What with holidays, the forum transition, digging and work it has been weeks since my last post. Are we nearing the end of the F’ing Hopeless saga?
You will recall that we had made some pretty amazing progress through the dangerous and lengthy terminal choke. Beyond the final calcite blockage we could see the wall bending round ahead. I slid through the enlarged hole and over the pristine white formation. There was no way to avoid it. The team soon followed and we all waited on the other side to regroup.
It was walking size ahead – yippee! The stream flowed on the floor, the left wall remained solid and the far side of the choke formed the right hand side for the first 25m. A pretty big choke but we were through it. We came to the top of a steep ramp, partly old flowstone and partly a mud slope. Here the passage was big and we immediately thought of Duke Street in Ireby Fell Caverns which was similar in shape and scale. At the bottom of the slope things soon changed as the wall came down towards the floor in great big scoops of phreatic pockets. Against the left hand wall our stream emerged from the choke, cascaded down big cobbles and flowed into a crawl, quickly becoming flat out beneath a bedding roof and cobbled floor. It would need digging to progress more than a few metres.
On the right hand side there was a large ‘pocket’ alcove with a small choked hole down to where a stream could be heard. This was a new stream for sure. Between these two streams was the centre of the passage practically choked to the roof with dry sandy mud. It didn’t take long to dig through to a continuation where an astonishing wide flat roof was exposed above dry mud banks. It felt significant. It soon led to the other stream we had heard. This emerged from the cobble choke, ran for 20m or so before cutting down to a lower bedding in the floor which very soon became too low as well. So basically we had two streams on either side of a large passage maybe 25m between them and we couldn’t progress down neither!
The third person comes through the final obstacle of the choke
It get pretty big for a while
The stream disappears into a crawl under the left hand wall.
A quick dig in the middle of the passage reveals the way on
Into passage with an amazing roof
A new stream is met but goes too low again
Over the next few months we pushed the left hand stream for some 25m, all of it flat out in the water, until digging became too wet and miserable. The right hand stream went really, really low after just a few metres but through a narrow cleft in the roof an enlargement could be seen some 5m in front. Digging here is going to take some effort but the survey shows there is still some depth to drop to base level. When we’ve had people in both ends they have been able to talk easily to each other so clearly the two streams are going to converge. We seriously hope the passage will then get bigger – taller at least. Our story is now up to date and this is our last reaming lead.
Yours truly tries a selfie at the sharp end
Elsewhere we still have a few odds and ends to survey but the length so far is around the 1km mark. There are a few photographic and conservation tasks to complete and we are waiting for approval to install resin anchors on the pitches. When this is all complete the cave can be added to the booking system along with a topo for all to enjoy. I’ll keep you posted on developments.
Franklin is writing up the story for future issues of Descent – will eight extra pages be enough we ask? We’ll see – enjoy.
Nick's rather fine group shot near the current end
You will recall that we had made some pretty amazing progress through the dangerous and lengthy terminal choke. Beyond the final calcite blockage we could see the wall bending round ahead. I slid through the enlarged hole and over the pristine white formation. There was no way to avoid it. The team soon followed and we all waited on the other side to regroup.
It was walking size ahead – yippee! The stream flowed on the floor, the left wall remained solid and the far side of the choke formed the right hand side for the first 25m. A pretty big choke but we were through it. We came to the top of a steep ramp, partly old flowstone and partly a mud slope. Here the passage was big and we immediately thought of Duke Street in Ireby Fell Caverns which was similar in shape and scale. At the bottom of the slope things soon changed as the wall came down towards the floor in great big scoops of phreatic pockets. Against the left hand wall our stream emerged from the choke, cascaded down big cobbles and flowed into a crawl, quickly becoming flat out beneath a bedding roof and cobbled floor. It would need digging to progress more than a few metres.
On the right hand side there was a large ‘pocket’ alcove with a small choked hole down to where a stream could be heard. This was a new stream for sure. Between these two streams was the centre of the passage practically choked to the roof with dry sandy mud. It didn’t take long to dig through to a continuation where an astonishing wide flat roof was exposed above dry mud banks. It felt significant. It soon led to the other stream we had heard. This emerged from the cobble choke, ran for 20m or so before cutting down to a lower bedding in the floor which very soon became too low as well. So basically we had two streams on either side of a large passage maybe 25m between them and we couldn’t progress down neither!
The third person comes through the final obstacle of the choke
It get pretty big for a while
The stream disappears into a crawl under the left hand wall.
A quick dig in the middle of the passage reveals the way on
Into passage with an amazing roof
A new stream is met but goes too low again
Over the next few months we pushed the left hand stream for some 25m, all of it flat out in the water, until digging became too wet and miserable. The right hand stream went really, really low after just a few metres but through a narrow cleft in the roof an enlargement could be seen some 5m in front. Digging here is going to take some effort but the survey shows there is still some depth to drop to base level. When we’ve had people in both ends they have been able to talk easily to each other so clearly the two streams are going to converge. We seriously hope the passage will then get bigger – taller at least. Our story is now up to date and this is our last reaming lead.
Yours truly tries a selfie at the sharp end
Elsewhere we still have a few odds and ends to survey but the length so far is around the 1km mark. There are a few photographic and conservation tasks to complete and we are waiting for approval to install resin anchors on the pitches. When this is all complete the cave can be added to the booking system along with a topo for all to enjoy. I’ll keep you posted on developments.
Franklin is writing up the story for future issues of Descent – will eight extra pages be enough we ask? We’ll see – enjoy.
Nick's rather fine group shot near the current end