White Pit 30/12/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley
2.5hrs
Estelle dug for 2.5hrs and filled 12 bags while James assisted in moving them up passage as his neck was too sore to get in the squalid little hole and dig! There was a little puddling when arriving at the dig but no water flowing despite lots of rain and flood warnings in local areas and the puddle was soon washed over the top of the boulder making the usual impressive waterfall noise as it flushed away. Digging initially in diarrhoea consistency for the first bag and then the usual sandy/silty/staled in stuff interchanged with diarrhoea when the water started flowing. Removed a couple of small boulders and also managed to dig a small hole in front of the big slab blocking the way on to make it drain lower down as reduced the depth of the dig by about 6” or so below the lip of the boulder now. Realistically there is a boulder on the right that needs reducing – would be easy to cap or P&F that as accessible, but the big slab is probably easier to look at Dr Nobel’s to reduce down to accessibility of it so may as well put holes in the other too. It would be possible to dig out more mud on another digging session before dealing with the boulders, but it is uncomfortable digging. The air got bad middle of digging, but then the water started flowing like a tap left slightly on and the air suddenly cleared before gradually getting worse again as the session went on, but it wasn’t that bad at the end – have definitely had a lot worse! Can only assume there is something somewhere sort of syphoning and opening and closing an airway, which might account for while the little hole part way up towards staging area sometimes has water in and sometimes doesn’t. There was water in at the end, didn’t notice at the beginning.
Next session requires large hauling session as all staging areas full of bags and rock.

White Pit 16/12/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Rob Adams
2hrs
James and Estelle arrived and dig and Estelle started digging. James moved some of the bags left over from last week up the passage a bit until Rob arrived. The dig wasn’t as pooled as last week at the start of it so maybe the mud has some drainage. Estelle threw some stones down the gap that can be seen and they rattle. Carried on pulling apart the left hand wall and making it larger, there was a boulder in the floor on the right that seems pretty solid. After about 6-8 bags and some largish rocks, the dig is quite a bit more open and making the puddled water flow down it sounds really interesting and it appears that there is a slab in the way and it opens up a bit. Above also has some potential, but not sure as can’t see clearly. Rob and James moved all the bags up to the staging area and then Rob came down and had a look and dug a couple of bags of spoil out. Air remained moderately ok.

White Pit 9/12/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Rob Adams, Henry Dawson, Nick Gymer
1.5hrs
Estelle arrived at the dig to find about 18" of water in the bottom. Sion had dug below the lip of the flow last week and it had pooled. Rest of the team started work hauling out leftover bags from last week while Estelle created some more. First the lip was broken off a bit to lower the water levels a bit and then continued to make the dig space larger around the hole where the water disappears making quite an interesting dropping noise and it sounds quite echoey. At the end of Estelle's session digging you could see stal in the roofspace above where the water is going and also a wall going forwards with a mud slope you can't reach the end of. Mike went in next and then Henry, both continuing the enlargement and a total of about 20 bags were removed from the dig but still can't quite get in far enough to see the way on yet... By the end of digging the air was really bad at the dig site. About a dozen bags at the bottom to bring up now, but rest of the haul route is clear. Ongoing digging is still mud, stal and rocks and not overly difficult.

White Pit 2/12/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Rob Adams, Mike Moxon, Sion Way

1.5hrs

Hauling and digging session. James went in first and dug for about 40mins while the rest of us relocated bags from the lower end to staging area. Then Sion dug for the rest of the session while the rest of us hauled and dumped spoil out to the old dig. Air remained not too bad for whole session, still going down nicely and fairly easy digging. 

