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
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| Spoil. Photo MK. |
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
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| The pointy rock, no more. Photo MK. |
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.
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.
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| Before clearing. Photo SH. |
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| After clearing. Photo SH. |
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
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| Current dig face after clearing. Photo MK. |
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| Skeleton in Boulder Rift. Photo SH. |
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| Skeleton in Boulder Rift. Photo SH. |