John C, Mike K, Mark H, Rob Harper, Adrian and Jude, Martyn and Jass and Andy Thompson. 10am start, Mike in the new way on and Jess in the older way pulling out loose stuff. 61 loads cleared. Broke through into a horizontal rift that led tp “proper cave” with a vadose trench heading back in under and to a deep pot. More work to secure the head of the pot and some bolts with a traverse rope would be handy ready for the floor to open up. Draught increased a lot when the hole in the floor was revealed. 5 ½ hours. Mike.
John Cooper, Jess Eades, Martyn Grayson, Rob Harper, Mark Helmore, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Andy Thompson, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and visit at closing time by Courtenay James. Mike at the front with plug and feathers. Rest removed a grand total of 61 loads to the surface. Mike says looking good but need to be careful. 5 hours. John.
MK, JC, MH, RH,
AVP, JVP, Martyn Grayson, Jess Eades and Andy Thompson.
I can’t quite
remember all that happened or where people were but we did 61 good weight
buckets today. Clearing out the clatch to start with in the second way down to
the pit. Needed to plug and feather so Jess went into the 1st way on we found.
After a while I could poke my head through a gap and see that the next bit
below Jess looked stable enough to go in. So swapped places with Jess and
pushed feet first into another little chamber lower down, dug through some
rocks horizontally and got into a bit more open space with a solid wall on the
left with some nice flowstone and slickenslides. The passage went on horizontal
for roughly 5 metres there was also a climb up in the ceiling that continued on
in the same direction but even further. Too small to look around to see if it’s
safe to push on. Turned around and realised there’s a vadose trench heading to
the top of a deep pot/pitch with an excellent draught. Glad I roped up when
digging in the floor and I would advise anyone going in to do the same as the
floor looks like it’s just suspended above the drop. There’s a rope in, this could
be brought full circle to where it’s tied off and a tether could be attached to
it, like a traverse line. There’s a big
block in the floor to break up and lots of rock to pull out of the floor, this
would possibly allow a way in from the second way down. Mike.
P.S. Thanks
everyone for your help today!]
