Cussey Pot
During Lockdown 2020 a new hole was spotted to draught bigger and stronger than any cave in the Peak. We dug it open and this is what happened....
Full description of the trip can be viewed here.
The current survey can be downloaded from here.
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Jeff, Dave B, Joe & Jon P
We met at the usual time and made our ways to the bottom of Cussey in pairs to avoid boulder dislodging catastrophes! Once all de-kitted we made our way through Loper Lust to the dig which was now no longer dry and a pool of water had formed at the bottom of the ramp. I took to the dig face first being first down the hole and with Rob stating that breakthrough was imminent I was keen to crack on whilst trying to keep dry.
I made my way up into the first air bell which was roomy enough to laydown in. We ferreted about 10 kibbles which now required feet hooking to bring forward to the dig face, a turf rolling technique was applied which seemed to work well rolling the sheets of clay up rather than digging down with fingers which seemed a waste of time. I could now see through to a bigger air bell and cleared just enough mud so I could squeeze through. Now in air bell 2 I could see forward approx. 4m where the floor dropped away with lots of popsicle pendulums on the roof which thwarted progress. Luckily these were quite easy to remove but seeing that breakthrough was no longer as close as we though I made way for someone else to have a go.
Dave was up next and took a whopping 2 more kibbles which now had to be ferreted from the arse end of nowhere and limited dragging without lots of movement from everyone in the chain. Dave managed to push forward into a further air bell (3) but it wasn't until Joe took his turn at the dig face that we reached the 4th air bell albeit with Joe losing both gloves in the process and completely caking his glasses with mud.
We now had to resort to stacking at the sides as it was impossible to drag kibbles back to the chamber. Jeff had the final dig and could see a few more metres ahead to where the passage seemed to be changing direction. We left covered in slop and now need to decide a further plan of action for the dig.
Breakthrough must be only metres away...
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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A sneaky weekend evening trip to fit in with my diary. Jeff found willing help in the form of Joe, and I was glad to see he was well enough informed that he smashed down his own prebeer before we headed in.
I went straight to the dig with capping gear whilst Jeff gave Joe the personal tour. Unfortunately this extra time didn’t help much as I spent most of it trying to get the drill chuck to work, it seems the last few months of Cussey have not been kind on the drill. Brute force eventually got it operating ok and I set to work dismantling the boulders that were buried in the floor whilst Jeff and Joe made swift work of shifting all the debris back. Once completed we swapped and each had a session digging, making great progress and getting pretty knackered and fed up of Luke’s poor music taste (we really should have a playlist that doesn’t have his additions for when he’s not here).
They headed out but I wanted a quick look at the end, primarily to see if the capping gear would be needed for the next trip, which I wasn’t going to be on. At the dig face I was able to squeeze over top and into a 2m long airbell. At the end the roof comes down but then looked like it jumped straight back up again. Ahead blackness. Should be a productive trip next week…
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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No Lukey boy tonight so just Rob, Jeff and I on tonight's now allowed group of 6 trip and with a right to roam again.
Unfortunately we were still blessed with Luke's "presence" by his shit taste in music hence the obscure title name for this entry.
Jeff was a smidge late so Rob and I had pre-beers early, we also had a quick look at the Saltpan down from the car park which makes for a lovely washing place afterward and got rid of most of the gloop. We made good progress in Loper Lust with three people: 1 @ the dig face, 2 @ the top of the slope dragging up the kibbles and 3 @ the small chamber cobbing slop up into any crack going. We must've done about 50 kibbles in total and made good progress uncovering a few large rocks in the floor which need capping. Pretty certain we could also probably gain visual contact with the other side of the dig if we were to try it again. We all had a turn at each location and all enjoyed making fun of Luke's shite taste in music.
We gained surface about 11pm. Onwards to glory.
Team of three now allowed again
Jeff Wade in the Loper Lust Dig, by Rob
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Team A (Rob & Luke) - Team Doom.
Team B (Jeff & Jon) - Team Cussey.
