Wednesday 30th October 2024

Chris George, Sam Hill, Stuart Jellis, Geoff Marchant, Milo Marchant, Adrian Miles and Simon Wedgewood. SH got to the dig for just after 6. Made a start clearing bang debris, filled 6 bags and shifted larger rocks back to the connection. Then joined by AM and more bags were filled and shifted. Kept clearing until 8 with 5 others turning up to help clear. Decent water worn tube in the right hand floor but more enlargement will be needed around area of previous bang. Two body  lengths down it looks like the floor levels out and cuts in right. Good cool draught. Finished by showing the others the rest of the cave. 2.5 hrs for me. Sam.

Before clearing. Photo SH.

After clearing. Photo SH.

Sunday 27th October 2024

Mike Kushy, Tim Rose and Sam Hill.

MK and TR to start with. Took in the materials and two drills. Left bang wire in situ and MK freed it from below the awkward climb, TR then coiled it up and left it in Boulder Chamber above. With the coast clear we took all the tools down cave. TR went to the sharp end and started sending rocks up and a couple of bags. With stacking looking dodgy MK then went through the connection and TR handed the rocks and bags through to him. SH then arrived. MK stayed where he was, TR sat at the top of the rope pull and SH went to the dig face. Many bags and rocks cleared. Over an hour of clearing and SH said it was about ready for drilling/banging. MK went to the front and cleared a few more bags and several rocks. In the mean time SH and TR cleared rocks further back in the Boulder Rift chamber. All hands on deck to pass drills and materials to the dig face. Couldn't drill any more than 600mm deep without hitting mud. 5 holes drilled, only 4 of these got used. 3 holes with 600mm of 40gm and 1 with about 400mm. TR headed out with drills and unwound the cable down the awkward climb. Charge went off fine. The draught at the dig face got stronger the more that was cleared. The Boulder Rift connection now draughts the opposite direction to when we first found it. Deep trench beyond a calcite ledge at the sharp end. 1-2 inch crack in the ceiling full of calcite heading off to the right. It's looking really wide at the end now, just need some working height. 4 1/2 hours for me. MK

Current dig face after clearing. Photo MK.

Skeleton in Boulder Rift. Photo SH.

Skeleton in Boulder Rift. Photo SH.

Saturday 26th October 2024

Mike Kushy, solo. Setting up charge in John's holes. 2 holes at full length of 1m bit. Another hole about 300mm deep. 600mm drill bit left at dig site now. Need to sort something to store drill bits in. Fired charge from base of entrance shaft, could smell fumes within seconds. 1 1/2 hours. MK.

Friday 25th October 2024

John Cooper. Three holes drilled in left hand wall. Problem with nearer left one. 1½ hours. John.

Wednesday 23rd October 2024

Sam Hill and Mike Wise met at 6pm, took the drill in and used P&F to reduce those 2 large rocks. Trevor Hughes,  Adrian Miles and Jake Baynes arrived. 5 being the perfect number, we cleared all the bang debris and other material that became accessible.  Rocks stashed higher in the passage were also cleared out and the access hole expanded slightly. Everything was carried through towards the Boulder Rift. Some very large rocks came out of the dig face. Ahead now is the remaining part of the blockage, just out of practical reach of the long crowbar. Either side of it, though, open spaces are visible. Sam went into Tooth Dig again to confirm we could see his light. Sitting in the dig, he seemed very close just above us and to the left on his approach. The more material we took out, the more obvious was the draught.

Kushy, suggest the next bang trip puts a couple of long holes in the obvious floor bulge on the left and maybe a shorter one above in the wall somewhere.  Also, please take a few more inches off that keystone rock we trimmed a few weeks ago - it's a pain in the neck when you try and bring rocks out.  One or two further sacks bit the dust. Finally,  you will find a muddy P&F set stashed with the key. It somehow got scooped out of the floor and into my wellie. It has an O ring on it, so it isn't one of those we used tonight. Work time approx 2.5 hours followed by a visit to The Hunters'. Mike.

