Ireby Fell, Whirlpool chamber inlet Thursday 12th October Dave R, Dom Hoare Rebolted the climb up into the inlet, no more rub points and hopefully easy to get off the rope at the pitch head. Since my recent visit surveying with Ruth, all of the wooded sections had sprouted the most marvellous collection of mushrooms! All of these were removed as best we could and buried in sand at the bottom of the pitch (at bit more work burying the … Read More
Sunday 29th October Whirlpool Chamber, Ireby Fell Dave R, Ruth McD, Tim Allen Drag tray, Ropes and rubble sacks installed and two hours of digging and stacking gained 5m of progress. Now 2m away from lsat survey station and 20m from current bitter end. More rubble sacks required. Dave
Sunday 12 Nov. Ruth Mc Donald , Neil Pacey , Dave ramsay , Bill Sherrington. Paid a visit to inspect new works to start my tokens for this project and progress the mud mining operations on a few more meters. Looks like an excellent long term project with options to establish our new head quaters in Duke street cavern. Possibility of overnight digging looming . And in time access to Duke street 2 without bottled air.
Monday 13th November 2006 Dave Ramsay, Richard Bendall Another 2-3m progress and a nice piece of stacking if I say so myself! Definately need to get another drag tray or two in to aid removal further back or even out and down the pitch. Hard work for just 2 but if we can keep a rolling team approach we will all see progress and keep up the momentum. It’ll go, just needs the dedication and effort.
Ireby Fell Caverns, Whirlpool Chamber Sunday 12th November Dave R, Bill S, Ruth McD, Neil P Two more ropes taken for with second drag tray when we get one. 4ish metres of progress made. Monday 13th November Dave R, Rich B Rope for lowering bags down pitch and 28 bags and one trowel taken in. A few more metres of progress made. Current stock is 3 trowels (1 nearly broken), 28 unused bags and 15 plus used bags, two ropes … Read More
Ireby Fell Whirlpool Chamber dig Sunday 19th November Dave R, Ruth McD, Neil Pacey Tim Allen, Hugh StLawrence Another few metres dug out and fine cakes provided by Tim. Sunday 26th November Some turned up but not me, see separate report by someone! Monday 27th November Dave R, Rich B, Emma Martindale 70ish bags removed about 15 went to a final resting place at the bottom of the pitch. We are just short of the first cross rift. Dave
Sun 26 November Tony R, Neil P, Stuart B and Petr ? (Hungarian bod of Bill’s he made in the lab) Impressed by the staircases above and below the entrance. Bubbles pitches also preferable to old route. Removed some sand from the ‘front’. I think i can say its the only civilized dig i have ever been to! Tony Rooke
Sun 26 November Tony R, Neil P, Stuart B and Petr ? (Hungarian bod of Bill’s he made in the lab) Impressed by the staircases above and below the entrance. Bubbles pitches also preferable to old route. Removed some sand from the ‘front’. I think i can say its the only civilized dig i have ever been to! Tony Rooke
Dave Ramsay, Ruth McDonald, Simon Jobling, Bill Sherrington, Hungarian Pete (briefly), Neil Pacey. Started off with six but arrived at the dig with five. The Hungarian had retreated after a brief episode of being stuck at the start of Bubbles Route. He decided to take a sharp exit, “I am leaving the cave”. Made good progress with five, but a team of six would be more efficient, the final tally was 6.1m away from the final flag. Lots of bags … Read More
Saturday 30th December 2006 Ireby Fell Caverns Whirlpool Chamber Dig Dave R, Ruth McD, Neil P, Martin Holroyd, Becka Lawson, Julian Todd, Sam and Mike (ULSA), Simon Jobling, Mark Middleton, Richard Bilton (I think that’s all). Martin Dived thru to the other side while we all dug. The other side exists, but it is nearly full with sand/mud, about 12ft up the passage. 3.75m to go. Dave
Sunday 14th Jan Ireby Fell Caverns, Whirlpool Chamber Dig Dave R, Ruth McD Just the two of us made the trip which saw us reach the 2m to go mark before we started pushing by removing just enough spoil to make awkward progress, result,the cave is now longer by 2m. Unfortunately there is a lot of spoil in bags which needs pulling back. In future visits it will be possible for one person to push while others advance the main … Read More
