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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A special turn out for this evening’s endeavour, as we were blessed to be in the presence of Senor Townsend of mid 2000’s notoriety. For this special occasion Rob and I had agreed a trip down Cussey would be fitting, for what we hope will turn out to be a second coming of sorts
Sam and I car shared from the top of Froggatt and had to detour for Rob en route after he’d had an eventful afternoon catching an Uber back from Scarborough due to his truck breaking down! Once at Cussey, we confirmed the entrance was rigged and that the Saltpan was flowing so we quickly kitted up (furry’s this time) and headed underground. We gave Sam the brief spiel on Cussey’s exploration history and soon found ourselves de-kitting at the bottom of Inglorious. It was now time to enter Loper, we lucked out for Sam’s first time as the whole crawl was bone dry, like how it was during the original exploration which of course brings its own problems with sticking to the floor! We proceeded forward and as soon as we reached the bendy ladder of Doom Sam started to remember his previous trips into the system during the Credit Crunch expeditions and Doom exploration via Black Engine and Moorwood Sough. On reaching the Wet West natural caverns we showed Sam the entrance to Vulgarious and continued through the choke towards the sump, getting lost en route. Our mission for the day was to get fresh eyes on the sump which denotes the end to this section of cave.
Map showing the section of the Wet West Caverns beyond the sump
A brief history of the Wet West Sump
This had all came about after Rob had finally stumbled across the section of survey data from the cave beyond the sump (which he’d been looking for, for over a decade!) The Wet West Caverns we’re first explored by the Eyam Exploration Group in 1985 after gaining access to the Sough for maintenance work. The discovery was huge! "This is the big one – 6ft. diameter phreatic tube! I turned back at a junction!" The team were eventually thwarted by a large terminal looking boulder choke which due to its location – seemed a daunting prospect. Perseverance paid off and with some hair-raising efforts the choke was eventually passed in the late 80’s to a large section of phreatic tube heading NW towards Hungerhill and Waterfall, eventually terminating at a sump in the base of a cross rift. The sump (too tight to dive) was originally passed back in June 1991 using one of Tom Proctor’s many alternative digging methods. Below is an excerpt from John Beck’s diary,
“beyond was a very large stretch of passage on the main joint. Big, roughly square cross section, for about 80ft. At the end was a slope of clay over rock, and the main route turned off the joint to the right. Almost immediately there was a big block in the way. A dig began at roof level, where a bedding continued along the line of the joint. We avoided it for a while as there were many stals, but Mark wormed his way in carefully for some distance before we retreated.”
Unfortunately, that day was cut short,
“Tom said the sump was filling back up, and we all piled out quickly. There wasn't very much air space left. The mud had slumped down the slope from the chamber and into the sump.” The party returned the following week, “The sough party returned in late afternoon. They had passed the sump again (it had to be pumped) and had another go at the continuation. They dug from the high-level bedding sideways until they could see back down into the tube beyond the big fallen block, but it needs blasting before they can get down. They had had an epic getting back through the sump. The mud had slumped in, and Tom had to virtually free dive through liquid mud. He didn't like it.”
They returned one week later to try and pump the sump once again but after the wettest June of the century they called it quits and left for other prospects. The Wet West Caverns proved to be a significant section of cave, linking the Stoney Middleton system and thus the eventual discovery of the SMMC.
Rock striations in West West Caverns
Efforts were once again made to drain the sump during the Credit Crunch Expedition in June 2011 (20 years later). After the great success draining the Duke Street Sump in Ireby Fell Caverns (Yorkshire Dales) we managed to get our hands on an “Ireby Sump Buster” via Johnny Dingle (The other EPC), who joined us on the establishing trip to demonstrate how the pump works. As before, we dragged in tons of gear for the job via Rock Cottage and the sough. Once set up, the gaggle of bodies got to work, and the sump was drained in no time! The sump is around 10-15m long with a steep slope on entry and exit (max depth of 2.5m). Everyone went through the sump, I was paired up with Jams Wood, we surveyed through the sump and the chamber beyond paying close attention to anything heading backwards, hoping to find a dry connection with the cross rift. The team reached the same blockage at the end, a large fallen block restricting access to the open phreatic tube beyond. A small team consisting of Dan Hibberts, Jim Lister and Bob Toogood returned the following week and once again pumped the sump to gain access beyond. Jim Lister’s account,
Ireby Sump Buster in the WW Sump
“The sump was still dry, and it did not take long to drill shot holes, in the rock restriction and then to remove it with snappers. The restriction was still tight but passable which Dan quickly proved, in hindsight it may have been better to have made it big enough for a caver with a mini cylinder, but as Dan rightly said, Let’s see if it goes first. Beyond the dry sump was a small chamber with a pleasant stooping sized, stream passage, meandering off, this was followed for fifteen minutes (?) to a cross rift, which was blind at both ends. Ahead was a raised gravel bank, holding back another sump (Sump 2). We thought it may just be a duck, I entered feet first on my back feeling for an air space with my feet. I felt none and was up to my nose so came partially out and asked Dan for his belt to hold onto so I could get further in. Kicking about inside the submerged section I could feel that the passage stayed approx. 1m square in dimension. I came out for a breath and Dan pointed out that a rather lot of water was now running from the gravel bank. We looked at each other, and both started racing back to the sump (Sump 1) Before it filled up!”
