Rowter Hole Update
- Thread starter Mark R
- Start date
MarkS
Moderator
To reduce the silt levels in the sump before we attack it again we have the stream piped right to the base of it (we attached the end of a pipe there when it was drained). It's drawing some air down with it, causing the bubbles.
wellyjen
Well-known member
Sparkling water. Rowter Spa. Coming to a supermarket near you soon. Prusikking out with cases of full bottles is going to be hard work.
Hi all
It is an exciting weekend for the Buttered Badgers and the Rowter sump pumping extravaganza.
They are fully on with pumping the sump out and hoping to explore beyond. There are pipes, wires, ropes and cavers all over the place so they are respectfully asking if other cavers can keep away from the cave this weekend.
Interestingly they have comms set up direct from the sump. They have just Whatsapp'd the group on video to show us the pumps are starting to work and they are having chilli for lunch. Best of luck and see you tomorrow.
Mark and Mark will be keeping the forum up to date on any progress. Fingers crossed.
It is an exciting weekend for the Buttered Badgers and the Rowter sump pumping extravaganza.
They are fully on with pumping the sump out and hoping to explore beyond. There are pipes, wires, ropes and cavers all over the place so they are respectfully asking if other cavers can keep away from the cave this weekend.
Interestingly they have comms set up direct from the sump. They have just Whatsapp'd the group on video to show us the pumps are starting to work and they are having chilli for lunch. Best of luck and see you tomorrow.
Mark and Mark will be keeping the forum up to date on any progress. Fingers crossed.
William_Emmo
Member
What were the water levels like prior to the sump pump due to the drought? Is it fairly constant all year round and never dries out?
MarkS
Moderator
The sump never seems to change level much. Not much water running into it today though
Heatlump
New member
aricooperdavis
Moderator
Very cool technological developments! Could you give some more details of how that's been achieved?
aricooperdavis
Moderator
Ah, I guess that answers my question! One long run?
Mrs Trellis
Well-known member
Please - any progress .....? Towards where......?
MarkS
Moderator
This is a 2-part trip report, written by MarkR. I'm just posting on his behalf.
Last year we spent a long weekend pumping and digging Rowter Hole Sump and after a lot of hard graft, only just managed to get through towards the end of our Saturday trip. We were there long enough to pull a pipe through and get a look down a pitch, you can read all about that last pumping effort here- https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/rowter-hole-update.25803/post-397972.
At the time we were exhausted, it was a massive effort for everyone involved and the thought of going through it all again any time soon was difficult to entertain. At some point over the following months, weeks, days, or maybe even hours however, as the fatigue, bruises and aches subsided the ever-present draw of the undescended pitch took hold, and the inevitable plans were made for a return in the summer of 2025.
Friday
Ben Enticknap, Mark Wright, Mark Sims, Tim Nixon and Myself were all at Rowter farm on Friday 25th with 10 bags, 6 drag trays and 5 extremely heavy coils of cable to take down. We had two generators for the surface (primary and backup). Mark S, Ben and I headed underground, placing power cables and data cables as we went. Tim N and Mark W turned up at about 11:00 with instructions to turn on the generator and send us some power down. The rigging of cables went well and we had it all in place within a couple of hours. Shortly after, contact was made with the surface, allowing us to enjoy 13 meg Wi-Fi down the cave- slower than last year, but still adequate.
This time around we had the major advantage over 2024 in that we had managed to pull a pipe through the sump before we left it. That would do away with the need to pump into a holding pond and then onwards into the Ice cream Trail with a second pump. This removes a big element of complexity and unreliability from the system. We could now divert the main Rowter stream through the sump and inject our pumped water into the same line and send it off beyond. We also learned last time that by Sunday we are all knackered and we had far too much kit to take out. We planned what would be required much more carefully this time, taking only what we would likely need and adding a rescue tripod and electric ActSafe rope winch to the kit for hauling out of the entrance at the end. Last time we also had questions about the air quality so we also took a ventilation fan and 30m of flexible ducting down with us this time too. Having comms with surface was a big element of this project, not only did it keep the whole team feel connected, it was practically and psychologically necessary if we were to spend any time exploring beyond that sump, knowing we were dependent on a continuous supply of generator power to run the pump and air.
