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| In sump 1 fot. Quentin Cooper |
Martyn’s survey showed the way on somewhere to the right, at the end of the sump pool but after an awkward climb over a pile of boulders all I found there was a flooded bedding plane ( wide and low horizontal passage) with 5cm of airspace. Equipped with a single cylinder I slid under the low roof only to surface a couple of meters further on into a big open passage. So far, so good. Another climb over a mud bank brought me to the higher level and from there a stooping passage led to the four way junction. There things didn’t look that good anymore. First off all Martyn’s survey showed a three way junction with the middle one leading to the sump 3 but here there were two middle passages, one above the other. The other thing was that they were both too small to be entered. The lower one ( 1x0.4m) has an impassable constriction created by a partially fallen roof after only 3 meters but it seemed like I could sorted it out if I had some tools. The passage on the higher level looked WAY less promising being simply a 20-25cm bedding plane with no visible prospects of opening up.
I started digging at the constriction in the lower middle passage using a steel carabineer. After 40 min the obstacle was passed but ahead the passage started closing down. Fuck. The upper bedding plane was now the only option left. The floor of this low wide passage was a thin layer of compacted mud overlying solid rock, occasionally strewn with sharp rocks solidly embedded in the mud. If I could remove some of them there was a chance I could engineer some convoluted route on for some distance.This all looked like a desperate venture but it was either this or I could go home now. The latter wasn't an option. I started digging.
An hour later I was 5m into the bedding and I had the impression that it was opening up slightly after another 5m. But I came to the point where the clearance between the ceiling and the solid rock floor became too small for me to pass… I was still too bulky… I reversed to the chamber before the dig, opened up my dry suit and removed the inflator valve from my chest hoping that would lower my profile -2-3cm. I tried the squeeze again and I could feel that with a bit more digging I could probably pass it on “the exhale”, when my chest had the lowest profile. My major concern however was the fact that the passable route through that vast and low crack wasn’t straightforward at all, it was meandering among roof pendants taking a few sharp turns on the way and it could be very difficult to find the way back if I had to go back reversing for some reason. But at that point alea iacta est and one hour later I was through. The cave beyond was somehow more spacious, but mostly on knees or stooping height. Before I would bring all the diving gear on the other side I wanted to make sure there were no more obstacles on the way to sump 3. I found another 100m of the higher level passage that wasn’t shown on Martyn’s survey but eventually it also ended up at the terminal sump.
Finally, 4.5h after leaving sump 2 I was fully kitted, kneeling in the water at the edge of sump 3 and securing my fil d’Arianne to the block of limestone that I brought from other section of the cave. Through the tiredness I could hardly realise the importance of that moment on my own personal life map; it was early 2007 when I first read about Fergus River cave and started fantasizing about pushing the sump 3. Four years later I was there, kneeling at the edge of it, ready to go.
SUMP 3
It started as a 60cm high bedding plane, murky and cloudy inside. Once I passed the clouds of silt (they must have been caused by my kitting up and then traveled about 10m upstream - the only sensible explanation was that the water levels were dropping heavily and the water was draining somewhere back northwards) the visibility improved to 4-5m but it was still disappointing in comparison to the crystal clear sumps 1 and 2. Next thing I saw were two separate guidelines that I approached from my left hand side. My first thought was that both were sections of line left from Martyn in 1983 that had been partially washed back to the start of the sump. Having 300m of line left on my reel I decided to lay my own guide line all the way. I quickly arrived to Martyn’s EOL (end of the line) only to realise to my surprise that it was well secured there. I kept going and from there on the passage started heading NW (initial trend was N) and almost W after another 40m or so. Suddenly from my left another diveline appeared. Fuck, I made a loop I thought but after rechecking the compass I realized it was impossible, that line must have been an extension of Martyn Farr’s guideline BEYOND his limit in 1983! How come if there was NO dive report from anyone since then?! Someone did the entire effort, pushed sump 3 and said nothing?! I was almost sure it must have been Martyn… Intrigued I follow this line (4mm white nylon, tape distance markers every 5m, no directional markers) for another 30m or so to the point where a red 7-8mm climbing rope was attached to it and loosely wrapped around the boulder. I looked around and thought Fuck Fuck Fuck - it was a blind alley, 7m wide with no way on and that must have been the reason someone tied off the line here. I checked my air: 160B and 180B, I was still in the game. It was a crucial moment, I knew that right then I needed myself at my best, despite the