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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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…
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Rob & Luke
After a hard week Luke was totally out of enthusiasm so I was grateful and surprised that he even turned up. Pre-beers didn’t even seem to help much, and we bumbled off to the end of Cussey. There was no way Luke wanted to get caked up in Loperamide Lust, so we planned to bolt climb the mined shaft we could see up after the trip two weeks ago.
I kitted up and with Luke sat totally in the line of fire I freed up the 15m shaft, putting in the occasional bolt for protection. This shaft has been drilled from above, through solid rock, so it was a pretty easy climb and I didn’t even drop too much stuff on Lukey Babes below.
At the top I rerigged and he came up to join me, then I set of up a muddy slope which was the only way on. A little duck into a roof at the top showed a terminal mud collapse, bugger. Not even a hole for a draught, so we must have been wrong last trip as we thought there was a good draught going up.
This disappoint was made slightly better by the discovery of an old pipe and a very strange stal. The latter was about 2m long and a constant ~10mm in diameter, and ran very close to a wall but didn’t touch it at all. Maybe a calcited root (although ~30m deep here) or wire rope, but certainly not obvious! I gave it a delicate flick and it vibrated very much like a long straw (not that I normally enjoy wobbling long straws, honest). Weird.
Luke descended then I rigged a pull through (twice as very time was a good 5m too short, oops) and we met in the always impressive Inglorious Bastards. From here it was 45 mins out, although neither of us were in a rush.
So there’s no way on in the mine to the west, so it’s now all down to the two muddy crawls now. It’s amazing how hard it’s proving to connecting this cave!
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- Written by: Jeff Wade
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Unfortunately Luke had had a Covid scare in the household meaning the originally planned trip on Thursday got canned, although thankfully for Luke it was just a scare and thankfully for myself it meant Luke was no longer able to come.
Rob had proposed starting up the climbing shaft, but I had reservations mainly as a purist for natural passage and that the two passages at the bottom of Inglorious Bastards were worth a look. Rob agreed, but I think the thought of going back into Black Draught wasn’t a glorious prospect, then again neither was the opposite way, but they both needed a second look.
The trip started well with some miniature birthday cakes and pre-beers supplied by Rob and family, even with candles, which to be fair was my first birthday cake in a while, which can’t be said for the beer.
Once at the bottom of Inglorious Bastards, Rob headed into Black Draught and I into ‘Loperamide Lust’ opposite, as it is now named. These are clearly both one of the same passage cut in two by the Inglorious Bastards chamber.
As part of a ‘theory’ over virtual beers between the team, Loperamide Lust might draught in dryer weather, and tonight was in fact the case, which made it all the more exciting.
Rob in Black Draught made good progress breaking up rocks blocking the flat out crawl leading to a calcite ramp heading up, but needing a little more work to get through. Obviously still strongly draughting.
Myself in Loperamide Lust had dug through a few meters of now sticky and wet mud to a rock blocking the way. By this point Rob had come over and being cleaner and less sticky managed to get past the rock, which could then be pushed to the side as a pair.
Beyond a small chamber with a tiny rift down between boulders and a calcite floor was issuing the draught, with a drop of 2m to something bigger below. Sadly the hole needs to be enlarged and will need a rope or sling in place to help on the return journey.
Once again we now have more questions than answers, but we are ever closer to the source of the draught.
Jeff hiding his helmet in Loperamide Lust
Rob after emerging from digging Black Draught
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- Written by: Luke Cafferty
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Rob, Luke.
With the lockdown still in full swing we are still caving with the team spilt. It was mine and Rob's turn to cave together this week and we had a solid plan down Cussey.
After a quick catch up and pre-beer we headed off down. The plan was to bolt climb up the far west end of Inglorious Bastards, unfortunately with all this new stuff found it now means you have to drag all your SRT kit with you. This very quickly becomes very annoying as you navigate the squeeze at the bottom of the Shattered Dreams dig. I had no issues with this last time I went though, with no kit though I will add, Jeff had had a little moan about it the previous week. It is easy, as long as you pick the sweet spot to glide through if you don’t get the right spot gravity ensures that you really fuck it up. I messed it up. Finally getting myself unstuck and catching up with Rob we came to the pitch head to Inglorious.
Down at the bottom we wasted no time in getting started, I had a quick look around whilst Rob kitted up. After 5 bolts he was up the 9m pitch and across a short traverse. I followed him up and we found ourselves in a rift passage heading off west and it was Mine! It has been a strange project this, hoping to find mine over all the new cave we have been exploring.
Luke following Rob up the bolt climb into the mined passages beyond
After a small climb up, we found ourselves at the base of a climbing shaft, at least 15m up. The passage continues along into a worked vein. We came to a 7m pitch down, very muddy and lots of big boulders. No way on though. At top of the pitch, you can hear a noisy draught, possibly heading up through boulders in the roof. Would be a very hard digging project.
We had another good look at the climbing shaft and we very quickly realised that we would not have enough rope for another bolt climb, so we surveyed our way out. Another 35m added to this never-ending project!