Team: Chris H & Rob E
Driving to pick up Rob the snow on the A515 was making me glad I’d had the foresight to don my furry suit before I’d set out, saving the uncomfortable change at the Waterfall car park. I had mentioned earlier in the week about putting a ladder in just in case the sump was open, in my rush leaving I had totally forgotten to pick it up. Anyway, with the rain we’d had I was sure that Ward Wins Crawl would be sumped.
Rob collected we head to the carpark, and the snow had now stopped, still, I was glad I didn’t have to strip off to get my furry on and used the time to sort out the drill and batteries we also had Rob’s butter knife (longest crowbar in Derbyshire) to aid in tickling around. On the way down to the hole I decided to wager a pint on the sump being up, not sure whether Rob took the bet or not. Through the entrance crawl (hopefully only once this week) Rob reached the top of Ward Wins and I heard him shout up that the sump was open. I laughed thinking he was just after a free pint but no, it was open. It really is such a strange sump.
With no ladder our only option was to continue with the bypass but with the sump open it was a great opportunity to see if we could get some kind of voice connection on the other side. I set off with the drill to the dig face and Rob went through Ward wins. After a couple of minutes I was at the dig face and was sure I could hear Rob rustling around so gave him a shout sure enough we could hear each other however Rob though he could just hear me through the Sump. I wasn’t convinced as my body was blocking the way back to the sump and could clearly hear Rob from both the small right hand rift and less so in front.
After a bit of drilling and a bit more shouting Rob had figured out that there was a small tube/crack directly above the sump which must have connected to the small rift on my right but also a slightly larger crack on the same wall further up that gave connection to my straight ahead rift. We switched places and both confirmed the 2 different connections.
It was now obvious that we had a really feasible bypass and that capping could be done from both sides so with the sump being open, and only one set of gear, we opted to dig the other side and see how far we could get. Rob collected the capping gear and brought it all through and within a matter of minutes we were off. We started by taking off a large flake to make more room in the small rift which was obliterated with one lot of caps. Then after a mixture of capping the side walls, chiselling off flakes, prying out boulders and removing spoil the crack seemed to open a little more up ahead.
Chris putting in the first cap of many
Great success!
There was a large flake on the left had wall that if removed would give access into the more open rift but it would have been more advisable to remove some more of the left had wall to get it out. It got the better of me and Rob’s glory grabbing traits were rubbing off. So I capped it and yes as suspected it flew forward and blocked the way on. At this point I thought it was a good idea to swap with Rob and advised that some of the left had side needed taking out to get the huge flake out. Cheers Rob.
With the way on clear and with a bit more space created it was now possible to get in another body length. With time ticking on we thought it would be a good idea for one of us to head back round and see how good the voice connection was, so back through Ward Wins I went. Reaching the other side I could clearly hear Rob straight on not only that I was sure I could see his light. I switch my lamp off and a couple of seconds later, through the small rift, I could see Rob had taken his helmet off, put it on the ground and could now clearly see his light. There was around 1.5 - 2m between where we stopped capping and Robs light.
Both excited now knowing we were heading in the right direction and the previous trips were all worthwhile we couldn't wait to get back to the pub to tell the others who were there for the monthly meet.
In the pub and suitably refreshed, we discussed the previous weeks guess on where the bypass would come out and both Mark and Jon P were wrong, here’s a little diagram to set things straight…
WWC By-pass Predictions - Chris H
We reckon with a team on both sides (provided the sump is open) a few more trips should see the by-pass complete which guarantees access and allows the other projects in Waterfall Swallet to commence.
We’ll keep you posted over the next few weeks.
The dig after one session, great progress!