Waterfall Hole
This drains to SMMC, so definitely worth a look....
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Just Joe and I again this evening for breakthrough 3.0! We met at the substantially earlier time of 6pm, armed with camera and capping gear we swiftly changed and made our way down the shake-hole to escape the weather.
Nonchalantly we made our way down to Westy's bit, plagued by the usual rigmarole of bag snagging around the corner. We passed breakthrough 1, where I expressed my consideration for the looseness of breakthrough 2 and the possibility of catastrophic failure. Joe reassured me that he thought it was fine and we proceeded Into The Void. Our first call for action was to make a photo in the breakthrough chamber. Joe had limited me to one good photo, I agreed to the one but didn't make any promises on it being good. After some flashing antics I cleaned my camera of excess water (super drippy in there) and we started to mingle with the chaos. Joe laughed at the crowbar we had decided to bring Into The Void (Rob's 'butter knife'), at 1m long it's exceptionally difficult to manoeuvre in tight spaces, which we often find ourselves in.
"What is it with us and choosing to use immensely shit crowbars?"
I pointed Joe into a hole I found last week but couldn't pass a squeeze. With little consideration he passed under the washing machine sized boulder I was questioning and managed to insert himself into the rift beyond. Unfortunately it was too tight to progress but felt fresh and with a bit of shuffling he managed to retreat safely.
I went to check out my only other lead which was the downward slanting rift that Rob had almost entombed me in two weeks prior. I inserted my head and I could feel the fresh cool air blowing out the hole, this was promising! After last week the team was a bit deflated with no obvious lead to shake a stick at, but when cave digging is concerned, you always follow the draught. Joe joined me and commitingly dropped headfirst down the rift to inspect the end. After some awkward shuffling I got a "f**k yeah!" back through the hole...
Excited I hastily asked him to describe what he was looking at. He shouted back that about 2m ahead was black open space, stal, and looking like it dropped down beyond. By this time Joe was restricting the hole with his body and the draught was howling back towards me. I asked him what we needed to do? He replied by saying, "just cap this rift, we'll be through tonight!" I passed down the tools and he made a start on enlarging the entrance and then progressed to enlarging the squeeze. After 30 minutes he was ready to attempt it. I slithered down to join him and watched him dither for a second, questioning the foundation of the right wall before diving through head first.
It all went quiet for 30 seconds whilst he walked off out of sight... Excited I asked him to describe what he'd found, "6-8m long rift passage, 2m high, end is tight, needs capping." Not quite as optimistic as before but eager to proceed he told me to come through. I decided before passing the tools through to enlarge the squeeze a bit more, making it Jon size. I decided to opt for the left wall this time, hoping to remove a small scab. I hammered down the capping rod and it didn't take long before going with a whopping BANG! on inspection the capping bar was now locked in place. The wall above had dropped down and pinched it in place. After some awkward back hammering I managed to remove the bar but we now questioned the stability of the squeeze, both the left and right walls. Joe came back through to prevent eternal blockage and checked it out. He started by tapping the wedge shaped rock that was holding up a microwave sized boulder above. Once it started to move he walloped it back in place, after a few little love taps he declared it safe enough to pass and we shrugged it off deciding to remove a small scab from the right wall instead. Within no time we were both through into breakthrough 3.0 armed with capping gear for beyond.
Joe let me scurry along to the end as he'd already taken a look. The passage was about 6m in length post squeeze, lined with a sandy/bouldery floor and roofed with tiny stal curtains. The awesome thing was that we were now in solid passage away from the choke and the draught was howling from the end. Approximately a body length from the end the calcite vanished and gave way to clean washed, scalloped limestone. The passage terminated at a letter box slot about 10cm wide and 1m in length from which you could just about peer down to see a bouldery floor 2m below with who knows what heading off out of sight. Above the slot looked remarkably like the top of Hockenhull's Rift, clean washed, scalloped, teetering, boulders, with a sizeable void above that looked super intriguing.
I took the lead in capping the slot, which we concentrated on for the rest of the trip. I let Joe take over after flattening my hand with the lump hammer in an attempt to avoid projectiles which I thought would certainly sever my jugular! Joe also caught a stray during his shift, receiving a nut shot from a fist sized boulder which I declared as a 'love tap...'
