Vince, Tav, Brockers, Nick, Jon, and Jake Full team available today which means the spoil will be moved, in one go, from dig to surface. At the current dig, down in the deep Soft South at the end of the NE passage below Trick or Treat, Tav worked away in the righthand corner, loosening sediment, […]
With Jon, Jake, and Nick As planned, arrived at HR early with drill and plugs/feathers. Down to the deep Soft South and along to the end of the NE passage and the current dig. There are a couple of large boulders left behind from previous digging sessions that require some reduction in size. The boulders […]
With Jon, Nick, Brockers, and Mike The boulders bite back! I was upfront digging under the pissing tree, well actually, somewhere close to Trick or Treat, at the current end of the NE passage in the deep Soft South. Jon was next in line filling bags and shifting away the rocks as I loosened the […]
With Brockers and Jake A bit thin on the ground today but I am sure we will manage to get plenty done. Brockers and Jake headed to the Soft South to start digging, I went in another direction making my way towards Trick or Treat. Decided against going through Toil and Trouble so off to […]
Solo The plan was to break-up some large boulders left to one side underneath the pissing tree. The northside of the hill was blanketed in thick fog, however, gaining height onto the plateau the sun was shining and it was a pleasant drive over to the southside, still in sunshine. Got to the farm, changed, […]
With Brockers, Mike, Duncan, and Jake Smaller team this weekend. Down at the current end of the NE passage in the deep Soft South, Brockers was busily digging underneath the pissing tree, Mike was clearing away the spoil back to the pot. I was on the slippery ledge (clipped in for safety), Duncan at the […]
Solo Down in the deep South Soft, along the northeast passage and ‘underneath the pissing tree,’ I set to work with the plugs and feathers. The plan being to trim some of the rock and boulders that were jutting out from the passage sidewalls, so that a skip would run more freely along the route […]
I had an appointment at Bath Racecourse, where there is a vaccination centre, for another (4th) covid jab. Hence, I was unavailable for digging but the rest of the team kept up with the task: Report by Jon: “Three diggers (Jake, Tav and Jon) arrived at the farm at the appointed hour. Jake remembered the […]
With Brockers, Nick, Jon, and Mike Started the session with a small team, no matter. Brockers and Nick upfront digging, Jon was moving the filled bags back to the pot. The bags were hauled up to the ledge where I unloaded the bucket and carried the filled bags along the passage back towards the entrance. […]
With Tav, Jake, Jon, and Duncan Tav and Jake headed off to get digging underway at the end of the NE passage in the deep Soft South. I was all set to take a position on the ledge but went along to the dig to take some photographs before it all steamed up. Duncan settled […]
With Jake, Brockers, Duncan, and Nick Me and Jake down in the deep Soft South forging ahead along the NE passage, Brockers on the ledge, Duncan at the bottom of the entrance, Nick on the surface. Following the set quota of 20 bags per number of participants, a total of 100 bags were filled, hauled, […]
With Brockers, Nick, Jake, and Duncan Brockers and Nick digging so a regular supply of well-filled bags was to be expected. I was on the ledge catching the hauling bucket and transferring its load to the next skip to be hauled away by Duncan positioned at the bottom of the entrance. Jake was on the […]
No digging took place last weekend (4th June) I was in the Yorkshire Dales (BCRA CA SIG Field Meeting at Lower Winskill, Settle) and the team took advantage of the longer [Jubilee] bank holiday. With Brockers, Jon, Jake, and Nick Nick and Jake were today’s digging team down in the deep Soft South heading NE, […]
With Brockers, Jon, Jake, Tav and Duncan. Brockers and Jon digging in the deep Soft South following the northeast trending passage. I was on the not so slippery ledge, it’s drying up nicely now, emptying one skip and loading another to be hauled away by Duncan, who was in position at the bottom of the […]
With Jon, Brockers, Phil, Jake and Tav. Jake and Tav digging in the deep Soft South, Brockers on the ledge, Phil at the bottom of the entrance, leaving me and Jon on the surface. Jon and I alternated the tasks of hauling and emptying bags, adding any rocks to the various terrace walls, and generally […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, Duncan, and Mike turned up later in the morning. Me and Brocker digging, alternating the loosening sediment/filling bags, and hauling the spoil up to the ledge. Jake was on the ledge, catching the bucket and transferring its contents to the skip to be hauled away by Duncan, at the bottom of […]
Update on recent activities by Tav: “Hallowe’en Rift – 19.03.2022 Tav and Jon digging, Duncan on the ledge, Brockers and later Nick on the haul and Jake and Brockers on the surface. 110+ bags plus rocks. Hallowe’en Rift – 12.03.2022 Jake and Brockers digging, Nick on the ledge, Tav hauling and stacking at the […]