Tuesday 22nd October 2024

John Cooper. Surveying. Started by pulling Trevor’s wire up to Boulder Chamber. Then surveyed round the Lower Boulder Chamber Loop. Then surveyed on down to the end dig. Finally surveyed the connection through to Boulder Rift. Brought Trevor’s wire out and it is now in the tool chest. There was a cold outward draught at the dig. 2½ hours. John.

Sunday 20th October 2024

am. John Cooper. Drilled a couple of holes. The lower one kept blocking up halfway down despite reaming out several times. 1 1/2 hours. John.

pm. Trevor Hughes and Adrian Miles. John’s blocked shot hole proved impossible to clear so 1 and 1/2 holes were fired successfully. An easy trip for my last day as a 60 something caver. Trevor.

Saturday 19th October 2024

Mike Wise, Lee Hawkswell and Mike Kushy.

Arrived around noon. MW went in first, followed by LH and then MK. MK went through the new connection and from that side he received the full bags of clatch from LH. Meanwhile MW was filling up more bags at the sharp end. LH was at first using his belay belt to pull bags up from the bottom, the strops were utilised and very effective. After many bags were cleared LH and MW swapped places. MK then retrieved some rope from the Boulder Rift Chamber and the rope with strops works perfectly, take a krab in. All of the spoil cleared today filled up some of the immediate holes in the floor but will take a few more sacks to fill. The draught was very cold today, so only a short session. MK had a look at the dig face in the end. 5 bags filled up ready to be cleared. 2 decent sized rocks put under the new connection point. These will want to be broken down in size (be careful). The way on looks interesting, can't see anything obvious but the draught is significant. 2 holes on the left to square the passage and we won't be far off the furthest visible point. Everyone got a good ass wetting today! Just over 2 hours. Mike K.

Current dig face. Photo MK.

Sunday 13th October 2024

Mike Kushy, solo. Took a drill in and set about clearing the bang spoil. The effect of the bang was perfect. With everything cleared as much as possible from the dig face side I then put the drill, hammer and pfs into the connection and went back up cave to the higher boulder rift connection. From the other side I grabbed the tools and cleared rock from there. A little pf work to get rid of a couple of larger rocks. I then squeezed through the newly opened connection with drill. The new connection could be made bigger, but I don't think it needs it. It would also be good to get some cement work to each side. After this I filled up several sacks of clatch and put them near the new  connection. There's a heck of a lot of spoil to clear at the dig face. This could be done with 2 people but would be most suited to a team of 3-4. The ledge needs clearing of loose rock near the new connection also. 1 1/2 hours. MK 

MK's YouTube video from today

Bang debris in the new connection. Photo MK.

New connection all cleared. Photo MK.

Current dig face. Photo MK.

Friday 11th October 2024

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Initial panic when the wire could not be found in the chest nor at the bottom of the entrance shaft. Quick call to the Wednesday team who said it was down at the bottom. Bag with drill and bag with cord etc taken in. One extra hole drilled to take the back of the rock off rather than deepening the existing holes. 1m of 20gm shared between the holes and 1m of 5gm connecting cord just sufficient.  Wire taken out after use. 1 hour. John.

Wednesday 9th October 2024

Sam Hill and Trevor Hughes. SH underground at 1815. Started clearing larger rocks from the bang debris. Then filled 6 bags and started shifting everything up until Trevor arrived. He then drilled 2 holes into the slab by the new connection point. Bags then emptied and all rocks moved to chamber above 10ft. A lot of loose stuff in the end to get out but will need a bigger team. Definitely worth enlarging the connection first to make clearing easier. Out by 2100. Sam.

I only drilled two holes (to the absolute full length of the 400mm drill bit): this should suffice to destroy the slab blocking the connection, especially if lengthened to 600mm; I don’t think it’s an area that you want to hit too hard so I would suggest 20g is used. The two holes are about 450mm apart so only 1 m of 5g will be needed. There is a huge amount of small spoil at the dig face that will be easy enough to shift once this connection is opened. There was also a really arse wetting stream flowing last night but in a way this is a good sign. Trevor.

Dig Face. Photo SH.

