Monday 25th September Parker, Speight + important guest Tony Seddon Sump pool not at highest level. Tony layed the pipe through the sump and down the shaft beyond, then returned. Alan and Phil connected up the gubbins and started the pump,then we sat and chatted. Air space in around an hour and three quarters, water all removed in less than another three-quarters of an hour. TS and PHP went for a look beyond the shaft, stopping at a low point … Read More
Monday 16th October – Parker, Seddon, Speight Alan set the siphon going in the late morning, he and Phil returned late afternoon and completed the siphoning then went for a look see. About 180 feet of passage beyond the sump, mainly of a phreatic rifty nature with mud floor. Several holes down through the mud were easily traversed plus one delightful short low wet section. The general passage direction appeared to be a little west of south with several short … Read More
Have not bothered with trip reports ’cause, on the whole, it would have been too embarrassing as in no particular order: Pump worked but water did not lower because the pipe was not attached to the pump, probably because Tony kicked the pipe on the way through to dive in the Pit. Syphon worked but stopped with 9″ of air-space and then started to fill – syphon pipe had been put down a different hole and probably got stuck only … Read More
Just as a reminder we first passed the Gour inlet sump by pumping in September 25th 2006 & after much prating about & other digs decided to get our arse into gear in August 2007. so hear goes.MMMMC -( last of the summer wine digging team) Trip Tuesday evening 21st August – Team Alan Speight & young Andy Walsh. Trip to the perched sump to Start up the siphon. Trip Wednesday 22nd August – team Rich Mercer,Alan Speight & young … Read More
Monday 3rd September 2007 Jim Stephenson, Dave Ramsay, Richard Bendall, (Janet Packwood & Alan Martin? Inglesport breakfast, suckers out for a trip!) We conceeded to the repeated harrassment from AW and went with original team member, Jim Stevenson, first non-diver through the sump, intending to survey. Met Janet & Alan over breakfast who decided to come along. JS went ahead with Janet to check sump levels and apply pump if necessary, but turned out not to be needed. DR & … Read More
Monday 17th September 2007 Richard Mercer, Ken Wood?, Dave Ramsay, Richard Bendall. Various trips by others in the intervening fortnight and the measured scaff bars had almost made their way in! Hence, agreed plan was to finish survey and cap out boulders at head of rift pitch. DR & RB set off first and began surveying from the yellow tag in main stream way at the foot of the climb up into Gour Inlet. RM & KW caught us up … Read More
Some catch-up with reports by RM: Date: Tuesday 11th September 2007 Team: Ken Wood, Richard Mercer This was mainly a tourist trip for Richard to see what had been found. Ken stayed in the passage to the NW of the ladder but Richard had a good look around. The climbing rope that had been used for the traverse in the rift was replaced with static rope, taken back to clean water beyond the sump and washed. A traverse line was … Read More
Some more catch-up: Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 Richard Bendal and Dave Ramsey Passage in end aven: Can’t understand pump. Sat for 20 mins believing pump was lowering sump water but in the end gave up! Continued all the same. Knotted hand line in situe off one stainless steel bolt. Calcite blockage ahead. Only had short drill bit for bolting but used remaining battery power to start capping holes. Echo and rising passage ahead, beyond calcite. Dug at this and … Read More
Report by RM Date: Sunday 14th October 2007 Team: Phil Parker, Richard Mercer RM was stuck into the lead role to fit an SRT rope onto the bolts installed during the previous trip. Mr P tested the rope, totally messing up his SRT gear in the process – that mud is sticky!!. After that it was RM’s turn for glory and he climbed up to the high-level passage that follows the line of the rift. Unfortunately this terminated after about … Read More
Thursday 6-11-2007 Gour Inlet – Parallel Universe Team Phil Parker, Richard Mercer Objectives were to bring Tony Seddon’s ladders to the main streamway – Phil has been nagging him about continuing the diving and firstly he wants to swap his ladders – push the low passage, reached via the climb/traverse from the window, then carry out a smoke test in the same area. During the Wednesday Alan took a visiting Alaskan for a trip into Notts II and whilst in … Read More
Thursday 29th November 2007 Richard Mercer, Phil Parker Notts II 1 Richard/Phil 1 Gour Inlet sump was cleared on Tuesday, yes some rain in the meantime but it shouldn’t be too full so we’ll wear Hybrids/Neofleeces and go through with minimum air-space. Ha, fat hope! All three AW “keep the water out of the sump” constructions were leaking with a steady flow into the sump pool which was fuller than on Tuesday. After 45 minutes Phil was getting cold and … Read More
Thursday 13th December Richard Mercer, Ken Wood Trip in to start the syphon. At the sump they discovered that the SRT kit left hanging on the battery box bolt two weeks before had vanished. Also disappeared from view was Tony Seddon’s pair of neoprene gloves which had been at the start of Gour Inlet. Spoke to Tony and he had not moved them, im addition he mentioned the fact that his harness set had “done a runner” from the sump … Read More
Gour Inlet 6th January 2007 Richard M went in, loaded with a washing bowl (patience, you’ll find out), to set the syphon going. Parallel Universe – Darkness Visible area 7th January 2007 Richard Mercer, Phil Parker Despite the syphoning of the previous day the sump was full enough for us to set the syphon going again whilst we carried on with the trip, loads augmented by the bowl. Once at Oh Bother It Richard tried to engineer a washing point … Read More
Gour Inlet 30-01-2008 Team: Andy Walsh, Richard Mercer A quick trip to start the permanent siphon. Used pump and existing siphon to drain sump to the point that a crossing could be made without total immersion. Cunning plan was to use the pump to fill the new pipe with water which would remove the need to disinstal the pipe and drag it back into the sump to fill. Richard rigged a rope and descended the rift to the outlet end … Read More
Notts II Gour Inlet 6th Feb 2008 Richard Mercer (dozen or so other KCC members doing tourist trip) After leaving the new self starting siphon pipe loosely attached last week I returned to fit another bracket at the outlet end. So, of course, the sump was full – presumably the new pipe had sagged so low that the water kept on running until the inlet came clear of the sump surface and broke the siphon. I set the old siphon … Read More
Notts II – Gour Inlet 9-12-08 Alan Speight, Richard Mercer The morning trip to start the siphon found the sump only a few inches higher than when we had left it a week before. There are three possible explanations for this ? 1) Very little water flowed into the sump. Possible but not very likely given the snowmelt on the preceding Sunday/Monday. 2) Someone had been in since the last rainfall and siphoned the sump. Possible. 3) The sump had … Read More