We pumped the sump to the bottom on Friday in about 2 ½ hours. We had left a pipe screwed into the bottom of the sump when we left last time, the stream from above was left blasting into this and we were excited to see how well it had kept the liquid mud at bay for us over the last 10 months. We were sorely disappointed. The bottom section of the sump had changed, some large mud banks had been washed away- presumably by the swirling current and bubbling from our ‘bottom blaster’ pipe. Instead of being pushed through the sump it had mostly settled in the bottom, meaning we were in for another hard, disgusting shift of slop digging. Having verified the system worked and comms was working well with the surface, we left at a very civilised time and were out for around 17:00 to recover and prepare ourselves for the big Saturday push.
Saturday
On Saturday the same team was joined by Mike Yaxley, Chris Adams and Tim Allen. We had a 0900 start and all but Mark W and Tim N headed underground. We re- drained the sump again, it having refilled by a metre or two overnight and the slop hauling commenced. Mark S and I were in wetsuits, this time with a Meander over the top, having learned last time that we were otherwise going to destroy our wetsuits. The rest of the team strung out up the muddy sump passage and the drag trays started moving. It was shit. People had to manoeuvre trays of liquid slop up an uneven slope, around coils of hose and wires, over uneven rocks then carry them up a rocky slope and dump them in a holding pool in the main chamber. It was hard work for everyone and a bit demoralising to be re- digging the bottom of the sump once again having toiled away at it so hard last year. Progress was painfully slow and it simply took time to get on top of things. The sump eventually broke, with a long, loud glug-glugging sound but it took a few hours to get it to a point where we were happy to pass. Having that passage in a state where we could safely get through and reliably keep it open was critical because this time around we had a lot of work to do on the far side. The trick was to get a hole dug in the near side of the floor in which to drop the pump in its strainer box, allowing us to drain the water towards us. After a few hours lying in the slop and scraping handful after handful of mud out of the bottom of the sump, we were in a place that Mark S and I were happy to have a go at passing. We paused for some lunch, opting for hot drinks, hot food and bread to recharge us.
With the air blower running into the bottom of the sump and the pump periodically turned on to drain the always filling puddle, Mark and I went through. The initial sandy slope was shallower than we both remembered it, though still quite snug. The muddy slop slope beyond that was just as bad as we remembered it, it is actually quite narrow in one place and the thick ooze you have to lie on to get up it constantly wants to slide down in big globs. We took three tackle bags of gear and two scaffold poles with us, which wasn’t that fun. Once up the other side, we were both frequently checking in on each other for signs of air quality. As last time, we both arrived in the narrow rift passage very out of breath and with hearts pounding, we still can’t be entirely certain that wasn’t fatigue, excitement and a tinge of nervousness but the air was very steamy in there and definitely not 100% normal. Whilst we were through the rest of the team were manning the pump and setting to the bottom of the sump, pulling out as much spoil as they could to enlarge the space we had to get back through. The bigger the space, the longer we would have before water levels rose to make it impassible again. Our fates were very much in everyone’s hands at that point, from the pump operator, through the drag tray team, spoil tipper, comms man and all the way through 200m of cable to the surface where Tim and Mark W were at the other end of the line keeping the generator running and ready to swap to the backup in the event it went down. This really was a big team effort, Mark and I were initially the only ones through, but everyone was well and truly exploring this cave now.
When we got a look at the pitch head last time, the right-hand wall was very shattered, I levered a very large block off it with great ease and it jammed part way down the pitch at a narrowing. The very blurry screenshot below shows the remaining flake of rock with huge crack down the back and our intended solution to stabilise that in place before exploring- a couple of scaffold poles leaning across the passage, pinned in place and braced together.
Thankfully we had the scaffold poles with us and Mark fetched one from the brown porridge floor at the top of the sump for me to use as a lever. 10 minutes or so later and after a lot of sweating and grunting on my part, the boulder finally let go and led the way down the pitch. It was followed by quite a lot more spoil from the rubble slope it was partially supporting as I made the area ‘safe’ and once we identified the two half adequate sections of good rock, we put in another bolt for a Y hang and one for a deviation. It was time to go and see what lay beyond.
