Brownley Hill - Nenthead, Round Trip State?

[Mr Mike]

Has anyone recently done the Brownley Hill round trip via the High Level - just asking for a state of levels and ropes update?

 

[Grout1]

Mike
Did you mean Tatters String route or the longer Jug Vein option?

We went over towards Jug Vein workings last August.
Rope and rigging on upward pitch appeared OK.
Short of time so I only managed a quick descent down pitch near day shaft.
Rope could probably do with a change and some TLC on pitch rigging would be helpful, but pitchs are quite short.
I put another temporary deviation in on lower section, so a short bit of scrap rope might be useful.

Haven't descended at Tatter's String for about 2 years, but new pitch rigging all still looked fresh then.
This pitch is a bit more awkward for clipping in and out if you are not tall and gangly.

hope this helps

Alan

 

[Mr Mike]

Thanks Alan, I do mean the Jug vein route. I did get a PM anout it today and all is in good order - someone did it a few weeks back.

 

[Grout1]

Good to know that it is all still passable.
Did they say how it looked in the lower levels?
I have always found it one of the most off putting areas of Nenthead to try and traverse.
Far too flaky to sneeze in some parts.

Cheers

Alan

 

[Mr Mike]

They did not mention the low level, but the high level was in good nick - not much new fall material. The trip was done a few months ago not weeks as I first said.

The worst part of the low level is through the shale (can't remember) either before or after the Moss XV.

 

[Mr Mike]

We did this on Sat. Pitch up into the high level fine. The rope we installed in 2014 has been changed.

The high level is in good nick, though a fair bit of new material down through the crawls nearing the 1st pitch down. The rope on this pitch was from 1992, we have replaced this. The 2nd pitch, we rigged and bolted that as well in 2014, our rope had been removed along with our mailons (FFS) and the 1992 one put back in anchored to the buried scaff bar.

The new rope is rigged into the anchors again = no rub points. Out of interest, the rope that was attached to the scaff bar, looking at it we noticed that this had a flat very wobbly section on the loop to the scaff (under load if you used it), we reckon, its impact damage from falling rocks - check what you abseil on ! We have removed it.

Back in the BH horse level, the route to the main BH Vein - lots of fresh falls with no traffic on them, one area had 6" thick large shale flakes from the roof ready to come down. Definitely a connoisseurs trip. The main horse level, seemed to be in the same state as usual.

 

[Grout1]

Mike

Thanks for the useful feedback.
Hope to back up at Nenthead at Easter, so perhaps we might have a venture out that way.
Might need to twist my wife's arm a bit as she is not all keen on very flaky roof.

Cheers

Alan

 

[Paul Marvin]

Thinking of doing Brownley in a few weeks when we are up in Cumbria how does it compare to the others at Nent guys ?

Paul

 

[Mr Mike]

You can get to some great places in BH just by walking and doing some climbing, SRT gets you to the more interesting areas - but you need to know where to go and they are all deeper in.

Follow your nose you will have a very good trip. See: http://www.mineexplorer.org.uk/brownleyhill.htm

 

[Paul Marvin]

You can get to some great places in BH just by walking and doing some climbing, SRT gets you to the more interesting areas - but you need to know where to go and they are all deeper in.

Follow your nose you will have a very good trip. See: http://www.mineexplorer.org.uk/brownleyhill.htm

Thanks for that would the walkie bits be suitable for our dog to come or is it to messy ?

 

[Mr Mike]

I would say its all doable and you could have a good explore. Water on way in is pretty shallow. Only gets deeper, the further you go into the mine. The big multilevel VM stope which is relatively close to the entrance has a steep hopper that you go up, should be able to pass dog up on that - no harder than passing tackle bags.

 

[Grout1]

Did round trip around the Jug Vein high level yesterday. All fine except for a collapse over section of arching on low level return about 10 minutes inbye before junction to Italian stopes passage. Took us about 20 minutes to dig through. Material had completely buried next arched section heading out. Clear for now, but I know this point has been cleared several times in past. Could be a bit daunting if you weren't expecting it. Even cleared it doesn't leave you with a warm and cosy feeling.

 

[Mr Mike]

Thanks for the update. I had a more pleasant trip in Smallcleugh with my daughter around Incline Flats last weekend.