Swildon's Water Levels...

[jasonbirder]

What are the water levels like on mendip at the moment?
Got a Swildons trip coming up this week...
Cheers!

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[glyders]

They were fine on 31st October when I was last down. Nothing really above normal at that time.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Never as bad as it was when we were there in July 1968.

 

[bograt]

They were fine on 31st October when I was last down. Nothing really above normal at that time.

Aah Yes, the great "Pitch Re-Adjusment" episode

Thats the way to outdate a rigging guide!!

 

[bograt]

Sorry, quoted the wrong post, should've been the one from O.R.  :chair:

 

[Laurie]

Never as bad as it was when we were there in July 1968.

Can't be many of us left who remember the forty foot as the only way on.

 

[bograt]

Just one of my "never to be repeated" one-off trips, another was baling Backwash Sump in Giants!.

 

[tony from suffolk]

Never as bad as it was when we were there in July 1968.

I was down there a day or two after the Big Flood. We were rather surprised... 

 

[Fulk]

Just one of my "never to be repeated" one-off trips, another was baling Backwash Sump in Giants!.

I remember doing that in what were laughingly called 'dry grots'; grots they might have been, but dry . . . no way! Even to this day I can remember passing a stinkie light through at arm's length to try to keep the damn thing alight. It certainly added a 'je ne sais quoi' to Giant's (as, indeed, did the old 40 in Swildon's).

 

[Rich West]

"Never as bad as it was when we were there in July 1968"
Was fine when I was there on the 6th July 1968.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Well 6 inches of rain in 24 hours did not help much. A once in a hundred year storm they said. A lovely sunny day when we had lunch in the pub. Queen Vic I think. We were laddering the forty and got windy and fled the cave. The stream was only a trickle at that point. Talk of sitting out high water in Barnes Loop would not have helped much. It does show extreme events that are not properly forecast can catch us out. Dont forget this was July too not winter. Perhaps the once in a hundred year events will become more common place. Always sensible to ask here for local knowledge as the OP did.

 

[Andy Sparrow]

What are the water levels like on mendip at the moment?
Got a Swildons trip coming up this week...
Cheers!

Sent from my SK17i using Tapatalk 2

Water level has been very high for the last few days - just below the upper pipe last night.  In the current conditions I would be wary of taking children into the streamway.  I took a very capable party of adults on Tuesday night.  We went down the Wet Way - that was OK but they would have struggled coming back against the water, so returned via Dry Way.  We used a handline on the 8 Foot, which I think is essential in high water for the inexperienced.  Didn't go down the Twenty but rigged from the far bolt it would have been alright.    Only showers now until Saturday when a front is predicted to pass close to Mendip.  Assuming that does miss us the next major front is Sunday night.  I'm watching the situation closely because I am scheduled to take some teenagers down to the sump on Sunday.

 

[Fulk]

The Old Ruminator:

A lovely sunny day when we had lunch in the pub. Queen Vic I think. We were laddering the forty and got windy and fled the cave. The stream was only a trickle at that point.

So . . . if it was a lovely sunny day, you were quite happy to go underground and the stream was only a trickle ? what caused you to 'get windy'?

 

[Elaine]

Was it the pub lunch?

 

[bograt]

That Pub. Then, Food??

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Was it the pub lunch?

Weirdest thing ever . We were going to the NW Stream Passage . Ambled down with the kit to the 40. Sat there looking at each other not feeling at all right about anything. Packed up and left. Never happened like that before or since in many hundreds of trips. Definitely a premonition thing as we would surely not have made it if we carried on. Got home and the local river was up to my mums front gate. That had never ever happened either.Party was Me, Peter Glanvill ( MRODOC ) and Peter Rose.  45 years later we are still all caving.
Cant remember the pub lunch but I do remember looking out of the window at the sunshine. I dont think we had even checked the weather forecast at it had been reasonably dry.

Here is a link with photos.

http://headrambles.com/2007/07/04/the-great-storm-of-july-10th-1968-in-cheddar/

 

[cap n chris]

Small world. He's "borrowed" my helicopter photo of the Gorge.

 

[Fulk]

Definitely a premonition thing as we would surely not have made it if we carried on.

Weird!

 

[mrodoc]

Nick's memory is a bit fuzzy. I was 17 at the time.  My log states: "We were due to visit the North West Stream passage extension but due to the threat of heavy rain and thunderstorms our trip was cut short to a race to the Forty and back via the Wet Way. The stream was higher than I had seen it before but at the Forty Oliver Lloyd's natural pipe seemed to be doing the job quite efficiently. Deaiils of the weather: Nick and Pete thought water level was normal though some water was running in off the ledges of the well. We had had rain 1 hour previous to going in and this had been a torrential thunderstorm. Mr. Maine said they had no rain since Sunday and that steady rain was no problem, thunderstorms were the danger"
On the 13th july I added: Our retreat was the best thing we could have done. That night Swildons 1 was completely flooded. We were the last people to see the forty foot pot in Swildons from the top and the last people to crawl into the cave.

My next trip on the 13th was Contours Cavern (now known as Sludge Pit Hole). i took photos but they have disappeared. This cave appeared to have flooded at the bottom too.

 

[Fulk]

Well, mrodoc, two things ? first, I'm very wary of 'premonitions', and your account certainly sounds much more plausible. Second, I wish I'd kept a log of my trips since I first went underground ? well done!