Little Waterfall Swallet
Little Waterfall Swallet is next door to Waterfall Hole and has received only a small amount of attention from diggers over the years. Until now...
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- Written by: Joe Buck
- Hits: 51
Jon and Joe
The previous week French Jeff had once again graced LWS with his presence, and remained very optimistic, stating that one more trip and we would be through to victory. With that, Jon and I returned to claim what lay beyond, being the glory grabbers that we are.
There had been a staggering volume of rain in the week since Rob and Jeff had been in and so we were anticipating the water in the shakehole would have overflowed into the dig and caused backfill and standing water in the bottom of the 1st Reich. On the way down it was clear that this had indeed occurred as there were green leaves which had been washed in. However, the u-bend at the bottom was clear with only a small amount of sludge having been washed in, which was a bit grim but passable.
Jeff reckoned there was only a few caps to get through into a tight squeeze over a flake, which I quickly took care of, albeit awkwardly in the narrow passage. The passage tightens at the bottom so I hoisted myself up and began to squeeze through the constriction with my feet above my head and trying not to let myself fall down. I managed to get my torso through but soon realised I was putting myself in a position I would probably struggle to reverse - I thought it better to widen it further.
The capping was incredibly awkward with Jon and I doing a ridiculous shuffling about of drills and equipment with Jon just getting cold and miserable in the muddy u-bend. I offered to swap but Jon respectfully declined, probably because of all the grunting and moaning I was doing. I proceeded to take two big flakes of rock away, which allowed enough room to manoeuvre myself into the now larger constriction and squeeze into the passage over the flakes. From here it is possible to see the continuation of the rift which appears to close down ahead in a too tight section. In the floor beyond the flakes is a hole which is where the water obviously pours down. This drops around 1-2m to a muddy bouldery ledge and appears to continue ahead off a further drop, unfortunately out of sight.
Having hogged all the digging, Jon joined for some photos and to inspect my work. There is at least another two trips required to get to the ledge as more widening is required, and potentially all while lying with your feet above your head. Might just pay for Jeff’s flights and get him to come and do it…
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- Written by: Jeff Wade
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Rob et Jeff
Une équipe réduite pour ce soir mais suffisamment nombreux pour les tâches qu'il fallait faire dans la faille au fond. J'étais très touché que personne n'est revenue depuis mon dernier visite en juillet, en laissant tout prêt à creuser pour mon retour automnal.
Le travail devant nous, Rob et moi, était simple, agrandir la taille et avance vers le courant d'air. Rob a fait la première étape du soir dans la faille pendant que j'ai agrandi l'étroiture pour avoir un accès moins pénible à passer. Clairement le largueur de la faille créait quelques difficultés en creusant car c'était dur à manipuler les outils.
Après une heure nous avons changé nos lieux de travail, et pour ma part, j'ai bien profité des faiblesses créées par Rob dans la roche. Plusieurs plaques ont tombé facilement. Je m'enfonçais un mètre dedans et maintenant j'étais debout avec l'espace pour mon bide en gros confort. Devant il avait une colonne tout fine de roche qu'avec la fonctionne marteaux piquer du perforateur et quelques coupes de masse est partie en plusieurs morceaux.
Actuellement on voit bien devant, mais il faut enlever 10 à 15cm par le côté droite pour gagner la suite qui a l'air d'agrandir très bientôt. Heureusement la faille est un peu profonde donc on peut laisser tomber tous que nous creusons sans avoir besoin de les stocker au derrière. C'est très prometteur à mon avis, mais pas le goût de tout le monde !
On a fini la soirée avec une verre dans l'Anchor au carrefour de Tideswell avec l'équipe de Bull Pit avant un retour chez nous dans un brouillard épais.
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- Written by: Jeff Wade
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Comme un membre EPC d'étrangère qui fréquente très peu les projets d'actualité, j’étais ravie de voir du beau temps en surface pour suivre les explorations à Little Waterfall sans craint d'eau. Cependant maintenant le course d'eau est dérivé vers un autre trou pour facilité l'accès.