* * *
Roll on 15 years and here we are, back at the sump and boy did we leave in a hurry all those years ago. The place has certainly seen better days, it mimics the modern mine beneath us with the discarded pipes and hoses left lying around to rot, albeit not only from us but our predecessors too. Some of the equipment down here outdates me! We made a conscious decision to remove as much waste as we could carry and vowed to keep on doing so until the place reached an acceptable level of cleanliness. The sump on this trip was flowing, meaning it was full to the brim. Any pumping efforts were sure fizzled out of our minds, and we made our way over to the possible dry connection (the calcited cross rift). This looked far more appetising than when I’d last set my eyes on it in 2011. Jams and I tried snappering the squeeze back then but gave up quickly due to it being heavily calcited, absorbing anything we threw at it and access. Time heals all wounds and in 2026 the view beyond the calcite squeeze looked tantalisingly spacious and interestingly emitted and enticing draught. We coiled rope, cut up pipe and tied together drain rods before slowly plodding our way down the Wet West towards Cussey. Out by 9:30pm, we headed to the Mechanics for Sam’s initiation and vowed to return armed with a drill.
Preparing junk to be dragged out Cussey
04/11/2026
Chris Hibberts, Sam Burgess, Sam Pemberton and I returned to the scene of the crime a week later. Chris had devised a plan to try and pump the sump using modern methods (a pump powered by a drill) and thus I had the great honour of carrying 2 drills to one end of Cussey (a first for me!) Begrudgingly for this to work we needed more hose to be carried down, which Chris had the great pleasure of bearing, alongside 4x drill batteries and capping gear. A touch slower than last week with a Cussey virgin in tow, we made our way down Inlgorious and was pleasantly surprised to find Loper Lust still bone dry. With the route fresh in my head, we got through the choke with ease, chaining the bags through where required and eventually found ourselves in the cross rift. I was first to the end and immediately I became speechless… The sump looked empty… I was like - WTF? I had to drop my head down into the steep muddy tube to see the water level approx. 1.5m below. Flabbergasted, I waited for the cavalry to arrive and was pleasantly optimistic that we may get through the sump quicker than capping the rift.
Chris got to work with the pump, helped by Sam P, whilst Sam B was capturing it all on his GoPro. I got to work fast on capping the cross rift. Almost immediately I could tell this wasn’t going to be an instant win. The first few caps did relatively naff all but fracture and crack the solid rock which I was hoping to slowly chip away at. The damage I was inflicting on said rock gave me heavily weighted vibes, like the rock was under an enormous amount of pressure and nothing could move from its place. Hard headedly I proceeded to attack the same side and then when I got bored, I moved to the calcited right and then the calcited slope itself. After 90 minutes or so I was fully cooked. Covered in dust and squinting through shrapnel, I took one last look through the gap and made my way back to the others, feeling rather deflated from the whole debacle. The others had a similar anti-climatic ending after burning through 2x drill batteries, they’d only managed to lower the sump by 8 inches and unfortunately not enough to break it.
With no wrist watches in sight, it was certainly time to make a move. The journey out was hard, we divided the gear up accordingly and broke surface at a whopping 11:10pm, just enough time to hit last orders at the Mechanics. On a positive note, the air at the end of the cross rift remained crystal clear throughout the capping session, confirming the strong draught emitted from beyond the constriction.
Who knows, maybe the sump will be bone dry on the next visit? Stranger things have happened.
