On 2^nd of February we decided to put three divers through the sumps for the first time.

Hilary Greaves (RRCPC) Joined John Maneely and myself to finish off the aven climb. Fiona Crozier (BEC) and Katie Steckles (MUSC) provided the Sherpa assistance and for once the men were outnumbered by the women in the cave! After about a further 6m of vertical climbing I reached the top of the aven and a flat roof. The only possible lead was an impossibly tight rift heading off South East. Slightly disheartened I abseiled down so that John could head up with a tape measure to check the height – 26m in total. After cleaning the mud covered ropes ad climbing gear the three divers pulled some of the kit out, leaving the rest for some shorter climbs closer to the sump pool. As we couldn’t retrieve all the kit it’s important to say thanks to Bruce Blagden who went down midweek to get my cylinders out after this trip. 

After a few weeks off on Saturday 23^rd of February we arranged a radio Location exercise with Brian Prewer (WCC).

Stu Gardiner, myself and John Maneely made up the team, this time assisted down to the sump by Duncan Price (CSS) and Matt Jones (KUCC). (do you get the impression its become a real multi club affair now!) 

On the way downstream I decided to make a few notes.....

......about the general trend and bearing of the passage and sump depths.
The latter proved impossible after two divers ahead of me but I managed to record the general trend to be E, with occasional sections heading SE or NE for short distances.
Unfortunately these detailed notes did not survive the trip so most of this is from memory and we still need to do this properly for the Somerset Sump index (I’m sure one of the reasons Duncan agreed to carry was to nag me about this!).  

Stu had entered the water first and taken the radio location kit which was stored in an ammo can. This survived the trip without flooding and when John and I arrived he was already set up transmitting. Meanwhile I climbed back up the ropes in the aven to rig them as a pull though so we could use them else where, whilst leaving thin string in their place in case anyone wanted to pull ropes back up in the future. Apart from some strange noises and an unidentified voice on the frequency the radio location exercise was pretty efficient we were quickly able to head off for objective number 2 – the un-dived sump. I’d carried my kit up from the sump pool so wearing one bottle with the other in Stu’s bag we set off. I seemed to have under estimated the awkwardness of this crawl as we hadn’t gone far when it became apparent I’d need to push my cylinder ahead of me through lots of low ducks and crawls. Here protecting the valve and keeping it pressurised became very difficult. After lots of clanks and some hisses my regulator began to play up and after a quick conference about needing this in good working order to get back out – we decided to retreat and come back better prepared for the awkward carry.   

Back in the main passage we then contented ourselves with several hours of aid climbing in a sizable muddy chamber somewhere above the sump pool. This area looks interesting and there are several options here, the next trip will be very telling about the prospects here.  Once we ran out of bolts we turned for the surface and made it out just in time for the pub! The kit the three of us couldn’t carry out we went back for on Sunday with additional help from Fiona and Rich Llewellyn Smith (BEC). 

On the radio location side, Brian was assisted by Phil Hendy (WCC), John Riley and Charlotte Riley. They left a stake in the ground to mark the spot on the surface and we were delighted to find three large depressions nearby – so there may be a surface dig starting here in the future!