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Team: Hugh Norton, Tony Seddon, Josh Bratchley
Time 3.5 hours
Aim: Pass the Spectacle Sump just off the show cave and check out any remaining leads.
After the required amount of Symposium related faff the three of us met at the carpark and got changed into our wetsuits and kit. We made our way through the showcave and turned off the path towards the Spectacle Sump. Tony realised he didn’t have a working battery in his light so went back to the car to change them out. Myself and Josh went down to check the sump and found a little eel swimming around the sump pool.
When Tony returned we got kitted up and walked around the corner to find the sump was lined with 5mm Polypropylene line that looked fairly old. Tony dived the sump using a 1.5L cylinder. He brought with him a 9mm length of static rope to replace the polyprop and make the freedive a little bit more comfortable. On a future trip it would be a good idea to bring a bolting kit to move the belay on the showcave side about a metre to the right in order that the line does not bring the returning caver into the shelves on the right hand side of the sump. Once the line had been replaced tony dived back to the other side and myself and Josh freedived after him
On the other side we took off our neoprene hoods and dive masks and proceeded on towards divers disgust. After the 20cm waterfall Tony and Josh climbed up through the high-level bypass of a crawl and noted that there was a potential lead heading back towards the sump, it was not pushed but could be a possible bypass to the sump. After Divers Disgust Josh pushed down the rift on the right but found no good prospects only a large eel in a pool that feeds the small waterfall.
We pushed on through the chert squeeze and spent about an hour looking around Shanahan Chamber admiring the formations and checking for prospective leads. At the North end of the Chamber I spotted what looked like a passage leading off North beyond some dried out gour pools. We decided to proceed carefully over them leaving as little trace as possible, from what we could tell no-one had been over them before. After the gours a passage came in from the west which after passing between two tight Boulders ended up in a dry mud filled chamber. The alcoves in the South and West of this passage did not appear to go anywhere but the North headed off for another 20m. Josh then took the lead and pushed on through a rift into a nicely decorated chamber that we called gearstick chamber due to an obvious Stalagmite in it.
The passage continued on as a very delicate crawl over and around flowstone and stals until we reached a rocky passage where josh encountered a few scuff marks from previous cavers. There had definitely not been any previous explorers in the passage we had been in until this point so we were wondering what part of the cave we had broken through was.
Beyond this the passage opened up into a chamber where the floor and roof where at a 35 degree angle with about a meter and a half space between. The floor was obviously where the ceiling had de-laminated and upon further inspection the ceiling looked like it might de-laminate again without too much persuasion. To the left up this chamber was mess of hanging boulders that looked very loose but could possibly go if climbed into by someone brave/foolhardy enough. Josh climbed up a few metres higher on the right could spot no obvious or safe route onward. We turned back as this chamber was not a great place to hang around off to the left on our way back to the rift we came from there was a crawl with more evidence of previous cavers but the way on looked very tight and through speleothems so we chose not to push it and exited the cave through the same way we came in.
After looking through the cave description and survey it would appear that the Chamber we entered at the end is more than likely The Nazguls Eggs chamber which lies beyond the Helms Deep section of the main cave. IS 3.2 describes this as a “fine chamber with numerous large rocks held up mainly by gravity”. If this could be proven, then it looks like there is now a dry bypass to the Spectacle Sump, although freediving should still be used to access Shanahan Chamber to avoid damaging this passage.
I have attached a rough survey of the connection from memory
Hugh
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