crippling cold and lack of sleep, despite things at the surface, in my surface life, here I needed to get my shit together and give it my best try. I took another look around; to my right a sand bank raised almost to the ceiling but through 20cm gap I could see a parallel tunnel heading North…that could be it, but how am I gonna get there?! I started reeling back along the sand bank searching for the spot I could break through. After 20m or so the sand/mud bank disappeared replaced by a well compacted cobblestone floor in a low 50cm bedding. I got through without any problems only to get to another tight spot with the only passable route being a 60x30cm slot between boulders, compacted floor and the ceiling. This sump wasn’t fun. What happened to the promise of crystal clear vis, 2m high and 10m+ wide passage…?! I secured the line around the right hand side boulder, swung the left 7l in front of me and wriggled through the squeeze. 150 and 160 on the gauges, it better be good from now on … And it was… the passage turned NE and started slowly opening up. 50m further on it was 3m high and at least 10m wide. Turned NW, descended and opened up into an enormous underwater cave 5m high and more than 20m wide…it was simply Fergus 1 at its best only underwater. I knew that the passage kept descending for last 50-60m but it was only then that I checked the computer: I was 40min into a dive, 8 deg, at …18m of depth!! 18m! That was some surprise! I had about 3 min left on that depth before hitting the thirds ( one third of my gas reserves, which is widely accepted but not always very conservative gas management rule while cave diving). With less than 60m of line left on my reel I speeded up and put on my 6th gear. The tunnel was truly amazing but being so close to my thirds I was trying to stay completely focused on the line job. I was flying over the cave floor with eyes locked on the line unreeling from the spinning drum of my reel when suddenly one of a cave diver’s worst nightmares just happened: the reel drum stopped spinning abruptly!!! And I was still moving ahead!!! It took me a split second to understand the implication of what might just have happened and I stopped immediately; the worst but most probable explanation was so harrowing that I felt a wave of nausea coming: the line must have got broken somewhere back in the tunnel… I took few deeper breaths to calm down, get composed and re-evaluate my situation. I locked the reel, faced the exit and pull the line gently towards me hoping it was only an accidental slack. It didn’t feel like one, after pulling out a good meter the guide line was still at the full slack. The fact that I’ve just hit the thirds made it all more interesting… I made OK around the line with my fingers and started the return. Only then I realized how floaty the line that I was using was, and seeing more and more of it floating loosely at the ceiling didn’t help to keep my mental composure. But my choices at that point were limited so I kept working on keeping my breathing rate normal. Vis dropped to 1-1.5 due to all the silt disturbed during squeezing through the low sections and somehow managed to travel upstream. Just great…definitely not the best underwater cave to get your guide line cut… After what felt like an eternity or 200 hundred meters (and what in reality was only 30mish) I reached for my safety reel when suddenly I felt a tension on the line and the next thing I came to my previous belay ( if you ask why for the love of god it was 30m away I can only say that there were no belay points in that section of cave whatsoever and …I was out of snoopy loops anyway after meandering in the low beddings…). At this point my future brightened up again - things became more predictable. I wrapped all the slack line that was floating behind me around the belay rock and continued my “tactical retreat“ (what must have really happened was the floating line went up to the roof on my way in, snagged a roof pendant and when it got accidently released it created that massive slack that I took as a line breakage).
RETURN
I surfaced after 58min chilled to the bone but the real cold and tiredness only kicked in once the adrenaline level dropped. I kept moving to warm up a bit and having a dry suit helped a lot. I carried all the gear (minus the reel that was left in the sump) back through the squeeze and 2.5h later I was back on the surface in sump 1. I spent another hour and a half changing, packing and securing the gear. Eventually all went into 3 heavy bags except 3 diving cylinders. I secured the cylinders and one of the bags at the top of the sump chamber and started a slow return towards the entrance. It took 4 and half hours (that included 40 min snooze somewhere on the floor of the cave) to get both bags through all the crawling parts of the cave. I secured them at the top of the Blocked Chamber and exited the cave 45 minutes later after 18h spent underground.
As a result of this tough trip sump 3 was pushed to 240m of length at 19m of depth. It continues descending as a massive underwater tunnel heading in the North direction. The pursuing of the mythical source of the Fergus River is now more tentative than ever and will continue soon, most likely with a use of a sidemount rebreather.
Thank you so much for all the surface support on my exit and sincere apologies for all those who worried through the night and in the morning hours.
Artur
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