When the SUSS digging team broke through the pot in Christmas Aven (P8) back in pre-Covid times, a return trip was planned to squeeze into the breakthrough point and explore/photograph/survey the passage beyond.
Here enters our hero. Named "Team America" due to his heritage, this keen young...
The level doesn't change much at all in my experience. The outflow towards the sewer seems to match the flow coming in from the collected percolation through the boulder choke below Fox Chamber. In dry weather it simply doesn't flow down the sewer and in wet weather the flow into it is never...
This is just a bit on info for anyone who has wondered what's in The Lake halfway down Winnats Head Cave, when I first started caving it always enticed me to wonder what was on the other side. It's been dived a couple of times in the past but I went for another look due to good vis. After the...
My favourite quote from WBT's 1966 Giants-Oxlow-Giants trip is "We were out after 9 1/4 hours, of which I can optimistically say that 2 1/2 were enjoyable". They were on 2 lead acids between three people, combat jackets, and dragging a 100ft Ulstron. Luckily they had 6 honey butties each to keep...
I realise I haven't spoken about clothing - I wore a 5mm wetsuit (thinnest neoprene I have) and a hood, with an oversuit to protect it from the tight passage. This was warmer than necessary and quite restrictive, I was only cold while waiting for Toby to dig.
You can't do the ducks with your...
How to do the connection
Logistics
We parked at Oxlow, rigged it and left an SRT kit per-person at the top of Pilgrim's Way. This was advised by Leo, who has done the connection twice and suffered kit snag issues when shuttling kit. In 2016 the all SRT kits made it through but not every person...
Except Toby's light. Which he'd borrowed from Jonah.
Not wanting to go back, Toby immediately offered Jonah £65 in payment so we could head off and get to the pub. Jonah wasn't having it, he wanted his light back. He offered to go back to fetch it himself, but the passage beyond the Chamber of...
For the more prosaic reader who just wants info on how to tackle this classic through trip - I'm going to write a how-to guide at the end of this report. Feel free to scroll to the end if that's all you're after, instead of my inane ramblings.
Trip Dates: Sun 6/5/25 + Wed 9/5/25
Members: Jack...
To bring it back on topic to Lara's initial question - it's probably likely that some of the slow moving/stagnant water in the upper New Oxlow area is contaminated with fuel/oil, much like many other caves situated beneath roads and working farms (Intestines in P8 had it recently, as did the...
Technically three, as on our scouting trip we went into Oxlow and came back out of Giants, before doing the through trip a couple of days later.
They aren't that bad if you maintain composure and work out the best approach for each one. I'm writing a "how-to" guide for them because I think a...
Oxlow Aven Passage is what the 1960s SUSS journals refer to as the low crawling passage between Mecca Aven and Poached Egg passage. I haven't seen it referred to by any other name since then so just going with that name, lots of good leads along it (for the masochistic digger). Part way along it...