andrewmcleod
Well-known member
Right, I have done some searching on here but not found a conclusive answer...
Popped into Goatchurch yesterday for the first time which was quite fun (although if I had read the description more carefully I might have made the Tradesman's entrance and the Coal Chute a bit less exciting by actually bringing a handline...)
In the Water Chamber, heading down the right wall, there are of course a number of passages. Starting at the top right, there is the easy way down to the Drainpipe. The next opening was a very polished tube, snug but not that difficult, which went down first a small drop of about 3 foot with a window on the left at the bottom and then another small tube to the top of the shaft with the ladder in a hole (and the way on to the Drainpipe). I assume this was Hellish Tight?
The next opening was a significantly less polished very small round tube at floor level (but not at the bottom of Water Chamber) which was still quite gravelly. The first part of this is avoidable by going around the side; the second part meets the window after the first drop in what I assume is Hellish Tight. I got almost all the way through this with arms forwards, nearly reaching the big bit of rock at the end you could use to pull yourself out of the window with, but was getting so much oversuit friction that my wriggling progress had slowed from cm per minute to zero, I started to become concerned in a tight space for the first time in my caving career, and beat a hasty retreat! Is this the real Hellish Tight? I will have to try it again some time, possibly sans oversuit and from the other end...
There were more tubes further down that bit of water Chamber but we didn't look down that corner.
For comparison purposes I did a (very painful) 16.4cm squeeze machine at Eurospeleo.
Incidentally, the Drainpipe and subsequent bits seemed fairly spacious (the awkward bend after the puddle being the only interesting bit); half of the Drainpipe I was walking! Went up the ascending squeeze after Final Chamber into the chamber with two digs and a sign saying 'do not touch' and taping. The small boulder at the top of that squeeze is the most improbably attached boulder I have seen; seems solid enough but presumably just calcited on at the one corner it is still attached by!
Popped into Goatchurch yesterday for the first time which was quite fun (although if I had read the description more carefully I might have made the Tradesman's entrance and the Coal Chute a bit less exciting by actually bringing a handline...)
In the Water Chamber, heading down the right wall, there are of course a number of passages. Starting at the top right, there is the easy way down to the Drainpipe. The next opening was a very polished tube, snug but not that difficult, which went down first a small drop of about 3 foot with a window on the left at the bottom and then another small tube to the top of the shaft with the ladder in a hole (and the way on to the Drainpipe). I assume this was Hellish Tight?
The next opening was a significantly less polished very small round tube at floor level (but not at the bottom of Water Chamber) which was still quite gravelly. The first part of this is avoidable by going around the side; the second part meets the window after the first drop in what I assume is Hellish Tight. I got almost all the way through this with arms forwards, nearly reaching the big bit of rock at the end you could use to pull yourself out of the window with, but was getting so much oversuit friction that my wriggling progress had slowed from cm per minute to zero, I started to become concerned in a tight space for the first time in my caving career, and beat a hasty retreat! Is this the real Hellish Tight? I will have to try it again some time, possibly sans oversuit and from the other end...
There were more tubes further down that bit of water Chamber but we didn't look down that corner.
For comparison purposes I did a (very painful) 16.4cm squeeze machine at Eurospeleo.
Incidentally, the Drainpipe and subsequent bits seemed fairly spacious (the awkward bend after the puddle being the only interesting bit); half of the Drainpipe I was walking! Went up the ascending squeeze after Final Chamber into the chamber with two digs and a sign saying 'do not touch' and taping. The small boulder at the top of that squeeze is the most improbably attached boulder I have seen; seems solid enough but presumably just calcited on at the one corner it is still attached by!
