Black Keld: Spring 2001


The 'Strid' on the River Wharfe	Black Keld Spring 2001 Last revised: 4/3/01
	No Access to Black Keld The wettest weather in Autumn since records began, continued into the early part of the Winter. It stopped diving in Black Keld and other sites, although a brief trip was made in October. The visibility was too poor even to assess the condition of the dive line.
	Phil Murphy in Dry Passage.	Phil Murphy and I only went as far as Lake 2, the point reached by the divers of 1949. Here photographs were taken of the air bell and dry passage.
Lake 2 Air bell	On New Years Eve 2001 colder weather allowed another dive and this time underwater photographs were taken with Phil Murphy's new camera. An investigation of the area around the underwater squeeze in sump 2 was also made, but no easier way on could be found. This trip was memorable in that the divers surfaced into a snow blizzard and my wet suit finally disintegrated. Later that night the snow melted and the cave was in flood again.
	On 20th January frost and cold improved conditions and three divers went into Black Keld. Phil Howson went into the dry series, beyond sump 2 and the static sump, to begin preparations for pushing the dry series sump. Phil Murphy repaired and relaid the line in sump 4, which had broken. In the process he discovered another large air bell in this sump.
River Wharfe near Bolton Abbey	I had an unwanted experience in sump 2. While negotiating the tightest part of the squeeze and pushing a third bottle in front of me, my air supply suddenly cut out. Fortunately I always carry the spare regulator on my arm while going through the squeeze, but at this point there is not much room to manoeuvre and I couldn't turn my head easily to get it in my mouth. Nor could I move backwards or forwards quickly. My mask flooded as I fought to get my lips to seal around the regulator. I didn't have space to get it in properly, so purged the regulator to get some air. With that I managed to move forward a couple of inches and got it mostly in my mouth.
Upon investigation I found that the tap on the cylinder of the first regulator had rolled shut as I'd wormed through the squeeze. This had happened because I was using a new (Dragon) harness and the bottles hung differently. It's not the first time it's ever happened to me, but it was certainly the worst position. I might also have had more comfort if I'd turned the third bottle and regulator on, before going through the squeeze, but at the time didn't think it was necessary! At least it wasn't nil visibility and I will adjust the way the bottles hang next time. I'm not sure whether to be pleased with my system and experience which got me out, or worried that I'm having far too many of these interesting incidents.
Wharfe valley showing the colour of the coarse sand found in Black Keld.	The 'American' side mount system on which the 'Dragon' harness is based, allows bottles to be taken off the harness fairly easily. This was an advantage in the dry crawl after sump 2, where one bottle was taken off and pushed in front. I also found it to be slightly more supportive when walking and diving in the larger passages. Leaving Phil Murphy sorting out the line in sump 4, I carried on into sump 5. The Autumn floods had buried the dive line in banks of sand. In places it was easy to pull out, but in others I had to kneel on the floor and pull hard with both hands. It was slow and hard work, but the line itself wasn't damaged.
I continued in this way through sump 5 (640m), staggered up the large dry passage and flopped into sump 6. Visibility seemed to be getting worse, at a metre at best, but again the line wasn't damaged. I got to the end of the line and then reeled some back in, because I felt this last section to be going in the wrong direction and possibly back on itself. This was based on compass bearings and markings in the sand, because the passage here is large. I didn't see walls or roof. Final depth was recorded as -17m, which felt encouraging. I'd got to thirds, because of all the effort with the line and was starting to feel cold, even in my new wetsuit. By the time I got back to the dry passage after sump 3 my feet were numb and I couldn't walk very well, choosing to half crawl and swim along the passage. The other two divers had gone out as arranged, because it was too cold to wait around. A slight twinge of cramp made me uncomfortable in the sump 2 squeeze and then it was all plain swimming out to the entrance.
	We were all pleased with our efforts and as long as no major floods come along, everything is set up for pushing on at the end. However I will have to repair my new wetsuit and adjust the harness.
Keep Out! Outbreaks of Foot and Mouth disease across the UK in 2001 led to requests for people not to go onto farmland. This completely stopped diving at Black Keld until recently.
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