Help required about GB

[Oceanrower]

I thought I knew GB reasonably well but yesterday I had pointed out to me something I hadn't seen before.

Immediately on entering into the main chamber rift from the short way in (not Devils Elbow) there are 4 rungs of an Electron ladder hanging from the centre of the roof.

There appears to be a hole to the left (facing down stream) but I cannot even imagine how  the bolter got up there to put the placement in!

Does this hole go anywhere? Can't see anything on the survey. is it worth trying to get up there for a nose around?

 

[graham]

Whitsun Folly.

Will give fuller account when back from the bank.

 

[Oceanrower]

thanks. just googled Whitsun Folly and found a previous thread.

 

[Sid]

Was it here? This photo was in an album handed into Wells Museum last year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mendipcaveregistryarchive/5767344761/#in/set-72157626824188816

 

[Oceanrower]

Looks very like it . The ladder is considerably shorter now.....

 

[whitelackington]

Whitsun Folly.

Will give fuller account when back from the bank.

Are you robbing it?

 

[Peter Burgess]

Dogger Bank?

 

[Addy]

Dogger Bank?

...is that some kind of rhyming slang?    ... I'll get my coat...

 

[axbridgecaver]

Was it here? This photo was in an album handed into Wells Museum last year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mendipcaveregistryarchive/5767344761/#in/set-72157626824188816

I was wondering if this photograph was a ladder hanging down from the Ooze which enters the Gorge high up on the left hand side just below Whitsun Folly.

The Ooze was blocked by the 1968 floods and I have always wanted to confirm this. Anyone here crawled along the Ooze which is entered by walking along the passage with the fixed ladder that leads to the Devil's Elbow route and it is described as a wet and miserable passage.

 

[graham]

Was it here? This photo was in an album handed into Wells Museum last year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mendipcaveregistryarchive/5767344761/#in/set-72157626824188816

I was wondering if this photograph was a ladder hanging down from the Ooze which enters the Gorge high up on the left hand side just below Whitsun Folly.

The Ooze was blocked by the 1968 floods and I have always wanted to confirm this. Anyone here crawled along the Ooze which is entered by walking along the passage with the fixed ladder that leads to the Devil's Elbow route and it is described as a wet and miserable passage.

I have to say that the ladder looks too long to me to be either that to Whitsun Folly or the Ooze, though the dip of the strata fits the latter better. The Ooze ladder was about 10 m long. Before we took it out, in the 70s, I did go up it and along the Ooze as far as was possible. It was both miserable and blocked. I have also been down from the top end to the blockage and estimate the blockage to be several metres long. Doubtless it has silted up even further since that time. IMHO it is no great loss.

 

[axbridgecaver]

This is a photograph that was saved from a skip many years ago. I shows the ladder hanging down from the Ooze. The ladder has very strange stand-offs to prevent it touching the wall.

Photograph 4 August 1958. J. Ellis on ladder.

 

[whitelackington]

Excellant picture Alan. Does the Ooze come out over a drop?
I have never done it, probably the only bit in G.B. I've not looked at.

 

[Andy Sparrow]

Was it here? This photo was in an album handed into Wells Museum last year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mendipcaveregistryarchive/5767344761/#in/set-72157626824188816

If this pitch is in GB (rather than actually being Lamb leer) there is only one pitch it could be.  That is the c20 metre pitch into the Gorge from the end of the Art Gallery (a high level tube from White Passage).  Few cavers know of the existence of this pitch since it not described in Mendip Underground, but you can see where it enters directly above the overhanging false floors about half way down the Gorge.  There are no useable anchors to rig this pitch but one presumes that at some point in the past it will have been done - and quite possibly photographed.

In The History of Mendip Caving Peter Johnson writes that it was in 1959 that the eastern side of The Gorge was scaled using hand-drilled rawlbolts.  Whitsun Folly was reached and pushed through to emerge high above the entry of Mud Passage.  From here the climbers traversed across the roof - the visible section of ladder (actually an etrier) must relate to this.  They crossed over to the west side and entered 50 feet of passage heading towards the Upper Grotto.

Intriguingly, there is a way of making these high level passages accessible.  The 20 metre pitch from the Art Gallery could be bolted over to gain a ledge on the opposite side of The Gorge, and from here the traverse could be continued to Whitsun Folly, and ultimately into the passage reached by the climbers in 1959.  You could have quite a spectacular underground via ferrata.  Something for future generations perhaps?

 

[graham]

... the c20 metre pitch into the Gorge from the end of the Art Gallery...

About 12.5 m according to the survey data. On the same data, the pitch out of the Ooze is only about 7.5 m. I have to say, as well that the ladder shown in axbridgecaver's photo is not at all like the ladder that I remember taking out way back when.

 

[whitelackington]

Just had an email from Tim Francis

"Oh yes, that was quite fun if we?re talking about the same pitch. It was about 4 years ago? Richard C., Peat and I, maybe Mike?. I?ve just checked the survey at: http://www.ubss.org.uk/resources/proceedings/vol6/UBSS_Proc_6_2_174-185.pdf

and we are talking about the same passage. We descended it so that we could swing in to the bottom of the Ooze. We did it on ladders using some sketchy naturals. I seem to recall there was barely anything to rig off at all. A stal stump and something little more than a smear in the roof. Totally pointless but great fun though and definitely recommended. There is no way you could SRT it safely but abbing would be fine. I crawled up the Ooze for a bit until it was sumped off. The air wasn?t very good either.



I?m not on UK caving forum but you can post for me if you want." 



Tim

 

[axbridgecaver]

Excellent picture Alan. Does the Ooze come out over a drop?
I have never done it, probably the only bit in G.B. I've not looked at.

Hi Mick

Never been able to spot the Ooze passage in the gorge will have a look when I go down next as my light is now more powerful. Like you the only area in G.B that I have not explored apart from the high level bits that Andy discusses.

 

[Andy Sparrow]

Excellent picture Alan. Does the Ooze come out over a drop?
I have never done it, probably the only bit in G.B. I've not looked at.

Hi Mick

Never been able to spot the Ooze passage in the gorge will have a look when I go down next as my light is now more powerful. Like you the only area in G.B that I have not explored apart from the high level bits that Andy discusses.

There's more fun and games to be had accessing East Passage.  This is the other obvious tube to the right of the Art Gallery, about 8 metres up a blank wall.  You can anchor a rope from the Art Gallery and abseil/self-line/traverse into this passage.  It doesn't go far and there's not much to see but the 'getting there' is entertaining.

 

[graham]

... but the 'getting there' is entertaining.

Getting out is even easier ....'Thud'.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Lucky that the ground will break your fall, then.

 

[whitelackington]

Is this East Passage a through passage that also comes out as a high window into the Gorge /Main Chamber?