URGENT --take care in JH

[Ralph]

Message received last night:
I went down JH today, whilst i was de-rigging Bitch Pitch, I heard a loud rumble just underneath the second re-belay, i think all the nasty stacked deads have gone down the pitch, this went on for several seconds, i didn't investigate because of the danger, but i think was caused by the amount of water it was taking today, please warn anyone you need to about this.

 

[Fulk]

Wow ? glad you were above it when it happened.

 

[droid]

I doubt he's be writing it if he was below, by the sound of it....

 

[Ralph]

I had plans to do some work on the JH cartgate in the near future and on the final step down into the FSE crawl. This might no longer be possible so it's up to some of you young 'uns to take up the torch. At least we got the Boulder Piles project sorted - but a word of warning. It will need monitoring and possibly more remedial work in the future. Nothing lasts for ever!

 

[Persephone]

Hi
JH doesnt stand for Jugholes does it ?

 

[Andrew W]

No. JH stands for James Hall. It is another route into the back end of the Peak/Speedwell system near Titan. Nothing to do with Jugholes.

 

[Scud]

Message received last night:
I went down JH today, whilst i was de-rigging Bitch Pitch, I heard a loud rumble just underneath the second re-belay, i think all the nasty stacked deads have gone down the pitch, this went on for several seconds, i didn't investigate because of the danger, but i think was caused by the amount of water it was taking today, please warn anyone you need to about this.

UPDATE ON BITCH PITCH COLLAPSE:

Bitch Pitch was inspected a couple of nights ago. There has been a collapse on Bitch Pitch. Level with the 2nd rebelay (the one where there are two P-hangers in close succession). When facing this rebelay, over to the right was a load of miners tailing's and some rocks, now half of that has gone down pitch and you can see where half as slipped away while the remainder is still in place, a scar is clearly visible on the remainder. There were two 1 ft diameter rocks jambed also, just touching these slightly resulted in these falling down the pitch. The remaining tailing's will probably go down the pitch at some point.

The collapse looks to have been caused by water action over time, this flows from the inlet near the top of the pitch when wet.

We are going to undertake a controlled demolition job to remove the remaining tailing's very shortly so we are advising cavers not to descend James Hall in the meantime and promise that everyone will be informed when the remedial work has been carried out.

From what I can see, the pitch isn't blocked. Once the controlled demolition is undertaken, the remainder of the pitch will be checked down to the Miners Workshop.

 

[Scud]

FURTHER UPDATE ON BITCH PITCH COLLAPSE:

A further inspection of Bitch Pitch was undertaken on the 13th August 2012 to see if there had been any further collapses since the last reported collapse. Nothing more had looked to have fallen down the pitch but a more detailed look revealed that there were more tailings remaining than we had previously thought.

Using the crowbars that we had taken with us, we did some controlled removal of the spoil. Just poking the loose tailings, loosened several large rocks at the bottom of the pile; this resulted in these falling down the pitch. Quite a lot rocks, loose tailings were removed and dropped down the pitch. Two of us spent up to one hour removing the tailings and deads until we ran out of arm strength.

We have cut it right back but there still remains some to be removed and more stabilisation work needs to be undertaken. The remainder of the pitch, including the bolts below this collapse haven?t been checked either so until this has been undertaken, you are strongly advised not to descend Bitch Pitch until further notice.  A notice has also been put on the lid to this effect.

 

[bograt]

Doing a brilliant job, don't forget there is emergency funding for access work if you find yourselves out of pocket, refer to DCA.

 

[JAM]

This can't be an easy task, well done fellas! 
Be funny if something new was found behind all those tailings and   

 

[Scud]

Bitch Pitch was fully inspected on the 11th of September 2012. We found that nothing has changed since the last inspection and remedial work undertaken about one month ago. We descended to the bottom of the pitch, checking the p-hangers on the way down which we found to be okay. The pitch is pretty clear of debris, a large pile of collapsed material is now at the bottom of Bitch Pitch, but entry to the Workshop isn't a problem.

We now consider the work on removing unstable material from Bitch Pitch to be complete, although there will never be a time when it can be regarded as completely safe, and it will be up to individual cavers to use their judgement when descending JH. It is certainly no place for novices.

 

[owd git]

THANKS for the work and up-date Scud. we'll report when next we do JH.
:clap2
Owd Git ( & Zomjon I'me sure.)

 

[JAM]

Yeah! I'll second Owd gits sentiments. Good work