Saturday 26th July 2025

Mike Kushy, Ed Ford and John Cooper. MK to begin (10am) with drill, pried more rock at the dig face and downsized it. Prepped a ladder and belay line when EF arrived around 10.30. MK had another go at pushing the slope but the last little bit was just too tight. EF cleared some backlog whilst MK opened up the squeeze some more. MK finally got through with helmet off and could see it's well worth opening up more to get others in today. EF then had a go at the front for a while whilst MK filled buckets to be taken up. EF and MK then swapped places and it was looking so much easier. After MK finished there was enough room to pass through the squeeze 2 cavers abreast. Went on to explore leaving JC on the outside of the squeezes. Numerous squeezes along the bedding to the west and a few hairy boulder chokes before we eventually arrived at a chamber roughly 30m x 15m with a height of at least a few metres. Estimated 60m of horizontal passage today. Lots of cryogenic stal' in the chamber to tape off and formations. Obvious way on following the slope floor down but this will be another day and we have loads of stabilsing to do, it's only a matter of time before traffic in there gets someone really hurt. The chamber shall be called Tea Party Chamber (I suspect quite a few mugs will get drunk here). 6 hours, Mike.

MK's Youtube video for today.

Tea Party Chamber, EF in photo. Photo MK.

MK in the initial breakthrough point after widening. Photo EF.

Friday 25th July 2025

Mike Kushy and David Morrison (Tuska). Continuing building work on the rustic well entrance. 7 hours. Mike.

Photo MK.

Front doors. Photo MK.

DM admiring his work. Photo MK.

Sunday 20th July 2025

Mike Kushy, Mike Moxon, Trevor Hughes and John Cooper. MK went in early (around 2ish) with the drill and proceeded to pry rock at the dig face and break down to size. MM, TH and JC arrived around 2.30, I believe the order was: MK at dig face, MM hauling the first rope, TH at the alcove exchanging buckets and JC doing the top haul. MK had quite the battle with the rocks blocking the way on into the West, in the meantime the rest cleared any back log. 51 buckets cleared and some large rocks sent to the alcove. With impeding rocks eventually cleared MK had a go at the left slope through the West hole. Some slumping occured whilst this was being pushed and the floor dropped away leaving MK temporarily held up by his arms. The slope to the left has the biggest draught and is like sticking your head near an open fridge, the right seems to be a calcited stream floor coming round to meet the left hole. Looking vertically down through the left hole a rocky and steep slope heads back in under us and out of view. Best bet is to keep clearing the floor at the junction of the West branch, unfortunately this means we are going to have to look at upping our retaining wall game...possibly block the old haul tube and fill that whole area in with some clever walling? We all got out around 5.30pm. Mike K.

MK's youtube videos from today

The sloping passage to the left and the holes to the right, in the West hole. Photo MK.

Looking down over the slope to the left, after the floor collapse. Photo MK.

Saturday 19th July 2025

Ed Ford & Mike Kushy headed down 10.30. Ed was sent down to the dig first with the drill box. The North wall has a boulder, currently supported but slowly getting undercut with only mud fill. The first point of the day was to support this with scaffolding. Once measured a 900mm section was cut by Kushy while Ed drilled a hole for a pin. With the scaff piece fitted we got on to the main job of pulling boulders out the floor. These still had a fair amount of fill around them. The first boulder came free after around 5 buckets with a bit of help from the crowbar. It was a bit disconcerting at first as the whole floor was lifting exposing another couple of moderate size boulders. Once loose these were plug and feathered. Upon the second round Ed got one stuck and had to drill more holes to split the bolder. Kushy took over and sped the whole process up with a steady stream of rock coming out of the floor and being stacked in the alcove. Ed started taking the fill and emptying it down some holes where he discovered the rocks sounded like they were falling deeper than the current dig. At this point Kushy had made a hole wide enough to slip through into the west wall. This bit of passage is all clean washed and appears to be rift like. There are two big boulders, frustratingly moving but not coming out. Ed swapped and had a go before giving up. Ed moved up to mix 2 Daren Drums of sand with half cement while Kushy went back to playing. The mix was used to shove some rock into the west wall and build a retaining wall. The dig is currently looking very promising with open passage beyond the two rocks. It seems to be following underneath a natural bedding plane. Good session spending around 5 1/2 hours. Ed.

MK's youtube videos from today

Ed drilling pins for scaff', Ed facing east. Photo MK

The hole to the West. Photo MK.

Closer look into the West hole. Photo MK.

Saturday 12th July 2025

Lee Venning, Hollie London, Ed Ford and Mike Kushy. Met at 10. MK forgot his drill but fortunately LV had one he could bring. Took in drill and some drums of sand and 1 of cement. LV went to the dig face and cleared around 20 buckets, then HL went to the front and did around a dozen buckets. EF then went to the face and cleared until it was big boulders that needed downsizing. MK then went to the front and did some pf work. MK stayed at the face for the rest of the session, around 60 buckets cleared in total. HL then left and LV/EF started mixing up some cement, which MK used up at the face. Nice draughty hole in the floor, that draughts more the more stuff pulled out, but is hard to fully clear currently. LV and EF in the meantime removed more rock from the higher bucket route and flattened out the route well. MK used some cement to start a wall opposite the 'alcove' to hold back the ever slumpin' mud wall. LV and EF headed out with drill and whatever bags/drums they could manage. MK stayed on for another half hour and did his best to render up the upper bucket route. MK came out with 3 drums and a tackle sack, all tackle sacks and empty drums left in the lockbox on surface. 1 full drum of sand in the cave and 1/2 drum of cement. The dig face is mainly 1ft wide boulders that need prying and pf's down to size. 5 hours. Mike.

MK's youtube video from today

Looking down. Photo HL.

Looking down. Photo HL.

Looking down. Photo HL.

Draughty hole, this is looking east into the floor. Photo MK.

The beginning of the wall opposite the 'Alcove'. Photo MK.

Some rock removed for ease of the upper haul. Photo MK.

Final section of the upper haul, rock removed and rendered. Photo MK.