Wednesday 2nd April

Mike W with Mike K to clear the larger rocks and prep to push on at the bottom of Cement Dig. We went in through the new cave with MK taking a detour to view the Puddle and grab his P&Fs.

In the dig, MW split the large rock into 2 pieces and after some struggle got the still rather large 'half' up to MK. The 2nd half was even bigger so this was split. Apart from one other being split, the rest of the rocks were manhandled out which was a bit of a struggle given the lack of footholds in the pit.

After a bit of cleaning of loose debris during which a few more large rocks were found and shifted out, the view looking down from the top was of a nice rock bench curving around the hole below where the bottom step had been. This was some 250mm wide, 500mm or so deep and approx. 1.5m long. From the floor, the low passage MK had previously pushed a bit was now accessible curving off to the right. Finally, a large rock that MK might have cemented in place in the past and which blocks the 'way on' at 11 on a clock face was accessible. A slight draught was detectable.

The bench took 2 x 12mm x 550mm holes and the blocking rock took another. A 4th hole swallowed one of MW's drill bits which snapped off at nearly full depth! After charging we retired back up through the horizontal passage where all the rocks had been dumped last week and stopped just above at the front of the calcited rift to pack up. In the passage which was now pretty much empty due to sterling rock tidying efforts by MK, and just above it in the packing area, the air was freezing cold.

MK fired from Golden Key Chamber, a slight rumble being heard by MW climbing the ladders and we exited after 2.5 hours.

 The Puddle had dropped a little bit but there is still plenty of water there.

Tuesday 25th March

Mike W and Sam H to assess the damage made in Cement Dig from last weeks activity, move out what material we could and assess possibilities for next steps.

The steps had disappeared, creating some much needed space and there was a lot of mixed sized debris in the bottom. A hole up on the right, not visible from the steps was disgorging stones, mud and clay at random with quite a lot already on the floor. Further space creation opportunities exist on the right at floor level. Cement work was largely intact.

With Sam in the hole and Mike perched above, 4 buckets of small stuff and all the accessible medium, large and larger but manageable rocks were brought up and dumped on the only flat surface available (where the end of the wire had been left). Sam uncovered two very large rocks which could be moved but not lifted out.

Actions needed in the normal course of events would be a) cement up the loose hole b) P&F the large rocks and lift them out and c) get a team of at least 5 to move the rocks back to a suitable spot and then chain out all the small stuff in buckets. While discussing this we started getting terminally depressed at the thought of how much cement would be needed to be brought down to accomplish the first task. We instead discussed the use of lightweight, but strong GRP grid, brought down in suitably sized sections and either bolted into place or wedged behind steel tubing or dexion. This has been successfuly used in LVS to create a working platform and hold back the loose overhead boulder choke. Suitably installed, possibly with chicken wire behind it, this could also enable storage of much of the small and medium sized debris, avoiding the painful thought of chaining it out. The hole needs gardening and surveying to establish details of course, but we left feeling much more cheerful following this discussion. We just need to find some off-cuts.

Time underground 1 hour. Write up by Mike W / Photos by Sam.

Photos.  1 before clearance /  2 and 3 after clearance / 4 Puddle dig, still very wet