Guscott pot - three digs

[Goydenman]

Having noticed that people like hearing about other people's digs - I know I do I decided to tell you how these digs are progressing...
Guscott pot opened in 2012 is strategically placed between Goyden and the Aquamole Series. The former already linked with Manchester Hole and the latter already linked with New Goyden pot. There are three digs being pushed in Guscott at present. The first is Ralf Inlet which is still heading up valley. A recent extension was found on a solo dig (amazing achievement given its tight nature and very muddy dig) by David Stubley and a planned trip on March 12th aims to push further. By right it is an inlet likely to swing west back from under the hillside to the river bed above and then go vertical to the pot but you never know maybe a connection also to one of the avens in the Labyrinth of Goyden pot below. The second dig is a trip through a tight tube and shale chamber in Test of Faith passage. The dig is in clean washed narrow vadose passage blocked by a large boulder. The view beyond the boulder is of a bedding half full of gravel and sound of water cascading beyond. This dig is less than 30m from the North choke extension in the Aquamole Series. The club aims to push the dig this year and make the connection. The through trip from Guscott to Aquamole Series and then onto New Goyden exiting via Thrope pot will be quite a through trip. Finally going off the entrance chamber of Guscott pot is a choke taking a small stream. This has been intermittently pushed over a few years. A dig not for the faint hearted with no solid walls and so requiring scaffolding to descend the choke. Recently it has broken through to a solid wall on a fault (at approx. 14m depth with Goyden river being at approx. 25m depth) and progress is now easier and faster. Another reason it has progressed faster is that ULSA have helped dig this a couple of times. The water was assumed to go to the inlet between Goyden sumps 5 and 6 but at present is still heading for sump 4 (2m long) separating Bridge Hall from Goyden 5.  So all in all Guscott pot is looking good for a breakthrough this year.

 

[rhychydwr1]

Don't forget to keep a look out for Brian Kerr.  He must be down there somewhere.

 

[Goydenman]

Don't forget to keep a look out for Brian Kerr.  He must be down there somewhere.

Well I wish he would pull his finger out and help us dig.......there again I would freak out!
Reminds me once when I was solo digging in low passage off Mud Hall I heard a noise behind me. I turned to see two red eyes and breathing. I nearly died...what's this the beast of Goyden...just then more noise and then light to reveal a dog! The dog often caves with this guy and has a habit of going ahead in the dark.

Back on subject...trying to add photos for this thread.......struggling

 

[nobrotson]

all of us from ULSA have really enjoyed collaborating on this dig, we've had a lot of new members joining recently so have been a bit pre-occupied with that side of things but once it settles down again then we'll be back for more

 

[Goydenman]

Kevin Francis in Guscott main passage

Chris Fox at the end of Ralf Inlet before the lit tunnel behind was dug through to further short extension

Ben Jerry Cowans coming out of the dig leading towards a link with North Choke of the Aquamole Series

 

[Pegasus]

Thanks so much for posting   

 

[alastairgott]

Finally going off the entrance chamber of Guscott pot is a choke taking a small stream. This has been intermittently pushed over a few years. A dig not for the faint hearted with no solid walls and so requiring scaffolding to descend the choke. Recently it has broken through to a solid wall on a fault (at approx. 14m depth with Goyden river being at approx. 25m depth) and progress is now easier and faster. Another reason it has progressed faster is that ULSA have helped dig this a couple of times.

Personally I like this one!

I hope you're getting consistent numbers to enable pushing.

 

[MarkS]

Thanks for posting, it all sounds promising. Is this the preamble to regular updates on UKcaving? I'm hoping so!

 

[alastairgott]

I hope so too! Can't get much colder than 2 weeks ago!

 

[Goydenman]

Personally I like this one!

I hope you're getting consistent numbers to enable pushing.

Always welcome and thanks for the your valuable input - we were impressed.

 

[Kevlar]

The BSD do also have a facebook page which is quickly updated after every dig session.

Feel free to like it to get updates and see the recent history of the digs...

https://www.facebook.com/Black-Sheep-Diggers-381281961884165/

 

[Goydenman]

SURVEY A SURPRISE RESULT
We have just surveyed the choke dig at Guscott. It showed that we have not moved a short way south as expected but back on itself and now slightly north of the entrance. We would have written off the result suspecting errors from all the scaffolding around except for the way it lines up perfectly with the fault above. At the dig face we are facing the faulted wall, perpendicular to it, as it hades away from us at about 45 deg. This lines up with the 45 deg hading fault of the entrance passage and chamber above. This is excellent news as it keeps the dig up valley and still east of Goyden 5. The data also shows it to be at 17m deep (bit deeper than we thought) and Goyden 5 is about 25-27m deep. Although its getting to be a quite a depth to remove rocks all the way out it is worth it as could give us access to Goyden 5 and Bridge Hall - so well worth it. We do though need help hint hint ULSA team and anyone else who fancies partnering with us on this project.

 

[richardg]

Goyden man.... Do you have a regular weekly digging day or night ?

...... whereby any individual or team who feel inspired through  reading your posts, may have that time available and  could therefore think about contacting you...
Richard.

 

[Goydenman]

Goyden man.... Do you have a regular weekly digging day or night ?

...... whereby any individual or team who feel inspired through  reading your posts, may have that time available and  could therefore think about contacting you...
Richard.

