Saturday, 23 December 2023

Saturday 23rd December 2023

Mike Kushy, Sam Hill and Dave Morrison (Tuska). We started with MK at the dig face, SH at the bottom of the shaft and DM on the surface. Small buckets were passed up to fill the bigger bucket on the winch rope. Cleared out some big blocks and lots of loose clatch, it certainly looks different now. SH went to the front for a while. Around 1pm we stopped for mince pies, kindly supplied by DM. DM then had to leave and the rest of us went to clear and break up more big boulders, these were put into the horizontal tunnel along with several small buckets of clatch, which needs clearing. SH then went to surface to mix up 3 bags of sand worth of cement. This was used to stabilise all the loose boulders opposite the bedding wall. The wall is stepping out as we go further down making digging straight down from the shaft an unlikely proposition. Nice draught. 5 1/2 hours. Mike. 

Before today's clearing. Photo MK.

SH at the dig face. Photo MK.

After clearing, and cementing the boulders on the left
 


Proposed line, showing that if we follow the open bedding at this height we're likely to end up in the boulder filled rift. Mike.

Sunday, 17 December 2023

Sunday 17th December 2023

Later. Alex Hannam, Sam Hill, Callum Simmonds . Spent 2 hours breaking up boulders and removing spoil from the floor. Callum started digging then I took over towards the end. We've left the left part of the floor as you step in for now as not sure if it's structural. Opened it up a lot and now got 3 or 4 possible ways on in each corner almost. Hard to tell which way to go other than down for now. Floor needs dropping a lot more. Alex was up top on the winch. Sam.

Bottom. Photo SH.

Bottom. Photo. SH.