Incident Report

2024-10-14The anchors between Sump 2 and Sump 3 in Swildon's Hole had been reported loose and it was proposed to replace these under the CSCC resin anchor scheme. Following accepted best practice to re-use old anchor holes where possible, the existing anchors were removed and dive lines were left secured to the new resin anchors that had not fully cured. To mitigate the risk of and anchor failure, a backup rope was used to link the two free-dive lines together, and to a natural belay. The anchoring was completed on a Monday evening, and inspected three days later on the Thursday. Despite the backup rope, an anchor failure between installation and inspection could still have caused problems for an inexperienced free-diver.If using resin anchors for a free-dive line, consider if/how the line can be secured while resin cures. Consider fully removing the free-dive line, if this will not risk causing cavers to become trapped beyond the sump. Install warning signs at ends of free-dive line until resin anchors can be inspected after curing. Avoid installing resin anchors before likely busy periods eg. install on a Monday, not a Friday night. Inspect anchors as soon as possible after curing.