Cave Mapper
Member
Sometimes cave trips go smoothly: you slide effortlessly through the squeezes, you scramble easily down the climbs and you navigate flawlessly through the labyrinths - the cave positively welcomes you to its bosom. Other times, the cave spirits are in a more malevolent mood and everything is difficult: the route is not clear, the climbs are slippy and the boulders are loose and threatening.
Our trip to Cherry Tree Hole last night was definitely of the latter kind.
We struggled to find the route, we wasted time backtracking from dead-ends, we nearly gave up before reaching the final pitch. And the boulders, oh the boulders, the cave was full of nasty loose boulders. However, we did eventually reach the final pitch, but the cave very nearly got the better of us in a quite alarming way.
In the final chamber before the pitch there is a steep, precarious slope of loose rocks. At the bottom of this, a gap between two boulders leads down to a lower passage. It was clearly the way on, as the boulders were polished smooth from the passage of previous cavers. On another day, it was the sort of place you would slide through without a moments thought. But today, the rock above the gap looked precarious. Were the cave spirits playing tricks with our minds? I looked at the rock carefully and it didn't appear to be supported by much, I gave it a kick - it moved! That wasn't good, it was the size of a microwave oven, and if it fell, it would fall directly onto anyone passing beneath. I gave it a few more hefty kicks, it didn't move again, but I still wasn't confident about its stability. However, with care, it was possible to slide through the gap without touching the suspect boulder. So, after making sure that everyone was aware of the situation, that is what we did - all four of us, one after the other. We looked down the pitch and then started heading out. As the first man was going through the gap, I shouted 'Don't knock it down or we'll all be stuck'. Everyone laughed at the joke.
Once we were all safely through, I said I was going to give the rock another kick to find out whether it really was loose. My companions didn't like the idea, they were worried that if it did move, the whole boulder slope might collapse. I didn't think it would, and I was worried that the next party through might not realise that it was unstable and might pull it down on themselves.
I gave the rock a gentle nudge with my foot and it immediately slid off its perch and trundled straight down into the gap that we had all just crawled through. That was not supposed to happen! Thankfully, the rest of the slope held firm.
So, the route to the final pitch in Cherry Tree Hole is currently blocked. It probably won't be a big job for a suitably equipped team to clear it again, but to make it safe it will likely be necessary to stabilise the slope above. In the meantime, if you go down Cherry Tree Hole, be careful, it's not a friendly place.
Our trip to Cherry Tree Hole last night was definitely of the latter kind.
We struggled to find the route, we wasted time backtracking from dead-ends, we nearly gave up before reaching the final pitch. And the boulders, oh the boulders, the cave was full of nasty loose boulders. However, we did eventually reach the final pitch, but the cave very nearly got the better of us in a quite alarming way.
In the final chamber before the pitch there is a steep, precarious slope of loose rocks. At the bottom of this, a gap between two boulders leads down to a lower passage. It was clearly the way on, as the boulders were polished smooth from the passage of previous cavers. On another day, it was the sort of place you would slide through without a moments thought. But today, the rock above the gap looked precarious. Were the cave spirits playing tricks with our minds? I looked at the rock carefully and it didn't appear to be supported by much, I gave it a kick - it moved! That wasn't good, it was the size of a microwave oven, and if it fell, it would fall directly onto anyone passing beneath. I gave it a few more hefty kicks, it didn't move again, but I still wasn't confident about its stability. However, with care, it was possible to slide through the gap without touching the suspect boulder. So, after making sure that everyone was aware of the situation, that is what we did - all four of us, one after the other. We looked down the pitch and then started heading out. As the first man was going through the gap, I shouted 'Don't knock it down or we'll all be stuck'. Everyone laughed at the joke.
Once we were all safely through, I said I was going to give the rock another kick to find out whether it really was loose. My companions didn't like the idea, they were worried that if it did move, the whole boulder slope might collapse. I didn't think it would, and I was worried that the next party through might not realise that it was unstable and might pull it down on themselves.
I gave the rock a gentle nudge with my foot and it immediately slid off its perch and trundled straight down into the gap that we had all just crawled through. That was not supposed to happen! Thankfully, the rest of the slope held firm.
So, the route to the final pitch in Cherry Tree Hole is currently blocked. It probably won't be a big job for a suitably equipped team to clear it again, but to make it safe it will likely be necessary to stabilise the slope above. In the meantime, if you go down Cherry Tree Hole, be careful, it's not a friendly place.