Great trip this evening making 2 vocal connections from Cussey to Doom. After leaving appropriate time Jeff and I bimbled down Cussey and with our agreed meeting points and times made our way to location A @ 1920 hours (Loper Lust). Jeff got stuck right in and inserted himself head first at the end of the dig. We made radio contact and shortly after crystal clear voice contact with Team A who were located in the flat out windy dig above the bendy ladder (http://www.eldonpotholeclub.org.uk/homepage/current-uk-projects/doom-articles/341-best-lead-in-derbyshire). This was great and meant we could roughly orientate our survey to the presumed location, although no light connection made.
Next location was at the bottom of the mine workings in Cussey for 2000 hours this proved to be pretty tricky as neither of us had been there before. The pitch up had an awkward free-hanging traverse to get off the rope and afterwards we had to re-rig the pitch down as it had been de-rigged and unfortunately we didn't have a spanner. We gained radio contact but failed on the vocal connection after failing to get down the pitch. Although we did uncover a nice sized tubed at the base of the hauling shaft.
Luke radiolocating from Doom
On to point C for 2015 hours which was much more reasonable. This was at Rob and Jeff's quick poke in the base of IG chamber. Here again we made radio contact but no vocal connection after loads of serious banging - nothing.
Last but not least point D - Black Draught. Here Jeff offered to insert himself into the end of the crawl whilst I kept my SRT kit on. We made radio contact then eventually Voice contact but barely audible. Although it sounds we were more clear at their end in The Wet West than we they were at our end. That concluded our trip so we slowly made our way to surface - mission accomplished!
Sounds like Team Doom had a great trip checking out some old haunts and had a good look at the end of the Western end of Doom which the survey does not do much justice.
Next week we'll start to dig Loper Lust as it seems the easiest which sounds like something we'd do.
Luke exiting from Cliffstile
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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After no trip last week we were gagging to get down Cussey and have a poke at the end of Luper Lust, which was left at a too small hole down into a chamber below with a huge draught coming up. During pre-beers me n Jeff put the world to right then headed on down.
The cave was drier than I had expected after last week’s rain and in no time we were dawdling in Inglorious Bastards delaying getting filthy. I headed in first with drilling gear, followed by Jeff. Whilst he rolled around in the filthy crawl I started capping the hole bigger. Conditions were cramped but not too muddy compared to the bit Jeff was in! The third cap went off earlier than I was ready for and the edge of the rock dropped down the hole taking the capping rod with it! Thankfully the rock removed was huge and we were able to comfortably get through, otherwise it would have been a wasted trip!
A meter drop down landed us in a low room with dry mud on the floor, with enough crazy paving formations to get a southerner excited. The only way on was a small letter box on the far wall underneath a calcite false ceiling, which was the source of the draught. A little digging got me through to a flatout phreatic passage maybe 1m wide and sloping down at 30 degrees. It looked a bit like a death trap but I reckoned I could probably turn around at the bottom, and worse case Jeff could save me somehow. I slid down this as far as I could, phone out in front taking some final selfies before my long and slow death. Unfortunately the mud got too close to the roof after only about 5m. Here the passage can be seen to flatten out, weird (draught driven?) calcite formations littering the roof pendants. It looks very much like beyond the end of a dig we did in Doom back in 2018:
http://www.eldonpotholeclub.org.uk/homepage/current-uk-projects/doom-articles
Jeff digging through the letter box
Rob head first at the dig face
The bitter end, for now....
It’s going to be a tricky place to dig, head down in this little tube, but there’s plenty of stacking space in the room behind and its bound to be easier than digging from the other side.
Thankfully it was just large enough to turn around, and we spent a little time digging the letter box larger, again whilst bitching and moaning about everything wrong in the world. We then headed back out to Inglorious, each carrying 500kg of mud on our suits, helmets and faces. The trip up and out was steady, due to a mixture of a good session digging and the additional weight we were now slowly depositing around the place. Next plan is to get a team each side and see if we can do a voice connection…