Waterfall Hole
This drains to SMMC, so definitely worth a look....
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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After Jon, Joe and others had been putting in a few good shifts down WH, a few of the gang were quite keen to go for a fun trip about the place. Jim unfortunately had to pull out last minute but me and Chris turned up excited to be shown around by the big JP.
Pre-beers in the cold rain made me miss summer(!), but soon we were heading down the huge shakehole hoping both that the lake wasn’t too high (it wasn’t) and that Chris would fit in the entrance squeeze (he did). I won the bet that Ward Wins Crawl would be wet, although Jon probably thinks he won because it wasn’t actually uncomfortably wet, and soon we were laddering down the entrance pitch and showing virgin Chris about.
First on my list was Westy’s Bit, which Mark had been on about for a while and some research in John Beck’s diaries certainly gave some tantalising insights. This bit is quite near the entrance and is nicely high in the cave, away from the muddy wallows below. What’s even better is that it is away from the chaos of the choke that forms most of Waterfall Hole and is heading south east (towards SMMC!). So yer, defs a good target on paper.
The entrance starts hilariously with a well hidden tight bend in the roof of a rift which requires a bit of thinking. A few boulder ruckles and up ‘n unders and soon a passage is reached with is heading bang south east and covered in scallops. A small, rifty aven is reached with boulders in the roof blocking the way, but black spaces beyond will need inspecting at some point. Ahead another small chamber marks the end of the survey, but a small hole in the floor leads off into another squeeze and a continuation of the rifty passage beyond, although now smaller.
Recalling his trip here a few years ago with Luke, Jon soon squirmed off into a couple passages at the end and confirmed that one of these goes to a little drop where he nearly got stuck last time, whilst the other gets too tight. I went for a look at the latter and openly admit to getting a little excited about it. It’s so clean washed and only one boulder blocks the way on, passed which a good few metres of passable rift is visible. Small draught to top it off, this has LWS vibes all over it, and I’m in 500.
Our antics had taken more time than we anticipated so the WH tour would have to wait for another day. Goes to show though that this cave will need a LOT of work to inspect it all! We start heading out and we notice a small aven to the side was now flow quite a lot, getting us all a little aware of the potential for a flood risk. Nevertheless I go poke a few holes whilst they head off. A few minutes later I get to the silly bend near the entrance to find a Chris down the hole pulling a slight face of panic. It’s a hard hole to get out of, let alone then into the tight passage off! Jon’s overly calming words making me more anxious so I slip down the hole next to Chris. A little cuddle for old times then he climbs up my body, the gravity seemingly strong in this part of the cave right now, and actually quite easily gets himself out. A stemple here will defs work.
We get out, the entrance wasn’t sumped, and then we went to the Eldon pub meet. It was great.
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Joe and I were blessed with a guest appearance from the big one himself this week! The weather had been fairly rancid all day, leaving lots of stood water on the top roads. Luckily the rain had eased just as we were pre-beering.
Joe with his newly found, precious belt
We had a quick check of the water levels in the swallet before we descended, the stream seemed to have only just begin to back up which wouldn’t have any affect unless something biblical came down once under. We made quick progress to the pitches and found an easy free climb to avoid Hockenhulls rift pitch, which will come in handy for the future. There was a visible and audible difference down amongst the boulders today, with water pissing from everywhere in Chandra’s series. Upon reaching Boggie’s bit things didn’t seem normal. I awkwardly descended the pitch (splits and all) and came face to face with a much larger body of water towards the east. I checked the dig and the tantalizing stream from last week was a swollen sump pool – DANG!
Rather than retreat Joe and I made the most of the drills battery and enlarged the rift heading west. It’s now possible to comfily access the pitch down. Hopefully this can be descended next week if water levels subside. We retreated hastily and broke surface some 3hrs later. The wash off under the waterfall was epic! The weight of the water pounding down was immense, nearly enough to knock you off your feet! Mechanics for debrief and refreshments.
Washing off in the waterfall afterwards
Joe didn't wash off well
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- Written by: Joe Buck
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Team: Jon Pemberton and Joe Buck
In the spirit of ticking off some more of Jon’s back catalogue of ‘good’ leads which he’s been harbouring in the back of his mind for decades, we decided to take a jaunt down Waterfall Hole to Boggie’s bit. I’d not been down Waterfall Hole before, and Jon had not returned to this particular bit since he was digging there in 2009. We had relatively limited expectations of what he described as a ‘narrow slot with the sound of a stream beyond’, but went armed with capping gear to see what we could manage.
The entrance crawl to Waterfall Hole turned out to be by far and away the most hazardous part of the trip – a 20m low crawl with broken glass bottles strewn along its length. I tried to clear the worst of the offending items out of the way, but the constant threat of a shard in the knee or wrist made for a particularly grim start.
Once we’d made our way through a very muddy Chandra’s Series, we approached the crawl through to the head of the extremely awkward pitch down into Boggie’s. Jon made some unconvincing noises about the condition of the single rusted bolt we were intending to belay from, and so he placed an additional stainless one next to it and lowered the ladder down the fluted pitch. It caught on every single flake of rock on the way down and has to sit unreassuringly between the flutes. I followed with the tackle bag full of capping gear and likewise got every strap and sling caught on every flake of rock – it’s incredibly annoying!
Once we’d both done the splits negotiating getting off the ladder (that wasn’t quite long enough), we had a quick nose around. Jon’s memory of the main lead was correct and there was indeed a slot with the sound of a stream beyond. It was too tight and curving to get a proper look into, but appeared to reach a perpendicular wall about two metres in.
