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Rowter Hole Update

(Part 2)

It’s amazing the effect that hot food, a hot drink and the warmth of a bothy can achieve. Mark and I opted for a two-person strategy in the sump, one of us manning the pump and filling trays, and the other dragging mud and gravel out of what we assumed was the way on (although our evidence for this was limited). At this point the pump was dealing with some seriously viscous gloop and the team above were having to manually assist their pump to start by spinning the cooling fans. Desperation levels increased with still no sign of a breakthrough, resulting in Mark R fully stretched into the presumed way on with only his head visible. “Grab my arm and pull me back out” was his suggestion at what felt like peak desperation as we resorted to using him as a human plunger. I did as requested, and another wave of slop came our way. Mark reckoned he might be able to feel a rise in the roof. This tactic seemed vaguely effective, so we tried again, and this time it was followed by a surprising gurgle. Interesting.

Time to start the pump again. We did so and were rapidly treated to a long series of loud gurgles and glugs. The sump was breaking! Excitement levels were high, but peering along the too-tight, slop-filled and very low passage rapidly tempered our positivity. Thankfully time was on our side, so another hour or so could be spent scooping, hauling and pumping, before Mark disappeared in head-first and helmet off to report an upward slope on the far side, unfortunately looking impassable. We swapped at this point and I took a look through, faced with a 30 degree upward gravel slope looking ominously like it could slump towards me. If it happened it would rapidly make the lowest point of the sump (that my legs were in) too tight to return through. I requested a drag tray and with some significant kicking from the far side, I just about squeezed it in next to me before scraping the gravel bank into it and forcing it back through the flat -passage. Mark manned the pump behind me and continued to send trays of slurry up to the pool. 8 trays or so later, I reckoned I could just about squeeze my way up, and Mark assured me that any slump would be able to be cleared out by those behind. Fingers crossed! I thrutched my way 4 or 5 metres up the tube, dragging pipe with me that we’d agreed in advance had to be our first priority (being able to have a pipe outlet just above sump level would be a vastly easier problem to solve than our existing setup where water needed to be pumped about 20m vertically and ~150 metres horizontally to the watershed in the Ice Cream Trail. Above me the passage enlarged to crawling height, still ascending, before again lowering to an incredibly strenuous fla- out struggle between a mud/gravel floor and the roof, not helped by my reluctance to pull spoil down towards the slope and constriction below. This slope was a very soft waterlogged sand and silt mixture with the strange property of forming large blisters of wobbly material that would shed itself down the slope. Finally I was through, exhausted but still dragging the pipe towards what I could now see was an Ice Cream Trail-like rift continuation ahead, about a metre wide and 3 m high. Looking at the floor I was relieved to see I’d reached a watershed, so quickly ensured the pipe was secure under some loose blocks. I was breathing seriously hard by this point, aware that I had been for some time, and also aware that Mark had questioned the air quality shortly before I left the low point in the sump. Appealing as the onward passage was, a retreat seemed the wise option. It was with no small amount of relief that I was back by the pump describing it to Mark. He opted for a look too, while I went to wash my mud-filled eyes above, and returned from the same point also unsure whether exertion and relatively significant nervous energy or air quality were the cause of our tiredness. Time for another brew.

At this juncture we experienced what we assume may have been a new experience for digging and cave exploration: a video call with all those invested and involved in the project from underground, including one participant at their surface dig in the Dales!

Suitably hydrated and warmed, and with no one else seeming too keen on experiencing what we’d described, Mark and I went through again to see what was beyond. Only 8 m or so further than the pipe we reached an enlargement and a pitch that we clearly weren’t going to be dropping without all the kit for SRT. The rift enlarged to about 2 m wide here, a rubble slope perched 6 m or so ahead of us, and beneath a narrowing below we could see about 8 metres down to a spacious rubble floor below. Whether or not it is significant, we don’t know but there were some small puddles of water visible on the floor. As if to re-emphasise the impossibility of descent, we also established that the right-hand wall peeled off in large flakes. We weren’t going to be dropping this pitch today. Back at the pump we could breathe a real sigh of relief, and ponder our surprise that our seemingly far-fetched plans had actually worked and that we’d passed the sump, even if what lay beyond wasn’t the kilometre of easily accessible, huge passage we’d speculated may lie there.

