Custards
Active member
Earlier this month a friend and I set out to visit sump 9 in Swildon’s hole via freediving sumps 1, 2, 3 and 4. Sump lengths of roughly >1m, 8m, 10m, and 4m respectively.
I’ll be entirely honest that, thinking back, I cannot recall any particular grand motivation for attempting this trip, other than we wanted to do more freediving. The idea of doing free dives sounded cool and therefore we wanted to do them. There were two of us on the trip, however with the purpose of the other persons parents not finding out, I will not be providing any details of them. Likewise if you are my parents and you have found my UKCaving account, please do not read any further!
I certainly felt apprehensive about the upcoming trip on the drive down to the Wessex. My stomach felt somewhat unsettled and I could feel a light buzz of adrenaline present whenever my limbs moved. I was trying not to dwell on this however for fear that it might put me off, and with the excuse that I had attended the UBSS annual dinner (and subsequent after party) the night before, I was managing to convince myself that any physical symptoms were surely the results of the previous evening’s festivities.
After consuming a range of fried breakfast foods at the hut and about four cups of tea I felt somewhat more content and after kitting up we began the walk over to Swildon’s hole, boiling in our thick wetsuits. These were commented on upon meeting a group entering at the same time, being questioned in a friendly manner as “overkill”, but the reaction we got from them upon announcing our destination gave us a confidence boost that lasted for the entire descent to sump 1.
I’ll skip to sump 2; we all know what sump 1 is like. Sump 2 was the greatest point of apprehension for me leading up to the trip. Ten months prior we had gone through sump 2 for the first time. Swildon’s, we believe having recently been privy to a pollution event, had left sump 2 in a heavily sedimented state and I had ended up grounding out against the roof and the sediment bank on the floor of the passage. At the time I didn’t really mind this, but it had been playing on my mind since and manifested into something that bordered on fear. It turned out that this was entirely unwarranted and sump 2 was a lovely spacious journey, over in no time. Our realisation that sump 2 was actually really nice and easy hyped my partner and I up a fair bit and we very excitedly and quickly moved over to sump 3 (not like you really want to hang around in a nondescript air bell anyway is it?).
Despite only being a couple meters longer than sump 2, sump 3 felt like it took an age to me and was certainly on the limits of my lung capacity. Perhaps due to my set focus on getting through it I also did not comprehend any physical effects of the two meter dive down at the start either. Some people had mentioned to us beforehand that 3 can get a bit of sediment build up and the bottom turning it into a slightly grim squeeze: I didn’t experience this. I freedive sumps on my back and maybe I felt my shoulders just brush against a sediment bank in the bottom? I’m not entirely sure though my mind was elsewhere.
There is a little splodge of flow stone on the right as you exit sump 3, not very descript but it stuck out to me in that moment and I still think about it. My caving partner and I were incredibly excited to have gotten through sump 3, it was a brilliant feeling. Perhaps the image of this patch of flowstone got cemented in with that.
The passage after Swildon’s three was very interesting to experience. Lovely passage shape and contour but also dampened slightly by the lead weights hanging off a belt which loosened with each meter traversed.
Sump 4 was our least favourite to pass; on the way in I’d go as far as to describe it as a violent experience. We’d been given the guidance to take it slowly, look where we were going, and cave through the sump with plenty of air. Almost instantly upon reaching the sump we knew this wouldn’t be an option. A build up of scouts over the morning had lent the sump the visual qualities of a weak cup of tea, and the thought of optically acquiring a path through it was cast aside instantly. Nonetheless I did still attempt to pull myself through in a slow and considered manner which was dropped rather quickly as I was poked and prodded by protrusions and brute force became the chosen approach. 4 was also worse for my partner as they were led astray into a dead end, and upon backtracking and finding the correct path underwater their mask was knocked off their face. Their surfacing on the other side was accompanied by a cacophony of spluttering. I joked at the time that now we had both had sump-mares.
Off to sump 5 and I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s a series of ducks and there was a tad bit of faff with me making sure that I was definitely ducking between the correct bits, but nothing major and in no time at all we were at sump 6 and the climb up to the bypass. Sump 6 looked gorgeously clear and blue. It was almost pretty enough for me to forget the absolutely disgusting taste of the water that had penetrated my mouth though the ducks.
