gaping ghyll main chamber too mud hall ?
- Thread starter todcaver
- Start date
Joe.Bones
Member
Up the large boulder slope (East Slope) that ascends to roof level. This survey should help to avoid confusion: http://cavemaps.org/surveys/bsa/full/BSA%20CC3%20Gaping%20Ghyll.png
You want to go right. If you get to the mud bank you've gone the wrong way. Avoid the taped off area of the boulder slope.
You want to go right. If you get to the mud bank you've gone the wrong way. Avoid the taped off area of the boulder slope.
http://www.braemoor.co.uk/caving/rrg.shtml
The East Slope
At the east end of the Main Chamber, the East Boulder Slope rises some 25 m above the Main Chamber floor level. At the top, an awkward overhanging climb up a rigid ladder (care) leads to Old East Passage.
From here, the passage runs, at much the same level, in an eastward direction as far as Mud Hall; most of it very old, in excess of 300,000 years - as shown by uranium/thorium dating of sections of the latest stalagmite floor deposits.
This is a chamber almost as large as the Main Chamber, and although its floor level is some 20m lower than that of the former, it is completely dry. Its size (the roof is too high to be seen with caving lamps), the absence of daylight and the noise of falling water from high up on the far side, make Mud Hall one of the most foreboding parts of the Gaping Gill system. (note 2)
It is clear that Mud Hall was once almost completely filled with alternating layers of sand and mud, but the points of entry and exit of the vast amounts of water required to fill and then remove these sediments are a mystery, both underground and on the surface.
Dick Glover
The East Slope
At the east end of the Main Chamber, the East Boulder Slope rises some 25 m above the Main Chamber floor level. At the top, an awkward overhanging climb up a rigid ladder (care) leads to Old East Passage.
From here, the passage runs, at much the same level, in an eastward direction as far as Mud Hall; most of it very old, in excess of 300,000 years - as shown by uranium/thorium dating of sections of the latest stalagmite floor deposits.
This is a chamber almost as large as the Main Chamber, and although its floor level is some 20m lower than that of the former, it is completely dry. Its size (the roof is too high to be seen with caving lamps), the absence of daylight and the noise of falling water from high up on the far side, make Mud Hall one of the most foreboding parts of the Gaping Gill system. (note 2)
It is clear that Mud Hall was once almost completely filled with alternating layers of sand and mud, but the points of entry and exit of the vast amounts of water required to fill and then remove these sediments are a mystery, both underground and on the surface.
Dick Glover
David Rose
Active member
Another peculiar feature of Mud Hall is the collection of ancient sculptures, fashioned from clay on a shelf towards the bottom of the chamber - easily reached after the traverse (cow's tail needed) along the wall. Some of these may also be very old, dating back at least to the 1970s. They are also a bit rude 
mrodoc
Well-known member
More a comment than a criticism. It just surprises me that somebody with the necessary skills to get into GB Main Chamber (unless they were winched in) then cannot route find in the cave. When I started caving there were no forums to post to and the guide books were pretty sketchy too.
Clive G
Member
mrodoc said:
I think the Warwick University Caving Club (WUCC) must have used the 1975 edition of Northern Caves, vol. 3 (p.62 in my 1981 edition), when we visited Gaping Gill on my third-ever wild caving trip on Saturday 3rd November 1979!
It was probably this first trip rather than a second camping one in March 1980 when we did the Mud Hall traverse which, from what I recall, was pretty basically (and anciently) rigged with a long sagging loop of frayed rope and looking like it might be about to fail at any moment . . . Entering via Bar Pot, we certainly had no trouble getting this far in the cave and crossing the traverse. It was one of those formative caving experiences, where your heart was definitely in your mouth!
There were three mud figures made on this occasion, with no others in evidence at the time, although precisely where I can't recall. So, the ones David has found and mentioned above may or may not include the same ones, if they have survived the passing years - I'd have to see a picture first. However, from what I recall of the two I wasn't involved with, by passing the images around online you'll probably find the picture is scanned by a software robot out there 'in the ether' and your e-mail address added onto some offenders' list somewhere or other for the anatomical realism!
Clive G
Member
cavermark said:They didn't do proof reading when he started caving eitherbograt said:
You've only got to look at the QWERTY keyboard to see how easy it is for your finger to slip from 'G' to 'B'! However, why spoil an amusing and inadvertent diversion from the north to the south?! I think he's missed the allowed time for editing now, anyway.