What Jon didn’t recall, and theorised had been uncovered in the last 15 years, was a low passage at the opposite end of the rift which dropped down to a small flowing sump with no airspace. Directly above the sump I could see it open out a bit above, but unfortunately the smooth walls were coated in a thick coating of slimy mud which made climbing up difficult. Could be one to return to but would be much easier to tackle with a rope and some bolts!
We decided to spend a bit of time capping the western end to see if we could access the stream we could hear beyond. Jon went first, and after I’d confessed that I’d forgotten to bring anything to turn the capping rod in case it got stuck, I recommended he did a thorough job of drilling the hole out to avoid the situation altogether. With the hole prepped, Jon looked extremely disapprovingly at my capping mat, which was in fact an old welly I’d cut up – possibly a child’s one, as it didn’t cover much. He nervously tapped away at the bar for what felt like an eternity, failing to set them off. He blamed the mat, he blamed the slippy handle of my hammer, and eventually, he blamed the capping rod for being too twangy – opting instead to remove a section and position it between his legs with some kind of vague hope that the vulnerable position he was in would yield the caps into going off. To no avail – the bar was stuck.
Eventually he managed to get the bar to wiggle back out again, and I offered to have a go to see if I could get it to work. I pushed the bar back in, stood clear, and hit it once, immediately setting them off with a satisfying crack. I then took charge and managed to set off around five or six sets without incident and managed to remove a significant part of both walls, unfortunately still not allowing us to see beyond. Jon took over once again to see what he could manage before we made our way out. Once again, he prepped everything and began hitting the bar, this time with a bit more conviction. And once again the bar got stuck, only this time he failed to remove it and confessed that the bar may now being staying in there permanently. After I’d managed to bash it back out with the help of the crowbar, I once again twisted it and set it off first hit. Despite the irrefutable evidence to the contrary, Jon insisted it had nothing to do with his technique…
Feeling quite pleased with myself, I began to make my way up the ladder and promptly fell from grace after I managed to get the bag stuck at the top of the pitch, unable to move upwards or turn around and move back onto the ladder – I was stranded. I sheepishly called down to Jon who, despite my previous piss-taking, kindly freed me, allowing me to scrabble out the constriction at the top. We left the hanger in place at the top of the pitch in case we returned and made our way out via the waterfall for a quick wash off.
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Rapido trip down Waterfall, Just Rob and I to climb the aven at the end of Great Gunns Rift in Waterfall Hole. Rob fresh of his expedition in Mulu was not ready for the freezing cold night what lay ahead. Temperature at the shakehole was below zero. We quickly kitted up, armed with a drill, SRT and rope which we didn’t need and headed for the Wardwinn’s Crawl. Rob had been down Waterfall once some 15 years ago so was keen for another look with hindsight of SMMC.
Wardwinn’s wasn’t too bad as it had dried out nicely but the wet part was still wet but we managed to keep out of it as much as possible. Down the pitch and I led Rob through the maze of boulders to Waterfall Chamber. He remarked on how efficient I got us down here as with no prior knowledge this would be tricky navigation. From Waterfall Chamber we took the solid rift heading east and started the shuffle up through the rift. No doubt we were the first people to climb this with SRT kits on and what a silly thing it was, it just seemed to snag everywhere. We entered the aven at the top and a second look (and a second pair of eyes) it was obvious that a bolt was not required. I climbed first and Rob quickly followed. We put a handline on just in case via a natural thread.
The chamber at the top was pretty grim, black in colour, approx. 2m squared with no way on and would require some serious shoring to dig. Rob checked out the other direction via a delicate manoeuvre over a flake, again – no way on. Quickly crapping the place out we headed back without delay and made our way to surface. It sure was freezing when we surfaced and it took me a good few hours to warm back up. Post beers next to the fire in the Bull’s head was appropriate.
Another one bites the dust.
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Just Luke and I on this fine warm evening. It was Luke’s first time down Waterfall Hole and it’s certainly one to get acquainted with… The entrance crawl was as pleasant as always and luckily it’s still rigged so easy progress down to Hockenhull’s rift.
The mission for this evening was to explore the South/East extensions to Westy’s bit as Jim and I messed it up last time around. Once through the awkward entrance (where Luke remarked on how ‘ard Jim was for getting through it) we headed up and left over a rather unstable boulder ruckle. A weave up and down between blocks got us into the right place and we were now in solid rock for a change. A bit of crawling leads to a sizeable hading cross rift but all leads seem to crap out in boulder chokes. A crawl here at floor level leads to a tight squeeze and a further crawl split into two directions. Left continued along a cross rift to a too tight continuation (draughting outwards) whereas right dropped down a pot to a choke in the floor.
Mission completed we headed down to Waterfall Chamber after a few navigational errors. Barely any water in sight today. We now progressed up the entrance crawl to Great Gunn’s rift. Another interesting lead in this crazy place. It seems from talking to JSB back in the day nobody had been back since it’s original exploration in the 70’s and the diggers left it in haste! The climb at the end involves some delicacy to avoid entombing oneself! Another climb follows this and reaches a large cross rift where a light connection is made back to Waterfall Chamber. A further hading climb in a rift reaches the fluted shaft which I climbed for 6m to a bold step across to an enticing black void in boulders. Here I retraced my steps as Luke was back at the start.
After a quick photo stop we made our way to daylight (yay!) and vowed to return with a bit of rope to access the void proper.
