Rubicon conditions reports (Read 333573 times)

simon40 · July 28, 2015, 08:36:15 pm

Went down this evening and great conditions, even the warm up traverse feet were dry, all Kudos dry

remarkable

tomtom · July 28, 2015, 09:00:41 pm

Quote from: simon40 on July 28, 2015, 08:36:15 pm

Went down this evening and great conditions, even the warm up traverse feet were dry, all Kudos dry

remarkable

Cheers for the report... who'd a thunk it?

Seb · August 13, 2015, 09:01:55 pm

Any news about rubicon and crag x?

abarro81 · August 13, 2015, 09:21:40 pm

crag x bone dry last weekend. After tomorrow's rain it's anyone's guess...

dave · August 13, 2015, 09:37:58 pm

Rubicon all dry tonight but quite humid.

m.cooke.1421 · August 14, 2015, 08:52:17 pm

I found a green Pod Sacs beer towel by the side of the path at the right hand end of Rubicon last night. I have put it out of view at the base of the crag.

dave · August 14, 2015, 08:55:28 pm

Fuck, that's mine! Cheers.

To everyone else: hands off!

Seb · August 25, 2015, 08:59:48 pm

Any news about Rubicon or crag x?

Andy B · August 25, 2015, 10:13:34 pm

Rubicon was all dry yesterday.

Cracka · August 26, 2015, 10:58:09 am

Crag X was dry as a bone on Monday.....

dave · September 21, 2015, 12:34:19 pm

Can whoever has been trying superman remember to brush their tickmarks off after? Cos even when the crag is totally drenched with condensation, as it was on saturday evening, those tickmarks don't wash off. Cheers.

abarro81 · September 21, 2015, 12:49:01 pm

All those ramblers and general passers-by must get really pissed off at tickmarks and overuse of chalk at crag x.

dave · September 21, 2015, 12:51:35 pm

Climbers have eyes too. Or as it would seem, only some of us.

ashtond6 · September 21, 2015, 12:53:56 pm

WCJ cornice totally dry yesterday

2 Tru · October 21, 2015, 12:22:04 pm

Does anyone whether the river has flooded after this weeks rain? Will it still be ok for this Sunday?

Thank you.

tomtom · October 21, 2015, 01:14:05 pm

I very much doubt it's risen after last nights rain (it was very very low on Monday by all accounts). What will happen by Sunday - depends what happens on Thursday Friday and Saturday.......

shark · October 21, 2015, 02:56:12 pm

Quote from: tomtom on October 21, 2015, 01:14:05 pm

I very much doubt it's risen after last nights rain (it was very very low on Monday by all accounts). What will happen by Sunday - depends what happens on Thursday Friday and Saturday.......

dont expect a straight answer from a flooding expert

tomtom · October 21, 2015, 03:16:25 pm

Quote from: shark on October 21, 2015, 02:56:12 pm

Quote from: tomtom on October 21, 2015, 01:14:05 pm
I very much doubt it's risen after last nights rain (it was very very low on Monday by all accounts). What will happen by Sunday - depends what happens on Thursday Friday and Saturday.......

dont expect a straight answer from a flooding expert

I thought I was being very restrained with my answer

However, if you want a definitive answer - you'll need one of these:

or this:

To be honest - to predict what the weather will do by Sunday, you'd be just as well using one of these:

or giving this lady a call:

dave · October 21, 2015, 03:36:33 pm

Frankly TT I think your expertise is wasted by being a rent-an-expert on doubledigit Freeview channel popular science repeats. You're not going to improve the ancient Egyptian's quality of life no matter what, because they're already dead. On the other hand if you switched to developing a reliable model for Rubicon flooding, and possibly all groundwater seepage in the Peak, you could be making a tangible difference to so many people's lives. How many 8as you gonna help Tutankhamun get up this year? Fuck all, that's how many.

shark · October 21, 2015, 03:57:42 pm

2 try was gamely celebrating Back to the Future day and you've gone now you've thrown a sciency hissy fit.

tomtom · October 21, 2015, 04:06:07 pm

Quote from: dave on October 21, 2015, 03:36:33 pm

Frankly TT I think your expertise is wasted by being a rent-an-expert on doubledigit Freeview channel popular science repeats. You're not going to improve the ancient Egyptian's quality of life no matter what, because they're already dead. On the other hand if you switched to developing a reliable model for Rubicon flooding, and possibly all groundwater seepage in the Peak, you could be making a tangible difference to so many people's lives. How many 8as you gonna help Tutankhamun get up this year? Fuck all, that's how many.

Well... funny you should ask... because for part of a study I was involved in looking at the future of the Derbyshire Derwent Valley ( https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/future-climate-environmental-change-within-derwent-valley-mill-whs/ - really - you don't have to click on this and read it.. there are better things to do with your life.. ) I did some hydrological modelling for the catchment above Matlock - of which the River Wye - running through Rubicon - is part of....

My view is that the Wye being a karst river is strongly influenced by subsurface/subterranean flows - which will make it slow to respond to rainfall events. There is a long lag between rainfall becoming streamflow - with strong underground drainage means that hortonian overland flow is highly unlikely (overland flow being a rapid deliverer of water to the channel..). There will also be water table effects in play - which are gain important because of the role of subsurface drainage here. The flip side of this is that once water levels are raised they are likely to take a long time to go down.

As its been dry for the last three weeks, I would suggest (posh word for an educated guess) that the water table is presently quite low - so any rainfall we have in the next couple of days will probably be soaked up by that - and river levels will not rise much. In other words its probably going to be alright for Sunday unless it pisses it down every day between now and then.

However, at Rubicon, flow levels can be independently controlled by the weir and sluice at the bottom. It looks like these are never touched - but altering these could make a big difference to water levels under the crag. So you have to factor in the 'person who might change the sluice'...

Over the last two weeks the channel below CragX has been bone dry - when it was running for much of the earlier Summer - so my qualitative analysis would be that its all pretty dry at the moment and will take quite alot of rain to get the rivers going much...

All of the above, fails to take into account any 'on rock' conditions such as seepage/condensation/runoff - all of which can bugger up a climbing trip.

On a more practical note - rather than my prattle above, for the climber wanting to know what's what on a day to day situation with river levels (and of interest for the fisherfolk out there too..) is the excellent website Gaugemap - which gives you real time (slight delay) flow levels for all of the telemetry river gauges in the UK. The nearest and most useful for Rubicon is:

http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/#!Map/Summary/131/137

Which shows flow conditions downstream are very low...

You can even follow individual gauges on twitter if you like... (@riverlevel_0125 ) though I've not tried that...

Tutankhamen? Well, that's just a sideline that gets my ugly mug on the idiot lamp from time to time. It does strangely keep my bosses happy though...

shark · October 21, 2015, 05:41:11 pm

If its not dry on Sunday I'm reporting you to the Hydrographic Office

tomtom · October 21, 2015, 06:40:55 pm

Quote from: shark on October 21, 2015, 05:41:11 pm

If its not dry on Sunday I'm reporting you to the Hydrographic Office

They won't give a shit - they're owned by a Qatari hedge fund now...

nai · October 21, 2015, 07:56:19 pm

Sunday, you say?

lagerstarfish · October 22, 2015, 07:50:21 am

more useful is the water river level at The Works

http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/#!Map/Summary/1939/2057