Wednesday 7th June 2023

With Mike, Sam and John. After a free climb down and pushing forward, twisting down through the boulders (hanging death), past some nice formations, then after a few squeezes down to where I was asked to sit and pass rocks to the man above. Rock after rock as they kept coming. Until Mike broke the drill bit and that ended the rocks. After that down to the end of the dig to take a look, where we dug a few buckets and took them up. Climbing back up to the surface, taking in the formations. Ray.

Ray Bell, John Cooper, Sam Hill and Mike Kousiounis. Tooth Dig. Clearance session. Mike took in his drill to break up the bigger chunks of rock. I stacked the spoil being passed up to me for about an hour. Then Mike broke his drill bit when only a couple of rocks were left. That’s two sessions in a row! This time it sheared completely at the shank rather than just one of the four tungsten carbide tips breaking. Gentle outward draught this evening. 1½ hours for me. John

Michael Kousiounis, Samuel Hill, Ray Bell and John Cooper. Clearing spoil back. MK broke up the bigger blocks ahead whilst everyone else cleared stuff right back. All the alcove and passages in Tooth Dig are now clear (apart from one big boulder that was left due to drill bit snapping). JC left after this whilst the others went to see the end. We finished off by filling all the small buckets with sand from the alcove. These were then taken back on the way out. 3 hours. Mike.

Sunday 4th June

Mike Kousiounis +1. Started off as a solo trip. Took drill and 3 batteries to the end of Tooth Dig. The rock is very tough and snapped part of the hilti drill bit tip, so slow going. Managed to take enough out to get closer to the edge ahead though. The gap of the strike ahead is about 6 inches wide, but looking higher up it gets wider so still worth pushing on. Courtenay joined me around 1'ish and he cleared most of the spoil from the alcove back to the corner and some into the small chamber before the corner. Everywhere is now full up and we could do with a good clearance session. 5 hours. Mike.

Thursday 25th May 2023

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Tooth Dig. Two drills taken in. Started off with Mike passing rocks back for me to stack above my head. Then I used my drill enlarging the squeeze from the far side, but not very effective. Mike used his more effectively breaking up rock at the end. When I came to swap my battery I discovered it wasn’t charged. Packed up then moved all the rocks from Mike back to the alcove. As I was climbing up Boulder Rift Courtenay James was coming in. He went on down to join Mike. 2½ hours for me. John

Mike Kousiounis, John Cooper and Courtenay James. JC and I took a drill in each. Cleared the small chamber before the corner. Then cleared some back from the corner to the bottom of the climb. JC worked on the squeeze over the slab some more whilst MK worked at the sharp end. The boulder at the end is tough work, but at the end I was able to reach my helmet over the edge but not enough room to squeeze my head through for a view, next session hopefully. JC cleared some of the spoil back from the end into the alcove,  left around 3ish and met CJ on the way in. CJ then joined me and he cleared some of the alcove back. Could do with clearing the alcove out fully. The most prominent and very cool draught was clearly coming from the alcove today. Interestingly it was being drawn into the floor of the current sharp end before heading up into the bedding rift above. 5hours. Mike.

Sunday 21st May 2023

Michael Kousiounis and Andy Thompson. Tooth dig. Took both drills in. Cleared all of the alcove out to the bottom of the climb/chamber, some was left in the corner area. AT then went to work on rock at the end of the tunnel whilst MK worked on the squeeze over the slab, a good chunk was removed from the slab and should be easier to break up next time. Rocks were cleared back from the sharp end into the alcove and this is now nearly full up again. Should be enough space for one more session though. The end is draughting. 5 hours. Mike.

Andy at the end of the bedding tunnel, Tooth Dig

Thursday 18th May 2023

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Tooth Dig. Two drills taken in. Started off with Mike passing rocks back for me to stack above my head. Then I used my drill enlarging the squeeze from the far side, but not very effective. Mike used his much more effectively breaking up boulders at the end. Every so often I’d stop what I was doing and move Mike’s rocks back to the alcove so he could get out. After a couple of hours I gave Mike my remaining battery to finish off whilst I went out. Mike followed an hour later. No sound of running water today. 2½ hours for me. John Cooper

Cleared the corner back to the dumping grounds. We then moved forwards, John worked on the squeeze over the slab whilst I worked on the big block ahead. This is all now broken up as well as some other large rocks near the floor, a bit of forwards progress was made too. The alcove is totally full and there's still rocks to clear back from the dig face, a big clear back is the first thing to do next visit. The far end isn't looking so intriguing anymore but it's worth pushing on to the solid wall ahead. The sand spoil from the alcove could go in here if the end of the dig craps out. Strong draught today that seems to be emanating from the floor somewhere. No sound of water apart from some dripping. Could feel the quarry set off their charges. 3 1/2 hours. Mike.

Sunday 14th May 2023

Andrew Thompson and François Tollemer. Digging at bottom of Boulder Rift. Very nice hole and a sound of water, so it sounds good.

François

François Tollemer, Andy Thompson

Today, François and I made our way down to Tooth Dig to clear some spoil and attempt to break down a large boulder that is currently blocking the route on. After clearing the spoil into the alcove, I took a small stab at the boulder, but decided it was a job best left for another day, as I had something rather evil to dispose of that was best not left in the cave. Before leaving, whilst laying by the alcove, we found that we could hear a running streamway in the distance. It is the first time it has been heard and it will be interesting to see if we can still hear it next Sunday. Hopefully sooner or later we will find some running water!

2 hours

A Thompson

Monday 24th April 2023

John Cooper and Lee Hawkswell. Lee used a Leica GS 18 T package to locate the prime point for the survey. East 353289.2, North 150560.7, Alt 241.03. Note drop the 3 and 1 from East and North if using ST prefix.

Saturday 22nd April 2023

Mike Kushy and Mike Wise. Took 2 drills in. Cleared the backlog of spoil at the corner up to the dumping ground and took all the empty buckets forward. MW worked on making the squeeze over the slab more comfortable whilst MK set to work on the boulders at the end of the tunnel. One very large boulder was dropped from ahead and broken down, then an even larger block was moved into a better position to be broken up next time. I reckon with this one removed we have just a metre to get to the solid wall ahead. MW down sized some of the boulders moved back into the alcove from the last session. Lots of smaller rocks were moved to the corner and 2 small buckets filled. 3 1/2 hours. Mike K.

Sunday 16th April 2023

Mike Kushy, Andy Thompson and Courtenay James. Tooth Dig. Andy took point clearing out the floor of the tunnel just beyond the undercut dig. After a couple of loads were cleared CJ left. Then MK and AT moved forward to start inspecting the boulders at the end of the tunnel. Soon we moved some blocks higher up. It was possible to access a higher level of bedding and have a good view back up cave into space but we both agreed it would be too dangerous to enter and only goes back to the entrance. Just under this a view along the bedding to a solid wall, there's a decent sized strike here (est' 1m wide). The strike leads down to  what looks like a phreatic break in the solid wall, inaccessible at the moment. We then worked on taking more boulders out lower down to keep progressing along the bedding. A couple more sessions will be needed to do this, but some white curtain can be seen at the entrance to the 'phreatic' bit. At least there's a dig for just 2 people at the end. 4 hours. Mike K.

Picture showing a proposed strike line (where the solid wall is) this can be seen in the higher up bedding level too

PS We need to open up the squeeze over the slab, just after the corner.