Guscott pot - three digs

Saturday coming is a big dig day with another attack on the main Guscott choke.

We now have 3 solid walls and the dig is continuing straight down though easy to dig rocks and pebbles. As always with this dig the problem is labour as all spoil has to be taken back up though the choke to the surface which means a minimum of six people. Progress will be rapid this time and Bridge Hall in Goyden 4 will be getting closer with every pebble removed.

The shaft seen developing at the end of the dig in previous posts is now much deeper and will now need a ladder installing to get up and down. I had a look in two weeks ago and as I was poking around with the 5 foot bar it was just disappearing out of sight at every point prodded. The draught in was also much stronger.

All welcome, either pm me or just turn up at the Limley Farm car parking spot at 10am. If anyone is just out caving in Nidderdale swing by and say hello, someone will be on the surface all day. Walk through farm yard to field and then through the metal swing gate in the fence to river bed as if approching New Goyden then turn left upstream to Gusscot Pot.

It promises to be a really good day.

Please park sensibly away from the gate, there is plenty of room just beyond it.

Nick
 

Goydenman

Well-known member
SOLO DIG
I (Chris) went for a solo dig at Guscott pot choke. First thing I did was carry in a three scaffold pole and my ammo can. After I stacked the boulders from the previous digging session on the back wall I took a 'before' photo. I quickly removed the two diagonal poles that were now undermined by the previous dig. The passage on the right had become to low so the ULSA guys had started to dig away at the choke and rift to the left to get a parallel way past the low arch.
I wanted to get in a new vertical pole but the poles were too long so I went out the pot in search for a shorter one. None available so I took three more poles in and swopped one for a slightly shorter one in scaffold roof. This pole went in ok. Now I set about trying to remove a huge boulder (twice as big as first appeared) it moved slightly with a long crowbar lever but could not pull it towards me with a rope. I then set up a pulley system and finally got the thing to move slowly towards me. It was 8 shaped with the bottom circle bigger than the one on the top. A mix of hammering at it to reduce its size and pulley system eventually won the day. I finally hammered it into smaller boulders so it can be removed later. The vertical and horizontal poles gave me an initial frame to add other poles to and finished off building some wall. There is still a bit more to do to make it all safe but the bulk of the work has been done. Before I exited I crawled along the 3m passage to view the dig and ongoing passage at the end then took my 'after' photos. Will see if I can post photos here if I can remember how. It had been a long time since I dug solo and realized I miss it. Trips with the team and solo trips are very different and I love them both.
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
Photobucket have don't allow third party hosting anymore.  :( It caused me (and others) a load of problems. Easiest option if you don't have an alternative photo host site is to attach the photo directly to your post.  See attachments and other options below the post window.  Good thread, Cheers
 

Goydenman

Well-known member
To keep you updated:
The choke dig is progressing really well. It is now 21m below the surface and still heading down and ever so slowly west. We have three planned digs Oct 28th, Nov 4th and Nov 25th by which time we hope to make further good progress. Goyden 4 is approx. 20m away to the west at a depth of about 30m. ULSA have been great support they however cant make these dates and any other would be welcome. PM if interested.

The other two digs have received less attention at present that is a shame because test of Faith passage is getting close to linking with Frog pot......but good news in our sport the opportunity does not go away...we will return
 

alastairgott

Well-known member
Chris, thanks for a fantastic weekend!

Great day in thrope? And Guscott today.

Another good day of progress. We'll see if i can drag myself out of derbyshire again.

Great to meet all who were out at the weekend.
Glad it was a good day today with me, Goydenman, Nick bairstow, Tony (Ulsa & black sheep), Ben (black sheep, soon to be stolen by TSG), Dave Tyson (Wirral caving Group) and Alex Ritchie (black rose and Black sheep)
 

Goydenman

Well-known member
alastairgott said:
Chris, thanks for a fantastic weekend!

Great day in thrope? And Guscott today.

Another good day of progress. We'll see if i can drag myself out of derbyshire again.

Great to meet all who were out at the weekend.
Glad it was a good day today with me, Goydenman, Nick bairstow, Tony (Ulsa & black sheep), Ben (black sheep, soon to be stolen by TSG), Dave Tyson (Wirral caving Group) and Alex Ritchie (black rose and Black sheep)

Thanks Alastair.
I agree good progress made thanks to the magnificent 7.........it is clear now that 7 people is the minimum size of team for this dig. With 7 or more fairly quick progress can be made. Guscott pot is moving ever closer to Bridge Hall in Goyden 3. If TSG are pinching Ben (amazing digger) we expect you to pop up here once every quarter in return ;-)
 

Goydenman

Well-known member
Following the Introduction to Paperless Surveying course some people stayed over and joined forces with the Black Sheep Diggers to push Guscott choke. This dig is heading north-east and towards Bridge Hall/Goyden 3. There were 7 diggers . They managed to keep a steady rate of buckets coming out (31 in all) and opened up a view of a further 3m of passage. Some big boulders were demolished at the end and scaffold put in. It was nice to come out to the sunshine, lovely day, and even better to celebrate their work in the local pub. It is clear that 7 is the minimum size team for this dig now but with that amount of people or more fairly quick progress can be made. Ben made a solo trip at the end of the digging to see test of Faith passage dig and was encouraged to see that with just 1m more of widening work larger open passage would be accessible to a left hand bend. This dig is getting ever closer to Frog pot/Aquamoles Series.
 
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