White Pit 27/1/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, Toby Maddocks
2.5hrs
Hauling trip to clear the place of bags and rocks before Dr Nobel visits the end. All bags and rocks hauled and emptied to the top from staging area by Leonie and Mike with the rest of us below. Toby had a bit of a dig and filled 2 bags of spoil while James and Estelle hauled up most of the rocks from the lower shelf, then finished off hauling with Toby before hauling all those rocks as well up to Talus IV.

White Pit 20/1/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Rob Adams
2hrs
On arrival the gate had been removed and replaced by a wire mesh top padlocked in place. Assuming the CSCC have finally taken it away for repair! (or at least hope they have or someone has stolen the gate! :P) 3 of us arrived at the dig. James and Mike started hauling up to top staging area until Rob joined them to help while Estelle went digging. Dig had been washed out a bit making the top bit less of a poo mine, but that was soon restored as digging commenced! The right hand wall is pretty much all mud and rocks and this needs clearing back a bit - as this was done, it exposed a rock jutting out on the right with a nice flat top suitable for slicing off with a bit of Dr Nobel's which is making the way on too narrow to access currently. Possibly the left hand side could be reduced too but am wary that this is under where the water comes in and a rock did displace from above it while James was digging later, so it may be best left alone and concentrate on the more solid RH side. The floor has best part of a foot deep of proper 'slurry' which is going to be grim to dig out when we can access it, but the way on is looking promising and hoping that when we can access it better, there may be a lip or something we can knock off to help the slurry drain… the water dropping away noise is still very interesting and when you use a hammer in the area, it still echoes well. James went in after to dig, then Mike, then Rob while the rest of us moved around to move spoil up to staging area until we ran out of oxygen in there.
Next session requires a haul and empty of all the bags and then realistically we need to plan to reduce the wall/boulder. More could be dug out, but no real progress forward while the wall/boulder is there.

White Pit 13/1/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon

2hrs

Took in the new rope for top drag tray from Tim Large along with cleaned up maillon. Collected the wire as we went and arrived at the dig. Very little in the way of fumes and the Dr Nobel's had been very successful in reducing the right hand wall and the slab in front. Took photos before we started and then Mike went in for a dig as he’d not seen the place for a while. He removed quite a few large rocks before digging out a couple of bags of rubble and mud, then came out so Estelle went in briefly and pulled a boulder out of the way on, but it was too heavy to lift up to the shelf whilst she was nursing a sore back, so James went in and we also put a rope around it and managed to get it up to the shelf where the water comes in. With that out of the way, James had a dig at the end and a look at the way on. All looking very promising with a 2ft wide passage about 9” high in the bottom, but we need to make the access to it larger. After James had absorbed most of the puddle into his kit, Estelle went in and had a dig and filled some more bags up. The water is better channelled now so not much building up, but loads of mud remains needing clearing out. Had a look at below and took a couple more photos. The way on looks promising and the floor doesn't seem to be overly solid, neither does the roof – is mostly pendants that could be broken off, so need to clear where the drop is and then have a go at what is below. The air had got pretty thick by the end of digging today and there was virtually no water flowing at all into the dig. 

HLIS - 6/1/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon

1hr

There had been a report of some collapsing/moving rocks around the scaffolded area in the entrance by Bar Steward Passage, so a quick trip to evaluate this and report back to BEC and CSCC. There had been quite a few squally showers during the day, but at the point where we went down it was dry and clear skies, although showers forecast! We got to the scaffold and took a look and Estelle took some photos. There has been quite a bit of scouring of the mud around the rocks by the scaffold and some have definitely gone down Bar Stewards, not sure if it is blocked, but it doesn't look overly inspiring and it always was an ‘unstable boulder choke’ and suspect this will end up being lost over time. We gardened a couple and wedged them behind the scaffold, but more may move if we continue to get the heavy rains like we've been having. Just as we were leaving, it clearly had started raining hard on the surface as a flood pulse came down to meet us. We sat it out at the side of the passage keeping ourselves dry until it receded a bit. Surfaced to clear skies again! Have sent the images to Trevor Hughes as he probably knows the cave the best and also advised CSCC and BEC membership of the movements. 

White Pit 4/1/14

Stu Lindsay, Estelle Sandford

1.5hrs

Holes already drilled from Wednesday’s trip, so just laying the bang, wire and setting off tonight. Estelle went to the end and prepared it and tamped it well with the copious amounts of clay/mud we have! Large amount of water flowing again at the end. Stu didn’t come all the way down to the bottom, just passed stuff up and down. Estelle reeled the wire out and it was taken all the way out to past Klingons and then set off, made a dull thud, so hopefully done the trick. Will need to allow time for fumes to clear before checking results. 

White Pit 1/1/14

Estelle Sandford, Rob Adams, Duncan Butler, Stu Lindsay
2.5hrs
trip to haul and empty all bags in the system before banging the dig and putting the cave out of action for a couple of weeks of bad air. 12 bags moved from dig staging area to main staging area while Estelle drilled 3 holes in the rocks, 1 horizontal through the slab and 2 into the right hand boulder. There was a lot of water flowing into the dig today and the water pocket on the way up was also full. The water sounds really impressive dropping away with that sort of flow (there had been lots of flood alerts locally and lots of rain). Once holes drilled and Duncan and Rob had looked at the end, we moved up to main haul, swapped the skip for Stu's new one and Duncan hauled while Stu on corner and me at the bottom with Rob helping at bottom to start, then  slowly dying of alcohol poisoning while emptying bags! All bags removed to top - some 40-50 at a rough guess. Left the handful of rocks behind. Bang planned for Saturday. Also need to take a new hauling rope in for topside as we brought the old one out to measure and throw away as is knackered and also to release the crab and maillon off it. Tim has some old MCR rope he will hopefully sort for us ready for next time we go down.