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
- Hits: 1927
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
- Hits: 1847
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
- Hits: 1972
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?
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
- Hits: 1781
We split the trip today with all members of Team 4some present - Rob, Jon, Luke & Jeff.
After pre-beers at The Miners Rob and Jeff went to survey the magic roundabout loop which leads back via The Rocky Horror pitch. They completed the loop and headed down to the bottom of Rocky Horror which after a little digging found a hole in the floor which was strongly draughting outwards and worth another look.
Lukey boy and I headed to the Black Rift convinced we were on to a quick breakthrough. Sadly we were hugely disheartened after a lot of effort removing some rather large slabs of rock from the floor without entombing ourselves we managed to catch a glance through a hole between boulders but it didn't look very promising so we buggered off.
m pretty sure Luke packed in caving at least a couple of times during this trip. We were hoping Jeff would be writing a much better report with a fresh perspective to the place but unfortunately it looks like he'll be going back on the aspirant list pretty soon.
- Details
- Written by: Jon Pemberton
- Hits: 2202
Once again 3 of the caving world's finest explorers united together & continued exploration in Cussey Pot (aka: Team Awesome, aka Rob, Luke and Jon).
We went to the pub tonight, first time in a while - It was brilliant. Rob calibrated his DistoX in the beer tent then we pushed on over to kit up. After pushing to a few conclusions last week and being baffled with lack of draught we decided the next job was to get it surveyed so we could see what was properly going on in this complex place. It kinda reminds me a lot like Hungerhill Swallet void of water crossed with Waterfall Hole without the water...
With Rob on PDA, Luke on Disto and me spotting we cracked on and with only a minor initial blip straight off the bat down NCA pitch. Whilst Luke corrected his blip I pushed a little side passage with the help of Rob moving a large boulder from the entrance - it went nowhere. We continued forward and made a route through the choke and headed towards Rocky Horror first. It all went swimmingly and we admired the boulders from underneath as always, The chamber at the bottom was nil of draught but I made an exciting discovery waiting for the others to arrive. I noticed a dark bit of rock in the mud floor and on closer inspection it turned out to be a rotten timber! - Holy Crap! - i thought. T'owd man has been here. I shouted up to the others who dismissed it off and as soon as Luke was down I noticed two more artefacts, evidence no.2 - one single shot hole on a large rock hanging from the wall. This confirmed my suspicions. When Rob arrived I found evidence no.3 a small picked section as though T'owd man had started to make a stemple pocket. Rob found a further potential lead at the bottom of the chamber heading back towards the choke which'd require further inspection, we also noted that it'd be worth a prod in the collapse where the Miner's had appeared to have come from. Very strange how there's no other evidence of mining activity anywhere else in the cave.
We then pushed on to survey Wallsernice which was fairly easy. We noted a slight draught in the rift in the floor which appears to be only a few short metres away from a nasty tight rift below us in the choke off from a section we've called "The Movie Room" as everything seems to move. After taking a few photos Luke and I had a quick look at The Black Rift and we both had a massive urge to dig here! - which we plan on doing next week. It's still a complex section and we've yet to locate the massive draught coming out from the pitch head of NCA Secton.
