Cussey Pot
During Lockdown 2020 a new hole was spotted to draught bigger and stronger than any cave in the Peak. We dug it open and this is what happened....
Full description of the trip can be viewed here.
The current survey can be downloaded from here.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Team: Joe and Rob
Following last week’s positive voice connection from Black Draught to RAT Roof, the plan now is for small, alternating teams of 2 to hit Black Draught with as much as we’ve got to make this connection happen.
Tonight was the first of this renewed effort and we arrived equipped with loads of energy and loads of caps. Unfortunately I’d managed to pack a slightly undersized 8mm drill bit, meaning that my capping rod wouldn’t fit in the hole, so I was restricted to firing the caps with the drill. This is a far less efficient method (and the rocks were bigger than I had anticipated) so the 2 hours of effort was not rewarded with much progress.
We consoled ourselves successfully in the pub after.
Joe emerging from the delights of Black Draught
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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A - Team: Rob & Jon
B - Team: Joe & Sam
Nowhere to be seen team: Luke, Jim & Bog
Super early start today for rob and I as we got to Cussey car park for 5:00 p.m ready to head through to RAT on what we were hoping would be the big breakthrough trip! - It wasn't. Don't get your hopes up.
We quickly kitted up and Rob managed to twist my arm into a pre beer. Sam and Joe would head down later but were meeting later at 6:30 p.m for their old man trip. I've got to admit this was the most fun I'd had going through Vulgarious, The passage has enlarged massively with traffic and just in a wetsuit you could slide through gloriously, bar getting coated in mud. It was fairly pleasant for the first time. It didn't take as long to get to where we wanted to be and after Rob had started the syphon on Boil-up Sump 2 we headed down to the RAT Hole and the choke above where hopefully we would connect. When Rob and I first broke through Vulgarious back in April we managed to push the boulder choke to a crawl in the roof and on a previous trip we managed to get a good vocal connection here with Black Draught in Inglorious. Only little digging had been done here previously so tonight's trip was a proper go at it.
I took to the dig first and made good progress shifting out the floor and almost blocking myself in in the process. Rob was stationed just behind me at a precarious ledge above a large greasy drop. I managed to dig to what looked like a solid wall in front but was actually a large slab which appears to have fell from the roof. The draught to me seem to be coming from the right so I managed to uncover a decent sized rock in the floor and it was at this point Sam and Joe decided to show their faces, well I say faces… we could hear them very well but we definitely couldn't see them!
Sam was positioned at the first dig in Black Draught whilst Joe was at the sloppy end. Sam and I were having a conversation like he was sat across a table from me it was that clear. At this point I was done. My little kitten arms had failed me and it was time for me to retreat.
Enter Rob.
During my dig Rob had squirmed his way off to the left to what looks like the end of the large fallen roof slab. He said it was interesting as it could potentially skirt around the slab. Once he was in the dig he noticed that instead of going right left looked a better option. Albeit he dug right and managed to remove the boulder in the floor and bring it back almost blocking himself in and killing me in the process; it wouldn't be the first time he's tried throwing a rock at my head. Rob continued to dig whilst I went to check out the Rat hole. The passage here is beautiful. One of the best small passages I've ever seen with a prominent shell bed in the roof. I was amazed and would definitely like to come back and try and photo this and maybe try the round trip through the tight squeeze I failed to get through… after a short dig at the end here in zero draught I retreated now warm again to Rob who had about given up to. Unfortunate but fortunate we were now ready to exit via Vulgarious again. Downhill this time though It was quite a pleasure and the rest of the cave seemed easy enough to negotiate through. It was the first time in a while but I didn't feel too knackered after this trip, although it does help not having to carry a bag.
We even managed to make the pub too as it was the meet so a lovely pint in the Moon inn afterwards accompanied by some out of date pork scratchings. Nom nom.
We decided it wasn't worth digging the connection from the RAT and and we just concentrate on digging it from black draught.
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- Written by: carl bergmann
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This was a real novelty for half of team average, a cave outside Bradwell .
Jon P started the evening off with technical difficulties at the pre caving beer phase, having to drink the can quickly, when it punctured falling out of his van .
Jon shot off ahead to continue with his dig, leaving Jim to give me a leisurely descent through the various squeezes.
However, I do have a few little complaints to raise on trip advisor!
Firstly, where is the handrail at the entrance? Team Average usually have one for when we are tired at the end of a trip. Rob. your stemples were great on the way down, but need moving down slightly in my opinion to accommodate my longer legs. The place could do with a good clean up too, terribly muddy.
Many thanks to Jon and Jim for their patience on the way out though. I turned around at the bottom of the second pitch knowing the squeezes on the way back up might be a bit awkward. The first, just above the second pitch were more than snug for a person of my stature, and had Jon wondering if we would have to exit via the sough? Soundly wedged with my chest stuck in the tight spot. Jim's advice, “was not to panic”! Talk about putting ideas into someone's head.