To say this was exciting might be an understatement, it also felt a bit serious, but it was enormously reassuring to know who was just behind me in the cave and on the surface and to know we had a good plan and had taken sensible precautions. I descended the pitch and almost at once knew there was more, I saw the cave continuing to the west and heading steeply down another pitch. I landed on a solid floor which was littered with the rubble from above and stepped sideways to the head of another pitch. I shouted for Mark to gather some more rope and follow down.
Last year we spent a long weekend pumping and digging Rowter Hole Sump and after a lot of hard graft, only just managed to get through towards the end of our Saturday trip. We were there long enough to pull a pipe through and get a look down a pitch, you can read all about that last pumping effort here- https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/rowter-hole-update.25803/post-397972.
At the time we were exhausted, it was a massive effort for everyone involved and the thought of going through it all again any time soon was difficult to entertain. At some point over the following months, weeks, days, or maybe even hours however, as the fatigue, bruises and aches subsided the ever-present draw of the undescended pitch took hold, and the inevitable plans were made for a return in the summer of 2025.
Friday
Ben Enticknap, Mark Wright, Mark Sims, Tim Nixon and Myself were all at Rowter farm on Friday 25th with 10 bags, 6 drag trays and 5 extremely heavy coils of cable to take down. We had two generators for the surface (primary and backup). Mark S, Ben and I headed underground, placing power cables and data cables as we went. Tim N and Mark W turned up at about 11:00 with instructions to turn on the generator and send us some power down. The rigging of cables went well and we had it all in place within a couple of hours. Shortly after, contact was made with the surface, allowing us to enjoy 13 meg Wi-Fi down the cave- slower than last year, but still adequate.
This time around we had the major advantage over 2024 in that we had managed to pull a pipe through the sump before we left it. That would do away with the need to pump into a holding pond and then onwards into the Ice cream Trail with a second pump. This removes a big element of complexity and unreliability from the system. We could now divert the main Rowter stream through the sump and inject our pumped water into the same line and send it off beyond. We also learned last time that by Sunday we are all knackered and we had far too much kit to take out. We planned what would be required much more carefully this time, taking only what we would likely need and adding a rescue tripod and electric ActSafe rope winch to the kit for hauling out of the entrance at the end. Last time we also had questions about the air quality so we also took a ventilation fan and 30m of flexible ducting down with us this time too. Having comms with surface was a big element of this project, not only did it keep the whole team feel connected, it was practically and psychologically necessary if we were to spend any time exploring beyond that sump, knowing we were dependent on a continuous supply of generator power to run the pump and air.
We pumped the sump to the bottom on Friday in about 2 ½ hours. We had left a pipe screwed into the bottom of the sump when we left last time, the stream from above was left blasting into this and we were excited to see how well it had kept the liquid mud at bay for us over the last 10 months. We were sorely disappointed. The bottom section of the sump had changed, some large mud banks had been washed away- presumably by the swirling current and bubbling from our ‘bottom blaster’ pipe. Instead of being pushed through the sump it had mostly settled in the bottom, meaning we were in for another hard, disgusting shift of slop digging. Having verified the system worked and comms was working well with the surface, we left at a very civilised time and were out for around 17:00 to recover and prepare ourselves for the big Saturday push.
Saturday
On Saturday the same team was joined by Mike Yaxley, Chris Adams and Tim Allen. We had a 0900 start and all but Mark W and Tim N headed underground. We re- drained the sump again, it having refilled by a metre or two overnight and the slop hauling commenced. Mark S and I were in wetsuits, this time with a Meander over the top, having learned last time that we were otherwise going to destroy our wetsuits. The rest of the team strung out up the muddy sump passage and the drag trays started moving. It was shit. People had to manoeuvre trays of liquid slop up an uneven slope, around coils of hose and wires, over uneven rocks then carry them up a rocky slope and dump them in a holding pool in the main chamber. It was hard work for everyone and a bit demoralising to be re- digging the bottom of the sump once again having toiled away at it so hard last year. Progress was painfully slow and it simply took time to get on top of things. The sump eventually broke, with a long, loud glug-glugging sound but it took a few hours to get it to a point where we were happy to pass. Having that passage in a state where we could safely get through and reliably keep it open was critical because this time around we had a lot of work to do on the far side. The trick was to get a hole dug in the near side of the floor in which to drop the pump in its strainer box, allowing us to drain the water towards us. After a few hours lying in the slop and scraping handful after handful of mud out of the bottom of the sump, we were in a place that Mark S and I were happy to have a go at passing. We paused for some lunch, opting for hot drinks, hot food and bread to recharge us.