Before we left, we glanced the rift one last time, just to make sure we'd not missed anything obvious. Joe expressed his glee about being a GGW as on his last three trips he'd broken-through consistently. I don't mind him being a GGW providing this happens every time.
We exited in a huff, lugging the bags back to the entrance felt tougher than usual and we broke surface at 10:30pm which meant I lost the bet and had to buy the first round. Comme ci, comme ça.
Joe dropping Into The Void
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- Written by: Dylan Kocher
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Rob Eavis Jon Pemberton Dylan Kocher
Eldon getting with the times tonight! In an effort to be like the 'super' TSG on this trip - we’re busting out the nail polish.
Last week saw a breakthrough in Waterfall Hole. This week we’re making sure you will forever know it, having never been to this dig before the excitement was definitely high. Keen to see another classic in the making, my friends had been working hard as usual with their unique gorilla digging style. Tonight’s mission was to survey beyond the void, and wrap our heads around the area that adds complexity to an already complex environment.
First stop was the Travelers Rest where we picked up our digging prizes from 2025 ensuring a glory grabbing photo in the process.
Once parked up, myself and Rob hastily jumped down the swallet. Jon would be joining us later. Through the bedding we hit a choke, past ward wins into a pitch head via the sump bypass; set up as a deathball freeclimb. Having focused on climbing recently this felt super sketch. Rob, of course, just plummets down pressed against the wall. I carefully negotiated the alternative and standard TA approach to the freeclimb. It could not be understated how dumb and mad this would seem to any other club, but these lot breeze it and clearly blunted by the years of exposure to Radon poisoning. Once through, the discombobulated way presents its own fun obstacles and definitely gives a fringe and untraveled vibe to the destination ahead. We reached Breakthrough 1, past Westy’s bit, and there we started our survey. Some fun crawling leads to Breakthrough 2 where we dive (feet first) into the void. Beyond this is a relatively large and comfortable chamber where numerous ways lie ahead. Pushing a few easy picking and tight leads to no avail brought us into deeper areas of the boulderchoke.
Various leads gave way into further small chambers, until John cried out above letting us know of his arrival. We investigate a small lead on the floor. I start digging away and within a couple minutes myself and Rob are able to push on and through into what will be the deepest point in The Void (so far). Solid walls surround a third of the area and NW give way to the usual broken down choke; however the colours have gone from dark grey to a hollow orange (small chamber nearing on 20m below main chamber). Feeling by far the most remote, getting out above took some care as the whole place can be quite loose. In haste to join in and survey, Jon helps navigate us through another area above and adjacent to the way we came in. This is hidden when first entering. Moods being chip and cheerful, as now there are three in The Void. Jon excitedly points to the wall “look look”. Thinking he was pointing out a way on, I thought he was a bit mad at first and he definitely thought I was just dumb until I looked closer. What appeared to be scratches from a stemple adding to a growing theory that this area has at one time been accessed by miners. This is further evidenced by apparent stacking above (high chamber SE) and knowledge of the area adjacent being mined, making it all somewhat conclusive. With some more pushing and surveying in rather hostile and unstable conditions led us back to the main chamber. It was agreed to head back out after a final push and end tonight’s fun. In total, we have added 120m of absolute clusterfuck to the cave. I’m sure there will be a way on somewhere as now access can be maintained through weather conditions, but seems to be quite the start!
With pints and snacks bought at the Mechanics, I was very pleased to see that the nasa rocket launch had already initiated its countdown. A very fine excuse to stay a bit longer before my drive back home.
No one died in the cave nor on the launch so very successful night indeed.
Rob post Into The Void (JRP)
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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This was pitched to be a memorable trip, and it didn’t disappoint.
Same team as last week, partly because I think the others would feel too much like glory grabbing wankers if they joined us tonight. Pre-beers were quick and we smashed it straight to the end, grabbing a bit of content enroute.