Needless to say what a fantastic cave Awesome have opened up, probably one of the best trips I have done in many years.
I don't think that I will be joining Team Awesome any time soon on last nights performance, but I can't recommend the place enough.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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First trip of our new plan; hit Black Draught till it (or we) break. Tonight was me n Joe's shift and after last trip this was going to be easy, so we enjoyed our sunny pre-beers leisurely. With no bag I got to the base of Inglorious in 6 minutes 30 and feeling pretty good we both headed into Dlack Draught. At the end is two faces (right and straight ahead). I went right and started my next hour's activity of hitting a rock till I got board then swapping to hit a different rock. Basically this dig desperately needs capping, especially as there's a thick layer of calcite holding everything together.
Just to my left Joe was thankfully making much better progress. His way was mostly mud so although easier it was definitely sloppy AF. Stacking spoil to the sides is hard when it's liquid!
After an hour we swapped sides, mostly to keep enthusiasm high and tbh we were both very cold by this point. We only lasted another 15 minutes. Back in Inglorious my arms were absolutely knackered, cold and certainly feeling yesterday's trip down here. And so began the long slog out, although my speed excuse was I carried a cylinder out that was dumped by the divers last week.
Certainly one of the hardest 2.5 hour trips I've done for a while.
A very knackered Rob
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
- Hits: 1880
RobE, KatieE, BrendanS
Written by Brendan
Having followed the progress down Cussey with interest, and helped carry cylinders for RobM for some of his original dives, I was keen for the opportunity for a guided tour down to the new streamway. Accompanied by both Eavi (thanks to the grandparents for babysitting), we headed off underground at about 7.
Having Rob with us was fantastic, both to show us where to go, and to give us the tour of how and when stuff had been found. From the outset this was very unlike most of the Stoney Middleton caves, in that I was not constantly stooping. We made reasonably fast progress down, and were soon at the very impressive Inglorious pitch, which I still can’t quite believe is in the same limestone as Carlswark and Layby. Shortly after we were struggling through Loper Lust, as Rob tried to persuade us it would be much easier if it was sumped. While this may technically be true, I value avoiding drowning above ease of crawling, so wasn’t too disappointed in the lack of freediving. While I have been to the bottom of the ladder before (on the way to Doom), the passage towards Vulgarious was new to me, and was very enjoyable, even though we were by now dragging the siphon pipe from Loper down to the streamway.
And then we got to Vulgarious. Having watched the videos of exploration I knew mostly what to expect, but the beginning section was less foul than I expected. However, beyond the small chamber, the flat out, half flooded section was spectacularly unpleasant, not aided by my sidelight rubbing on the ceiling and submerging almost my entire face in liquid mud. Removing my helmet helped, but while wallowing in filth I still managed to get a significant amount of mud into my eyes, which was disappointing, especially as I was wearing contact lenses. The small rift chamber provided a very small trickle of water which I used to (very slowly) wash the worst of the mud from my face and hands, before I eventually managed to get the grit out of my eyes. The thought of heading out with only one working eye was not spectacularly appealing.
A short wallow later and we were in Race Against Time – a very fine stream passage indeed. We had a quick look at Sump 2 and got the siphon started, before heading downstream to attempt the round trip via Rat Hole. After passing the slightly dodgy boulders, and sharing an SRT kit to drop the short pitch into NGA chamber we arrived at the squeeze. Rob headed through first, before I made my attempt. Although probably a similar shoulder breadth to Rob, I’m a lot taller, and the 45 degree entry to the vertical squeeze proved a bit of a challenge. After ignoring Rob’s advice as to which way to face I got chest deep before I found I couldn’t get my arms into a sensible position and had a tactical pause. The appeal of getting rescued from here was very low, so after reversing out, I made a second attempt, assisted by Katie kicking my thigh through the bottom of the squeeze, and with a breath out and arms above my head I was through. I wouldn’t want to try it after eating a bigger dinner, mind. Katie naturally dropped though no problem, making it look sickeningly easy.
We headed back to the ladder back up to Cussey via some ‘chest deep’ wading (mid-thigh for me, being tall has some benefits). Loper Lust was pretty unpleasant on the way back – a combination of being a bit tired, heading uphill, and being fully lubricated in mud didn’t help. By the time we had re-kitted to start up Inglorious, my jammers were predominantly mud, and spent a lot of time slipping back down the rope. The way out was straightforward, although I had to partially dekit for the Shattered Dreams squeeze, and negotiating the stemples in Coconut Airways was far harder than it needed to be. We hit the surface while there was still a remanent of daylight, and headed to the Saltpan to wash off, albeit with a slight aroma of sewage from the previous overspill. Post beers were most welcome – an absolutely cracking trip, and a great opportunity to see this fascinating part of the Stoney Catchment. I’m very keen to see the SMMC, although I’ll have to wait for the sump to be lowered for that, and I won’t be devastated if the route in doesn’t involved Rat Hole or Vulgarious…