Pool Sink – Act 1

Wet:    P. Llewellyn, J. Newton, P. Muckalt & G. Leach.                                                  .                                                                           Dry:      R. Stevens, D. Crellin.

Bob had been to a jumble sale and I’d promised to lend him my carbide & a helmet, we were all set to go to Pool Sink. Ah, but who’s this arriving at II:30 trying to get out of going caving. It’s Pete & his chariot less sidekick - Jim.                                                                 .                                                                                                                                   “When was the last time you went caving?                                        .                                                                                                  “Mumble, mumble, mumble.”                      .                                                                                           “What’s this about a dig at Eureka Junction?” (Yes a Jim dig)            .                                                      I persuaded them to go down Pool Sink with Pete & myself while Bob & Dave went down County Pot to meet us at Eureka. An uneventful trip down apart from Pete getting lost after the 4th. pitch (as heard to mumble, ”I must get a refresher on Pool Sink”). On the dry short cut to Holbeck, Jim notices a small inlet which is draughting - poke, poke. “I’ll come back to this later.” So on to Eureka where we meet Bob & Dave and Peter who had managed to find his way there on his own. At least three enthusiastic, diggers were crowded round the “dig”. Jim tried to get in. “No, wants a bit more off the bottom.” It was my turn to dig & was soon, able to get into the rift & climbed up 12 feet on jammed boulders. I was confronted with a solid roof & lots of loose rubble to the sides. I came out & Jim went in for a look, funny - he came out quicker than I did. On the way back we spent an happy hour throwing boulders out of the draughting inlet. Pete couldn’t get through - so we headed out.

At T-piece pitch, I tried to soak Bob but unfortunately got David instead, he was not amused as several gallons ran down his “dry” suit. At the second pitch, my body fitted neatly into the chute shaped passage, enabling me to drown Peter M as he climbed up the ladder.  The rest got their fair share apart from Jim who pretended to climb & then hid round the corner. Meanwhile Peter has tipped a glove full of water, down my neck. Brrrrr.

Thus an extremely clean bunch of cavers extracted themselves from the entrance crawl at Pool Sink.
“Where was that rift we saw in the snow’. says Jim.                                       .                                                                            “0ver there,” says I.                                                .                                                                                                                                       So we walked over towards Boundary Pot. Unable to find the rift we were looking for, we stumbled upon a shakehole that had recently fallen in - with the sound of running water at the bottom. This is it we thought. Right in the middle of no mans land. We removed several large boulders & were almost in by the time the others arrived. I pulled one last boulder out and slipped into the rift passage, much to the annoyance of Jim who also wanted to be first in. I was in a small chamber with the sound of water coming from one end. I dived into a flat out crawl and found myself looking up a six foot aven with water running down it & disappearing into a two inch bedding plane at the bottom. Drat & double drat.
A quarter of an hour later we were filling it in again with the boulders we had removed. I expect in a few years time someone else will come along discover it again.

 

G. Leach.

 

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