Singing River Mine

[cap n chris]

Following a report from Mark Ireland about possible loose rocks in the entrance shaft among the ginging a recce trip established this to be the case. The main concern are two rocks right at the base of the ginging (still some 6-7m above the bottom of the shaft) directly below the line of the in-situ ladder. The rocks move under load and are sufficiently large to cause a major problem if they collect a caving ladder on their descent or hit someone below!

Unfortunately they are convenient foot holds for ascending cavers who may not realise they move.



Loose rocks marked with crosses. Scale: largest on left is approx 0.3m width.

Work will be undertaken in the next couple of days to stablise the rocks.

 

[graham]

Following a report from Mark Ireland about possible loose rocks in the entrance shaft among the ginging a recce trip established this to be the case. The main concern are two rocks right at the base of the ginging (still some 6-7m above the bottom of the shaft) directly below the line of the in-situ ladder. The rocks move under load and are sufficiently large to cause a major problem if they collect a caving ladder on their descent or hit someone below!

Unfortunately they are convenient foot holds for ascending cavers who may not realise they move.



Loose rocks marked with crosses. Scale: largest on left is approx 0.3m width.

Work will be undertaken in the next couple of days to stablise the rocks.

Good of you to mark the correct footholds with crosses, Chris :shock:

 

[cap n chris]

No! You don't understand! The crosses mark the rocks which shouldn't be used. If I was to mark all the rocks which were sound, there would be a lot of crosses; therefore "X means danger" not "X means OK".

OKEYDOKEY?!

 

[cap n chris]

Work done. If you're planning a visit to SRM in the next few days please avoid the fresh cement (it's pretty obvious and there's plenty of other footholds).

 

[badger]

was down singing river last weekend, did notice loose rocks and made people move away from the bottom as quickly as possible.
also noticed how low the water is in fact lowest I have seen it, assume this is just from the lack of rain fall.

 

[Peter Burgess]

noticed how low the water is in fact lowest I have seen it,

Could you effectively walk dry across normally flooded areas? I am sure I have been able to do this in a dry year in the 1990s. Other times, it would have been necessary to swim. Or am I thinking of somewhere else?

 

[axbridgecaver]

I visited Singing River Mine in December last year, like you I was surprised to find no water. Several years ago when I visited it was an exclusive (cold) swim.

Badger - Had the water level dropped in the pit in the Stinking Gulf?

 

[badger]

no water at all in stinking gulf, water very low in the great hall only just covering boot, deep hole could stand up and have head above water level.
I am by no means an expert on SRM perhaps 1 trip per year for the last 10 years, and have been down SRM at the end of dry summers, and can not remember the water level ever being this low, but perhaps if like the south east, mendips is experience low water levels due to a below average rain fall for the last 2 years is the explanation.