Arriving at the end I start digging the boulders low down in the hope that I can ferret a safe enough route through, whilst Jon inspects above. In half an hour I get quite far but everything is loose, including a large boulder above me which is too big to get rid of tonight. I was super keen to breakthrough so decided to change tack and hit the route above. This involved dropping stuff down into where we’d just been clearing and the others weren’t that convinced of my plan. I told them I’d be through in less than an hour at which they baulked but I stubbornly set to.
Dropping boulders like they're out of fashion
After only a few minutes I could see the black space beyond. Progress was quite tricky because almost everything moved and it was difficult to know whether to cap stuff or try drop it down out of the way. Jon was exceptionally helpful steering from the back. Eventually rocks were moving forwards and down easily and I could finally see clearly see into the void beyond, and it look tasty. In an unusual act of consideration I decided not to go head first, just as well as it turned out to be a 3m drop down into the tall passage heading off. I checked my watch, 57 minutes. 😊
Rob squeezing into the void!
Joe comes through to join me, followed by Jon. However Jon managed to use a wrong handhold which then drops straight onto his leg. We both gasp at the blood red colour inside the fresh hole in his oversuit, only to see it was just his red furry suit! Seemingly able to still walk, we step back and look up at the other, much larger, boulders above him and realise we’ve all been quite lucky so far.
Jon just before impact...
The bloody hole!
Anyways, the passage leads 10m or so to what seems to be a big boulder choke. There are holes everywhere so we split up and start pushing stuff. Excitement in the air! Some bits are muddy, some clean washed, some quite calcited with plenty of formations. It’s a weird choke, quite different from the main Waterfall Hole choke. Myself and Joe end up quite low down at one point, maybe 10m lower than where we started, digging through gaps to access a very clean washed bit that keeps going down, just needs capping.
Everyone splits up...
We meet back with Jon in a new place, all via different routes, and whilst they poke a rift I climb up in the roof. Here it opens out with multiple ways off, but there’s lots of loose rocks around which start falling on them below so I pause. I notice that some of these rocks almost look placed; maybe miners have been in here?! The walls are all natural looking so it seems unlikely. I shout this down and Jon says he thought he had seen a stemple hole. I go down to see and it may well be one, but it’s hard to say and it’d be in a very weird location.
We now realise we were pretty late for pub, and as it was going to be a breakthrough night a few others were planning to come see us so we figured we should leave. Hilariously I have almost now idea of the way out and even got my watch compass out to help. Climbing back out the dug section was a little unnerving, so that will probably either need a little bit of work or just passing through with blinkers on.
We made the pub, it was nice to see everyone and bask in the glory.
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- Written by: Joe Buck
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From the other side of the world in New Zealand, I had been closely monitoring the stellar work of the rest of the gang back home in Waterfall Hole. The huge clean-washed passages and glow worms of NZ can’t compare to the squalid misery of a good Stoney dig. I was jealous.
The dig face was described as being right up my street: flat-out capping laying on one side, with very little room to work, and virtually no stacking space. After we’d made our way through the lovely new sump bypass, we negotiated the way to Westy’s bit, all the while Jon moaned incessantly about the size of my tackle bag. Rob was going to head off and tick off another lead Chris has spotted the week before, while Jon and I headed towards the main dig. The boys were gracious enough to let me have a go first as I had yet to see it.
At the dig face, I was initially confronted with a jumble of rocks where Rob had previously broken up the large boulder blocking the way on. A quick tickle with a crowbar and I managed to bring the lower blocks further towards me and get the others to collapse on my arms and head… I could now begin one-handed capping them into smaller chunks so they could slot neatly into our limited stacking space.
After a few hours of repeatedly shuffling around in the tight rift and launching and kicking rocks back at Jon, I managed to clear enough space above the boulder to squeeze into a narrow perpendicular rift. This made capping a lot more pleasant as I was now able to swing a hammer properly and not have my face right next to the capping bar.
The way on appeared to be down a narrow slot on the far side of the boulder/bedding with a reasonable cold draft hitting me in the face. I could just about see some space beyond through a small hole, but there was a lot more rock in the way and the capping now required me to go headfirst down the small hole and round a slight bend. This therefore involved disassembling the capping rod so I could get in, drill a hole, and then put the rod back in the hole in pieces and reassemble every time. At least I could just lob rocks further down now though.
