Waterfall Hole
This drains to SMMC, so definitely worth a look....
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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This was pitched to be a memorable trip, and it didn’t disappoint.
Same team as last week, partly because I think the others would feel too much like glory grabbing wankers if they joined us tonight. Pre-beers were quick and we smashed it straight to the end, grabbing a bit of content enroute.
Arriving at the end I start digging the boulders low down in the hope that I can ferret a safe enough route through, whilst Jon inspects above. In half an hour I get quite far but everything is loose, including a large boulder above me which is too big to get rid of tonight. I was super keen to breakthrough so decided to change tack and hit the route above. This involved dropping stuff down into where we’d just been clearing and the others weren’t that convinced of my plan. I told them I’d be through in less than an hour at which they baulked but I stubbornly set to.
Dropping boulders like they're out of fashion
After only a few minutes I could see the black space beyond. Progress was quite tricky because almost everything moved and it was difficult to know whether to cap stuff or try drop it down out of the way. Jon was exceptionally helpful steering from the back. Eventually rocks were moving forwards and down easily and I could finally see clearly see into the void beyond, and it look tasty. In an unusual act of consideration I decided not to go head first, just as well as it turned out to be a 3m drop down into the tall passage heading off. I checked my watch, 57 minutes. 😊
Rob squeezing into the void!
Joe comes through to join me, followed by Jon. However Jon managed to use a wrong handhold which then drops straight onto his leg. We both gasp at the blood red colour inside the fresh hole in his oversuit, only to see it was just his red furry suit! Seemingly able to still walk, we step back and look up at the other, much larger, boulders above him and realise we’ve all been quite lucky so far.
Jon just before impact...
The bloody hole!
Anyways, the passage leads 10m or so to what seems to be a big boulder choke. There are holes everywhere so we split up and start pushing stuff. Excitement in the air! Some bits are muddy, some clean washed, some quite calcited with plenty of formations. It’s a weird choke, quite different from the main Waterfall Hole choke. Myself and Joe end up quite low down at one point, maybe 10m lower than where we started, digging through gaps to access a very clean washed bit that keeps going down, just needs capping.
Everyone splits up...
We meet back with Jon in a new place, all via different routes, and whilst they poke a rift I climb up in the roof. Here it opens out with multiple ways off, but there’s lots of loose rocks around which start falling on them below so I pause. I notice that some of these rocks almost look placed; maybe miners have been in here?! The walls are all natural looking so it seems unlikely. I shout this down and Jon says he thought he had seen a stemple hole. I go down to see and it may well be one, but it’s hard to say and it’d be in a very weird location.
We now realise we were pretty late for pub, and as it was going to be a breakthrough night a few others were planning to come see us so we figured we should leave. Hilariously I have almost now idea of the way out and even got my watch compass out to help. Climbing back out the dug section was a little unnerving, so that will probably either need a little bit of work or just passing through with blinkers on.
We made the pub, it was nice to see everyone and bask in the glory.
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- Written by: Joe Buck
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From the other side of the world in New Zealand, I had been closely monitoring the stellar work of the rest of the gang back home in Waterfall Hole. The huge clean-washed passages and glow worms of NZ can’t compare to the squalid misery of a good Stoney dig. I was jealous.
The dig face was described as being right up my street: flat-out capping laying on one side, with very little room to work, and virtually no stacking space. After we’d made our way through the lovely new sump bypass, we negotiated the way to Westy’s bit, all the while Jon moaned incessantly about the size of my tackle bag. Rob was going to head off and tick off another lead Chris has spotted the week before, while Jon and I headed towards the main dig. The boys were gracious enough to let me have a go first as I had yet to see it.
At the dig face, I was initially confronted with a jumble of rocks where Rob had previously broken up the large boulder blocking the way on. A quick tickle with a crowbar and I managed to bring the lower blocks further towards me and get the others to collapse on my arms and head… I could now begin one-handed capping them into smaller chunks so they could slot neatly into our limited stacking space.
After a few hours of repeatedly shuffling around in the tight rift and launching and kicking rocks back at Jon, I managed to clear enough space above the boulder to squeeze into a narrow perpendicular rift. This made capping a lot more pleasant as I was now able to swing a hammer properly and not have my face right next to the capping bar.
