Sunday 31st August 2025.

Hollie London, Mike Kushy and Ed Ford. 

All arrived just gone 10. After half an hour of dressing and Daren Drum faffing, 3 cavers, 3 mugs, 3 bacon and egg butties, a kettle, a stove, 5L of drinking water, and a selection of tea, coffee and hot chocolate made their way down to TPC. Cement was left at cement dig alcove. HL had to take the gas canister from the stove halfway down as EF was gassing himself with every knock and bang. 

The squeeze was a much more comfortable affair after last week's efforts. MK led the way, collecting conservation tape from higher above to relocate to TPC formations. 

HL's first time in TPC. HL dissapeared down a hole in the bottom left of the chamber (red). The hole turned back on itself and continued downwards following the bedding plane for another 10m, with various avens and tubes either side. The bedding plane got tighter and carries on down further at the typical ~45° angle, but would be a longer term lead. Tight with lots of loose blocks and silt further on. EF and MK took turns to explore the onward phreatic passage higher up (blue).

All gathered back in TPC to assess the new tea-making facilities. Cappuccinos and bacon/egg butties in a large roomy chamber felt very un-Mendip of us. Fueled up we attacked the bottom right lead (blue). MK built up the wall above and to the right of the previously explored lead, whilst HL began dragging material out from the 'blue' lead. EF began restructuring the boulder field terracing and retaining walls (yellow). The 'blue' lead is draughting well. A mutual decision was made to remove the calcite over mud floor whilst preserving as much formations as possible.

Screenshot 3d scan.

Formations to the right of the phreatic tube. Photo HL

EF looking up into the phreatic with the formations to his right. Photo MK.

HL and MK alternated attacking the calcited mud with all the arsenal. EF also retired from wall building to help out. Another break for tea and hobnobs resulted in the need of toilet facilities, this came in the form of a black 5l container. HL can confirm the toilets are unisex.

Eventually a large block was removed from the 'blue' lead. This allowed a good view on showing an obvious chamber around 3m ahead. The retaining wall for this is now 6ft high and back filled with spoil. It was determined sds chisel bits on the drill would be the best method of attack next round. Camp tidied and rubbish removed, we retreated. Upwards climb out of TPC still a thrutchy struggle but totally doable with the handline and on your back halfway up, needs stemples. All crew out of cave at 1700 for a well deserved beer. Hollie.

EF and HL brewing up in TPC. Photo MK.

Saturday 30th August 2025.

Mike Kushy and Mike Waterworth. Got to the dig around 11am. Took in 3 drums of sand, drill with extra batteries (thanks Trevor H) and scanning gear belonging to MW. The Wednesday crew had done a great job opening up the vertical squeeze to a much better size and around the head of the light connection. This allowed MK to fish out rocks from the floor and bar a good amount of mud away which was pushed down the slide. MW slid through to the Tea Party Chamber side easily enough and MK followed him. We started piling up large rocks under the climb down then we assesed what rock could be crowbarred from the floor of the light connection from this side. MK went back up to the 'safety zone' whilst MW worked on some huge slabs. 2 particulary stubborn ones took both of us from above and below to shift. With both in TPC we moved the freshly dropped slabs into safer positions. MW then started scanning TPC whilst MK made use of the batteries downsizing some of the larger boulders blocking the pit. MW had a go at pf work, then had a look down the pit and a look around the corner. About 5m of awkard passage ahead but thin bedding gaps, the floor looks interesting here though. A trial dig was also made into the waterworn ceiling straight ahead of you as you come into TPC. This revealed a very pretty and draughty little grotto with a view of a man sized phreatic tube heading off to the left. We would be best to dig into this 2m over so as to preserve the formations I believe, easy to bypass them anyway. Had another little clear of mud on the way out. Still a lot more that can be done and even some more rock from TPC that could be shifted, but we'll see what everyone thinks. We've put a handline down through the light connection, hold it. Puddle Dig had a small constant flow into it today, no water anywhere else. 5 1//2 hours. Mike K.

Youtube channel.

Screenshot of TPC from scan by MW.

MK doing pf work on the boulders blocking the pit in TPC. Photo MW.

Aerial view of TPC with dimesions. Done by MW.

Some formations in the little, pretty, draughty grotto. Photo MK.

View scan

Wednesday 27th August

Mike Wise, Hollie London and Ed Ford to do some cementing and anything we felt appropriate to the squeeze and the light connection. We took in between us several daren drums of sand, one of cement plus a drill bag and capping kit.