The bypass from 6 was the tightest bit of cave I’ve ever completed. For those of you who are unaware there is a constriction mid-way though which requires digging out as it will gradually fill over time – there is a handy in-situ spade left next to it. Fortunately this route had been completed rather a few times in the weeks leading up to our attempt so most of the hard work had already been done (thank you UBSS). It still required three separate digging and re squeezing attempts before I made it though.
Following the bypass, Fault Chamber in Swildon’s 7 was an absolutely amazing chamber to see in person. I remember seeing a photograph of the chamber on UKC a while ago and it jumped out to me as a place I desperately wanted to visit. Until now I had thought that it was off limits to those not blessed with diving abilities so coming across it on the trip was a lovely surprise and we both spent a good while admiring the chamber before moving on.
I’m aware this report has now dragged on a bit so I’ll hurry it up a bit going forwards (especially as the really interesting bit of the sumps is now over). From then on it was fairly straightforward caving up to 9 with only a couple of moments to question the navigation. I work at the relevant show cave for Swildon’s and by continuing the trip it was starting to feel scarily close to commuting to work. We didn’t hang around long at 9 at all, only enough time for us to realise that we really weren’t that far from the entrance and that the trip had gone astoundingly smoothly.
The way back went smoothly too. Sump 4 which had been so resistant to our presence on the way in allowed us to pass through gracefully on our return. Perhaps it is because the taught hauling line has a more ideal path for those returning? Or maybe the cave was rewarding us for completing the trip?! Who knows?
Final thoughts to wrap up: I was actually left a little hollow upon completing the trip. If you break it down into its component parts there is nothing in there which is too challenging for the general active caver. Saying freediving to sump 9 sounds awe inspiring but when you think about it holding your breath and pulling a rope isn’t the biggest barrier to entry, and the time underwater is rather serene. Your brain definitely relaxes somewhat and your body gets on with it. On one hand I’m pretty proud of myself for completing the trip, but the other I muse that if I can complete it, it can’t be the greatest challenge in the world.
Other than that I am also amazed that Mike Jeanmaire dived into sump 3 without a hood on his initial scoping of the sump pre freediving, and I find it really quite cool how something once met by disapproval has since developed into a notable sporting trip.
Time underground about four and a half hours. Distance free dived 46m (ish)
If anyone does want to try their hand at some free dives I’d say go and do the Rowten ones first, those are legitimately joyous to pass.
I’ll be entirely honest that, thinking back, I cannot recall any particular grand motivation for attempting this trip, other than we wanted to do more freediving. The idea of doing free dives sounded cool and therefore we wanted to do them. There were two of us on the trip, however with the purpose of the other persons parents not finding out, I will not be providing any details of them. Likewise if you are my parents and you have found my UKCaving account, please do not read any further!
I certainly felt apprehensive about the upcoming trip on the drive down to the Wessex. My stomach felt somewhat unsettled and I could feel a light buzz of adrenaline present whenever my limbs moved. I was trying not to dwell on this however for fear that it might put me off, and with the excuse that I had attended the UBSS annual dinner (and subsequent after party) the night before, I was managing to convince myself that any physical symptoms were surely the results of the previous evening’s festivities.
After consuming a range of fried breakfast foods at the hut and about four cups of tea I felt somewhat more content and after kitting up we began the walk over to Swildon’s hole, boiling in our thick wetsuits. These were commented on upon meeting a group entering at the same time, being questioned in a friendly manner as “overkill”, but the reaction we got from them upon announcing our destination gave us a confidence boost that lasted for the entire descent to sump 1.
I’ll skip to sump 2; we all know what sump 1 is like. Sump 2 was the greatest point of apprehension for me leading up to the trip. Ten months prior we had gone through sump 2 for the first time. Swildon’s, we believe having recently been privy to a pollution event, had left sump 2 in a heavily sedimented state and I had ended up grounding out against the roof and the sediment bank on the floor of the passage. At the time I didn’t really mind this, but it had been playing on my mind since and manifested into something that bordered on fear. It turned out that this was entirely unwarranted and sump 2 was a lovely spacious journey, over in no time. Our realisation that sump 2 was actually really nice and easy hyped my partner and I up a fair bit and we very excitedly and quickly moved over to sump 3 (not like you really want to hang around in a nondescript air bell anyway is it?).