White Pit 25/11/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Rob Adams
1.5hrs
James and Mike cleared last week’s hauled bags to the old dig – dumping bags complete as most were like concrete – while Estelle and Rob headed down to dig. Estelle did a stint of digging followed by Rob while Mike and James hauled up then to staging area. Digging fairly easy in mud and broken up stal and small rocks and the trickle of water is barely flowing this week, but interestingly the hole further up that was dry when it was flowing well at the bottom 2 weeks back, is full of water again! Almost down to level where the water goes off by end of session, should have near enough cleared that area to give us an idea what is going on next time. Still about ½ dozen bags at the bottom to come up but could do with a larger team next time to haul as well as dig. By the end of 1.5hrs, the air was getting quite thick although there did seem to be a slight inwards draught, but think it’s either full of co2 already or not enough to sustain workers for too long!

White Pit 18/11/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward
1.5hrs
Estelle and James at bottom, Leonie on corner and Mike hauling. Some monster rocks and bags removed from storage area up to Talus IV and rocks put in wall. Bags still need moving and dumping. There was a few Denning  specials in amongst that lot… Now ready to start digging again. Need to take some bags down as all those hauled up will be dumped into spoil heap.

White Pit 10/10/13

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon
1.5hrs
Also joined by Richard Carey, Andrea Russe, Jude Vanderplank and 2 others from WCC who came with us to Talus then went on a tourist trip to St Alactites. Mike and Estelle looked at the dig and Mike had a little dig, still has a trickle of water flowing which disappears back under itself in the floor. Lots of mud to clear and need to clear open and expose the whole area. Firstly though a team is required to clear the left over rocks and spoil bags we staged back in the spring before apathy and bad air set in…

HLIS 24/7/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Gardiner, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Claire Brimson and David McCausland (Lincoln) (ULSA)
2.5hrs
Rains a couple of nights back had clearly washed the cave out well as the dead bird and it’s bad smell had gone from the entrance. Mike, Lincoln and Claire went for a bit of a tourist trip up to the end where the bones are. We headed down and rigged Pewter Pot and found that the water levels across the ‘sump’ were considerably higher, probably a good 18” on last week. We all got quite wet making our way across and started digging the draughting hole to the right just after the sump. Lots of fairly large boulders were removed, being mindful of a ‘hanging death’ above us. The draught wasn’t as apparent as last week and the water level in the bottom is clearly influenced by the water levels in the sump, but this appears to be flowing into it and the water remained clear, despite the sump being extremely murky. We dug a fair bit out and it looks worth having a go at further, probably with plug and feathers to reduce the boulders down to a sensible size around the entrance of it as there are two massive ones making digging difficult. We left it rigged with the intention of coming back next week, whether it be a digging trip or a removing digging detritus from the cave trip if the water levels continue to rise.

Hunters Lodge Inn Sink - 17/7/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Gardiner
1.5hrs
Tangent was due to come down as well, but he forgot his caving kit, having realised he left it over at Home Close last weekend! (great excuse if ever there was one!) He did pick up the ladders and rope from the Belfry though for us. He had thought it might be possible the water levels could have dropped in the sump in Brown Ale Boulevard, so hence had suggested the trip. The rest of us headed down into the cool (albeit very smelly entrance with a dead bird just inside rotting away…) and made our way to the top of Pewter Pot. The rope was way too short to double line but ok as long as someone was happy to freeclimb. We all headed down without lining and took a look. The whole cave seemed to be quite drippy and not as dry as thought it would be and the sump wasn’t particularly low, pretty much normal. Despite the drought recently, the ground water levels don’t seem to be too bad… As James had not been beyond the pool before, we crossed it and headed up Brown Ale Boulevard to the end looking for any possible places we could dig. On our way back, about 10ft up from the sump on the left, by the wall and some cracked mud floor, there is a small draughting hole where we can see water flowing and also it looks like it might duck under the wall if the rocks and mud were removed. The mud floors are only where the water sumps right up, so not that needed for protection and there is plenty of digging tools in there. We then headed out and met Tangent in the pub to show him photos and discuss the potential dig site. Agreed to head back there next week to take a proper look and take hammer and some slings too.