Dig Face. Photo SH.

 

Proposed connection. Photo SH.

Sunday 6th October 2024

Mike Kushy and Jake Baynes. Mike went down with both drills first then realised he'd left the batteries for one drill in the car, so left one at the base of the shaft. Went to the dig face and started drilling. Jake arrived not long after with materials and the other drill in hand. Whilst Mike continued drilling Jake took the surplus drill back to surface and retrieved the wire that MK had hidden in a bucket. By the time Jake got back I had just finished drilling. With charge laid Jake headed out with the used drill. 1 hole at 1m on the left and one hole just under 1m on the left. One 1m hole on the right. MK then continued the set up and reeled out to the base of the shaft. Charge set off from there. Could feel the pressure quite substantially. Took the wire up a little higher and tied onto ladder. Arrived on surface to some very wet weather and JB had headed home. 1 1/2 hours. MK.

Friday 4th October 2024

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. MK went down to free up wire which JC coiled on surface. Then MK loaded rocks which JC hauled to the surface. 21 loads later drill sent down to MK who went off to dig face. JC moved the rocks onto the walls before departing. 1½ hours. John.

As above, then MK took the drill down to the dig face. The bang had done a really good job (sorry forgot to get photos). Cleared as much as possible then managed to pry some large slabs off the walls. These were broken down with pfs. Sam Hill arrived around 6ish. SH cleared bags of clatch and rocks back up cave. After a while MK left SH to have a go at removing more rock. MK went round to Boulder Rift to look at the place he and JC saw each other through (see report of 28th September 2024). MK also squeezed down into the lowest point of the Boulder Rift chamber (a wide but narrow gap in bedding). SH shone his light straight ahead at the dig face and MK could see it roughly 10ft away. Back in the Boulder Rift chamber MK did some draught testing. No draught from Tooth Dig, but a strong draught coming up into the BR chamber from the lowest point, strong outwards draught coming out of the dig face too...signifies there's something between the current dig face and Tooth Dig going on. The current view at the dig face looks like the ceiling rises some 10ft ahead. Next step is 45° 1m long drill holes to work our way ahead. About 4 1/2 hours for me. MK.

Current end. Photo SH.

Wednesday 2nd October 2024

John Cooper, Sam Hill and Mike Wise. JC arrived first and started moving rocks from the shelf to the bottom of the entrance shaft. When SH arrived he started moving rocks along Boulder Chamber. When JC had moved all the rocks from the shelf to the bottom of the entrance shaft he collected SH and together they hauled 12 loads to the surface. MW’s arrival interrupted them. SH and MW went down to the dig face and SH assisted MW with reaming out the holes and setting the charge. Meanwhile JC continued moving rocks from the Boulder Chamber to the base of the entrance shaft. Once completed he went down and assisted with carrying out the drill etc. All went OK. At present the wire is down the entrance shaft and there is an unstable pile of boulders at the base awaiting removal to the surface. 3¼ hours for JC. John.

Arrived at 1810 and staggered through the gates carrying 3 bags and 2 boxes to meet John at the surface hauling rocks with Sam below.  Underground at 18.20 hours. Sam helped carry the kit to the face and also held the kit I didn't need from time to time because there are no usable flat surfaces to put things in reach. Looking down cave, first hole on left needed 50mm of crap drilled out, but the others were OK. Blowpipe used to blow out as much gritty water as possible.  Brought 3m of 40g and also 3m of 5g. Front 4 holes charged to their bottoms, back 2 holes charged with what we had left over. Needed at least 2.5m of 5g. On the way out the rock pile below the ladder collapsed under me, with 4 rocks moving. One big one fell down missing the wire. I held the other 3. One was stashed back in a more stable spot but the other two went up and over into the old entry passage. Fired from surface.  Back at the cars at 20.05 hours. Mike.

Tuesday 1st October 2024

John Cooper. Deepening and reaming out the 6 holes for Mike Wise to use tomorrow. Problems with water and mud flowing down into the holes so not sure how much useable depth they will have. Used the 600mm bit so a possible 500mm. 1½ hours. John.