Diver: Rob M
Support: Bog, Jim T
The discovery of Glorious Hole back in 2020 marked an exciting point in the exploration of Bagshawe and it was remarked in April 2021 (EPC Newsletter) that ‘both agreed we need a diver in to push the sump, although it would be great to see it during lower water conditions’
Recent visits have certainly revealed lower water conditions and generated further excitement at the clear blue sump pool where a suggestion of open passage was glimpsed by Jim T and Dave C on separate occasions, but tonight was the night to answer the question, as the stars finally aligned for Rob Middleton to perform the necessary heroics and go underwater.
As the surface temperature was 33C as we assembled at the Coe, we wasted no time in getting underground and were soon at the increasingly dodgy looking squeeze into the extensions, and I headed down the rope with cylinders dangling beneath me and excitement at an all time high. Teamwork was in full flow moving bags through various constrictions and we were soon at the Glorious pitch head ready for Rob to take over proceedings.
Bog rigged a pair of ladders on the Y hang that Dave had helpfully rebolted the previous week in anticipation and the now cleaned up pitch head is an easy handline climb to the rebelay, saving a lot of faff in general but invaluable for tonight’s activities.
With Rob at the Y hang, I positioned myself behind him whilst Bog passed the tackle bags through a hole into my hands. As appointed ‘fluffer’, my job was to remove items of diving kit from the bags, stop it all from tumbling down the pitch and make sure Rob had no faff whilst kitting up in a pretty awkward spot. At one point this required me to ‘zip him up’ and the whole thing was a good insight into the rigours of cave diving as a tool for exploration.
As regulators were screwed onto cylinder 1, the valve was opened and the circuit pressurised with a satisfying sound…. Cylinder 2 just started hissing gas out and didn’t sound good. Several cycles of threading and rethreading the reg didn’t cure the problem and I started to feel nervous that the dive would be turned before it’d begun. Fortunately Rob had at the last minute decided to pack his ‘baked bean tin’ aka a hi-tech waterproof diver’s spares-and-tool kit so he fettled the reg and it subsequently made the same satisfying pressurising sound. All good and he headed of down the ladder.
I soon heard sloshing to indicate he’d reached the water and stood by for the sound of exhaust bubbles breaking on surface… but no. More hissing! I really thought we’d be beating a hasty and disappointed retreat at this point but Rob quickly had it sorted and shouted that he’d likely be 30 mins, and to not worry unless he failed to surface after an hour. Time check made, I settled back in my perch and sure enough, the next sounds I heard were the regular chuffing of his exhaust gas.
Bog and I just got stuck into some long overdue catching up and philosophising, and I barely contained my delight on realising that the cavity in the rock just above me looked just like a giant calcite vulva.
In what appeared to be no time at all, that tell tale chuffing sounded up the shaft and I had a time check – 14 minutes – which I took to signify a poor outcome and closure of any potential leads in the sump.
However, an excited ‘woop!’ from below followed by a ‘that’s awesome!’ perked me up. A quick exchange revealed that it certainly did not close down underwater, was clean and sizeable and Rob had run out his entire 50m line reel. Delightful!
I set to and lowered bags down and hauled them back up containing cylinders, passed them up to Bog and a delighted Rob appeared at the top of the ladder looking a bit shivery but very smiley.
We got him dekitted, everything packed away and made haste for the surface in order to make the Bowling Green for a celebratory pint and debrief.
The outcome was that after a slightly muddy rift opening at the entry to the sump, a roughly 1m high x 1m wide phreatic tube (wider at the bottom as it’s formed on a bed) clean passage with good vis was followed for the aforementioned c. 49m of a 50m line reel, accounting for belays (all of which made to conveniently sited breakdown) trending 240 degrees at a depth of 3m via a series of s-bends, with the current limit at such a bend but appearing to continue unimpeded beyond.
We were all delighted with the result and plan to return at the next available opportunity with Rob who will survey the now-lined passage and continue with a fresh line reel to push further..
As always, but particularly in this case, work most definitely continues….