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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