06/02/22
Sunday afternoon trip just the two of us again. Rob after just over an hour’s sleep following a wet Saturday nightshift on the railway.
Super strong wind/gusts and horizontal rain as we were heading through Castleton and up through Winnats. Luckily caught a gap in the torrential rain as we quickly got changed.
I’d dug out an old high viz jacket for the walk up the hill and Rob his old Buffalo, would’ve been desperately cold without them.
A pool had formed in the field by the entrance, and we could see how drippy it was as soon as we opened the lid. Rob headed off down first with a lump hammer (recovered from its almost decade long stint down Streaks Pot a week ago) and I slowly followed him down, switching out the old anchor nuts for stainless ones. I’d also taken some snippers, so removed all the bang-wire that was hanging around the top of the 1st pitch. Rob was going to try and bash out the wedged block that sits about 2/3rds of the way down the 2nd pitch, removing this would enable the rope to run straight on the ascent and hopefully stop your pantin coming off right when you need it most.
Unfortunately it wouldn’t shift and by the time I’d got to the bottom, Rob was already very cold. It was pissing it down the shaft and there was nowhere to shelter at the bottom. He was also just wearing thermals under his oversuit to keep things slim and the 1 hour sleep he’d had probably hadn’t helped, so we decided to bail.
Rob headed back up while I deposited some tools and bags in the corner. I then collected up all the empty clear plastic bags from the last diggers and headed out, collecting an old stemple just past the tight bit on the way out.
Rob was super cold and visibly shaking by the time we’d surfaced and we had to run back to the van. After struggling to get changed he then spent about 10 minutes lying across the front cab under 3 down jackets and a sleeping bag before eventually warming up.
It’s horrid down there when it’s wet, can’t dig at the bottom and the tight section is particularly grim as that’s where all the water converges. Best wait til it’s drier… (Rob, Mike)
27/02/22
Back for another session, prior to which I’d made a detailed step by step plan for the day’s proceedings. So detailed, Rob didn’t bother reading it.
We changed and tramped off up the hill in cold but glorious winter sunshine only to find that the shakehole full of snow.
It had cleared a bit around the entrance, but it would be nice to have a more ventilated lid when this one eventually gives up. It was a relief to get out of the chilly wind and was nice to find the pot comparatively dry compared to last trip’s horror conditions.
We regrouped at the chamber and set about Stage 1 of my meticulously planned plan. Stage 1 involved gardening the 2nd pitch of loose material, the smaller stuff got chucked down and the larger stuff got hauled up to the chamber and carefully stacked. Stage 2 was to break up the block that was wedged in the rift about 5m from the bottom. This involved Rob hanging above me whilst I passed him up the drill and he successfully plug and feathered it without it falling on me. This removed, the abseil rope can now hang vertically right the way down the pitch and enable us to use it as a hauling line.
Rob headed back up to the chamber and we set about practicing this theory (Stage 3). I filled up one of the slim yellow tackle bags with empty sandbags for bulk and a few rocks for some weight. It went up reassuringly well, the only hitch being the pull-down rope I’d clipped to the bottom was nowhere near long enough and it disappeared out of sight leaving me marooned at the bottom. Fortunately nothing got snagged on the way back down. We then tried the old warmbac bag followed by the drill bag, both of which I had to pull over into the wider part of the rift at the bottom before Rob could pull them up with some effort. So whatever we use will have to be about the diameter of the slim yellow bags (<200mm).
Stage 4 saw us both back up in the chamber and Rob set to breaking up some of the larger stacked blocks whilst I hauled the bags up the 1st pitch and then out to the surface, successfully proving to ourselves that you can haul stuff right from the bottom to the top in 3 phases.
Drill batteries dead, we exited to darkness and plodded back down the hill. No downward progress made, but jobs ticked off that’ll help make progress in the long run.
Next trip, we’ll clear out the squeeze at the bottom of the entrance pot (to make coming and going and hauling out easier) and haul up the blocks from the chamber (to create a mid-point stacking area).
For future ref: The entrance climb is 6m, 1st pitch is 11m, 2nd pitch is 26m (Rob, Mike)
Derbyshire Pennine Club 