Out on the surface for 8:30 we knew that the excitement of the day was going to be tempered by the work needed the next morning. Just 4 of us underground and one on the surface were available for the mammoth derig. 9 tackle sacks, 200m+ of cable, one huge tarpaulin, 5 drag trays and some ropes all needed hauling to the surface. At least it felt better than it would have done had we not made it through the day before!

Since finishing we have collectively pondered that the main continuation of the sump may very well lie beyond and below the initial rising gravel bank and that the clean washed rift we ended up in at the top of the rise is simply a roof level bypass. If that was the case, we could possibly reach the back of the main passage blockage by descending the pitch and returning upstream- if we did this and were faced with the back side of a blockage it is entirely possible the sump could be made free draining. But that’s a lot of ifs.

So, what next? It’s a good question. There can’t be many (or even any) locations in the UK with a known undescended pitch…so watch this space!
 
Brilliant work all of you. :beer:

Really impressed you had the future outlet pipe to hand on your first push through, very good forethought (y) Any idea what direction this is heading? I guess south?

Also impressed (or disappointed?) you didn't drop the pitch the sunday morning before derigging.
 
Brilliant work all of you. :beer:

Really impressed you had the future outlet pipe to hand on your first push through, very good forethought (y) Any idea what direction this is heading? I guess south?

Also impressed (or disappointed?) you didn't drop the pitch the sunday morning before derigging.
We felt the same about the pitch, but it ended up taking four of us until 5 on Sunday to tidy up and derig. The collective travel time home for three of them was about 9 hours! Sounds awful, but direction wise I'm not sure if we are heading south, or west but I think more south. We didn't take survey gear with us, had we done we definitely wouldn't have got through :)
 
Any idea what direction this is heading? I guess south?
The similarity of the rift we were in to the passage of the Ice Cream Trail makes me think we're still on the vein, so my guess would be west. How come you guess south?
 
The similarity of the rift we were in to the passage of the Ice Cream Trail makes me think we're still on the vein, so my guess would be west. How come you guess south?
Ah yes, good thinking. If rifty like Ice Cream Trail i'm sure you're right with west. Funny then how the last bit of cave you found is directly above you and also heading west!

My main thought with south was that we know the water from Rowter Hole Sump flows to Main Rising (and NOT Whirlpool Rising!) and that is directly south of where you are.

But of course there's still the elephant in the room of how the hell the water gets to Russet Well before it arrives at Main Rising...!!! Please answer this :)
 
After our summer holidays at the main Rowter Hole Sump, Mark R and I were back on the Origin trail now our memories had blurred sufficiently that it once again seemed a good idea. Mark sent a message around the nearly 20-strong Sump Pumping WhatsApp group asking who was keen. Not only were there no positive replies, but no replies at all. A solid indication of the general enthusiasm levels.

Neither of us had much recollection of how we'd left the final choke, but we knew stability and space were lacking, so we opted for a scaff pole, drill, and various means of rock-breaking to give us the best chance of passing the blockage. That, along with wetsuits to change into, food, stove, kettle, hacksaw etc. meant we had 2 bags each to Churry Hall, and just 1 each (plus the scaffold pole and a foam mat to make the end more "comfortable" for digging) for the trip to the end.

Fully neoprened, we ascended the (wet!) climb and were happy to see plenty of airspace in Peak Bleak. Amazingly, there seemed to have been little in the way of people passing through here in our absence and we found Insomnia quite full of gravel. Mark R wallowed in the tube for about 15 minutes clearing it and we thrutched our way through, past Jabba's Place, Unobtanium and through the pretty horrible passage that is Badgers' Remorse: an awkward flat-out crawl that is made many times worse with a bag (let alone a scaffold pole - thanks to Mark for bearing that particular burden!).

At the haven that is the small cross-rift we used as our brew stop previously, we sorted some kit and mused that the 45 minute trip there from Churry Hall doesn't sound very impressive when you consider it's not much more than 100 m away, even taking into account 15 minutes of that was clearing Insomnia! I popped forward to see how we'd left it, and realised I had completely forgotten the large block we'd left in the way last time, so job 1 was breaking this into smaller bits before assessing what was behind. Here, Mark's capping innovation showed its convenience: several caps popped through a slit in a drinking straw that could be pushed straight to the back of the hole, and the straw removed with the caps temporarily held in place by a plastic rod. No glove removal required, and rapid set-up, even in an upward sloping hole. Super stuff. We were also aided by the mega draught we had; Mark's estimate was approx. 1 m/s.

