Team: Petie, Hugh
Aim: Re-explore and survey 2003 extensions
During the exped week myself and Peter Ward did a long survey trip in JT where we surveyed pretty much all of the well-tramped section of cave from the entrance climb to the up-climb into the Purkin Warbeck extension. That trip had been only my third ever into this well-trodden cave, following one trip as a student in c.2009 and a digging trip with Hugh to the Daddyometer in about 2018. So not knowing the cave particularly well, it was fun getting to know the place.. Mostly the surveying was straightforward, but one place that was intriguing was a high-level crawl that reached a series of pitches. All of these could be traversed over, leading to a drop down to a floor-level muddy squeeze. This seemed to be getting a bit desperate so we left the survey here and headed back to the bigger main passages.
Looking at the COFAC survey that evening it looked as if the pitches dropped into a section of passage that looped around back to the main passage, but that we’d either missed the way into it, or it had silted up.
I vaguely remembered that QUBCC had been digging in JT in the early ‘00s, and had found some muddy rifts and chambers, so after a bit of digging found the original trip reports with Steve Bus, John Gilbert, Steve Muh, Gar Devitt and Brian Cullen involved. Les also revealed that he’d been down the pitches with Brian Cullen, finding that it led back to the main passage via a quick dig.
So the plan for today was to rig and survey the pitches, and then continue the traverse above the pots and survey into the 2003 extension. Once in the cave and set up with the DistoX, we spent 20 mins surveying a small bit of side passage I’d missed the last time, and then headed to the pitches. We decided to drop the middle of the three drops available, using a rusty hangar I’d spotted above the pitch last time. I planned to use this for a deviation with the rope belayed to a big natural about 5m back from the pitch itself. (Once this was set up Hugh noticed a second stainless steel hangar in place, still in good nick but the through-bolt was a tad rusty). With the rope in place I abseiled down, hitting the floor after 7m. I was in a roomy chamber, with a descending passage going towards a dig in the direction of the main passage. Hugh followed down with the Distox, and we surveyed through the dig and into the main passage (or at least a side passage connecting to it after a few metres). As I had passed through the squeezy muddy bit and Hugh hadn’t, I ran around back up the climb to the top of the pitch while Hugh made his way back up the rope.
With this bit chalked off, we traversed over the pitches towards the mud squeeze I’d reached before. This traverse is a bit intimidating, you pass straight over a slightly-too-wide-for-comfort 7m drop while crawling on muddy ledges, then propel yourself headlong out onto a 4m climb down. At the bottom a muddy wriggle marks the point of the 2003 breakthrough. Beyond is a stooping chamber with a passage descending to the left (abandoned dig that was simply re-connecting with the bottom of the 7m pitches), and a mud-floored tube to the right. This is a flat-out crawl of 6m to a headlong exit out into the top of a rift. The tube continued on the far side but we dropped to the floor, where a 3m tall rift lead off. This soon became too narrow to progress without awkward digging, but had a strong inward draft. Back into the high-level tube we went. This section went on for about 20m of low flat-out crawling, twisting around bends and rising gently. Finally a tight downward section was reached which ended at a too-tight U-bend just around the corner. I managed to turn and get my legs into this up as far as my thighs, and could kick my legs into space. Digging this out would probably not help (the U-bend would be too steep and there’s effectively no stacking space) but the roof of the U-bend might well be capped, though it’s a cold muddy place to be doing that.
This bit of cave is fascinating, it’s drafty AF, and is heading away from the rest of JT, towards the Hoo in fact. It doesn’t seem to have a name so I called it the Ice Tubes in the survex file on account of the strong cold draft coming in. Where the draft is coming from is anyone’s guess. Possibly it comes from a surface hole somewhere below the JT entrance, though the direction isn’t quite right for that. It seems like there’s a lot more of JT to be found yet
- Petie