Project Pebble - St. Cuthberts 08/05/13

Stu Gardiner & Estelle Sandford.

A quick trip down through SBP to check the level of Lake Chamber, they were 'normal' with just about enough airspace to swim through into LCE.

Back up through the Rat Run into Mud Ball to look at Project Pebble. Many of the tools had become encrusted with calcite but are more than usable, the end of the dig was inspected with no recent signs of water and still a gentle outwards draft from the mud bank at the very end.

The floor is either a boulder or calcite so we ideally need to widen the walls to allow easier access to dig the mud out from the end.

Some old digging items were bought out from Pebble and also from the dig below Cerberus Hall.

Total time: 2 hours.


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white pit, back dated from Jan/Feb 13 from Mike

to fill some of the gaps in the log..

Wed 9th Jan - Mark, Mike, Tom Smith, Richard Savill & Sarah Rowlands hauled all the bags from previous weeks up to Talus & filled another 10 which are still waiting to go. There is enough space to stick your head down the end & see a small tube going off to the left which still needs quite a lot of mud clearing out of it
13th Feb Mike & Mark dug in the White Pit mud mine 

White Pit 27/3/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon
2hrs
Estelle filled the remaining bags in the dig – hole in floor had been slightly blocked and it was pretty wet down there until hole unblocked. Only about 10 bags spare as rest full. Air not overly special but choice of way on really, either dig out the floor or carry on to left. Floor still needs loads digging out whichever is chosen. Moved onto hauling up bags to Talus until we were too worn out as really need a bigger team of people at the moment – many of the bags are too heavy and there is still a lot of rock to come up.

White Pit 20/3/13

Mark Denning went down at 4:30 with generator and drill to deal with the large boulders at the bottom and break them up to manageable chunks with chisel. Stu Gardiner went down and assisted him and they started digging out the bottom. Estelle Sandford & James Begley arrived at 7pm and Mike Moxon at 7:30 just as Mark left. Stu continued digging in little air for a while. Rest of us moved the rocks and bags up to staging area then Stu ran out of air at bottom, so came and assisted moving the rocks up and making a few of them a bit more manageable. Ready for a haul to start next session.

White Pit 13/3/13

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Sarah Rowlands, Richard Savill
2.5hrs
Hauled all rock and bags from staging area to Talus IV and emptied them into old dig. Found that re-using the skip and emptying them at top rather than in dump spot is easier! Left the bags across the walled area to see if they might dry a little before next week… Sarah and Mike had a bit of a dig but with the large boulder Mark had pulled out of the floor last week right in the way and too big to move, it was very awkward digging. This needs to be dealt with before proper digging can resume…

Wednesday 6th March - White Pit

Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon
2.5hrs
Estelle digging first and then Mike followed by Mark. No shortage of easy digging mud, some stal and sandy stuff with the occasional rock. All bags filled up again ready for hauling next time and all are in the upper staging area, so only one haul length to Talus for next week! Mark at the end of digging pulled the really big boulder in the floor out and can see no trace of where the water may have gone in the floor. All traces of water currently dried up and nothing flowing. Does seem to be some slight circulation of air coming down from the ‘mini’ avens above where the water was coming in.

Tuesday 5th March - White Pit

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward
2.5hrs
Around 30 bags plus rocks were manhandled from the dig store area in two stages to Talus IV and emptied. Dig air seems good and the water has dried up to a very small pool after a dry period. Ready for digging tomorrow night now.
(had been trip not logged a couple of weeks back by Mike and Mark which filled all the bags)