Next was an assessment of the rest of the blocks. The main obstacle ahead looked big, but stable, with tantalising gaps beneath and around it. I gave it a nudge with the bar to verify its stability, at which point it promptly dropped about 15 cm or so, blocking the gaps and giving me a scare. Not somewhere to be too bold. Looking around I really wasn't sure what to do, so opted to swap. Mark's turn. He wisely opted for more rock destruction, and while he merrily destroyed the block (or as merrily as he could be whilst lying flat out in a stream with another inlet cascading over his legs) I repeatedly undertook the flat-out wet crawl backwards to the cross-rift with our digging spoil. Not an activity my knees, elbows, ribs, back and shoulders are currently thanking me for.

Destruction complete, we paused for lunch. Soup, curry and pitta breads in the bothy warmed us up wonderfully, fuelling us for the next stint. My turn once again and just as before the way on looked tantalisingly open. This time the large block on the right looked like the prime one to remove. It wasn't supporting much, so I opted to cleave off its left-hand side. After two holes the block surprisingly (and very frustratingly) cleaved in half horizontally, rendering the whole thing horribly unstable. No choice but to keep destroying it - first me, then Mark. I was slightly envious of his utilisation of the capping mat to keep the inlet from pouring directly over his legs. Small comforts. After what felt like a long time dragging rocks around I finally heard Mark call me forwards to let me know it looked passable.

We popped through and were pleased to find ourselves in larger passage. Actual walking height passage! This continued for a short while, still with the super draught, before a run-in from the right of largely crystalline calcite blocks almost blocked the way on. A bit of rock removal let us continue, now in crawling height passage on a sediment floor, before we reached another blockage. A small enlargement to the right showed some promise, but the strong draught was blasting through from straight ahead. We were pretty knackered by this point having not had much of a break for about 6 hours, were seriously short on arm strength, and getting increasingly frustrated by the solid mud we were having to shift to make any progress. Now utterly filthy from head to toe, we finally enlarged the hole ahead to have a go at passing through. I went in feet first, and initially was entirely through apart from my shoulders. Retreat, enlarge, try again. Finally through!

Ahead it was low, but not just a straightforward continuation. Ducking under an inlet I was initially delighted to see water heading away from me - had we crossed a watershed? Would we be following a new stream somewhere else? My hopes were rapidly dashed as I saw the water disappear into an inch-wide crack, and the draught was entirely absent. Trying the other route, it was clear the draught was coming from the upstream continuation. By now I was fairly exhausted. The way on looked initially too small (surprise, surprise), and we had no kit with us to enlarge it. It was also nearly 5 pm and I needed to be up early for work the next day. I was ready to turn back, and Mark didn’t seem super keen on coming through the last squeeze.

On our way back to the Tenderiser Mark spotted a small piece of timber in the run-in we had passed, so clearly we were back near mining territory. Adding to this, whilst looking in a short dead-end section nearby, Mark spotted some scratch marks in a mud bank, suggesting that at some point someone had been to that bit of passage before, presumably accessed from the mine above. Intriguing.

I made my way back to the cross-rift, leaving Mark with the unenviable task of packing the drill in the drybag whilst lying flat out in water. The trip out was tiring but thankfully uneventful and we were out shortly after 7. In all we estimate we entered about 50 m of new passage, roughly still following the line of the vein.
 
On 24th November, Mark S and I went for a digging trip to push the extensions beyond The Tenderiser choke that we passed on our previous trip. Unfortunately, the British weather had different plans and when we arrived at the bottom of the entrance shaft we were greeted with a whitewater river pouring out of Hypothermia, running across the entire entrance chamber floor and cascading down the short climb that leads to Gin Shaft. I’ve been down Rowter hole a few hundred times now and never seen it like that before! Clearly our plans for a pushing trip beyond Insomnia were now in question.

