hi,

Does anyone out there regularly go up to Alston, Our club went up a fair bit over the summer to look at the nenthead mines but that was about it, was wondering if anyone fancied teaming up to do a trip around there?

Graham

Newcastle uni CC

g.p.tebbutt@ncl.ac.uk

Hello,

Here in Durham we have great plans for a trip to Alston to sample some of the areas more esoteric delights, and perhaps even discover some delights of our own. We've provisionaly planned a trip for the weekend after the one before (i.e. the weekend after we bottom Quaking - :wink: ) http://www.dur.ac.uk/speleological.association/notices2.html - Which will probably be the weekend after next.

If you're interested in joining us then please let us know,

Cheers,

George North (DUSA 'BS Master')

hi,

I hope Quaking was good????

I am not sure at the moment what our lot are up to this weekend. There might be a few going up to Nenthead but i can't be sure at all. What were you hoping to do up there and which days?

Graham

Quaking was superb (at least I assume it was), we decided to make the most of the cold weather and went ice climbing instead

With any luck we'll be going to Alston on the 13/14th March, I can imagine there'll be a fairly limited turnout though. Ayleburn Mine Cave sounds quite interesting, as do lots of the other little caves described in NC1. If it's dry then I'm sure we'll visit Tutman's Hole aswell, partly due to it being the only decent thing found by DUSA in the last 30 years, and also because it's dead good (small, wet (very!) and pretty).

Have fun in Nenthead, it's well worth taking some tea lights to illuminate the Ballroom Flats if you want to take some interesting photos!

GN-BSM.

hi,

I think George might answer this best, I was wondering when is the best time of year for Tutmans hole- does the water level go down much in the summer? We went last autumn, and the stream was flowing fairly fast and was f***ing freezing! so we turned back shortly after the first duck section, was also wondering where you are digging or is that top secret?!!

and another question- has anyone ever poked around in the shaft on the other side of the wall that you see on the approach?

Cheers

Hello Graham,

Tutman's is definitely a low water trip. We did it in reasonably dry weather (i.e. it hadn't rained for a couple of days) and I'd say that it would definitely be impossible if the water was any higher (average or above average conditions). As you've seen it takes a pretty big (and very cold) stream, and getting trapped on the far side of the duck would most likely prove terminal!

My advice would be to wait for a nice dry settled spell, and to take a wetsuit! It's definitely worth the effort though.

The best people to ask about the shaft is probably the Moldywarps, as they are the local 'experts':
http://www.caving.uk.com/Resources/Pages/clubs/moldywarps.html

The DUSA dig is dormant at the moment, although it does have great prospects for breaking into new passage (in fact 8' of passage was 'discovered' on the last visit). It's on the north side of Swaledale, and we've named it Langthwaite Pot. I'll let you know when we break through in to caverns measurless :wink: The problem is picking up the motivation to scrot around in some horrible hole, rather than do some ace trip, or go climbing.

Any luck down Oddmire yet?

George.

cheers for that george, i am determined now to get to the end!