The connection to Rampgill via Bell's Sump was as far I am aware
first documented in the 1990's by WCMRG and we have been wanting to have a look
for a fair few years, but have never got round to it. After checking the sump
was open whilst passing it on a recent trip we finally set aside some time to
have a proper look. Armed with our rigging kit and lots of rope we made our way
to Bell's Sump.
We had a new mine explorer (a caver no less - heavens
forbid) with us this time and we took the opportunity to give them a quick
round trip en route so that they could see some of Smallcleugh rather than just
motoring straight for the sump. We went in via the Hard Crosscut, through North
End Flats, along Smallcleugh Flats, quick look at Gullyback Crosscut and the
clog prints, then on to Wheel Flats, through George Hetherington's Crosscut (a
must for anyone new to Smallcleugh). A quick stop at the junction for the
Ballroom saw Karli heading to the sump to start rigging and I took Chris to
look at the Ball Room and a little way past it. Returning back, we soon heard
the sounds of drilling and Karli was well on his way to finishing the bolting
on the first pitch. It was rigged up and we all abseiled down, not that 5m can
be called an abseil.
Landing on the sump bottom, we went under a lip and
entered a short cramped level, running roughly north south. The southern end
was blocked, the north end had two walled up sections and to the left at the
north end we came to the head of the second pitch. There were three lengths of
scaffolding here which formed an anchor across the level and we also noticed a
new stainless steel bolt above the pitch. We ended up rearranging the
scaffolding and placed two new bolts and anchors in, the scaffolding was used
as a lead into the main pitch. The second pitch was approximately 8m deep and
on the way down there was lots of stacked deads and walling. The bottom of the
pitch gained us entry into another sublevel and a large sump heading down. This
was the sump that can be seen from the Rampgill Horse Level.
The third
pitch was already bolted and had new looking anchors on (very kind). The sump
was rigged up and Karli went down first. Part way down the shaft a rebelay was
needed to avoid a bad rub point. At this point Karli came back up and we
decided to have lunch in the nice dry sublevel. Once replenished we all started
to abseiled down to Rampgill. Past the rebelay, we spotted a potential level
and a bit further down we had to place rope protectors over a ledge that the
rope ended up running over. A little further down there looked to be another
level. In all the third pitch was around the 25m mark.
Once we were all
down we had a look up stream to the bottom of the Hydraulic Shaft, a look at
the blancmange mega formation on the Middlecleugh Vein and then we headed along
the Middlecleugh 1st Sun Vein to look at the fall we had found some 7 years
ago. The water levels before the fall and past the Hydraulic Shaft have all
been recently dropped by around 30-40cm - the works of Peter Jackson and Nick
Green. We made our way up back to Smallcleugh, planning on doing this all
again, but as a pull through and of course looking in the levels in the third
sump. |