We made our way to Churry Hall, getting soaked in the process and after some deliberation decided not to even give the wet crawls a go, instead we settled in for a day working on the very large upwards choke in Churry Hall. We had a dozen or more scaffold poles down there and plenty of clips and pins so we set to. It was nice not to have to do too much crawling for the day, but what we saved in bodily fatigue we traded in mental fatigue. Digging upwards into boulder chokes is never a nice thing to do, but the scale of this choke did make it feel like a particularly fraught enterprise. During the day we quite quickly used up all of our scaffolding and it feels like we barely have any in at all, this is going to be a hungry dig! It didn’t help that our crowbar and lump hammer were both at the Tenderiser so we improvised a capping slide hammer using a scaffold screw jack leg which was surprisingly effective. We made a little progress upwards but the day was mainly about stabilising what was already there. Interestingly, we did verify with 100% certainty early on in the day, when I went for a quick toilet break, that it draughts upwards through the choke!

Fast forward to 14th December and we were back, this time with weather on our side and we made good time to Churry Hall where we changed into wetsuits (this time with a pisette installed- total game changer in a neck entry wetsuit!) and started the slow struggle back through Layflat, Peak Bleak, Insomnia, Jabba’s Place, Unobtainium, Badgers Remorse, The Tenderiser and into the new section which we have now called Wind in the Wallows.

Mark surveyed his way from just before the Tenderiser to the very front while I went ahead with the gear. The obvious way on was very constricted, an incised T-slot passage with a small stream in the floor but there was a small oxbow bypass that allowed a bit of room to manoeuvre. The far side of the oxbow was blocked with a large boulder but beyond that it re-entered the main way and looked big enough to get into. At this point Mark had caught up with the surveying so we capped the boulder and put another couple into the following T- slot and we were in. The ensuing passage was small, with a deep gravel floor and a small stream running through it. We thrutched our way up until it became too tight to pass, at this point we retreated for a brew and to consider tactics. The passage was still draughting well and we decided that by digging out the gravel floor we might be able to make room to squeeze under the calcite flows that were blocking progress.

Our tea stop wasn’t as luxurious as we had imagined, having spent the last few trips brewing up in the cross rift before the Macerator, we were excited to have space for our basecamp. What we hadn’t considered however was that in working in this area we had to crawl back and forth over the mine run-ins which were made of rock and lots of sticky, horrible clayey mud. The mud got absolutely everywhere and stuck to us thickly. It was very fatiguing and made drinking and eating a right pain. We were also subjected to a constant and pretty strong breeze from the upstream continuation. Luxurious it was not.

We returned to the front and Mark managed to scrape enough gravel out of the floor to pass the first obstruction with helmet off, immediately following that there was a second which was passed in the same way then a further tight vertical slot full of water. At this point he was 10m or so ahead of me and just out of sight around a corner. Evidently we were both thinking the same thing- if he was unable to reverse this section, there was bugger all I could do for him being barely able not move and unable to even get two hands up to my head to re- fasten my helmet chin strap. Ahead of Mark was another too tight constriction followed by a corner so he decided at this point, wisely that coming back was the best course of action. This was a remote place and it was a committing push to get to where we did. The reverse thrutch looked hard work and while he battled with his belt riding up and preventing backwards progress I guided his feet left a bit.. left a bit.. We had very obviously reached our end and any thought of capping to enlarge the way on was totally out of the question.

We spent the next hour or two finishing the survey off and having a good poke at the two uphill mine run-ins but they were both quite unpleasant digging and frustratingly we never knew if there was space just above the next clod of mud, or whether we were digging upwards through a 10m column of spoil. Eventually we called it a day and started the journey back out, having much heavier bags thanks to us recovering lump hammer, crowbar and hoe, on top of the drill, capping gear and brew kit.. and all the mud of course.

We exited the cave after about 10 hours, tired but feeling fairly satisfied that we had, at least for now concluded this chapter in the exploration of the Origin Extensions. We want to go and take a look at the surface features in the vicinity of Wind in the Wallows, clearly there is both natural and mine development between ~70m and the surface and it warrants a closer look, subject to obtaining suitable permissions of course.


