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: Rob Eavis
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Rob, Jon, Luke, Jeff
Last trip before lockdown so we had to make it count. Quick, socially distant beers in the car park then straight to it. I went on ahead to push a lead left from last time in Walsernice, whilst Jon used the other two monkeys to get a photo looking down NCA Pitch.
Jeff on NCA Pitch, by Jon
The lead is a tight rift down in the floor, hidden underneath some loose boulders which had scared Luke last week. I cleared them all away and slipped down to the end that Jon had got to. Here the main rift is choked with boulders but a tight window through into cross rift looks like it might be open beyond. I used my bolting hammer to widen the window very slightly then posted myself through and down. The far end of the cross rift got too small, but back under the climb down it was just wide enough to get back into the main rift and carry on down. Tight and loose, this went down for another 5m before it got really tight with solid bedrock either side. The rift did seem to widen another 5m down but didn’t look very enticing and had no noticeable draught.
Meanwhile the boys had finished photoing and I asked Jeff to head down the Black Rift. We could hear each other very clearly through the boulders in front, but had no light connection. The survey proves that I was about level with Jeff so the rift below is the lowest in the area. I started surveying out, whilst Jeff headed over to the Movie Room. When I got up to near the cross rift we had a light connection and sounded very close, but it was far too tight for either of us to progress slower.
By the time I got all the way out (after getting partially stuck for a while) the others had popped off to the far end of Walsernice and were poking about in the roof at a dig I’d written off on the day we found all this. Therefore I bumbled off on my own to find some new cave and better company. I headed back to a draughting gap between boulders in the Rocky Horror choke which we’d found on 8th October. 5 minutes digging and I was through into new territory. A couple small boulder chambers (but smaller than that word makes them sound) and then a solid wall which seems to be the far side of the choke. Up to the left was a too tight narrow rift through which I could clearly hear the others on their way back across the Black Rift traverse (their dig had presumably crapped out). I asked them to join me and bring the survey gear and kept poking about. Far up in the roof of the rift I could see through a tight gap into a larger section with what looks like a solid roof. However the draught seems to be coming out of the floor but unfortunately all ways down look like proper projects. This area is directly above the draughting end of the Gloomy Passage below where there was evidence of miners, so there’s a strong chance that a way off into the main mine level exists somewhere near here.
Now all totally covered in mud and Jon getting cold we made our way out. Partial optimism about the US election results upon surfacing balanced out the sad feelings of lockdown starting in 1 hours’ time. Strictly teams of two or less for a month…
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Team Crumpet (Rob, Jeff, Luke, Jon & Dylan)
With Dylan finally back from USA and sufficiently isolated we were finally back as a five. Quick catch-up in the Miners where Dylan & Victoria distributed our holiday presents(!) and we formulated the evening’s plan. Jon and Jeff took Dylan down to the bottom where they made a shite effort to dig mine level. Turns out it’s a much bigger job than Jon thought, and they sacked it off. Jeff and Dylan had another look around the Gloomy Passage, but with nothing to report.
Our holiday presents from our Florida-grown Dylan...!
Meanwhile me n Luke were being a bit more proactive. Luke belayed my bolt climb up the 20m high Timewarp Aven. Dodgy looking rock and far too few bolts meant I got within a few metres of the top but had to leave the last bit for another day. From where I got to it looks like at the top the rift continues both east and west but is looking quite tight.
Jeff and Dylan then went to see if the walls actually are nice in Walsernice, before we bumbled our way back out for carpark beers.
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Just Rob, Jeff and myself on this evenings mission to tick off a few question marks left in the eastward extensions of Cussey. After a quick (freezing cold) pre-pint in t’Miners we headed over to the usual parking and hastily kitted up to get underground and out of the cold.
Rob pushed a tight continuation at the top of NCA pitch and after removing some rock (down the pitch) gained access to the continuation but was thwarted by a vertical boulder choke, with no draught present this was pied off.
Jeff and I double and triple checked a few holes in the floor of Time Warp I also made the second descent (ever) of Tight’un. The rift descends approx. 6m to an extremely dodgy fractured alcove which seems to be holding the weight of the world judging by its walls, the continuation in the floor becomes a too tight rift heading east and underneath Black Rift, again with little to no draught and dig access this was also pied off.
Now with Rob in tow we all went to examine the rift heading east from Movie Room. Here is another tight rift to descent for approx. 3-4m but with some mega loose boulders above your head and a large flake threatening to cap your tomb (and no draught) this was also pied off. Descending this rift would be super committing and exiting would be extremely hard without a ladder or SRT – It feels very much at home to something from The Dynamite Series in Carlswark.
