Thursday, 7 December 2023

Thursday 7th December 2023

Broke up all the bigger rocks left in horizontal passage by me and Sam last night. All of these are now cleared to the surface. Worked on opening up the shaft ready for the next section of ladder. Next step is to put a scaff bar brace across to the boulder that looks like it's moving then cement up more. This will allow us to safely clear the build of of loose stuff. Mike.

Moving boulder that needs bracing. Photo MK.

One hole in the floor (1/2ft wide). Photo MK.

Another horizontal hole looking the opposite direction. Photo MK.

Wednesday, 6 December 2023

Wednesday 6th December 2023

Sam Hill started about 40 minutes before me, I arrived at 6.15pm. Sam had spent the time breaking up the bigger rocks that have been stacking up in the horizontal tunnel. Just as I arrived Sam had finished breaking up the last rock, so we cleared all the debris. After this Sam went to the bottom of the shaft and cleared out as much loose as possible, 2 big rocks stopped further progress. I joined Sam down the bottom and we plug and feather the big boulders to manageable sizes. There was enough room then for Sam to get in lower and fish out some bigger rocks, all of this has been stashed in the horizontal tunnel ready for downsizing and clearing. Lots of loose stuff to clear at the very bottom and a deep hole off to one side. Upon leaving went to make a video and had realise one boulder had dropped a considerable amount since leaving the bottom area. Alot more stabilising to do yet. Good inwards draught. 3 3/4 hours. Mike K

The boulders we're working through. Photo MK.

The boulder that started dropping, notice the gap between the boulder and cement. There was no gap at the beginning of tonight's session. Photo MK.