Jon in front of his dig
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Another blast down Cussey to tick off some low-water boxes in Doom. Unlike last week, Loper Lust was now totally “dry”, so now the sludge that is left is horrific and energy zapping. I was glad my SRT kit was in a bag; Jon was wearing his, maybe cos it was his birthday, maybe cos he's an idiot…
We arrived at today’s objective quickly and we got straight to work. Last trip was halted at the top of the pitch after were we unable to get the 12 year old nuts off the original bolts. This week, armed with a drill, we wacked a couple more in a headed down. Probably should have used stainless but I was too disorganised and I couldn't find any in my shed, bad Rob.
The pitch down is actually mega, initially dropping through a funky natural shell bed that’s been water eroded lots (where has that water come from!?) and then opening into a decent sized chamber. A small slope leads to the head of the next pitch so a single rebelay went in and I landed in a small stream. Jon came down to join me and we first headed downstream, northeast. Funky walking sized mined passage, lined with drystone walls through which Jon was ferreting for artefacts, but it soon ended in a sump.
Then we headed upstream into a stooping passage hilariously nearly full of water with deep, sinking mud below. Jon had insisted on furries which now for the first time felt a poor choice, but we smashed on anyway. After about 40m it opened up into a really interesting chamber with loads of different ways off, mostly up. We ran about poking various bits. I started climbing a dodgy aven and then waited for Jon to join me hoping he’d bring some helpful enthusiasm, which of course he did. Climbing carefully to not touch most of the pack walls I eventually reached a natural choke with water coming out. I looked hard for black holes beyond but it all looks really closed up unfortunately. I think this may well be water from Cherticle Aven which is not too far away, making it less important to risk dying in, so I carefully retreated before thinking about moving anything.
Back in the chamber Jon had found another way on upstream although this was now dry with huge mud cracks in the floor. After not too long this also ended in a terminal choke. Feels like this is below a large mined chamber in the original Wet West section, so makes sense.
We got some content on the way out and then derigged. The trip heading back through Cussey was one of the hardest I’ve encountered, owing mainly to the extra 20kg of mud stuck to each of us! Still we were out to a warm evening and joined by Luke in the Mechanics for birthday beers. Pretty mega.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Following a spell of surface digs and easy trips, me and Joe were keen for something a bit more involved. Looking through the TA list of objectives, a tasty option was to survey the discovery at the end of Elastic Passage in Doom which we forged back in March. Easy decision made.
Pre-beers in the sunny Cussey carpark set the beautifully familiar scene. Donned once again in our tatty wetsuits we raced off. The 3 months since our last trip had not impacted our muscle memory and we arrived in Inglorious in under 7 minutes.
We packed my SRT kit only into the rope bag and headed off along Loper Lust, which was not quite as dry as I expected, making it a gloopy, mud-fest. Wetsuits definitely a good choice here as an oversuit would have picked up twice as much filth.
A few minutes later we were in Doom at the entrance to Elastic Passage and we stash our gear and setup the survey instruments. Joe is always keen to do “book” but I felt I had to vetoed him this time, only because it was on my (only) phone and we were going to a pretty wet place. We then discuss logistics a bit to try get into the right order, then climb up the waterfall and head in.
We start surveying about 3 legs back from the sump/breakthrough-point so that we could tie the new data onto the existing map. Thankfully the water levels were even lower than March so only a bit of re-digging got Joe through the duck quickly and we were even able to send the disto shot through surprisingly easily. He managed to turn around for this next bit so we could fire face to face for a few legs until we got back to the larger passages again. 13 legs in total got us to the upstream “sump” [more a pool full of pebbles and mud] giving us a total of 31.4m of new passage (survey available here). I’m hopeful that we’ll win the DCA Exploration Award again this year, but I really hope it’s not for this measly portion! Come on all you diggers!
Joe by the final sump in Elastic Passage
Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpWcJ3X8w58
We got back to our gear in Doom and set off to take a look at the next project. Back in 2012 when Doom was found the water from Elastic Passage cascaded down a 20m pitch at the southern side of the main passage. We repaired an old launder channel in the floor which redirected the water further along the main passage and into a natural choke, never to be seen again (yes, that’s another project on the list!). This allowed us then to descend the pitch, albeit on some of the poorest rigging I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying a lot as I’ve seen all of my own!). At the bottom of the pitch a partially flooded level heading east and west. Here some leads were marked which were never returned to.
