on reflection we could have got across the same point when the plaque was about 1ft out of the water.
All very sobering stuff, whilst I knew Fall pot did back up and flood on occasion, I had no idea it happened this fast and after only a few hours of heavy rain, apparently the river in Ingleton rose about 10ft the same day, the path from Bull pot farm was a river on the way back.
We were lucky I guess as we were only delayed a couple of hours, but if it had kept raining we would have been there much longer and it went through my mind if it kept raining as hard, would it ever flood into Montagu??, our options of retreat into the higher parts of the system could have been cut off if the water came high enough to flood the connection from Montagu west to east.
I can sense the critisesem now, shouldn't have gone down in those conditions etc, but does anyone else know of instances when the whole streamway flooded in 4 hours, we weren't the only ones down there either as there was a team doing the same route but coming out of County, they made it I assume as there was no cars around on the surface.