05/05/06 (Ambrose,Charlie and Mike): After
building up the winch last month we managed to order 115m of 5mm stainless
steel cable for it, and it was time to put it through some paces. We got to
Mark's place mid morning and installed the cable - the prototype was fully
completed now. After some brews and a chat with Mark we loaded up the car and
headed for the Nent Valley.
Deciding it was better to not bite of more
than you can chew, we headed for a small shaft of 16m depth which links into
the Rampgill Sun Vein Workings above Hangingshaw Branch. Here the winch was
rigged up and Ambrose was conscripted into trying the winch out (being the
lightest). Since we are using the winch with only 5mm cable (breaking strain
1.4 tonnes) it will only ever be used with a life line, so after working the
system out, Ambrose was lowered down and successfully reached the bottom -
admittedly with many jolts, ups and downs - whilst the controls where got to
grips with. On this first attempt we controlled his decent by using a stop and
free wheeling the winch, whilst winching him up we actually fed his life line
up through a jammer - in the end we refined this so that he descended himself
on a stop, pulling the winch cable down with him and on the way up he was
winched up whilst his croll and hand jammer went on the rope. The rope was also
weighted at the bottom so that it fed through the cams easily. We tested the
winch 6 times down this shaft a total of 90m of winching - so far so good. On
average it took 1 minute to winch to the surface.
In the afternoon it
was time to try something a bit more challenging and we moved over to a deeper
shaft - some 50m. The shaft that we tried was the one at the south end of
Smallcleugh Dam which links into Carr's Mine. Second time round the rigging was
much easier and quickly Ambrose descended into the depths. He did not reach the
bottom as the rope was just short and he ended up hanging above a churning sump
of water. When he signalled that he was ready we brought him up, it took 3
minutes and 45 seconds - not a bad speed and it sure beats doing it under your
own steam. After this I had a go at going down, this time however I was going
to swing into one of the levels that intersect the shaft. At 24m down, I
penduled into a level and came off the rope and cable. The level went on for
some 15m where I reached a sump going down, I carried on past this and reached
a collapse, you could get past it but I turned back here as it was deviating
from the exercise. I could see foot prints and I wondered if this level
connected with Carr's and had people come this was to investigate the shaft and
sump as there was a rail line placed near the sump, was it an anchor point.
There was also some nice white calcification in the passage. I returned back
and attached myself back to the rope. At this point I decided to return to the
surface, winching began, however I had tangled my ropes and had to stop a few
times as the rope was not feeding through the ascenders. Finally I got going
only to be dropped down about half a meter with shouts of sorry, not far, but
when out of the blue it tends to give you a hot flush. I started getting
winched again, however it felt a lot slower than when Ambrose was on it, in
fact it started to get really slow, Charlie shouted down that I have might have
to prusik up, great. I started to assist the winch by using the hand jammer and
got up to the surface by its power.
A bit of a disappointment here, we
started wondering about the winches power, was it that the batteries had gone
flat (one had been just purchased and had not been charged), or was the winch
just on the threshold of its limit - winching 11-12 stone OK, but not 14 stone
or above. Both batteries where charged over the next day.
07/05/06 (Ambrose,Charlie,Karli, Mark and Mike): Back to the
50m shaft and Karli had a go on the winch. We rigged up really quickly now and
winched him up twice with no problems, a total of 100m. Time was not on our
side today and after that we had to pack up and head off home. In hind sight we
should have tried winching the heavier ones of the group to see how the winch
would have faired on fully charged batteries. Charlie was starting to think
that the winch was not up to it and discussions started to go on about using a
small petrol engine and then this moved onto making a hydraulic winch. If it is
a power problem and even though it seems to winch lighter people OK, it is a
bit on the risky side operating it so close to its limit. |
