There are three ways that we know of that will get you from
Smallcleugh to Rampgill. In this trip we tried out the connection from the sub
level at the north east end of the Handsome Mea Great Cross Vein. We proceeded
to the sump that drops down to a sub level in the hope of catching the shaft to
Rampgill, just before the end of the Hard Cross Cut I saw a 6' length of rail
and suggested we take it in case we needed an extra anchor, we ended up using
it but not in the way intended.
Last year with Charlie, I had a look at
the sump that drops down to the sub level, and just before it there was a bad
shale collapse, which you had to climb into and out of. This time round when we
reached it, the collapse was blocked, heckles raised as the prospect of the
trip being cut short hit us. It dawned on me that on the approach to the
collapse the air had not been as fresh as before and now I knew why. On closer
inspection, you could just about see the cavity through a small hole, here the
rail section we brought with us came into its own, swinging it up into the
blockage we managed to loosen enough material so that I could dig it with my
hands. After 15 minutes or so we were both sat in the collapse cavity looking
at the other side completely blocked - we got the rail into the cavity but
there was no room to swing it. Karli had a go at digging the compacted shale by
hand, after some time the top of the stone arch could be seen and with the use
of his stop (I'm sure Mr Petzl never intended this use for it) he made a hole,
and shortly afterwards the smell of fresh air came through, a total of over 1
hours digging. We spent sometime trying to decide whether to continue or to
give it up being concerned of a further collapse. The best of 3 rough side /
smooth side stone tosses decided it for us, we went ahead.
After the
collapse we came to the end of the passage and saw the sump that would take us
to the sub level some 12m below. A 20m rope was rigged up to a rail section and
I abseiled down, Karli following behind - at this stage we decided not to
commit to a full pull through. The sump was interesting as it was roughly on a
70° slope, with the 'roof' being a bedding plain. Exploring the sub level
we came to a stone arched sump, there were 3 rail sections across it, so the
anchor issued was sorted. We passed this and continued along the level. There
were a number of little turn offs to look at and at the end we came to shaft
that was a partitioned with a wooden wall. Karli climbed down this and reported
another level. We then returned to the first shaft with the rails, had lunch
and rigged it with a 50m rope, from a cross sectional plan of the area I
estimated the shaft to be around the 35m mark.
After descending around
10m, I was able to swing into a sub level, Karli joined me on the landing
point, but we did not explore it, the level was stoned lined for the first 5m
or so and then came to shale which had collapsed, however it looked like it
went on and could have possibly linked with the level Karli had found earlier.
Karli carried on down and did some gardening a few meters down as the shaft
gained a wooden partition, one side of which was blocked. After we both got to
the bottom, it looked like the shaft was more in the 40m mark, welcome to the
Rampgill Level. According to the maps you could only go one way, but we where
presented with 2, a quick check with the compass told us to head east east
west, the expected left turn corner appeared and any doubt disappeared. The
water here was waist deep and very cold, with the passage heavily calcified.
After some 150m we started hitting shale passage which smelt rather acrid. The
passage for most of the way now was in the region of 1-1.5m high, a result of
many collapses. Some of the rocks that had fallen were the size of wardrobes,
with plenty more to come down - not altogether that pleasant. Finally we hit
the Rampgill Vein junction and headed for the exit. |
