Ease Gall water levels

Getwet

New member
Was wondering if the water levels in Ease Gill ever get high enough to flow down County Pot?? :?: :shock:
 
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DaveL

Guest
Down the entrance shaft itself? I'd imagine there hasn't been that much water flowing in the beck since it was formed (when the icecaps melted after the last ice age). Remember how close the entrance is to Cow Dubs waterfall: there's nothing for it to back up against.
 

Stu

Active member
It's a good few metres from what would be considered the "normal" bank height. Doesn't appear to much evidence eg silt or trashed grass around the lid. Not saying it couldn't happen though, probably not often though.
 
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Cave Ferret

Guest
Have seen the water about a foot below the entrance a few times. I'd imagine that with the water levels we have had recently it would have been well and truly flowing down there. Water quite regulary goes into the entrance of Wretched Rabbit also.

Cave Ferret
 

Stu

Active member
Why were you wondering anyway? Apart from obvious not wanting to get caught out.
 

paul

Moderator
Getwet said:
Was wondering if the water levels in Ease Gill ever get high enough to flow down County Pot?? :?: :shock:


"The present day hydrology of Easegill Beck is complex, as the presence of the gill acts as a watershed between Casterton and Leck Fells. The water in the beck first sinks at Top Sink and, with increased flow, the stream sinks further down the valley at County Pot and, eventually, Cow Dub. All these sinks take the water to Lancaster Main Drain and thence to Leck Beck Head. Below Cow Dub the drainage becomes more complicated. The water percolates through the beck to Maracaibo and to Lancaster Main Drain; recent tests by the RRCPC have shown that the sink in Howgill Beck also drains to Lancaster Hole"

From NPC Link Pot Journal 1979 - http://www.pennine.demon.co.uk/NPC/1979/LINKGEO.HTM
 

Getwet

New member
stu said:
Why were you wondering anyway? Apart from obvious not wanting to get caught out.

Correct Stu, main reason, the obvious one of not wishing to get caught out !. A friend of mine said he once saw iwater level a couple of feet below the entrance but I though it sounded a bit of a fishermans tale
 

Stu

Active member
If I were at County and the river looked high with a shitty forecast I'd always be able to console myself with Lanc hole. Jim Eyre tells a tale of being waist high in water trying to divert the river from an entance (pool sink I think) where a party was trapped!
 
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Cave Ferret

Guest
stu said:
If I were at County and the river looked high with a shitty forecast I'd always be able to console myself with Lanc hole.

Don't be so confident about Lancaster Hole being a safe all weather entrance. You'd be surprised how wet the entrance pitch gets and where water backing up from the master cave actually can reach.

Jim Eyre tells a tale of being waist high in water trying to divert the river from an entance (pool sink I think) where a party was trapped!

It was Pegleg Pot that the cavers were trapped in and the water was being diverted down Oxford Pot (before it was blocked).

Cave Ferret
 

Stu

Active member
Cave Ferret said:
stu said:
If I were at County and the river looked high with a shitty forecast I'd always be able to console myself with Lanc hole.

Don't be so confident about Lancaster Hole being a safe all weather entrance. You'd be surprised how wet the entrance pitch gets and where water backing up from the master cave actually can reach.

Jim Eyre tells a tale of being waist high in water trying to divert the river from an entance (pool sink I think) where a party was trapped!

It was Pegleg Pot that the cavers were trapped in and the water was being diverted down Oxford Pot (before it was blocked).

Cave Ferret

Water backs up to the chamber at the foot of Lanc Hole shaft? And I didn't say it was a safe all weather route. The shaft gets wet yes, but impassable? Hm! :bash:
 
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Cave Ferret

Guest
The water doesn't back up to the bottom of Lancaster Hole, that wasn't what I said. It does however back up into Bill Taylors Passage on occasion, meaning all ways on would be impassable, hence making a trip with very limited options.

As for LH shaft, it can become wet enough to be very unpleasant unless you are very foolish and/or desperate. In very wet weather it becomes an active pitch with various inlets near the top and in the parallel shaft uniting.

Cave Ferret
 
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Yellerbelly

Guest
Why is an apology due? It appears to me to be friendly advice to be aware of the dangers when going down Lancaster Hole when there has been alot of rain.

Yellerbelly
 

Stu

Active member
1st What's it to you?
2nd The assumptions drawn

" Don't be so confident about Lancaster Hole being a safe all weather entrance. "
3rd End of discussion
 

Stu

Active member
SamT said:
[scouse accent] Ey - Calm down Calm down [/scouse accent]

We need an ironic handbags at dawn icon I feel!

Any case - wind your neck back in!!

:twisted:
 

Stu

Active member
P.S. isn't there some way of leaving a sound message in these things? No need for the "accent" bit then.
 
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Cave Ferret

Guest
stu said:
2nd The assumptions drawn

" Don't be so confident about Lancaster Hole being a safe all weather entrance. "

To quote you in an earlier post:

stu said:
If I were at County and the river looked high with a shitty forecast I'd always be able to console myself with Lanc hole.

No assumptions were made, I merely based my response on your original statement. I could be wrong, but to me it sounds like you are saying that if Ease Gill was tonking and the forecast was for more rain you would be safe in Lancaster Hole, right?

That being the case, when Ease Gill is in full flood, so much so that County is out of the question, water levels in LH would be very high indeed. The master cave would have seriously backed up, hence my original statements.

Maybe you could eleborate and let us know where in LH you where thinking of heading for when water levels are making County Pot impassable?

Cave Ferret
 

Stu

Active member
Nowhere since if it's pissing (sorry Sam) down there it's pissing down everywhere and if I've made the bloody effort to get up to the farm and haul my ass over to County only to find it in flood and feeling a bit narked I'd traipse (?) over to Lanc to do a bit of shaft bombing (which is never going to rival say Diccan in the dangerous wet stakes) to have a look at the columns then get out for a pint all done in a manner to console myself that it's better to do that then waste a day!!!
 
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