With the air blower running into the bottom of the sump and the pump periodically turned on to drain the always filling puddle, Mark and I went through. The initial sandy slope was shallower than we both remembered it, though still quite snug. The muddy slop slope beyond that was just as bad as we remembered it, it is actually quite narrow in one place and the thick ooze you have to lie on to get up it constantly wants to slide down in big globs. We took three tackle bags of gear and two scaffold poles with us, which wasn’t that fun. Once up the other side, we were both frequently checking in on each other for signs of air quality. As last time, we both arrived in the narrow rift passage very out of breath and with hearts pounding, we still can’t be entirely certain that wasn’t fatigue, excitement and a tinge of nervousness but the air was very steamy in there and definitely not 100% normal. Whilst we were through the rest of the team were manning the pump and setting to the bottom of the sump, pulling out as much spoil as they could to enlarge the space we had to get back through. The bigger the space, the longer we would have before water levels rose to make it impassible again. Our fates were very much in everyone’s hands at that point, from the pump operator, through the drag tray team, spoil tipper, comms man and all the way through 200m of cable to the surface where Tim and Mark W were at the other end of the line keeping the generator running and ready to swap to the backup in the event it went down. This really was a big team effort, Mark and I were initially the only ones through, but everyone was well and truly exploring this cave now.
When we got a look at the pitch head last time, the right-hand wall was very shattered, I levered a very large block off it with great ease and it jammed part way down the pitch at a narrowing. The very blurry screenshot below shows the remaining flake of rock with huge crack down the back and our intended solution to stabilise that in place before exploring- a couple of scaffold poles leaning across the passage, pinned in place and braced together.
Thankfully we had the scaffold poles with us and Mark fetched one from the brown porridge floor at the top of the sump for me to use as a lever. 10 minutes or so later and after a lot of sweating and grunting on my part, the boulder finally let go and led the way down the pitch. It was followed by quite a lot more spoil from the rubble slope it was partially supporting as I made the area ‘safe’ and once we identified the two half adequate sections of good rock, we put in another bolt for a Y hang and one for a deviation. It was time to go and see what lay beyond.
To say this was exciting might be an understatement, it also felt a bit serious, but it was enormously reassuring to know who was just behind me in the cave and on the surface and to know we had a good plan and had taken sensible precautions. I descended the pitch and almost at once knew there was more, I saw the cave continuing to the west and heading steeply down another pitch. I landed on a solid floor which was littered with the rubble from above and stepped sideways to the head of another pitch. I shouted for Mark to gather some more rope and follow down.
MarkS
Moderator
We rigged the second pitch and dropped to a rock bridge, glancing over the top of a huge pile of rock on another bridge and seeing a possible alternative way on towards the west. Unable to access that without some acrobatic bolt climbing we continued down from the bridge to another boulder floor, this time with a large pile of stacked rocks perched above us. A window under yet another arch led to a further, much smaller pitch. We really were struggling for rope now so we decided to cut off an excess end of rope from the bottom of the second pitch in an attempt to get us to the bottom. There was another 30m of 8mm rope the other side of the sump, but that felt a long way away at this point. After a minute or so I heard a cry of dismay from Mark who had cut the wrong rope! Luckily he managed to turn this to our advantage after a bit of re- rigging and joined me with the measly 5m of rope he had liberated. With a bit of unorthodox rigging (what’s the opposite of textbook??) we managed to get to the floor. Another boulder floor but solid walls either side.
