Saturday 18th October 2025

Mike Kushy, Hollie London, Mikey Waterworth and Olivia Dawson. MK and HL to begin with started at 10.30am, we cleared the bang spoil from the up and over boulder to start. The space over the top is a lot more comfortable, although the lower piece is also shattered and could be removed entirely (personally I think we should just cement in and stabilise what's there). Next job was to drill the stemples in (thanks to Lee V for use of your Hilti drill for this), one on the side wall below the ledge and another up near the scaff' bar. We could do with putting a couple of smaller metal holds higher up again, but all a lot safer now. Next MK started drilling for shot holes in The Hookah Tube, 3 holes @600 and 1 at just shy of 1m (1m drill bit currently sticking out of the wall, battery ran out!), whilst HL went on into MHH and started to dig out the final squeeze some more. A retaining wall was built at the 'up cave' end of MHH to put all the glorious mud behind. CO2 and O2 tests were done throughout, see results below. Around 12.30 MW and OD came and met us in MHH. They said the air looked very thick. We agreed a plan and continued the already started dig to the right of the formation. Unfortunately this hit a solid wall 1m in and won't give us the clearance to dig around the formation so we will have to try a dig in the far corner? (tarpaulin sheet now over the formation for protection). MK and HL left the others to continue digging as they both felt puffy and like they needed better air. Really felt the air quality change once back in TPC. HL started to rebuild the landing area below the Light Connection. We had a tidy round and got packed to leave around 3pm. MK went through to MHH to let the others know our plan and we all decided to all leave together (also getting close to 3% CO2, our set safety limit). Very wet in MHH today with puddles everywhere. Would recommend not going into MHH for a while and let the air settle, so we can retest the differences (probably the worst day of the year today for testing air quality in a cave, so hopefully it passes). Oh MK and HL went to mix some muck towards the end but realised there was no cement in the cave. About 5 drums of sand though, 10l of mixing water and a bag of stone dust. 5 hours. Mike K. 

MK drilling holes for stemples. Photo HL.

CO2 and O2 results (thanks to Stuart 'Mac' for use of your monitors):

Start (11.30am) - CO2: 2.08, O2: 18.76%

12.01pm - CO2: 2.31, O2: 18.5%

End (14:16) - CO2: 2.56, O2: 18.18%

*Apart from 15 minutes (around 1pm) there was only 2 people in MHH at any time and working whilst we monitored*

Friday 17th October 2025

Hollie London, Harley Bennett

HL and HB headed down WR at 1630 to assess the damage from the previous bang. The new ladder made an excellent addition to the entrance series and new tape definitely highlights where you need to go navigationally. HB highlighted the bacon as we entered the bedding chamber, something we would normally charge past on the way to the dig face. After stopping to photograph the bacon, we continued down to the up and over boulder. The bang has successfully doubled the body space above the boulder, with the bottom half remaining intact. The pot before the boulder looks to have opened up and was drafting well. Due to lack of man power and everything being lose, we decided not to clear and retreated having photographed the damage. On exit, one plank fell off the wooden lid down the  entrance and needs a repair job to screw down. HL made a short term fix until the weekend so nothing can fall down. Hollie.

New base section. Photo HL.

Formations in Lower Bedding Chamber. Photo HL.

Needs clearing. Photo HL.

Wednesday 24th September 2025

Mike Kushy, Mike Wise and Sam Hill. All down the cave for around 6.30pm. Took in drill and extra batteries plus charge materials. The wire was tested from the shaft as it hadn't been used for a while, no signal so took the tester to the joint. Tested higher wire from lower end and all fine, tested lower wire and no signal. Took the tester to the furthest end of the wire and discovered stripped cable and ends broken, fixed and tested okay. MW began drilling the up and over boulder, whilst SH cleared out behind where the recent rock moved ready for cementing. MK made some mixes in TPC and sent them up to SH. In the meantime MK kept moving rock around in TPC to make the floor better. Around 8.30pm MW called that he was all set up so we decided it was a good time to leave. Charge set off from Boulder Rift Chamber, very quiet considering we were only 30m of bang wire away. 2 1/2 hours. Mike K.

Tuesday 23rd September 2025

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis (Kushy). Survey trip of Tea Party Chamber and on to current end. Twenty minutes in, 60 minutes surveying and 40 minutes out (it’s uphill!). The current end chamber appears to be developing a wetter, muddier floor. Now got to process the data collected. (See Survey Page.) 2 hours. John.

Saturday 20th September 2025

Mike Kushy, John Arnold (With GoPro), Jason Hares (Jay) (With GoPro) and Lucas McMaster.  All undergound just after 10am. Took in sand, stemples and fixing kit, 5l of mixing water and food. MK went ahead using pink conservation tape to set route markings (don't cross the tape for the best route basically).  All down to TPC no problems, JH mentioned that the rock above the light connection would need sorting on the way out. MK sorted out more taping in TPC whilst the others took the time to look around. We then all went through to the final chamber where more taping was done by MK whilst the others used GoPros on sticks on various holes. MK then went through with the others on how to clear the 'intermediate chamber' and left them to it. The plan was to go and set the via ferrata stemples in place. Unfortunately the drill started smoking, so that plan didn't work. With JH in TPC hauling the buckets, MK part way in assisting buckets through the pipe, LM filling buckets/working the rope and JA loosening mud we cleared for a good hour before stopping for lunch. After lunch MK went to loosen mud and had discovered JA had been digging his way to China. With MK loosening mud and digging to China, JA filling buckets/working rope and LM/JH hauling back to TPC we did another good hour or so more clearing. Towards the end we discovered a hard calcite floor about 1ft deep, hopefully all the mud is only 1ft deep! Packed away drill and we all started to head out, also with any empty bags. The boulder above the light connection did need sorting indeed, LM and JH sorted this out and got it moved close to the 'emergency exit'. Consequently some clearing of loose stuff and stabilising needs doing, this is a high priority job. Need to make a list of materials in TPC now. 6 hours. Mike K.

The link to the video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyboaDlXhcg

It's rather long so key bits can be found here:

0.19 Cement Dig
0.23 Approaching Light Connection
0.35 All in Tea Party Chamber
0.45 Entering The Hookah Pipe
0.55 to 1.09 In the Final Chamber - note the frost shattered Stal
1.24 Break in filming - starts again leaving Light Connection
1.38 Rock moves!