Cowshead Cavern
Extracts from 2024 log (Rob Middleton, Jack Dewison)
Tuesday 3rd September 2024
Assisted to sump by many others (thanks!) Passed Sump 1 with 2x 7L bottles, ditched 1 bottle at far side of Sump 1, carried 1x 7L and 2 bags each to Sump 2.
Passed Sump 2 on a single 7L each. Ditched dive kit beyond Sump 2.
Shuttled 4 bags to the large chamber before Sump 3. Set up Radiolocation beacon in an alcove off the rift just before the chamber, 14:25 set up, 18:00 taken down.
RM bolt climbed up out of the chamber, JD followed, 20m up from the top of the climb a sump was met but doesn’t appear to be “Sump 3”. Rift climb in the roof can bypass this sump, and a calcite slope drops down to what we believe to be Sump 3, original orange polyprop line is still in good condition – we think this will be SWCC line and not Spanish.
After this recce trip some bolting kit was removed, radiolocation kit removed from cave, caught up with the digging/surveying party once we surface from Sump 1 at 19:30. RM surveyed Sump 1 as he was exiting.
Wednesday 4th September 2024
RM and JD carried 1x 12L cylinder and 1 bag of kit each through Sumps 1 & 2, hauled up out of the main chamber (+p9) to “Sump 2.9” (the short 20m sump that leads to Sump 3). RM dived Sump 2.9 on a pair of 12Ls using line left from previous exploration.
JD bypassed Sump 2.9 with a bag of reels and a food kit to meet RM at Sump 3.
RM set off into Sump 3 at 16:10 with 2x 12Ls, 3Ls of O2 and a bag of reels.
RM dived sump 3 following existing orange line (laying new tagged blue line). Dropping down initially to 18m then swimming over a blind shaft before dropping to an elbow at -31m. RM surfaced after a total dive of 95m. This enters a high rift chamber with possible leads in the roof. After 5m sump 4 is reached. RM re-sorted line and continued into the sump.
Sump 4 had no insitu lines and drops to 7?m deep max and after 30m surfaces into airspace with continuing passage. There are more high level ?s here. After 10m sump 5 is reached.
Sump 5 was quickly pushed over 50m, descending -21m where the line is secured (poorly) to a drop weight. A quick sneak round the corner revealed a further shaft down and the sump continues…
RM retreated having reached his thirds and run out of line, frustrated that although wide open the sump neither surfaced, or got killed by depth! Agggh
JD Surveyed from the far side of Sump 2.9 back to the +p9 and down into the main chamber (survey station 16 on TopoDroid file, marked with a cairn).
2x 12L cylinders with 100bar left at top of pitch, 3L O2 cylinder with 100bar, and some neoprene and a wing. Pitch out of main chamber is still rigged on deviated 9mm rope in good condition.
Saturday 7th September 2024
Cowshead Cavern – Dive Sump 5 RM, JD
RM and JD entered the cave with dive kit for RM to dive the final sump. Both also picked up 12l cylinders on route and carried 4 bags between them with difficulty to sump 2.9. RM entered the sump with 2 x 12l cylinders and a 12l stage cylinder (half full from use on the previous dive). He also left a 3l O2 cylinder in sump 3 at 6m for safety.
RM made quick progress to the airbell after sump 3 where he deposited the stage. He then continued through sump 4 and into sump 5 to the end of the line left a few days earlier 50m into the sump, at -21m. RM tied on a new line excitedly and quickly descended a further underwater shaft to -38m. The sump then continued for a further 60m at 37-39m depth to a shaft rising. A quick retreat was made with a rough survey carried out. Much tedious waiting for deco was required.
NOTE: Due to the depth, and the altitude of the sump (making the theoretical depth more like 42m), significant decompression was accrued despite the relatively short bottom time (30mins there and back for a total dive of 55mins in sump 3 alone). The dive was carried out in a number of wetsuits (14mm top layer). It is clear that further advancement at this site will require a drysuit, and significant decompression. This is unlikely to be feasible without a large team of diving sherpas from the current entrance.
During RM’s dive, JD explored some of the area surrounding Sump 3. The high level route found on the old survey appears to be up a climb in the roof above The Fluffer’s Rift (new name for the Sump 2.9 bypass that JD has to use to aid RM’s dive.) This high level was explored as far as JD was comfortable while on his own. Some protection, assistance, or bravery will be needed to push further in this high level. It involves some bold steps across the rift which drops some 20m down into the streamway between Sump 2.9 and the pitch down to the large chamber.
The other route JD explored was a rift climb which appears to run parallel to the start of Sump 3. The rift continues up in a 45-degree straight line for some 20m. JD encountered signs of previous exploration up here. There are sharp flakes of rock, with windows into parallel sections of hading rift (video in folder “7_9_24” of Rob and Jack’s 2024 photo folder). These can be descended down to what looks like the same level as the stream, but again as JD was caving solo this wasn’t attempted. Due to the fact that it was obvious people had tried this route before, and no mention of a sump bypass has been found, it seems unlikely that it provides an alternate route beyond Sump 3. This route probably wouldn’t be helpful either as it will be harder to carry dive kit this way, instead of diving it through Sump 3.
For future reference:
– Sumps 1, 2, 2.9, 3, and 4 are all fully lined on 4mm blue polyprop (some old line was re-used in Sump 2.9). In Sumps 1 & 2 our new line is cable-tied to the old line (this was to aid surveying and avoid entanglement). Sump 5 is lined on blue polyprop to the limit of exploration (135m in, 38m deep).
– In order to avoid clambering into the large chamber through the tight boulder floor, there is a handline climb that gains access to a window in the chamber. This is currently rigged on RM’s 9mm rope from 2014, in fair condition.
– The pitch out of the large chamber, to reach Sump 2.9, is currently rigged on orange 9mm static rope and through bolts. It’s deviated to avoid the worst of the rub, and the base is secured to a bolt at ground level to avoid flood damage. It’s backed up on doubled-backed green dynamic rope belayed to 2 bolts and a big natural that is in poor (but useable) condition in places.
– In later dives, RM and JD were settled on using 1x 232bar 7L and 1x 300bar 3L cylinders to pass Sump 1, ditching the 7L after Sump 1 and passing the short Sump 2 on a single 300bar 3L cylinder, this allowed at least 3 days diving with minimal extra kit being brought into the cave. RM was diving with 2kg lead no buoyancy control until Sump 2.9 (JD opted for 2kg + buoyancy to aid carrying bags underwater). JD was wearing long thermals, 5mm shorty with hood, 5mm full length wetsuit, and an oversuit. This was comfortable for a porter (only got hot in the entrance, didn’t get too cold while surveying during RM’s 2.5hr dive).