We carefully traversed the edge of the floor, it obviously became a suspended floor in the middle, there were some very precariously jammed boulders that we delicately went over and climbed down a couple of metres. Looking back underneath the jammed boulders there was yet another way on, this time down a boulder slope with a pool of water visible at the bottom. We had used about 50m of rope at this point and there was still some descent to do. We very carefully ducked under the large boulder and headed down the slope. I gave a loud “whoop” into the darkness and was met by an incredible echo. The space was fairly large, a few metres across and high and heading east now. The ~3m pool of water sat at the base of the steep rubble slope and at the far edge was a wall of rock. The really interesting thing though, was that wall was only a sort of bridge across the passage and we could see over the top of it from high on the rubble slope to a second body of water also a few metres across. From our vantage point we couldn’t see around the corner and to get to the second pool will require bolt climbing. We don’t know if that is a pool in a continuing dry passage, or a sump but it felt like we were probably at or around main water table level now.
We had taken a compact waterproof camera in with us but annoyingly, the battery was dead after only a few snaps at the top of the first pitch. Really frustrating particularly as I had made a point of checking that while packing. Instead we had managed to shout back to the crew and were passed through Ben’s phone in a waterproof case to take down with us before we made the first descent. We took a short video at the bottom, it’s really poor quality and badly filmed, but might give some sort of a sense of what was there, you can at least hear some of that great echo on it!
It felt like we had been ‘beyond’ for a long time now and we absolutely didn’t want to leave without a survey. Very conscious of the others we had left behind, we put aside photographs and set to surveying.. the old fashioned way. I didn’t mention before, but we were pretty filthy and wet. The water we were diverting through the sump was running down the first couple of pitches, there was a steady trickle from the stream but periodically the sump pump would be turned on and we would be deluged with brown water. Now we had to survey back through it all. Our disto seemed only capable of a maximum of 6m legs for some reason and with paper, pencil and a compass and clino, this was going to be a slow survey out. We made our way back, Mark S out first on the book and me behind on instruments and de- rigging. We opted to de- rig everything partly because some would be left in flowing water but mainly because it will be a little while before we’re back and we would like to take a bit more time doing a nicer job of it when we do return. We stripped everything out as we went, including the anchors. It was a slow grind and we were tired. That became evident when at the bottom of the first pitch Mark checked I still had the drill… I didn’t and I gently expressed my dismay with myself as I had to re- rig my way back down two pitches to retrieve it. I got back to Mark with the drill and after taking more survey measurements headed up the pitch without the tackle bag of rope… FFS.
The final 20m or so of survey was the worst, with three bags of gear and gritty slop everywhere it was borderline ridiculous. Mark was pencilling the readings onto a brown page, unable to see what he was writing and by the end I couldn’t tell the difference between the compass and the clino but somehow we managed to complete what is hopefully a reasonable survey back to the near side of the sump. We were absolutely delighted to see the sump floor had been significantly enlarged, to the point where the submersible pump, sat in its little hole could drain it completely of all standing water and we could get through without having to squirm through liquid gloop. At a guess, the refill time at this point, with main stream diverted through was probably 45 minutes to uncomfortable and maybe an hour and a half to impassible, pretty impressive thanks to the diggers, dry weather and diverted stream. I think we were beyond the sump for about 3 hours, but it’s a bit hard to tell.
It turns out that while we were down there, Mike, Chris A and Chris H had all gone through the dry sump to take a look down the pitches, one of them had been shouting us whilst there and we had been completely oblivious. It was a fairly noisy environment and we were wearing wetsuit hoods, which is why in the short video clips it sounds like we’re shouting to someone hard of hearing! It did make us all realise however that had there been a pump issue, one of the diggers would have had to come through and descend the pitches to find us in order to alert us to come out… perhaps an air horn or whistle would have been a good idea!
Exhausted we had generators off and comms cut with the surface at about 19:00 and after a last brew and a tidy up we headed out. On the way out of the cave that evening with two full tackle bags each, Mark and I were chatting about the day and the exploration we had just all done. One of us commented, as is a very long running joke with our explorations, that it was good training.. which is what we have decided to call the section of cave beyond the sump that houses the four pitches.. Good Training. We were out for about 21:30-ish but had time for only a very gentle social session that evening, because we had to be back at the hole again at 09:00 the next morning for the big de-rig.
