What are some of the most 'out by 1' digging stories?

[tdobson]

Can anyone tell me any stories of digs that have worked for quite some time, only to discover, either after the break through, or after a breakthrough via a different route, that the original dig was surprisingly close to a breakthrough, but had been say 1m/2m out in the wrong direction - and so had pushed on for much longer than - with 20/20 hindsight was required?

In no way am I asking in a sense that should convey anything other than awe and respect.

I have a suspicion that in the most pronounced cases, the original dig would be abandoned/blocked/backfilled - and the improved route now generally used for access.

These may be places I know (which would be cool!) or ones I don't (which would be cool to learn about).

[To give an example, imagine tunnelling up through a boulder choke, and coming out at the top of a pile of boulders - but somewhere near the base of the dig, there was a possible horizontal link that was a short distance away.]

 

[AlexR]

I think the dig up to the NCC shafts in Peak was incredibly close but ultimately found from above (via M1 & that horrendously muddy and slippery rift), then re-started to break through to give much easier access.
This is just faint memory though, so take that with a pinch of salt.

 

[Badlad]

Yes, me and Pete O dug through to the NCC Shafts, via the M1 as you say. We dropped the shafts, bolted up to the top passage and finally pushed a smaller route downwards too. I rolled a single small boulder out of the way at the bottom of a bend and we came out back into the main drag (is it called Galena Rift?). Where we re-entered had appeared to be an alcove to other diggers who shall remain nameless, but they had been using the alcove as a lifelining station for a climb up a thing called 'No Shreddies til Sheffield'. They were mighty surprised and a little embarrassed by how open the new route in was.

 

[Cavematt]

Scarborough Caving Club came within a metre of breaking into Excalibur Pot in the 1990s - we found evidence of their presence only just above where we eventually broke through in 2007!

I believe the MSG may have come similarly close decades earlier.

The breakthrough into Jenga Pot could have happened four years earlier than it did (2009 instead of 2013), had we spent just one or two more sessions at a mud-choked shaft, which we at the time wrote-off as it was not the route of the water. When we eventually did break through into the system via a completely different route (requiring serious mining and lots of scaffolding), we found ourselves barely 50cm underneath the mud at the bottom of the shaft we had given up on four years earlier. Hindsight would have deprived us of four years happy digging

 

[Tritim230]

Miss Grace's Lane starts with a 30m excavated shaft. At the bottom it enters Autumn Frenzy Chamber via a dog leg. Another 1m out and the chamber would have been missed. They may still be digging down....

In Redhouse the 2024 breakthrough took a lot of work through a tortuous route through a boulder choke. Subsequently we found from the other side, a much shorter route (C-Section) and now there is the rescue route (Stretcher Hole) which enters above and to the left before our original dig. Some 3m vertically and 2m horizontally. Whether we could have broken through this way is highly doubtful though. Certain to say had the original diggers in the early 90's preserved a little longer we wouldn't have benefited from modern day conservation and filmed footage. So I for one am extremely grateful for this.

 

[Goydenman]

Having separately Ben and myself dug holes for many hours each in Main Chamber Winnats Head cave without knowing about each other BY chance one evening to find out that we were trying to do the same thing. We combined forces that evening and opted to try another hole neither had worked at much at all. That night dug for just 3.5hrs and broke through to huge cave.

 

[Loki]

Legend has it that the Notts 2 lime kiln diggers were aiming for the top of an aven off the main cave only to emerge 10 years later at the bottom of it having excavated a parallel shaft.

 

[Loki]

Legend has it that the Notts 2 lime kiln diggers were aiming for the top of an aven off the main cave only to emerge 10 years later at the bottom of it having excavated a parallel shaft.

Iron kiln

 

[skippy]

Back in the day Derbyshire Caving Club had the dig in Rowter. Many years later the Buttered Badgers took on the dig...and the rest is history :-D

 

[Mark Wright]

When we first broke through from the end of the Trenches in Peak Cavern to link it with Speedwell in 1984, there was a mud wall on the left immediately after the tight bit. I remember Kieth Bottoms saying, as we passed it again on the way back out, that we aught to come back and have a go at digging it. Clepto and I politely told Keith that we were joining the INGUWTA society (I'm never going up Wind Tunnel again) and he could dig it himself.

Keith never did go back, but Moose came along and I think his team were sat at the bottom of the Ventilator after about a 20 minute digging session.

 

[LJR]

Back in the seventies, TSG and some of us PDMHS folks were looking at Water Icicle Close. We thought that the logical extension would be down the final rift and then on again. We dismantled and winched down a drilling rig, set it up at 45 degrees to drill straight ahead hoping to find a cavity beyond the rift. We had a compressor on the surface and 45 gallon barrels full of water for the flush line and drilled all weekend until we used all the rods we had, can't remember how long now. Didn't find anything...
Often wonder how far short we were from breaking through!

 

[Mark Wright]

Often wonder how far short we were from breaking through!

If the powers that be ever let us back in, we might find that Eldon Hole was only a couple of metres?

 

[Boy Engineer]

Back in the seventies, TSG and some of us PDMHS folks were looking at Water Icicle Close. We thought that the logical extension would be down the final rift and then on again. We dismantled and winched down a drilling rig, set it up at 45 degrees to drill straight ahead hoping to find a cavity beyond the rift. We had a compressor on the surface and 45 gallon barrels full of water for the flush line and drilled all weekend until we used all the rods we had, can't remember how long now. Didn't find anything...
Often wonder how far short we were from breaking through!

I well remember the sense of anticipation when the first hole went in, and how that slowly evaporated with each subsequent one. In a sense we did extend the cave, albeit at around 38mm diameter. Future generations will assume it’s the work of T’owd Men, which is unfortunately becoming truer by the day.

 

[Mark]

We missed the Stoney Middleton master cave in several places by only a few digging sessions, but back then access to Glebe was very limited. My only regret is that John Beck never realised his dream

 

[tdobson]

Some lovely stories here everyone! Thanks so much for sharing!

I particularly enjoy the ones about places I've taken as "always existed".

My only regret is that John Beck never realised his dream

yes 100%

Certain to say had the original diggers in the early 90's preserved a little longer we wouldn't have benefited from modern day conservation and filmed footage.

for sure - I sometimes wish many historic pieces of cave that have been discovered, had had @Adventure Traveller on scene to document.

Whenever you walk along clonking great passage, its rare, almost impossible to experience that moment of first discovery unless you were there, or @Adventure Traveller was there.