Faune du coin - ¨Team Awesome¨ que je ne ferais pas partie...
Au parking, grâce de covoiturage de Luke depuis Buxton, il avait les visages que je n'ai pas vu pour un petit moment; JP, Joe sans âme, Rob, et Dylan. Après un peu de grignotage et boissons, on était prêt pour le travail du soir, à descendre les 20m de puits et agrandir un fenêtre en bas et en aval d'un méandre important qui souffle fort, mais qui était impénétrable.
Clairement à 6 personnes, nous étions trop nombreux seulement pour faire élargissement, donc on est devisé en deux, équipe creusant, et équipe touristique et photographe. Moi je faisais partie du deuxième.
JP a sorti son reflex et flashes, et Joe sans âme était obligé à faire les poses longes sur les petits margelles glissantes comme le photographe lui demande. J'ai tenu un flash comme je pourrais.
Entre temps, Luke, Dylan et Rob sont passés l'étroiture pour voir le suite. Ce n’était pas large, mais possible de mettre deux personnes debout au même moment.
Rob et Jeff dans la partie nouvellement découverte...
La faille continuait devant mais malheureusement pas trop large, il faudrait creuser en plus. Le travaux s’arrête là pour aujourd’hui.
Toujours du soleil en surface après pas plus de deux heures sous terre. On enchaîne au Mechanics car on avait un petit soif, qui était retardé à la cause d'un changement de fût.
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Due to conflicting schedules the gang has been split up for the foreseeable weeks, so Sam and I had agreed to head down LWS on a different evening to other gang members with intentions of aiding progress. Also Sam had not been about for the past 9 weeks so it was an easy one to get back into, rather than a romp to the end of Baggers.
Armed with drill and rock removal tools our plan was to crack on with Dig#2 (Rob’s dig/2nd Reich) but on inspection it looked miserable! Tight-as-you-like and the way on looked tiny (even for Rob). I wanted to inspect the lower dig (1st Reich) although I’d never actually seen it in the flesh it mad sense that this would be the way on. We dropped down to floor level and both had a crawl to the end. It was tight for sure but not as desperate at the one above. With your helmet it off you could just about see into a black space but how big was that black space? Big enough to crawl along? There’s only one way to find out…
We started to dig out the floor (which was awkward) It involved digging a small mount facing the dig face and because of its tight nature you’d then have to push said mound underneath you, hop over it, turn around and then throw it towards the bottom of the pitch. Progress was slow but necessary in order to cap the face ahead. After a couple of shift swaps we were about 12 inches away from a proper look at the void. At this point Sam started to toot on his vape and gassed the place out! We were knackered and now we couldn’t see owt! We decided to head to surface via a quick ‘B-line’ to the top dig but this involved a traverse off the rope at the top of the pitch and I literally couldn’t see my hand so we headed out for post beers on surface instead.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
- Hits: 578
Over the last few weeks the 1st and 2nd Reich digs have taken an absolute hammering. Both digs are simply the widest sections of the rift as it tightens to the west, one above the other, and the strong draught suggests they are a good lead. What's more, following heavy rain at the end of May a stream could be heard beyond!
I've taken a fancy to the top (2nd) dig and over 4 trips have now progressed about 2m to the top of a vertical drop down to the floor below. This offers a tantalising view of a clean-washed, rift passage heading off. Unfortunately the drop down is too tight to get along so progressing any further here will take a lot of effort.
The dig face back at the end of May
Meanwhile Joe has been working the lower dig, and whilst he had a slow and frustrating start, last night saw some great progress and he too now can see into the next passage. We even have visual contact between the two ends.
This now makes 1st Reich the most promising looking dig and I'm hopeful that in the next trip or two this should be able to be passed. Fingers crossed the passage beyond is big enough to fit along!
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