We typically have a Thursday team and also a Saturday team - I say team in each case 2-3 people. People can contact me by PM on this site. There is a plan to dig on Sunday March 12th 2pm onwards (probably for about 3-4 hours and also Saturday March 18th 10am onwards for probably about 5-6 hours. People welcome to just turn up.

 

[Goydenman]

GUSCOTT POT - STREAM CHOKE DIG
Report from Ralf Guscott
18th March 2017 Jason Martin and Ralf met up to dig Guscott choke.
First we took the 10 foot piece of scaffolding and the farmer's son kindly cut it into 3 pieces
Ralf put scaffolding in until we ran out of swivel clips then Martin dug whilst Ralf went to the mine to collect more swivels.
Martin was passing out boulder after boulder.
Ralf went back in and put more scaffolding in .
Jason then dug. Stacking many boulders under the black boulders already there.
Jason made 4 to 5 foot depth and could clearly hear a stream below.
Ralf went in and decided we have hit a floor.
More scaffolding is now required and 3 boulders to smash up.
One large boulder fell out the wall further up the shaft that was too heavy to shift out. This is now perched on scaffolding above the dig.
Very good progress.
Even though Nidderdale was very wet and some flooding in some caves Guscott pot was very dry. No stream falling down the shaft and not much dripping in the usual places.

We are hoping for the start of horizontal passage now going south and north. South taking the stream to the airbell between Goyden sump 5 and 6. Divers noticed an inlet here. It's not been confirmed yet by dye testing. Also hoping for this horiziontal passage to go west/north to Goyden 5 and give us access to the impressive Bridge Hall. Between Goyden sump 6 and 7 five metres higher than the stream is an old choked phreatic way that we hope goes all the way between Frog pot and New Goyden pot. This dig in Guscott we hope is soon to intersect that level.

To see the video of the dig area go to
https://www.facebook.com/Black-Sheep-Diggers-381281961884165/?ref=hl

 

[Goydenman]

GUSCOTT POT - STREAM CHOKE DIG
Report from Chris Fox
30th March 2017

The place was really wet with water running/trickling from lots of places. It was too wet to use our devices to bust the big boulders. Nick and Chris set about digging out the width of the dig at bit more to install more scaffolding and make for easier digging. There was a lot of slumping that made for hard work and interesting moments! Eventually we got sufficient scaffold in place to start building walls behind the scaffold. This nicely got rid of rocks without having to take them all the way out and stopped the slumping. To finish off we pulled some rocks away from the bottom of the dig including a big block to see into a small void. Here the stream flowed briefly level before sinking vertically. To the right of that removing other rocks rewarded us with a view of over a meter down along the faulted wall. What seemed like a solid floor was in fact not the case and the dig carries on straight down. This is not what we expected to find. Our assumption was to hit a horizontal level taking the water south to between Goyden sump 5&6. Instead it has been going a little bit north and now straight down. It still could turn south but would have to do that soon as running out of height - we have got quite deep now! We would prefer it carries on going down as that places us close to Goyden 5. The dig is easy going and hopefully we get a good turn out of helpers on April 8th for a big push - all welcome.

 

[Alex]

Will be on my way to digging under the hills of Spain that weekend. It's a pity the only trip I was able to come on in the last 3 months and the cave was underwater.

 

[Goydenman]

We are digging against this fault wall where there is nice half tube. Stream sinking by the diggers feet.

 

[Goydenman]

Good progress made in Guscott pot - passage heading towards North choke in Frog pot. About 4m of passage was widened to get to a large square boulder. So far only super thinnies have managed to slither along the wet passage to get to this boulder with report they could see partially blocked passage beyond and sound of cascades. After widening the passage this weekend an easy way was made to the boulder and they could see open passage beyond. It looked about 5m long but steamy conditions meant it was not possible to see the detail at the far end. It was clear that the passage was flat out but not desperate and then the floor dropped away meaning the passage gets bigger. The next session will be interesting as we will at least bring the link to Frog pot at least 5m closer if not more.

 

[Goydenman]

GUSCOTT POT ARCH ENLARGED AND VIEW OF PASSAGE BEYOND..
Nick and Chris restarted the digging efforts (there had been no digging since end of June) by working on the link to Frog pot from the Guscott pot end. They made their way with the gear along Test of Faith passage and although they were not looking forward to the awkward squirm it did not seem as horrid as usual. Having said that the pool in the first section of passage was higher than usual probably because the exit had become blocked with mud.
At the dig face Chris straight away got to work on enlarging the arch while Nick ferried buckets of rock back to Shale chamber. The wall and space behind in Shale chamber is now almost to the roof. There will be need to stack stones elsewhere soon which is no problem as there is a couple of options.
Eventually the arch was easy to crawl under and to a small enlargement of the passage however a couple of flakes of rock pushed Chris over to one side and all he could see was a too small narrow vadose clean washed passage ahead. Disappointed with this he determined to then strain over to the left and pushing this helmet ahead check if this was the end of digging activities. Fortunately he was rewarded with a view along 1.5m of passage that was too narrow but that then enlarged and joined a larger passage beyond. The dig continues....
Next time the arch needs further enlargement so we they can then attack the 1.m trench and head towards the open passage beyond. They also plan to survey both ends and find out the distance and depth between the two caves.
Pleased with their work, and now cold they made their way out for the usual drink at the Crown Lofthouse.