We then inspected a traverse out from the head of Rocky Horror Pitch. Rob spotted this last week and a crawl up through boulders gained him a view through to a bedding plane but the entry was threatening to bury him alive. Luckily Jeff could eye his light from above and pushed down through large boulders and into the bedding which Luke had pushed into a few weeks previously but deemed unsafe. Jeff pushed a squeeze in the floor and once he had gardened enough pushed down a muddy slope to a 3m squared void in large boulders. This new chamber seemed to draught from east and above but with no obvious ways on it was decided that a dig in the bedding above would be the easiest way to access the draughty place. A return trip is planned to dig this along with the Mined level below in Rocky Horror and the floor of The Gloom Room.
We’re rapidly running out of leads in the eastward extensions of Cussey and with only a climb in the roof of Time Warp left to do after the stuff mentioned above we will then return our attention to the westward extensions.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Not the big breakthrough we were hoping for, in fact just a muddy slop about in the muddiest bits of the cave. Just me and Jeff this week as Lukey Babes had prioritised his work and Jon was doing his best to dodge Covid at his work.
Swift pre-beers in the car and in we went. We surveyed our way through last week’s dig and to the Gloom Room, where we then drilled a stainless steel staple into the wall to assist climbing up into the passage found last week. We then continued the survey through to the end, and then went up and down this Gloomy Passage (?) to try to work the place out. Close inspection revealed a few more shot holes. How on earth had the miners accessed this passage, and why did they open it up!? Unfortunately it’s still hard to say, but my guess is that their point of entry was within the boulderchoke from above us, through a section that is now filled with smaller boulders than the rest of the choke. If so this is promising news as it suggests that the whole choke may not have moved since they were in there. This little collapse doesn’t draught and looks pretty horrific, so hopefully there’s another way around.
We then retreated back to the Gloom Room for a bit more poking about and Jeff found a new hole in the floor also giving a good draught but again looking like a long term project. By this point we were heavily laden with mud and beat a hasty retreat. At the top of Rocky Horror pitch I climbed off the rope into the choke heading East and could see a way through loose boulders into a continuation which may prove a route over the top and into the miner’s entry. That can be an objective for next week…
Jeff camouflaging in Gloomy Passage
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Just Team Awesome Proper tonight - Rob and I which happens rather frequently but we get shit done.
After a hasty pre pint in The Miners we quickly dashed off (Rob in pee-wee) and descended into the depths of Cussey. We made a pitstop at the bottom of Nomenca Rift and gathered 4 pieces of scaff and clips with good intentions of needing it pretty sharpish at the pointy end of the cave (the draughty bit at the bottom of Rocky Horror). The trip through from here was not an easy one with the large scaff tubes attached together luckily with just TAP in motion we handled it without problem going full gas all he way.
Once down at the bottom Rob started to remove a rather large boulder blocking the draughty hole. Unfortunately it wasn't as draughty tonight as last week but it was still the best thing we had going. Rob made excellent progress removing said boulder and a few more underneath it too. He stood back for a moment to inspect the situation, we now had a good view through boulders to a void with potentially a way forward. We were expecting to be going down and not so much in to the choke but any progress is good progress when finding cave. I jumped in the hole and removed some mud from the floor just enough that a small lad like Rob could squeeze underneath. Having judged the boulder choke situation we agreed that we couldn't really remove any more boulders without undermining the choke above which would destabilize pretty much everything up to the the top of the pitch in Rocky Horror and beyond - I don't think there's much that wouldn't move up there... The scaff was now redundant as it was pretty bomber bar the loose stuff.
After agreeing that there was nowt left to do Rob jumped in and squeezed under the boulder superman style with both arms above his head (who taught this guy how to cave - SUSS, lots to be said about them). Once through he pushed further into the choke feet first admitting that he didn't think he'd manage to do that. He was now in a small chamber within the choke with a large (actually massive) boulder chocked in the roof with a smaller tv size boulder held up on hopes and dreams. Rob finally persuaded me to come through and after negotiating the squeeze I made my way to the chamber which Rob started giving funky names, It was a sloppy horrible messy place and once through the boulder squeeze that's the only thing I could think about, returning back through that squeeze to the safety of Rocky Horror - I called this new chamber The Gloom Room! Rob couldn't understand why.
We frantically started digging a hole in the floor which looked to be easily passable. Shortly afterward it was visibly not gonna happen as the boulder we were digging along turned out to be massive! Rob had found a climb in the roof (over the horrible tv size boulder) he gained access to the climb with the use of my back as a step up as he is quite short. He shouted back how exciting this looked. He'd gained access to a phreatic tube which he pushed for approx. 15m to a muddy conclusion but it wasn't all boring as there were lots of exciting question marks along the way (even a shot-hole cum natural mark on a huge boulder which left us baffled searching for theories). We left on a high and both safely passed back through the squeeze without too much.
Next week is gonna be the big one right?