Ireby Fell caverns – Whirlpool Chamber Sunday 13th May Dave, Ruth & Neil. Main purpose of trip was to dig out and enlarge diiging stations. This should give us more space to stack bags without having to pull them all the way back by hand. By the end of the shift things looked good, can now use the tray to pull back from station to station, with stacking space for plenty of bags. May still need to enlarge the station … Read More
Sunday 11th November Dave R, Ruth McD Half the team failed to materialise due to various reasons (drink?). When we got to the sump, it was indeed, a sump so we started pumping until the end tube began sucking in air. A look at the sump revealed that it was now open as a very low airspace duck. With just two of us and time running out it was not likely that we could gain sufficient airspace and still go … Read More
The season of goodwill is upon us bruvers and I’m hoping to enlist support for a weekend long assault on the Whirlpool dig in Ireby two? This is a sand filled, crawling sized tube estimated to be only 20m away from the Whirlpool chamber passage in Ireby one. Digging from the Ireby two side is easy and significant progress could be made over a weekend if access could be maintained through the sump. It might even go. The whole operation … Read More
Dear Moderators and site owners. Regarding the recent request to work together to sort out Ireby Whirl pool Chamber. It would be helpful if my contacts were offered the choice of access to MMMMC to assist in exploration and the co ordination of the efforts that will be required from all of us . Can one of you contact me to discuss this so that I might give you the email details. Kind Regards
Let’s get this diggers railroad back on the tracks. We have a great opportunity to forge an easy new route to Ireby two if we all work together, it should be great fun too and a fine end to the year. This is what it was all about in the first place. Please can the moderators do the necessary – this thing is going to happen. More on planning later, all offers of help are noted, thanks Tim A
We went again. Bill was there first and had been pumping for around 15 minutes when we arrived at the sump. After five more minutes I went for a look and it was almost dry, by the time I had collected my gear and re-inserted myself it WAS completely dry. Digging commenced in a disorganised fashion! after a while Bill got us organised and went to collect another drag tray. After about 3 – 4 hours we had gained 5m … Read More
Saturday 5TH JAN. Tim And Jane Allen. Have derigged ropes from Ding, Dong, Bell & Well. Fairly wet conditions. Dam full and overflowing into frothy sump. Dam at East Inlet has two leaks about the size of a tap each coming out about half way up. Not sure if this is normal – may need a repair. Despite my best attempts at being pessimistic those who I have spoken to are still keen to continue. How about we have another … Read More
Saturday 6th December. Becka Lawson, Dave Harley, Robbie Shone, Mandy Foo and me. Not wishing to make excuses we parked the car where it slid off the road and crunched our way up the fell. This was to be a bag hauling trip only with no attempt made on the end. According to Robbie, who counts such things, we moved 138 bags, many several times. This is the total of bags left in the dig at present. Some of these … Read More
Great news. That means the survey must have been pretty close too. Next weekend for the final breakthrough then? Who said shifting sand was tedious? Tim
Morning Mudminers, I’ve been asking Sam and Mike about this, and the attached item from Mike explains how this (rather unexpectedly) came about. Not with the sort of Channel Tunnel handshakes and champagne event, more ‘at least we won’t have to go back out through Cripple Creek’..! With numerous 10-14 hrs bag-hauling sessions in Skylight behind them no-one can doubt that they’ve put in more than their share of graft. It also reflects well on the survey – with two … Read More
Mike and Sam with Ian, Liz, Tim, Geoff, Mick and one other who’s name i don’t know helped for a bit. Another 10 hours of digging and bagging the tight connection. Most of the tight bit has been moved 10m down the passage and all in bags and the low bit is now only 6-7m. Sam