Sunday
Sunday was a reasonable day, we had the de-rig planned well and had done quite a bit of tidying and some bag ferrying on Saturday evening. We were at the farm for about 09:15 and had 10 or so bags, all the power cable and comms cable derigged and at the base of the entrance shaft in no time. I had borrowed a battery Act-safe winch and tripod from work for this day so all but Mark S headed out and we de- rigged the rope as we went. Mark then made up three heavy loads of gear and we winched them out of the shaft with virtually no effort, it was amazing! We had a full battery left at the end of the gear haul and shouted down the shaft to ask Mark if he also wanted a lift out.. his reply told us he eagerly did! So at about 13:00 on Sunday, Mark S finished the trip in style with a 69m ride out of the shaft on the winch.
Reflections
Thinking forward, we obviously need to go back but once again it will require yet more pumping. We will continue to divert the stream through the sump now and ignore the bottom blaster, but that diversion pipe is super critical, I think we will go back very soon and install an inline silt trap high up by the dam to make sure we aren’t going to block the pipe with silt or gravel over the next year. We’re also going to invest some time in doing a bit of digging work over the top of the sump and also to the east, along the Ice Cream Trail. Unfortunately that means approaching the huge choke beneath two left wellies, but it’s theoretically possible we could engineer a way through to the top of the pitches beyond the sump if all the planets aligned. We aren’t massively optimistic about that, but it shouldn’t be ignored.
So have we found a large, low level sump, (Echo Sump?) one that outputs into both Russet Well and Whirlpool Rising? Or is it a pool(s) with continuing dry passage or streamway beyond? Or both?! We don’t know yet but the story of Rowter Hole is still being written and we have a few other places to go looking for new chapters until we recover sufficiently to attempt the next Rowter Hole Sump pump, which I suspect will be back in the Badger calendar before too long.
We carefully traversed the edge of the floor, it obviously became a suspended floor in the middle, there were some very precariously jammed boulders that we delicately went over and climbed down a couple of metres. Looking back underneath the jammed boulders there was yet another way on, this time down a boulder slope with a pool of water visible at the bottom. We had used about 50m of rope at this point and there was still some descent to do. We very carefully ducked under the large boulder and headed down the slope. I gave a loud “whoop” into the darkness and was met by an incredible echo. The space was fairly large, a few metres across and high and heading east now. The ~3m pool of water sat at the base of the steep rubble slope and at the far edge was a wall of rock. The really interesting thing though, was that wall was only a sort of bridge across the passage and we could see over the top of it from high on the rubble slope to a second body of water also a few metres across. From our vantage point we couldn’t see around the corner and to get to the second pool will require bolt climbing. We don’t know if that is a pool in a continuing dry passage, or a sump but it felt like we were probably at or around main water table level now.
We had taken a compact waterproof camera in with us but annoyingly, the battery was dead after only a few snaps at the top of the first pitch. Really frustrating particularly as I had made a point of checking that while packing. Instead we had managed to shout back to the crew and were passed through Ben’s phone in a waterproof case to take down with us before we made the first descent. We took a short video at the bottom, it’s really poor quality and badly filmed, but might give some sort of a sense of what was there, you can at least hear some of that great echo on it!
It felt like we had been ‘beyond’ for a long time now and we absolutely didn’t want to leave without a survey. Very conscious of the others we had left behind, we put aside photographs and set to surveying.. the old fashioned way. I didn’t mention before, but we were pretty filthy and wet. The water we were diverting through the sump was running down the first couple of pitches, there was a steady trickle from the stream but periodically the sump pump would be turned on and we would be deluged with brown water. Now we had to survey back through it all. Our disto seemed only capable of a maximum of 6m legs for some reason and with paper, pencil and a compass and clino, this was going to be a slow survey out. We made our way back, Mark S out first on the book and me behind on instruments and de- rigging. We opted to de- rig everything partly because some would be left in flowing water but mainly because it will be a little while before we’re back and we would like to take a bit more time doing a nicer job of it when we do return. We stripped everything out as we went, including the anchors. It was a slow grind and we were tired. That became evident when at the bottom of the first pitch Mark checked I still had the drill… I didn’t and I gently expressed my dismay with myself as I had to re- rig my way back down two pitches to retrieve it. I got back to Mark with the drill and after taking more survey measurements headed up the pitch without the tackle bag of rope… FFS.
