OHA 10/10/13

[Rostam]

Hi, me and a suss bod went down oha yesterday. The siphon was blocked at the sump end (cleared) and at the lower end was quite far down the tube. I think it might require pumping (we didn't have/couldn't find a valve). Any how the sump is not that full, you can still see both lines.

We went to do some bolting but long story short we only had 1 useable bolt.

Hope to see you guys soon!

PS My mate lost his hat in the carpark. It's a green/brown knitted tramp hat that had been on many adventures with him and he'd really appreciate it if someone could rescue it

[Ian A]

We are going to be there on Sunday - thanks for sorting the syphon out and we'll look out for the hat

 

Ian

[Tim Watts]

Siphon is started using the hand pump thats hanging in the bag on the rope at the highest point of the siphon tube if you see what i mean - no worried, we can easily start it going again on the way through on Sunday morning and then free dive it as long as its still pretty low... it'll be well empty by the time we come back through.

Where did you re bolt?

[Rostam]

The beginning of the traverse just before sump 1.

We only had 1 stainless steel bolt - we picked up the wrong bolts  :oops:
All the rest were expedition standard. I am looking to get hold of some concrete screws though...

We also left 55m of rope with the other spare stuff (we rigged a back up line to the traverse).

Gutted we missed the bag

[Tim Watts]

Cheers Ross - good work fella :-)

[mick murphy]

Report from surface control
                               All club members were in all 7 locations by 12.50 pm plus various members on
surface around shafts in the area.
A report of a sulpher smell was reported in the gorge at 13 .35 pm there were no more reports untill 2.15 pm were members in murphys and millenium started to hit the solid with 3 contstant bangs reports back were all parties heard 1 faint bang in between these times they all reported they did not send single bangs at any time,all 7 locations were closed up at 3.15 pm other than above there was no recordings of smoke or air horns. end of report.
                             Madmick

[Ian A]

Tim, Mike, Dylan ....

I went to look for the "lost hat" on the way to the surface operation but could not find it. All three of your cars (or trucks) were packed exactly where Derbyshire Ross was parked on Thursday. I looked under every vehicle but no hat - did any of you see it when you parked up and grab it ?

Ian

[Tim Watts]

no :-(

But sarahs just mentioned to me that there was a hat lying on the floor for a few days (on the other side of the bridge by the house which she recons has now gone (she takes joshua to cilcain school over the bridge daily).

I'll have another quick look tomorrow.

[Tim Watts]

Very quick report from me coz i'm goosed and am going for a bath!

we got there at 13:20 (had to wait for sump 1 for longer than expected). Set of airhorn at 13:30 from as high as we could get in the rift. Set of smoke straight after - say 13:32 - it does smell of 'fireworks/sulphur' with an acrid red smoke that burn my throat and eyes.

in fact it was so dense the other two hopped it but i continued to sit there for 20 mins hoping it would clear and then was going to set off another one but my eyes were by then streaming, couldn't see more that 12" and was coughing my lungs up - had to scramble down blind.

It wasn't drafting up the rift this time (not like it was a few weeks ago) and the smoke just hung there.

We sounded the aithorn a load more at approx 14:10 and then We lobbed another smoke bomb behind us at approx 14:20 as we left the 'waterfall' chamber.

Between approx 14:20 and 15:10 we let of several more smokes in the high dome chambers as we passed through but no draft meant we just had to release it and scarper quick.

incidentally there was next to no draft at all through sump 1 (its normally blowing a gale through the air gap).

I think we were very unlucky in that it was a non-drafting day - airpressures, inside outside temps etc.

That said - the sulphur smell in the gorge ties up EXACTLY with the time. Where abouts in the gorge exactly?

Also my missus swears blind she heard an air horn at 13:30 (which would have been right) somewhere near wherever murphs van was parked. I think Frank was in the area at the time too so might be able to provide a better idea of location of that.

We tried the radio but heard nothing - that was from 13:30ish for quite a few calls.

took the Altimeter down (franks). I believe it datalogs.

alt 1 and alt 2 were reading 80ft and 160ft up in the rift at approx 13:30 as we released the smoke.
Alt 1 and alt 2 were reading 310 and 390ft on my doorstep at 20:47 tonight.

suggesting (assuming constant air pressures etc) that where we were in the rift is 230ft (70m) below the level of my front door step on cefn bychan road - will need to translate this to meaningful figures related to the river, the gorge, murphs pot etc.

[Frank Hill]

I traipsed around along the river bed twice as far as the footbridge downstream from the gorge. This would have been around 1.30 ish for about an hour. I took the path that goes up toward spa mine ( it eventually ends up at cattle grid) but decided to cross the fence into the flat area between the spa mine and gorge. Here I bumped into Sarah who said she thought she heard a horn.
I then wandered over to the spa mine where I met Mick.
Never heard the horn but we both went into the mine and the little cave in the mine but nothing.
Ian had been here. Previously anyhow.
A friend of mine who arrived mentioned to me the smell of sulphur. This was on the path down to the bottom of the gorge. The one that passes the little hole in the rock face.
At about 2.30 I took the kids to the bottom of the gorge but nothing, however on the way back up the path I myself smelt I reckon what could have been the sulphur smell.
I went back down to the riverbed and wandered that area. The wind was blowing upstream in the direction from trial hill car park. I did have look down the main path towards trial hill but couldn't see anything.
I reckon I must have covered just about most ground around between 1 pm and 3

[Tim Watts]

very quick glance at a 1:25000 os map this morning.....

My house - where i took datum for alimeter is at 225m
Murphs pot/millenium bomb hole (i.e. the surface not the dig depth) is at 195m (approx)
The river is at 160m

so... if the altimeter readings are right (and taking a positive that there was no draft carrying the smoke in OHA yesterday suggests pressure inside and outside the cave were the same which would suggest the figures from the alimeter should be valid)...

Where we were in the rift we were

5m below the river level

Or

40m below the SURFACE of murphs/Millenium bomb hole.

My gut feeling is that the survey has an angular error and the terminal chamber is more down towards the river than expected. This would be sensible in terms of natural watercourse and the land falling down to within 5m of where we were would sound right for the moth etc in there. Plus of course the sulphur smell down in that direct was evident at pretty much the exact time we released the first smoke bomb.

My suggestion is to concentrate efforts there.

Theres no way on earth that the moth flew in via Millenium or Muphs dig.

[Ian A]

Good point Tim  

[Frank Hill]

We'll that would follow seeing that the wind was blowing from a downstream direction.
A while ago whilst on a walk up the river I discovered a sink just downstream of the footbridge which I videoed. Although it's probably been spotted before I'm going to look it up and have a little walk.

[Tim Watts]

Frank, I'm off back to Aberdeen tomorrow. I'll leave your stuff with the missus or in the back of the Landy, grab it whenever its convenient :-)

[Meaty1]

It was a definite smell of sulphur/firework smell walking up the path,but it was just in 1 spot, very strange.