Water Levels in the Llangattock escarpment

Oscar D

Active member
Was wondering if anyone has been under recently around the area. Am thinking about a trip to Daren on Monday and was wondering if anyone would know how much water would be in the system by then? Given the recent rain in the South. The last trip didn't go to plan and so this time I have a score to settle with a certain entrance crawl.

Thanks,
 

Huge

Active member
Was in Cnwc yesterday. It was wetter than usual, with some lovely puddles to wallow through!

Had a look at the Daren entrance. The amount of water going didn't look unusual.
 

Oscar D

Active member
Huge said:
Was in Cnwc yesterday. It was wetter than usual, with some lovely puddles to wallow through!

Had a look at the Daren entrance. The amount of water going didn't look unusual.

Considering that the crawl dishes out quite a soaking in ?dry? weather, I can?t imagine that it?ll be much different after the rain as long as it doesn?t sump, though I?m told that it doesn?t.
 

Huge

Active member
No where on the through trip sumps. My comments were only meant to to convey that conditions seem to have returned to normal.

I assume if you're asking about water levels in Daren that you maybe going to the far end. The bottom end of the Bonsai Streamway can get deep in wet weather but I would have thought it would be back to normal by now. The duck at the top end of Ankle Grinder would have sumped of course with Ankle Grinder itself becoming active. I would assume it is passable again by now but I've never been there in wet weather so don't know the characteristics.

I don't think there's anywhere else on the usual routes that become a problem in/after wet weather.
 

Oscar D

Active member
Huge said:
No where on the through trip sumps. My comments were only meant to to convey that conditions seem to have returned to normal.

I assume if you're asking about water levels in Daren that you maybe going to the far end. The bottom end of the Bonsai Streamway can get deep in wet weather but I would have thought it would be back to normal by now. The duck at the top end of Ankle Grinder would have sumped of course with Ankle Grinder itself becoming active. I would assume it is passable again by now but I've never been there in wet weather so don't know the characteristics.

I don't think there's anywhere else on the usual routes that become a problem in/after wet weather.

I was considering visiting the Bonsai streamway, so I guess I could still see some of it if only the end is affected. Thanks for the info  :sneaky:
 

Huge

Active member
Yeah, you'll be fine OS. Last weekend it would have been backed up but I'm sure it's fine now let alone by next Monday.
 

cseal

Member
Huge said:
No where on the through trip sumps. My comments were only meant to to convey that conditions seem to have returned to normal.

I assume if you're asking about water levels in Daren that you maybe going to the far end. The bottom end of the Bonsai Streamway can get deep in wet weather but I would have thought it would be back to normal by now. The duck at the top end of Ankle Grinder would have sumped of course with Ankle Grinder itself becoming active. I would assume it is passable again by now but I've never been there in wet weather so don't know the characteristics.

I don't think there's anywhere else on the usual routes that become a problem in/after wet weather.

It's only a short stretch of Bonsai that gets deep - just before Hard Rock.  Known as DamPool - gets about chest deep and maybe 5-10m long.  As Huge says, it should be down by now. 

The duck at the top end of Ankle Grinder can sump and typically responds about 5 - 7 hours after rain.  So typically if it isn't raining when you go in to Daren, you'll probably be okay passing through Ankle Grinder.  If the cave beyond Hard Rock is in the process of flooding, a good warning sign is a strong air flow / pulse in Rock Steady Cruise.  It can be quite a strong draught - I've been sandblasted crawling through RSC on a few occasions.  Many years ago, a group started to head down The Micron and scrambled up quickly as a wall of water raced passed them.

The duck / sump at the end of Ankle Grinder can take a long time to drop - two of my friends were stuck at Restaurant at the End of Universe for a week until the water subsided.  No rescue call out ever happened as they were planning to be there all week anyway and so no one knew they were cut off.  It did affect them though - knowing they were cut off affected the psychology and made them much more risk averse in terms of their digging / exploring efforts that week.
 
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