Tonight we planned to go take a look. However, the old throughbolts were unfortunately heavily corroded and we struggled to remove the nuts. We managed to get one off but decided it was probably a poor idea to descend off one, old bolt. How boring we have become! We agree to return with drill and bolts soon.
Dave Harley looking down the pitch in 2012
Plan C for tonight’s entertainment was to search for a long lost level from a flooded chamber at the end of the Wet West Level in Glebe. We’ve visited this area a few times in the last few years, especially since forming the Rat Hole connection through to SMMC from here, but I’ve never really stopped for a good look about. Doug Nash’s old notes include a letter from a Roger Ridgeway dated 1992, which describes a trip he had back in 1964 whilst he was doing some work for Glebe. He describes stumbling into a pair of old man levels heading off from this chamber which loop around to meet each other after roughly 200m! He included a sketch which John Beck subsequently added to his main catchment survey, even though nobody else is known to have entered these passages. Maybe they don’t even exist?!
I was hoping that the lower water levels might allow us to finally end this elusive period so we left our gear at Loper Lust and headed lightweight to the chamber. Indeed the normally waist deep chamber was almost totally dry, although the floor in the middle was now a dangerous muddy pool that I nearly got stuck in. Skirting around the edge I got excited to see a small channel in the mud leading towards a low arch in the north-westerly edge of the chamber, exactly where the passages are suggested to head off from. My excitement spreads to Joe and together we crawl through into a walking sized passage heading off! This is it, we’re off.
As we eagerly walk down the passage I explain the importance of this passage, its proximity to SMMC and the Wet West Caverns above, and the hydrological connection to Little Waterfall. Just as I’d finished talking shit the passage ended at a huge choke after only 50m! No ways off, no old man, no loops, no natural, nothing. This is obviously not it, the elusivity continues….
Through this disappointment the first pangs of thirst kick in and we decide to head to the surface and the awaiting Mechanics. Coming out of Cussey to the welcoming warm air was soon made unpleasant by the swarms of flies attracted to our wet, muddy bodies! Hilariously a couple local girls passed asking if we’d been down “that sewer”. I start correcting them about the impressive nature of the cave system and they quickly interrupt me, giggling that they called it “Randy’s Hole” after their mate who lives next door! Amazing, is it too late to change Cussey Pot’s name?
Awesome team, awesome beer
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- Written by: Ben Shannon
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The cool hard embrace of rock surrounds me as I wedge myself as far left as possible to drop down the vertical squeeze. Ahhhh Shattered dreams, it has been a long time since I have been in this cave.
I feel like I know Cussey well and in what seems like no time at all, we are all dekitting our SRT kit at the base of inglorious bastards.
I was excited about the prospect of a free dive in loper lust and so we headed into the tube. One bit I absolutely love about loper is the head first drop into the main passage. Joe lead the way with Jon, me and Rob in a line. Given that its a tight tube, noise is excentuated and so listening to Joe kick through the sump sounded quite violent. Is he ok? There’s a lot of thrashing. But within seconds he is through. Jon slides forwards next, pushing himself up into the airbell to scope the dive out, some deep breathes follow and with a hard push off with his left leg he disappeared in a thrash of white water, but shortly he too was through.
A beautiful wall of stacked deads with a waterfall to the right
Me next, I slowly moved forwards and got as close to the ceiling of the sump as I could. Lights shining though from the other side was comforting. This felt incredibly committing, but I had a wetsuit hood on and felt warm and comfortable in the water. Breathing slowed I took a final breathe and pushed off hard pulling forwards on nothing it seemed but it didn’t take long to pop out of the water. That was exhilarating and not nearly as bad as it seemed. Hood stashed for later and we all dropped down the ladder to enter into Doom.
Ever the passionate tour guide, Rob would periodically point out discoveries, leads and various intricacies of the mine as we headed for elastic passage. Tonight’s mission was to dig and try to drop the sump to see if there was a way on.
After some time I heard the tell tale sound of a waterfall which signals the start of elastic passage. There is a beautiful wall of stacked deads with a waterfall to the right. Its a simple 1m climb up into crawling passage. The floor is beautiful with water erosion carving a smooth path onwards, and so we headed onwards. Elastic passage winds around with a mix of crawling, a weird constricted rift that requires a climb up and over before dropping into flat out crawl. Given it was a small group of the very best Team Awesome had to offer, we moved swiftly throughout the cave and it was not long until we hit the sump.
