Saturday 30th November 2024

Sam Hill, Mike Kushy, Callum Simmonds, Ben Ashley and Mysti Ommer met for half ten, underground by 10:45. SH cleared bang debris and then broke up a few larger chunks with PF. CS then took over digging and cleared out a lot of mud and some large boulders. Ben and Mysti were ferrying up to the connection where Kushy was stacking. Ben and Mysti then dug a few buckets out and we called it a day after 4hrs. Good draft coming out the left hand hole this time. Lots more mud and rock to come out of the floor. Sam.

Before clearing. Photo SH.

After clearing. Photo SH.

After clearing. Photo SH.

Friday 29th November 2024

Mike Kushy, solo. Drilled 5 holes, 3 @600 and 2@400. All went off fine. 1 1/2 hours. MK.

Wednesday 27th November 2024

Mike Kushy, John Cooper, Sam Hill, Mike Wise, Trevor Hughes, Ed Ford and Jake Baynes. MK, JC and SH in a bit earlier. Started by moving the stashed rocks up cave, others arrived randomly and eventually rocks were daisy chained straight to the Boulder Rift. Once MK at the front had moved rocks up to JC from the face he then squeezed through the latest connection (3rd) to Boulder Rift to help JB moving rocks further away. *note: the squeezes through the 3rd connection are not easy, unable to do on your front..and there's 2 like that*. Once bags started being filled with clatch everyone moved down one position. Then MK joined JC at the dig face so bags were getting filled twice as quick. It got to a point where reaching the floor for spoil became difficult again, a large rock sticking out the floor needs banging to progress. Draughty black hole appeared in the floor and takes all the stream water (about an inch). Est' 50 bags and 25 rocks moved this evening. Sterling work by everyone. 2 1/2 hours for me. MK.

Sunday 24th November 2024

Mike Kushy and Geoff Newton. Geoff's first time into the new dig area, think he was impressed by how far it went. Very wet in the cave, an impressive stream flowing towards the dig once you pass the 1st connection point. Sounds of water below us somewhere and all the water seems to sink straight ahead rather than heading off left. Anyway, MK reduced the slab down to size whilst GN ferried some rocks to the connection point. After rock reduced MK then joined GN and they passed a few large rocks through into the stacking area. 2 hours. MK.

Thursday 21st November 2024

Mike Kushy, solo. Took in drill to reduce boulders down with pfs. All went well, even managed to take some big bits off the bedding floor. At the end I tried to take a corner off to allow me to get in further, but a big slab peeled off which will need more battery power to reduce. Strongest draught coming from straight down rather than off to the left. 3 hours. MK 

MK's youtube video from today

Big slab that peeled off and a view of off to the left at the bottom. Photo MK.

Wednesday 20th November 2024

John Cooper, Sam Hill, Mike Wise and Mike Kushy. MK and JC started by clearing the stack of bags and rocks. JC then went to the sharp end, followed by SH, then MW with MK in the chamber. Many rocks and bags moved. MK moved rocks further back and finished off building the big retaining wall. Didn't use bang as there's a lot of rock to be broken up and will probably get into the next bit with plug and feathers. 3 hours. Mike.

Dig face. Photo MK.

Wednesday 13th November 2024

Mike Kushy and Sam Hill. MK to start with. Unwound bang wire and pulled some slack through to the front as its been getting a bit tight lately. Went to the sharp end and started moving rock and bags of spoil up cave. SH arrived not long after and he transferred everything to the stacking chamber. Meanwhile another round of bags were being filled. More rock, a couple of large rocks needed plug and feathering. Being hard work with just 2 we decided to drill and set charge early, even though there was a lot more spoil to come out. 3 holes all filled nicely, everything went off fine. Will want a team of at least 4 to have a big clear out. 3 hours for me. Mike.

Sunday 10th November 2024

Mike Kushy and Trevor Hughes. Started around 3ish. TH went to the sharp end to fill bags and move rock. These were moved up to the connection point by MK. When everything was filled MK went through the connection and received bags and rocks from TH. After this holes were drilled by TH. All set and charge went off fine. 2 hours. MK 

TH drilling at the sharp end. Photo MK.

Friday 8th November 2024.

Mike Kushy, Sam Hill and Tom Jackson. MK to start with  filling bags and moving rocks. SH and TJ arrived just as they were full. They moved the spoil back to the chamber. Several more bags were filled and moved. 4 holes were drilled, 1@1m, 3@600mm. Set and fired all fine. MK managed to squeeze down the rift at the front and managed to connect to the Tooth Dig loop. 3 hours for me. MK.

Wednesday 6th November 2024

Mike Kushy and Mike Wise. MK to start with, filling up bags and moving rocks. A lot of spoil has gone ahead and is unreachable. MW arrived just as the bags were full. These were moved up to the connection  then with MW in the stacking chamber everything was cleared. 4 holes drilled and set. All went off well. 3 hours for me. MK.

Tuesday 5th November 2024

Mike Kushy, Sam Hill and Alex Randall.

MK to start with, filled up bags and moved rocks up cave. Hammer and chiseled for a while. AR and SH arrived and moved the spoil to the stacking chamber. 4 holes drilled  2@750 and 2@600. Good holes. All went off well. 3 hours for me. MK 

Spoil. Photo MK.

Sunday 3rd November 2024

Mike Kushy, Sam Hill and Joseph Mccomb. MK started around 11am. Took in drills and charge materials and left John's drill at the base of the entrance shaft. Set to work taking the point off the pointy boulder that's causing a nuisance with the hauling. Sketchy work but removed the proud bit and a lot of the face. After this I set to filling up bags and removing rock from the end. All the bags filled just as SH and JM arrived with John's drill. They started transporting the bags and rocks into the Boulder Rift Chamber. Meanwhile MK started drilling holes ready for the charge. 5 holes drilled but only 4 usable, 1 1m hole packed, 2 600mm and one about 350mm. Very very cold at the end, struggled handling the cable ties. Hard to describe the end currently and I forgot to take a photo. SH lowered the cable and JM then brought it to me. All went off fine. 3 1/2 hours for me.MK 

The pointy rock, no more. Photo MK.

Friday 1st November 2024

John Cooper. Three holes drilled in left hand floor. Met Mike Kushy coming in at Boulder Chamber as I was going out. 1½ hours. John.

Mike Kushy. Met JC on his way out after drilling. 3 good holes packed, just over 2m of 40gm. All went off well. MK.