JP in the squeezy bit into the chamber
After about an hour of sweating and swearing, I was tantalisingly close to be able to squeeze through into the space beyond, but the others began to complain of cold, with their faith in my positivity waning. I just couldn’t get this one jammed rock shifted. Growing increasingly frustrated, I threw a small handful of caps in the rock for one final effort, and with a satisfying crack and rumble of rocks into the space below I could finally wriggle through!
I dropped into a small chamber and immediately called Rob and Jon in. Jon, who was in front of Rob in the crawl, was sceptical to come through as he didn’t think we’d all fit and figured my threshold for impressive chambers was pretty low. Rob however, like a dog with two capping rods, was scrabbling to get in and have a look. There’s an obvious clean-washed channel down to the right as you enter, which is the obvious way on as it’s still heading in the right direction, and black space can be seen further ahead. This still requires capping and is currently underneath a huge and terrifying cantilevered boulder. Some climbs at the back of the chamber led up to more Waterfall Hole-esque jumbled boulders but with no obvious way on.
Happy boys
Plenty of piss-taking ensued as I was crowned chief GGW for leaving for three months only to return after all the hard work was complete and bag this find. It was getting late so we made a run for the pub. I am looking forward to heading back here - good prospects, sociable, and plenty of stacking space. Winner.
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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SR...What? (JP)
This was the first time in ages that I hadn’t been staring at the forecast in the days before the trip, trying to work out if the entrance was going to be sumped. The completion of the sump bypass last week now gives all-weather access to the rest of the cave, although that now means we have no excuse to not get digging.
With just the three core diggers again this week, and with quite a few “setting up” jobs to get on with, we decided to split into two teams. Chris n Jon stayed at the entrance pitch to look at putting some staples in to avoid the need of a ladder or SRT, similar to what we did in Madame Guillotine in Baggers. I left them to it and went ahead towards Westy’s Bit (admittedly with a bit of guidance from Jon as I had no idea which way to turn!).
Shortly after the pitch is a very technical squeeze over a tight rift which is not easy and Chris fell victim to on his return last time. So I spent a bit of time this trip with a length of 3x2 and a 2 foot long wood saw and ended up with a relatively poorly positioned stemple which will hopefully be of some use. After that I continued on to the end where I could begin forging a route ahead. It had been over 2 months since I was here last (https://www.eldonpotholeclub.org.uk/homepage/current-uk-projects/waterfall-swallets/702-500-a-goer-04-12-2026), not due to lack of trying, so I was super excited to finally be laid out with drill in hand ready to start smashing the place up. And the draught today was steady and very encouraging.
Crap stemple better than none?
A few caps just back from the end gave me a bit more room to work and I could finally take a good look at the boulder stood up and blocking the way. At over a metre tall it’s much bigger than the passage (somehow!) and whilst I could just about wobble the rock it was clear it needed to be broken into a lot of pieces to be moved out of the way. This was quite a tricky challenge because with each cap the pieces got smaller but still kind of balanced on each other, until they didn’t and instead rolled down onto my head. At least they were free and I could then shuttle each of them back about 2 body lengths to where the tiny bit of stacking space is. Slow work, but I was loving it.
The end boulder in pieces
After an hour Jon n Chris arrived and whilst I continued digging they spent 30 minutes or so widening a squeeze I had passed which to be fair was pretty tricky. Jon’s capping was yet again off form, however this time it was seemingly due to him using ‘little Rob’s little party poppers’ instead of proper caps, so after lots of swearing he came and stole a load of Chris’s big ones off me.
Jon in the newly widened squeeze
Come 21:45 they had finished widening the squeeze and I’d made a proper mess of the end so we called “pub”. On the way out we all enjoyed using the new stemple, although thankfully it’s still a very technical piece of cave not dissimilar to Coconut Airways in Cussey. At the pitch I was keen to see their staples, until they admitted they’d spent most of the time scratching their heads (and Chris doing an emergency dye testing experiment using some of his own toxic excretions) to then agree that no staples are needed and just a traverse line will be fine.
Nice to finally have a proper trip, we all were pretty knackered and the beer tasted oh so good. Can’t wait to get back digging the end.