Que lots of excited noises from Rob. “There’s a waterfall, it might be open” I couldn’t heard the rest, but he clearly sounded excited. “I heard words, but I have no idea what that means” came Joe’s voice behind. The four of us set about digging out the gravel floor and lowering it, removing anything that could restrict water flow. Jon would kick piles back to me and I would stack it in the sides as I did the same for Joe. Time is a strange concept underground. I was not wearing a watch, but we could have been digging for 15 minutes or 30 minutes and I wouldn’t have been able to tell you which was correct.
I prayed that they had not had a piss
Eventually the worlds best caver announced an air gap and began to force his way through into what sounded like a chamber. We continued to dig for a bit longer to get as much water flowing as possible. Jon, the mother of the group was concerned about the sump backfilling as we went through, but was soon cohersed into passing through. Now I thought I was bad with the cold, but Jon, the worlds coldest caver had a wetsuit and an oversuit on. I watched him approach the sump. Initially he chose to go on his back to try and use the airspace, but realised there was not enough and didn’t like the water down the back of his neck.
I watched him squeeze through the constriction face first, head under the water. He got stuck! Momentary worry from me but I soon realised that his head was out of the water and his chest was trapped. Some wiggling eventually freed him and I made my way forwards. I could see the other side through the air gap, ok, as long as I get my head out of the water before my chest gets trapped I will be ok. Helmet off I reached it through and took a breath and pushed through, it was tight, but thankfully im not a complete pussy and so with only a wetsuit on I was a bit thinner and managed to get through fine. It was a flat out crawl with helmet out front in the water for a few metres. I could see the lights of Rob and Jon in the chamber, and as I approached the exit, Jon kicked up a wave and I swallowed a huge mouthful of cave water. I prayed that they had not had a piss. Joe popped through with ease and soon we huddle for a video to Jim underground for his birthday and naming this chamber Birthday chamber.
There was a step up and a way onwards. “Ben, lead the way” exclaimed Rob. This felt very special as I made my way up into virgin passage. I expected it to close off but instead it opened up to a rift similar to the crabwalk in Giants. Winding my way onwards with pure excitement I was taking it all in. Eventually I got to a turn and the ceiling dropped to a crawl, making my way in I found a sump. It was a gravel floor, but the ceiling dropped down into the water. Its flowing well here, but will be a difficult and awkward dig. The boys joined me and Joe began to climb up the muddy rift following a draft. 4 metres later he decided enough was enough as it was getting tighter and so dropped back down to us. We made a start on digging the sump to see what we could accomplish but some 20 minutes or so later (I guess? Could have been 5) we decided that would do for the night.
“What the hell did you do?
Content with our discovery of somewhere between 20 to 140 metres of passage we made our way out. Stopping for some pics in birthday chamber, before I went first towards the duck. Passing through was fine, but I noticed large chunks of mud had fallen away from the walls causing restrictions to the flow. Mother Jon was right to have been cautious and so I started trying to pack it back into the sides.
https://youtube.com/shorts/yFkqgX8MguA?feature=share
Making our way out of elastic passage we soon got to the waterfall and this absolutely stunning example of a stacked deads wall. I climbed down and stepped back to let Jon come down. As He stepped down onto a rock I noticed it and the one below move. “Whoa Jon, careful, that rock is really loose” I said. “wait there Joe” I pointed out the wobbly rock to Jon. “this one he said?” as he gently put his foot on it. Suddenly it dropped away, taking the one below it with it. “Whoa shit” we both shouted as suddenly the entire wall lurched forwards and came crashing down. We stood in stunned silence. “What the hell did you do?” asked Joe in shock. “Ben pointed out this reyt wobbly rock and I just touched it”
we had a poke around at some other leads before making our way back to Loper lust. I love the ladder that goes from doom to loper. Its the bendiest, rustiest death ladder but it signals adventure ahead. Rob lead the way with a plan to film me coming through the free dive. I put my hood back on and before I knew I Rob had gone through. Shit, I had not watched his tekkers. There was a voice connection and so He explained that I should keep left, right ear down and as I pass through the dive 1 body length I should pop up into the first air bell. Perfect. What could possibly go wrong?
“Fucking hell, So much went wrong there!”