The final 20m or so of survey was the worst, with three bags of gear and gritty slop everywhere it was borderline ridiculous. Mark was pencilling the readings onto a brown page, unable to see what he was writing and by the end I couldn’t tell the difference between the compass and the clino but somehow we managed to complete what is hopefully a reasonable survey back to the near side of the sump. We were absolutely delighted to see the sump floor had been significantly enlarged, to the point where the submersible pump, sat in its little hole could drain it completely of all standing water and we could get through without having to squirm through liquid gloop. At a guess, the refill time at this point, with main stream diverted through was probably 45 minutes to uncomfortable and maybe an hour and a half to impassible, pretty impressive thanks to the diggers, dry weather and diverted stream. I think we were beyond the sump for about 3 hours, but it’s a bit hard to tell.
It turns out that while we were down there, Mike, Chris A and Chris H had all gone through the dry sump to take a look down the pitches, one of them had been shouting us whilst there and we had been completely oblivious. It was a fairly noisy environment and we were wearing wetsuit hoods, which is why in the short video clips it sounds like we’re shouting to someone hard of hearing! It did make us all realise however that had there been a pump issue, one of the diggers would have had to come through and descend the pitches to find us in order to alert us to come out… perhaps an air horn or whistle would have been a good idea!
Exhausted we had generators off and comms cut with the surface at about 19:00 and after a last brew and a tidy up we headed out. On the way out of the cave that evening with two full tackle bags each, Mark and I were chatting about the day and the exploration we had just all done. One of us commented, as is a very long running joke with our explorations, that it was good training.. which is what we have decided to call the section of cave beyond the sump that houses the four pitches.. Good Training. We were out for about 21:30-ish but had time for only a very gentle social session that evening, because we had to be back at the hole again at 09:00 the next morning for the big de-rig.
Sunday
Sunday was a reasonable day, we had the de-rig planned well and had done quite a bit of tidying and some bag ferrying on Saturday evening. We were at the farm for about 09:15 and had 10 or so bags, all the power cable and comms cable derigged and at the base of the entrance shaft in no time. I had borrowed a battery Act-safe winch and tripod from work for this day so all but Mark S headed out and we de- rigged the rope as we went. Mark then made up three heavy loads of gear and we winched them out of the shaft with virtually no effort, it was amazing! We had a full battery left at the end of the gear haul and shouted down the shaft to ask Mark if he also wanted a lift out.. his reply told us he eagerly did! So at about 13:00 on Sunday, Mark S finished the trip in style with a 69m ride out of the shaft on the winch.
Reflections
Thinking forward, we obviously need to go back but once again it will require yet more pumping. We will continue to divert the stream through the sump now and ignore the bottom blaster, but that diversion pipe is super critical, I think we will go back very soon and install an inline silt trap high up by the dam to make sure we aren’t going to block the pipe with silt or gravel over the next year. We’re also going to invest some time in doing a bit of digging work over the top of the sump and also to the east, along the Ice Cream Trail. Unfortunately that means approaching the huge choke beneath two left wellies, but it’s theoretically possible we could engineer a way through to the top of the pitches beyond the sump if all the planets aligned. We aren’t massively optimistic about that, but it shouldn’t be ignored.
So have we found a large, low level sump, (Echo Sump?) one that outputs into both Russet Well and Whirlpool Rising? Or is it a pool(s) with continuing dry passage or streamway beyond? Or both?! We don’t know yet but the story of Rowter Hole is still being written and we have a few other places to go looking for new chapters until we recover sufficiently to attempt the next Rowter Hole Sump pump, which I suspect will be back in the Badger calendar before too long.
Last edited:
Mrs Trellis
Well-known member
Thanks a bunch lads.
William_Emmo
Member
This sounds incredible!
With the sump/ duck, what’s the general shape of it when you pass through, is it fairly deep or close to the lip where it drops into the first pitch?
Just a suggestion but would it be worth chipping out the other side of the sump eventually so it doesn’t fill up and then doesn’t require it to be pumped every time as a long term solution?
Assuming there’s a reason this can’t be done though.
With the sump/ duck, what’s the general shape of it when you pass through, is it fairly deep or close to the lip where it drops into the first pitch?
Just a suggestion but would it be worth chipping out the other side of the sump eventually so it doesn’t fill up and then doesn’t require it to be pumped every time as a long term solution?
Assuming there’s a reason this can’t be done though.
Similar threads