Tuesday 5th February White Pit

Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Stu Gardiner, Mike Moxon, James Begley, Henry Dawson, John Bennetts, Rob Adams and Milky Mat
2.5hrs
Estelle, Mike, Mark and Stu started off on the big bag and rock haul and were soon joined by James and we made a good start before Henry turned up with John, Rob and Mat so we spread out and managed to have both hauling ropes going so as to get the rocks and bags from bottom and shelf to the staging area. Once the bottom was cleared, Estelle went into dig and started filling more bags. Running water had died to a very small trickle, but floor drains fine from puddle still down into the crack. Easy digging in loads of mud/rock/staled in floor. Henry took a quick look at the dig, before he and the other 3 left us to go and do a tourist trip into Prophecy and St Alactites. Mike took over from Estelle digging and then Stu went to have a dig and the air died fairly quickly into his dig. The upper part of the cave is now cleared of bags and rock with about 7 or 8 bags at the bottom and a few rocks, plus 3 big rocks that need breaking up at some point. Looks like we're back to once a week digging or start looking at getting the fan in place to aid the air problems. We also cleared all the detritus from the cave that we've randomly left and all the dead bags of bags by the entrance - 3 bin bags, 2 bags of bags and 2 tackle sacks worth!

White Pit Wed 30th Jan 2013

Estelle, Mark Denning, James Begley, Mike Moxon
2.5hrs
Borrowed the boulder net from Caine Hill and Mike went into dig initially while Mark, Estelle and James hauled boulders and bags up from shelf and space just above the dig to the stacking space at the top. Mark took over digging and the rest of us carried on moving spoil up, then Estelle had a dig, then James before the air died again. :-(
The dig has gone around to the left and there is a rift like crack in the floor with the nearer side to out being stalled rock/mud again and the far side being solid rock. All the water is going down here now and flowing away well as Mark managed to block up the other way on. Mike had dug into the upstream end as well on the right, which is about body length and body sized and there is water worn rock. This is probably worth investigating as well as the downstream route. As you look at the dig, the left hand wall is all rock and boulders with the usual stal cementing, but everything is getting really mucky down to quite a flow of stream so it’s a bit like poo mining! Plenty of rock/spoil to remove for a few sessions yet and the upper level is now rammed with bags and rocks awaiting a big haul session to Talus.

White Pit Wed 16th Jan

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning
2hrs

With the snow in the White Pit depression and freezing temperatures, Mike had abandoned us for Grebe and Stu had played the 'work' card, this left the three of us to head into White Pit. All bags in staging area were moved to Talus and emptied and then the bags from the bottom moved up to staging area while Estelle started digging. A lot of progress had been made on the last two (currently unlogged!) trips and coming from the right hand wall is a constant trickle of water which heads off to the left just out of sight. The water in the equation has turned digging to a poo mining and we're digging with a bag stuffed in the hole where the water goes to try and stop spoil heading down there until we can see where it goes. Left and right hand walls attacked to try and widen the dig so we can get around the corner and see what's going on and following on from Estelle, James and Mark also had a good go at removing boulders and more mud and about a 20 odd bags now need hauling and emptying, plus be useful to have a boulder net to remove the rocks from the lower shelf and bottom of dig and a larger team next week! Air remained good throughout, so hopefully the having found water has turned this problem around!

White Pit - 02/01/13

Stu Gardiner, Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon & Leonie Woodward.
Session to clear the debris from the previous visit, upon initial inspection the expected amount of rock and stal had been removed with some decent sized boulders ready to extract.
There was much more mud than expected which was probably obscured by the calcited boulders in the roof and floor.
The small hole with running water noticed on the previous visit was again uncovered and the water could be heard trickling away and then dropping down a small drop, the passage carrying the water is small but seems to be carrying fresh air, and although not drafting it certainly helps with the constant battle against bad air.
At least another 2 digging sessions will be required to remove the debris and all the filled bags will need to be removed up into Talus.
Total - 40 bags removed from dig face.
2.5 hours.
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White Pit - 19/12/12

Stu Gardiner, Mark Denning & Stu Lindsay

Six shot holes drilled at the dig face and charges set, detonated from Klingons on the starboard bow.

Shortly before the holes were drilled a small hole at the very end of the dig was noticed with a very small trickle of running water.

2 hours


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