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Mark S in a big bit of the T-slot continuation.
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Wallowing
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A pretty awful picture looking down into the oxbow
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Brew stop
 
Mark S came down to my house on Saturday so we could get to the Derbyshire Explorer's Forum together and do our talk on all of the above... and more, going back 15 years or so. It was a superb event, well organised and well attended. On Sunday morning we were heading back to the farm for a trip to the Split infinitive, the lowest part of cave beneath the Party Sausage. We left this last time just beyond a narrow slot that only Mark made it into with a lot of water disappearing back underneath a tight undercut.

We had left Meander oversuits in there previously but still somehow had three bags to take in between us, owing mainly to a load of rigging and bolting gear we intended to re- rig the pitches with, in a slightly more permanent way than the sparingly placed 6mm concrete screws it currently sported. On the way through Decisions Decisions, we stopped to take a look at the sump. Pleasingly the main water pipe was discharging nicely underwater, somewhere near the base of the sump and in doing so was turning the sump into a bubbling cauldron- something we thought was probably no bad thing. Unfortunately our diversion pipe through the sump appears to be blocked- hopefully a temporary condition that we can rectify.. we’re in trouble if not!

We plodded through the Ice Cream Trail without drama and kitted up at the Party Sausage- gagging somewhat on the bacterial stench from inside my damp oversuit that has spent the best part of a year hung up there! It took a while to get ourselves to the bottom of the Split Infinitive, rigging and bolting as we went and re-arranging various plastic sheets to help deflect the worst of the water. It was a fairly dry day but the pitches were still very wet- as usual. We wore undersuits, AV oversuits and then Meander PVC suits over the top and were still soaked to the skin and cold.

We reached the bottom after much faffing, we were not only rigging but trying to take some photos as we went. Mark slithered back through the tiny slot and I stuck a couple of caps in it before following him on account of me being slightly larger and him telling me it gave him an immense wedgie. Despite my caps I still had to shout for help in un- wedging myself half way down. We found ourselves in a small rift, perhaps 3.5m high, a metre wide at its widest and about 4 or 5m long. Turning around to face the slot we had come down through the ‘way on’ was behind the falling water. We had brought a piece of plastic sheeting with us and made a makeshift poncho under which we were able to sort of get a look at the hole the water went into. After some digging- smashing rocks with other rocks- we managed to get a look. Unfortunately the water falls into a tiny pool beneath an undercut and that’s it! Probably best (generously) described as a probable micro-sump in a tight low rift in a highly inaccessible place, it marks the end of that particular lead.

We had a brew in the draughtless rift and headed out again, taking some spare rope and other bits of gear with us. We still have to return at some point to totally conclude the bottom of the parallel shaft- Haven Aven and to tidy up all our stuff left lying around, but we aren’t optimistic that trip will yield any new cave for us. The way out was great training, us having two bags each through the Ice Cream Trail and we emerged to the surface about 20:00 after about 10 ½ tiring hours underground.

It’s a shame that didn’t go- it was a good candidate for a Peak connection but a little part of me is relieved that we can finally put it to bed! Next trip is likely to be either a sump plumbing trip, or possibly Churry Hall Choke.
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Party Sausage looking down Fasten Your Seatbelts
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At the bottom of Seatbelts about to enter the Badger's Urinal
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Drilling a hole
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To Boldly Go
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The top part of The Split Infinitive
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Lower part of The Split Infinitive
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Just a tiny sample of some of the most incredible fossils I've ever seen in a cave.
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The precarious rubble funnel into descending tube at the base of The Split Infinitive
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Enlarging the Wedgie Slot
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Essential brew in the draughtless rift
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Microsump? or puddle?
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Looking
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The end
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Returning through a blasted bit of bedding
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Ascending the Split
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as above
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Back up To Boldly Go
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The rope to rope transfer heading back into the Icecream Trail
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and finally, ascending Two left Wellies- nearly home.
 
If any divers fancy a go at that sump, fill your boots. But your boots might fill it.

I think a sporting trip to the 3 sumps in Rowter (Rowter Hole Sump, The Last Mohican and this one) would be a super day out.
 
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If any divers fancy a go at that sump, fill your boots. But your boots might fill it.

I think a sporting trip to the 3 sumps in Rowter (Rowter Hole Sump, The Last Mohican and this one) would be a super day out.
In writing this, and also in recognition that I did indeed fill my boots when there, Mark has just named the cave beyond the bottom of the Split Infinitive and the microsump- 'Fill Your Boots'
 
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