The way on appeared to be down a narrow slot on the far side of the boulder/bedding with a reasonable cold draft hitting me in the face. I could just about see some space beyond through a small hole, but there was a lot more rock in the way and the capping now required me to go headfirst down the small hole and round a slight bend. This therefore involved disassembling the capping rod so I could get in, drill a hole, and then put the rod back in the hole in pieces and reassemble every time. At least I could just lob rocks further down now though.
JP in the squeezy bit into the chamber
After about an hour of sweating and swearing, I was tantalisingly close to be able to squeeze through into the space beyond, but the others began to complain of cold, with their faith in my positivity waning. I just couldn’t get this one jammed rock shifted. Growing increasingly frustrated, I threw a small handful of caps in the rock for one final effort, and with a satisfying crack and rumble of rocks into the space below I could finally wriggle through!
I dropped into a small chamber and immediately called Rob and Jon in. Jon, who was in front of Rob in the crawl, was sceptical to come through as he didn’t think we’d all fit and figured my threshold for impressive chambers was pretty low. Rob however, like a dog with two capping rods, was scrabbling to get in and have a look. There’s an obvious clean-washed channel down to the right as you enter, which is the obvious way on as it’s still heading in the right direction, and black space can be seen further ahead. This still requires capping and is currently underneath a huge and terrifying cantilevered boulder. Some climbs at the back of the chamber led up to more Waterfall Hole-esque jumbled boulders but with no obvious way on.
Happy boys
Plenty of piss-taking ensued as I was crowned chief GGW for leaving for three months only to return after all the hard work was complete and bag this find. It was getting late so we made a run for the pub. I am looking forward to heading back here - good prospects, sociable, and plenty of stacking space. Winner.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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SR...What? (JP)
This was the first time in ages that I hadn’t been staring at the forecast in the days before the trip, trying to work out if the entrance was going to be sumped. The completion of the sump bypass last week now gives all-weather access to the rest of the cave, although that now means we have no excuse to not get digging.
With just the three core diggers again this week, and with quite a few “setting up” jobs to get on with, we decided to split into two teams. Chris n Jon stayed at the entrance pitch to look at putting some staples in to avoid the need of a ladder or SRT, similar to what we did in Madame Guillotine in Baggers. I left them to it and went ahead towards Westy’s Bit (admittedly with a bit of guidance from Jon as I had no idea which way to turn!).
Shortly after the pitch is a very technical squeeze over a tight rift which is not easy and Chris fell victim to on his return last time. So I spent a bit of time this trip with a length of 3x2 and a 2 foot long wood saw and ended up with a relatively poorly positioned stemple which will hopefully be of some use. After that I continued on to the end where I could begin forging a route ahead. It had been over 2 months since I was here last (https://www.eldonpotholeclub.org.uk/homepage/current-uk-projects/waterfall-swallets/702-500-a-goer-04-12-2026), not due to lack of trying, so I was super excited to finally be laid out with drill in hand ready to start smashing the place up. And the draught today was steady and very encouraging.
Crap stemple better than none?
A few caps just back from the end gave me a bit more room to work and I could finally take a good look at the boulder stood up and blocking the way. At over a metre tall it’s much bigger than the passage (somehow!) and whilst I could just about wobble the rock it was clear it needed to be broken into a lot of pieces to be moved out of the way. This was quite a tricky challenge because with each cap the pieces got smaller but still kind of balanced on each other, until they didn’t and instead rolled down onto my head. At least they were free and I could then shuttle each of them back about 2 body lengths to where the tiny bit of stacking space is. Slow work, but I was loving it.
The end boulder in pieces
After an hour Jon n Chris arrived and whilst I continued digging they spent 30 minutes or so widening a squeeze I had passed which to be fair was pretty tricky. Jon’s capping was yet again off form, however this time it was seemingly due to him using ‘little Rob’s little party poppers’ instead of proper caps, so after lots of swearing he came and stole a load of Chris’s big ones off me.
Jon in the newly widened squeeze
Come 21:45 they had finished widening the squeeze and I’d made a proper mess of the end so we called “pub”. On the way out we all enjoyed using the new stemple, although thankfully it’s still a very technical piece of cave not dissimilar to Coconut Airways in Cussey. At the pitch I was keen to see their staples, until they admitted they’d spent most of the time scratching their heads (and Chris doing an emergency dye testing experiment using some of his own toxic excretions) to then agree that no staples are needed and just a traverse line will be fine.
Nice to finally have a proper trip, we all were pretty knackered and the beer tasted oh so good. Can’t wait to get back digging the end.