Despite only being a couple meters longer than sump 2, sump 3 felt like it took an age to me and was certainly on the limits of my lung capacity. Perhaps due to my set focus on getting through it I also did not comprehend any physical effects of the two meter dive down at the start either. Some people had mentioned to us beforehand that 3 can get a bit of sediment build up and the bottom turning it into a slightly grim squeeze: I didn’t experience this. I freedive sumps on my back and maybe I felt my shoulders just brush against a sediment bank in the bottom? I’m not entirely sure though my mind was elsewhere.
There is a little splodge of flow stone on the right as you exit sump 3, not very descript but it stuck out to me in that moment and I still think about it. My caving partner and I were incredibly excited to have gotten through sump 3, it was a brilliant feeling. Perhaps the image of this patch of flowstone got cemented in with that.
The passage after Swildon’s three was very interesting to experience. Lovely passage shape and contour but also dampened slightly by the lead weights hanging off a belt which loosened with each meter traversed.
Sump 4 was our least favourite to pass; on the way in I’d go as far as to describe it as a violent experience. We’d been given the guidance to take it slowly, look where we were going, and cave through the sump with plenty of air. Almost instantly upon reaching the sump we knew this wouldn’t be an option. A build up of scouts over the morning had lent the sump the visual qualities of a weak cup of tea, and the thought of optically acquiring a path through it was cast aside instantly. Nonetheless I did still attempt to pull myself through in a slow and considered manner which was dropped rather quickly as I was poked and prodded by protrusions and brute force became the chosen approach. 4 was also worse for my partner as they were led astray into a dead end, and upon backtracking and finding the correct path underwater their mask was knocked off their face. Their surfacing on the other side was accompanied by a cacophony of spluttering. I joked at the time that now we had both had sump-mares.
Off to sump 5 and I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s a series of ducks and there was a tad bit of faff with me making sure that I was definitely ducking between the correct bits, but nothing major and in no time at all we were at sump 6 and the climb up to the bypass. Sump 6 looked gorgeously clear and blue. It was almost pretty enough for me to forget the absolutely disgusting taste of the water that had penetrated my mouth though the ducks.
The bypass from 6 was the tightest bit of cave I’ve ever completed. For those of you who are unaware there is a constriction mid-way though which requires digging out as it will gradually fill over time – there is a handy in-situ spade left next to it. Fortunately this route had been completed rather a few times in the weeks leading up to our attempt so most of the hard work had already been done (thank you UBSS). It still required three separate digging and re squeezing attempts before I made it though.
Following the bypass, Fault Chamber in Swildon’s 7 was an absolutely amazing chamber to see in person. I remember seeing a photograph of the chamber on UKC a while ago and it jumped out to me as a place I desperately wanted to visit. Until now I had thought that it was off limits to those not blessed with diving abilities so coming across it on the trip was a lovely surprise and we both spent a good while admiring the chamber before moving on.
I’m aware this report has now dragged on a bit so I’ll hurry it up a bit going forwards (especially as the really interesting bit of the sumps is now over). From then on it was fairly straightforward caving up to 9 with only a couple of moments to question the navigation. I work at the relevant show cave for Swildon’s and by continuing the trip it was starting to feel scarily close to commuting to work. We didn’t hang around long at 9 at all, only enough time for us to realise that we really weren’t that far from the entrance and that the trip had gone astoundingly smoothly.
The way back went smoothly too. Sump 4 which had been so resistant to our presence on the way in allowed us to pass through gracefully on our return. Perhaps it is because the taught hauling line has a more ideal path for those returning? Or maybe the cave was rewarding us for completing the trip?! Who knows?
Final thoughts to wrap up: I was actually left a little hollow upon completing the trip. If you break it down into its component parts there is nothing in there which is too challenging for the general active caver. Saying freediving to sump 9 sounds awe inspiring but when you think about it holding your breath and pulling a rope isn’t the biggest barrier to entry, and the time underwater is rather serene. Your brain definitely relaxes somewhat and your body gets on with it. On one hand I’m pretty proud of myself for completing the trip, but the other I muse that if I can complete it, it can’t be the greatest challenge in the world.
Other than that I am also amazed that Mike Jeanmaire dived into sump 3 without a hood on his initial scoping of the sump pre freediving, and I find it really quite cool how something once met by disapproval has since developed into a notable sporting trip.
Time underground about four and a half hours. Distance free dived 46m (ish)
If anyone does want to try their hand at some free dives I’d say go and do the Rowten ones first, those are legitimately joyous to pass.
I went to sump 1, determined to go through, and bottled it immediately.
)
