Pete, Jude & Myself. All down the cave. Jude was left to rig the replacement ropes on the pitches which were due for a change, probably overdue. Pete and I had two objectives today.
1) to improve the bucket access at the top of the pitch by removing a block of rock from the Right-hand side of the pitch. So two 16mm holes drilled in the rock for later.
2) Both of us to the bottom and 4 8mm x 800mm holes drilled in the large rock in the South wall. 3 metres of 20gm used, fired from the bottom of the shaft.
We then went up and used some plug & feathers to crack off a large chunk of rock, off the top of the pitch. Unfortunately, it fell down the shaft, didn’t stop at the ledge, with a resounding crash when it did hit the bottom.
After letting the fumes clear for about 10 minutes we decided to have a look and see what damage we had caused.
The bang had removed quite a bit of the rock and with a crowbar the majority of the boulder was pulled out. Looking in the hole reveals, large boulders that are coated in stal with gaps in between, but no draught? 100 – 200mm of mud on the floor with a layer of stal on top.
So a successful bang and certainly worth doing a couple more bangs along there, to see what it does?