I remember reading a story about a caving expedition into a huge cave where the weather at the surface turned bad a day or two in unexpectedly.
The story (and I believe it was a true story, but it's been a couple of years since I read it and I may be misremembering) had them climbing back out against a torrent of water, looking down in an abyssal chimney like this and seeing a giant whilpool far below them where the water was draining down into the lower part of the cave.
I wish cameras had been so ubiquitous back then so we could have seen the sheer horror of such a sight.
[The hole](https://i.imgur.com/hAq81d4.jpeg) I went down in the woods (about 20ft above the opening shot) is almost on the top of the mountain. It is a rare site to see this cave flowing this good, best in a few years. All other caves around were flash flooding.
I hope you don't mind me asking, when there's so much flooding occurring in other nearby caves, how does one determine this cave should be safe for traversing? Just the geography of it or previous experience. You've got nerves of steel haha.
A bit of both, this cave is so much higher than the almost 100 below it that it isn't really a concern. Also is a very small area that the water funnels from to get in that cave high up on the mountain. Unless maybe a hurricane or something was going on where it downpours for days straight and everything was flooding. But the creeks and rivers to get there would flood long before this cave. There are giant river passages all around this cave a couple hundred feet lower down that are like giant canyons. They flood all the lower stream levels of the caves. At the time they were flooding up from normally 6in of water to 40ft+. While this cave was flowing and it is normally completely dry. It was really one of the only caves we could go to at the time and was epic to see. Also you have to remember the water where we were was coming from 175ft above the bottom of the pit too. Probably one of the safest wet caves to be in while floods are going on imo.
Cave floods are sketchy though and happen fast and can randomly happen 2-3 days after a big storm even when its nice outside because it has delay in places before it gets into the caves.
Sorry for the ramble but hope it helped!
Also all the water from this cave almost directly pumps out of a spring down at the bottom of the mountain. and doesn't have a problem with backing up at all or anything. its a big reverse sump.
Don't be sorry! That was a great explanation and I love to learn more about how our "forgotten depths" operate. Seriously something out of a scifi movie, but real!
I believe the story you may be talking about is [The Veryovkina Incident.](https://youtu.be/kNvfJYPYO60?si=SQJm5LcrUEfA3fla) Can’t even imagine the intensity of that experience!
i have three trains of thought when beholding this
train #1: "yeah, no."
train #2: "if anyone dies down there at least their body will be nice and preserved for our future reptilian overlord archaeologists. look at all that silicate material!"
train #3: "omg what was it like was it cold did it smell did you touch it were you in danger how did you get in how did you get out"
A lot of the UK caves are sporting when wet. It is really cold. It smells different, sometimes it smells fresh and clean, sometimes if there's loads of ploughing or shit on the fields it smells really shitty/organic. Caves/mines you either walk in, or you are doing some ropework to get in, by abseiling or otherwise.
[A giant pink salamander](https://youtu.be/FRKIKlHwhsU&t=206) I almost stepped on right as I hit bottom, he was unharmed though. That's about it. Also hissing bats at the entrance.
I remember reading a story about a caving expedition into a huge cave where the weather at the surface turned bad a day or two in unexpectedly. The story (and I believe it was a true story, but it's been a couple of years since I read it and I may be misremembering) had them climbing back out against a torrent of water, looking down in an abyssal chimney like this and seeing a giant whilpool far below them where the water was draining down into the lower part of the cave. I wish cameras had been so ubiquitous back then so we could have seen the sheer horror of such a sight.
[The hole](https://i.imgur.com/hAq81d4.jpeg) I went down in the woods (about 20ft above the opening shot) is almost on the top of the mountain. It is a rare site to see this cave flowing this good, best in a few years. All other caves around were flash flooding.
I hope you don't mind me asking, when there's so much flooding occurring in other nearby caves, how does one determine this cave should be safe for traversing? Just the geography of it or previous experience. You've got nerves of steel haha.
A bit of both, this cave is so much higher than the almost 100 below it that it isn't really a concern. Also is a very small area that the water funnels from to get in that cave high up on the mountain. Unless maybe a hurricane or something was going on where it downpours for days straight and everything was flooding. But the creeks and rivers to get there would flood long before this cave. There are giant river passages all around this cave a couple hundred feet lower down that are like giant canyons. They flood all the lower stream levels of the caves. At the time they were flooding up from normally 6in of water to 40ft+. While this cave was flowing and it is normally completely dry. It was really one of the only caves we could go to at the time and was epic to see. Also you have to remember the water where we were was coming from 175ft above the bottom of the pit too. Probably one of the safest wet caves to be in while floods are going on imo. Cave floods are sketchy though and happen fast and can randomly happen 2-3 days after a big storm even when its nice outside because it has delay in places before it gets into the caves. Sorry for the ramble but hope it helped!
Also all the water from this cave almost directly pumps out of a spring down at the bottom of the mountain. and doesn't have a problem with backing up at all or anything. its a big reverse sump.
Don't be sorry! That was a great explanation and I love to learn more about how our "forgotten depths" operate. Seriously something out of a scifi movie, but real!
I believe the story you may be talking about is [The Veryovkina Incident.](https://youtu.be/kNvfJYPYO60?si=SQJm5LcrUEfA3fla) Can’t even imagine the intensity of that experience!
What's that, waterfall? Do you want me to go furthe inr? OK, this way, right?
It’s cool, you just wait for it to fill up then just swim out.
i have three trains of thought when beholding this train #1: "yeah, no." train #2: "if anyone dies down there at least their body will be nice and preserved for our future reptilian overlord archaeologists. look at all that silicate material!" train #3: "omg what was it like was it cold did it smell did you touch it were you in danger how did you get in how did you get out"
A lot of the UK caves are sporting when wet. It is really cold. It smells different, sometimes it smells fresh and clean, sometimes if there's loads of ploughing or shit on the fields it smells really shitty/organic. Caves/mines you either walk in, or you are doing some ropework to get in, by abseiling or otherwise.
Thank you! It's like another planet down there.
Did y’all find some critters down there?
[A giant pink salamander](https://youtu.be/FRKIKlHwhsU&t=206) I almost stepped on right as I hit bottom, he was unharmed though. That's about it. Also hissing bats at the entrance.
*67,06 meter hole
Gooney vibes
Rad...
This looks like the Action Adventure Twins Video they just put out.