Well, after passing through earlier I was very excited and I remembered Joe saying that you can use the mud slope as a slip and slide to help speed you through. That’s what I shall do then. Inched to the edge. Staring at the waterline on the ceiling. I felt relaxed and so took a deep breathe and did my best pingu impression as I scooted forwards and shot downhill into the water at full 500 speed.
Right, that must be about a body length, I try to lift my head but it hits the ceiling. What the hell? This should be an airbell, maybe I havent gone far enough. I kick trying to lift my head but still unable. Oh shit, ok, calm, I know there’s a second airbell, keep kicking, shit I cant get my face out of the water, ok I’ve fucked this up big time. Thankfully as panic was beginning to set in a had moved left slightly and my head arose out of the water ferociously as I gasped for air.
“Fucking hell! So much went wrong there!” laughed a manical Rob as we both shared a moment of shock.
Unbeknownst to me Jon and Joe were lying in wait for the free dive and after hearing my thrashing around, Joe uttered “that sounds violent” to Jon as they then heard Robs exclamation of everything going wrong.
In hindsight, I should have entered the water and stayed left and gone through slowly. The mud chute goes straight, but loper slightly curves left and so as I barreled down I was shot off to the right.
Understandably Jon was reluctant to come though and I was now getting very cold lying in the water to offer assistance with Rob if required. But we all made it through and got to out SRT kit in inglorious. Its an interesting prussick up this pitch as the higher you go the bigger the chamber feels and offers a nice level of exposure before passing through a keyhole slot at the pitch head.
I made my way along to the shattered dreams pitch, which I normally free climb, but today for some reason I clipped on and prussiced up. Stupid idea, its a tight and awkward pitch in a rift with good holds. Note to self, free climb it next time. I then have to remove my chest jammer to be able to get through the vertical squeeze. I find the best tekkers here is to squeeze myself as hard left as I can to pop upwards and hope I can find that foothold. Carrying on I get to the final obstacle, Coconut airways, its always tricky getting up through the stemples and eventually I found the footholds and made my way up. One final pitch, which again I free climb normally but I chose to prussic on seemingly the worlds thickest stiffest rope which was hard work.
Emerging into the night sky, I lined up for Jon’s photoshoot – MILFs of the peak district 2025 calendar? Piling into the van for cake and beers (cider for the real men) we were all buzzing about how good the trip had been.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Following on with our newly found selflessness, we spent much of this evening helping out the landowner at Cussey by cutting back the overgrown trees at the site, after a complaint from the Council. Our Awesome team obviously made light work of this, filling the road with vegetation and not even hitting one passing vehicle. All until I got a chainsaw stuck up a tree and needed another one sent up to free it. Luckily I’d learnt from the first one so didn’t get the second stuck too.
With our beer-fuel shenanigans completed we’d planned a quick trip down the other side of Cussey before making the Eldon pub meet. It was therefore with horror and disdain that I looked upon half the team donning not their furry suits but their jogging attire. It seems their Albania training is more targeting aerobic fitness than strength and fortitude. Through gritted teeth we bid them well and me, Chris, Joe and Hal headed down.
This was Hal’s second time down Cussey, since the initial breakthrough east, the first being actually on the day we broke through! However that night his size and our self-serving wankerness meant he remained the wrong side of the last squeeze as he listened to our hollers getting further away. I was keen therefore to see him through the constriction tonight (which has now been widened) and to enjoy the delights of Timewarp and beyond.
I rigged using the newish p-bolts and I realised this was the first cave I’d help found that has actually been p-bolted, which gave a weird, certain stamp of officialness to our discovery. Once down NCA pitch I followed by Chris but then was saddened to see Joe come next, rather than Hal. Turns out he wasn’t going to give it a proper second try and had returned to the surface. Maybe third time’s a charm.
Now with no other agenda we decided on a tick-box tourist trip for me to take these two to locations they’d not been before, and hopefully they’d think that was a worthwhile exercise, for more than just the exercise. First Walzernice seemed to impress them very slightly, so that was a good start. Second was the bitter end of Rocky Horror choke, heading towards Diceman which Joe was bolt climbing only last month. We got down the vertical squeeze dug back in 2021 but were stopped at a new mud collapse, preventing us from reaching the bitter end. This’ll take 30 mins to clear, but not today so we headed back out.
So not a very productive or satisfying evening, just box ticking and caressing landowner relationships, but at least the beer tasted good in the Mechanics.