HL had passed the squeeze and was examining options for light connection work by the time MW arrived with the drill bag. MW completed a test fit on the squeeze face up and face down. Face up was much easier but the squeeze still did not qualify as a trade route for explorers so the capping kit was put into action after HL had returned above the squeeze.  30 minutes or so later with large slabs of rock removed and only minor collateral damage, the squeeze was retested and passed fit for general use. While all this was going on, EF took on the thankless task of cementing things higher up in the area below the scaffolding.

After some discussion between HL and MW peering into the light connection, it was decided the rock in the roof and associated awkward bits could not be safely attacked without creating more working space so HL startd P&F work on the floor on the right hand side as shown in the image.

In red the bit attacked by HL

Although very awkward to do, the nearer half of the rock shown was taken out after protracted effort and work on the rear half commenced before time was called at 2030 hours.

EF by this time had run out of rocks and places to cement and had 2 full buckets of cement left over. HL and EF rendered everything they could see to use it up. We exited Cement Dig at 2100, surfaced and got to the Hunters just before 2200.

Hopefully now the focus can be shifted to opening up the connection. We suggest installation of a short piece of ladder on the climb down into the chamber rather than cementing a boulder pile unless new cement portering and cementing volunteers are available.

 3.5 hours 

Image by Snip & Sketch 

 Mike Wise

Tuesday 26th August 2025

Mike Kushy, Ed Ford and Glen Thomas. Got into the cave around 11.30am armed with 2 drills (one very kindly leant by Lee Venning last minute) and HE materials. The aim was to get through the light connection using pfs only and have the HE on reserve if all else failed. With MK at the sharp end the new connection to the chamber was opened up using just the Bosch drill. Meanwhile EF and GT continued bringing the bang cable down to the dig face and joining the wires together (one end is near the shaft and the other end is just above the light connection with about 2m slack). After they had done this the pair continued to make some cement mixes and build up the retaining wall just under the scaffolding area. Meanwhile MK had managed to drop through into the chamber kicking stuff through on his way, super hard coming back out but lots of loose to push through still. EF joined MK to help lift out some more rock from the new connection then EF had a go at getting through to the chamber and managed succesfully. It is possible to free climb the last little bit but there's good scope to build a natural boulder stairway up from the chamber floor. It will pay to take in some caps or use the snappers to remove a couple of loose slabs from the edge around the top of the light conncetion. This and kicking more loose through (perhaps even taking a long rake or hoe in to pull the loose back from the chamber side). So there's that to do and more cementing as usual. 1 Daren Drum of sand in the cave, 1/4 BDH of cement and hardly any water so a fresh load of all materials will need taking in. We were tempted to set up a charge around the head of the new connection but time was short. Drizzly colder day today and a very cold draught. 5 hours. Mike.

GT building up walls. Photo MK.

Part way through opening up the light connection. Photo MK.

GT above the vertcal squeeze that's not much of a squeeze anymore thanks to SH. Photo MK.

Wednesday 20th August 2025

Afternoon. John Cooper. Took in four Daren Drums of sand. Left the bags in so the Drums could be brought out when empty. Met Sam (SH) in the car park as I was leaving. He was heading in with drill. 1½ hours. John.

Evening.  Ed Ford and Mike Wise descended around 6.15pm with EF carrying 5L of water and met SH at the squeeze boulder around 6.30pm. SH had passed the squeeze before we arrived and had needed to remove his oversuit to get out. Afterwards he had taken material off the right hand part of the squeeze boulder with P&F and it was now easily passable as ably demonstrated by EF. Having had a discussion about next moves, MW left EF lying flat out jiggling rocks in the light connection with SH as backup and went out the old way following the bang wire, going as far as the bottom of the entrance to collect all the coiled up slack. The coils had transformed themselves into a cleverly knotted mess and after a fight this was laid out down to the connection point in Golden Key Chamber. Here it got worse and the connection had to be unmade and time spent unravelling both parts before moving on downwards. The connection was left unmade as I had no glasses with me. Dropping through Calcite Squeeze I met SH and EF who had given up on P&F having made no further progress. The slack was dropped down the bedding and left there. There may be a bit more remaining in Golden Key Chamber., the firing point has not changed.

We then exited. Our consensus is capping is needed to make the squeeze passable for all and HE is needed for the slab and the floor in the light connection to provide much needed working space to get at the other rocks blocking the way down.

The 'Pit' also looked interesting.

Some amazing stabilisation work has been achieved over the last 3 weeks. First time MW has seen any of the recent find

 2 hours (EF and MW)

3 hours (SH)

Photo by SH

 

The light connection - red lines indicate material to be eliminated

Mike Wise