Wednesday April 9th

Mike Wise, Mike Kushy and Sam Hill to do some clearing of the rubble at Cement Dig meeting at 1800. Before we could get at the dig debris, we needed to do some tidying up in the approach passage. MK hauled buckets of smaller material, while MW and SH dealt with larger blocks which were lifted out and stashed out of the way in the calcited rift area. This took at least 30 minutes.

With only three of us, heroic efforts had to be made, especially by Sam, with MW passing him buckets and MK somewhere above disposing of debris. Nevertheless, a veritable mountain of loose material  flew up in our shiny, but overpoweringly pleasant smelling new buckets and out via 2 bucket drag lines. A good few large rocks also somehow were got all the way out. This was kept going for an hour or so taking us to around 2045. Unfortunately, we all forgot to count the buckets.

MW then did some drilling. The floor in front of the left hand alcove shown in the final photo from Saturdays blog entry was dug back to what seemed to be a solid base. 6 holes were drilled. The back wall is split by a diagional joint; above the joint are some calcite features, below is clean rock. At some point during this activity MW found himself talking to MK rather than SH as SH had departed; it was getting late. MW and MK exited at 2200 after subjecting the drilled alcove to a bit of a prod.

Photo by Mike Wise 

Sam playing piggy in the middle

Saturday April 5th

Last Wednesday MK had noticed on our way out something of potential interest, so after finishing a session at BagPit, MW and MK went back to take a look.

 The 'something' was at the top right of the bedding below Calcite Squeeze and immediately below the crawl into Boulder Rift Chamber. A small ledge curves around to the right below a big slab and terminates where it slopes down in front of a wall. Small stones dropped several metres. 

MW went along the ledge and started digging mud out ahead, sandstone cobbles came as well. It looks like water has come down from the Boulder Rift crawl and mud and cobbles are plentiful. The ledge has a lip on it at the front edge. After clearing, we swapped and MK stuck his head far enough to see down the wall. It was draughting noticeably but we think it connects with Tooth Dig somewhere and would be almost impossible to dig, so we left it alone.

Photos attached are by MK and include a couple of the Cement Dig taken on Saturday whilst collecting a bucket and crowbar. Wednesdays conclusion was successful and there is plenty to clear. Plan is for a 6pm meet on Wednesday

1.5 hours

Mike W 

2 photos - MW sat on the ledge getting mud and cobbles out to create some space. The slope of cobbles leading up to Boulder Rift crawl can be glimpsed to the right of the crowbar. The drop is below the notch in the roof.

MW stretching to grab a rock from in front of the vertical wall.

MK looking down into the bottom of Cement Dig. Lots of rubble. On the right are the broken remains of the second step.

MK sat in the bottom on a floor of broken rubble just waiting for removal. Right middle, just out of view, is the small passage pushed previously to the right. Upper left a view exposed by the removal of a rock.

Back on Wednesday.