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- Written by: Fabian Ehlers
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“Who is this stranger… It’s been bloody ages since I’ve last seen you” exclaimed Chris as I entered his car to meet the crew for pre-session drinks.
“Thanks mate… Been busy, with like work and family stuff”… but it has been ages, hasn’t it? Little Waterfall Swallet was the last project I’ve helped out on. Since then, I kind of fizzled into the background risking the humiliating removal of your rights to call yourself a member of Team Awesome!
Having followed the reports over the last few months I knew that tonight would be a very special night and it was only right to be part of this and grab some glory.
After a little catch up we got dressed and headed to the entrance, only Rob sporting a wetsuit this time round as he was aiming to cap away from the far sump side whilst Chris and I would stay on the dry side.
This being my first time into Waterfall Hole I wasn’t sure what to expect, the entrance is something which was never discussed, but the low flat our crawl was actually quiet cool… Completely smooth and easy to manoeuvre through. Within less than a minute we reached the junction where the wet meets the dry and Rob didn’t bother hanging around before going headfirst into the sump, as soon as his face touched the water, he realised this was a stupid idea. But Rob being Rob, he went off and it was rather eerie hearing him literally 5m away through the rock.
Chris and I focused on the dry side and started capping our way towards the anticipated right tun whilst Rob and Jon came the other direction.
One thing I realised that Rob’s earmuffs attached to his helmet although looking absolutely manic would have actually come in very handy. Capping microwave sized boulders inches from your head with no ear protection adds another level of awesomeness… or stupidity?
A little bit of stuck capping rods, change of drills and especially replacing the little toy hammer Jon used on his side with a proper piece of metal to finally allow him to join the club of cappers.
Whilst Chris was at the dig face and me supporting at the rear by stacking broken boulders into every possible gap to ensure we have an easy access/egress, I frequently looked down into the sump pool and was toying with the idea of just going for a push through and meet the other guys to say Hi.
But then I heard Rob shout “Are you coming through then?”, wait what? They’ve done it?
I quickly abandoned the idea of going for a drunk and raced towards the dig face only to see Chris’s legs peeking around the corner and the rest of his body being contorted into some weird exorcist pose in order to make the dogleg bend. A few kicks against the wall and he managed to get himself to the other side. Cheering was heard echoing through the cave as if England has just won the World Cup (you wish!).
Shortly after I was beckoned through the section to join the team, on your left, bend yourself in half, kick the wall and push like a madman. And you are through! Entering the slightly bigger chamber I was impressed at how quickly the rocks changed from what I’ve seen so far, this area was very clean washed, a lot of water must go through here.
And then I felt it… this feeling of euphoria, that you’ve been part of achieving something amazing. Not everyone may appreciate the impact this has on further explorations in this cave by achieving a dry route and bypassing the sump. Now digs can happen every week despite the sump being closed.
That feeling of being a selfish glory grabbing wanker… Especially when you turn up on breakthrough night, can’t get any better than that!
I was quickly shown the way on into the deeper cave whilst the rest were packing up and started to head out. I followed through the amazing new dry section (having completely forgot the idea of the sump) and we exited into a lovely white coating of snow making this an extra special night.
Post-beers were enjoyed at the pub by the team, but I instead opted to make the long journey home, grinning to myself of what I have been part of… whilst still hearing the ringing in my ears and the smell of gun powder from the caps…
I shall update you on the next breakthrough in this cave when some glory is to be grabbed.
Fabian
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Just Chris and I this week for some more rock removal fun! It had pissed it down with rain up until the event which left us cowering in the van until the very last second!
After a hasty pre beer we donned oversuits and walked down into the shake hole. The water was backed up as expected. As long as it wasn't flowing into the entrance, we would be ok.
Chris sorted gear above WW's whilst I took a look at the end and removed the rocks from the previous week. Chris made for the first shift, working at the face for about an hour before I took over. I started by removing a constriction slightly further back in the crawl to make dragging a bit easier. By this point the capping bar had zero extensions and the whole procedure was getting a little scary as I was becoming more and more deaf! After some time, I made work on the face and could visibly see the connection to the otherside.
Chris had another quick go but my little kitten arms had just about given up the goose with all the smashing, so we retreated to the Mechanics for posties after a quick swim under the waterfall.
Note to team: there may be a few larger rocks in WW's. (Thanks Chris!)