With Tav, Duncan, Jake, Jon, Brockers, and Nick Me and Tav on surface duties after digging last weekend, we alternated emptying bags, building a wall, and hauling. Duncan and Jake took up position at the bottom of the entrance and the junction, respectively. Brockers was in isolation on the ledge, leaving Jon and Nick to […]
With Tav, Jon, Jake, Duncan, Nick, Brockers, and Caroline The first task of the session was completed by the Technical Manager, Brockers installed a swivel on the pulley attached to the pot hauling system. Me and Tav were digging, alternating the filling of bags, and hauling the bucket up to Jon on the slippery ledge. […]
With Jon, Jake, Tav, Brockers, and Nick Brockers and Nick down in the deep Soft South, Tav on the ledge, Jake at the junction, me at the base of the entrance leaving Jon on the surface. New bags had been supplied to add to the c.100 we already had, it was going to be a […]
With Jon, Brockers, Jake, Duncan, Nick, and Tav After digging last weekend, me and Jon were on the surface; Duncan was at the bottom of the entrance, resting his knee following a trip into Wookey 22 yesterday. Brockers and Nick were digging, this left Jake and Tav to occupy the ledge and the junction (I […]
I was on a trip to the Peak District attend the BCRA Cave Science Symposium being held at Hulland Ward, near Ashbourne. Decided to stay at the Orpheus Caving Club hut. The passing of Storm Arwen sort of changed our plans and we spent nearly 5 hours digging snow off the track leading up the […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Nick Earlier start for me, some large boulders to start reduction to more manageable pieces. Underground about 09:00am. The largest of the boulders was much thicker than expected and only achieved in trimming off the edges. So, concentrated my efforts on the slightly smaller rock and almost finished when Brockers […]
Vince, Brockers, Jon, Jake, Duncan, Nick, and [French] Matt (?) As planned, I got to the farm early, changed, kit sorted and walked up across the fields to the cave. Underground by 0900hrs. Set to work with the plugs & feathers reducing the sizeable boulders at the bottom of the pot in the deep Soft […]
With Jake, Jon, Brockers, and Tav. Jon and Tav took the first digging shift, Jake and Brockers shuttling the spoil from the ledge to the bottom of the entrance, I was on the surface. 100 filled bags were hauled out of the cave, emptied onto the spoil heaps, and even managed to add a few […]
With Brockers, Jake, Tav, Nick, and Duncan (for the morning session). A bit of fettling of the pulley system and hangers beforehand, some discussion about the best position for pulling up the skip, we settled on the diggers hauling the spoil from the bottom of the pot. Jake and Tav were digging for the morning […]
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Tav. Me, underground by 09:00 as planned, got the kit laid out and set to work breaking up boulders. Sometime after 10:00 Brockers turned up and made a start on bagging up the loose gravel and fine sediment. Then Jake arrived followed by Jon and a bit later, Tav. Jake […]
Solo Finished work at home at a reasonable time, so I decided to head over to HR and reduce the boulders there to manageable pieces rather than going over early Saturday to do it. The large boulder turned out to be a bit of a pig – it was heavily mineralised and just wouldn’t fracture […]
Vince, Brockers, Tav, Nick, Duncan. Jon, and Jake. Met with Brockers at the farm 08:30 where we got our respective bits of kit together and walked up to the cave entrance. Underground by 09:00. I got on with the task of reducing boulders to a manageable size using plugs and feathers while Brockers sorted out […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, Nick, Tav, and Duncan. Morning session: Tav and Jon digging in the deep (and getting deeper) Soft South, Jake on the ledge hauling the skip up out of the pit (c.100+ loads – top effort!) and transferring the contents to the next skip. I was at the junction hauling away the […]
Vince, Jon, Jake, Brockers, Nick, Tav, and Duncan Morning session: Brockers digging, aided, and abetted by Nick; me and Jon were hauling the skips along the passage from the Soft South back to the entrance. Jake and Tav were on surface, they were joined later in the morning by Duncan. The filled bags were moved […]
Vince, Jake, Nick, Tav, Brockers and Duncan. Some decent weather at last and surface duties were a popular option today. Morning session: me and Jake were on the surface; Brockers and Duncan were digging with Nick and Tav clearing away. Now it had dried out a bit, some spoil heap re-distribution could be carried out. […]
Vince, Nick, Jake, Duncan, Jon and Tav. A grey, overcast morning but it seemed that the heavy rain had passed over and would not spoil the lunchtime picnic. Morning session, me and Nick digging, Jon and Tav clearing away, Jake and Duncan on the surface. We decided to start removing the lower bench to widen […]
Vince, Jake, Nick, Tav, Jon, Brockers and Duncan. Following my 2nd covid vaccination jab on Tuesday I have been suffering with an ‘iffy’ shoulder, hauling stuff out to the surface and digging is off the agenda for me. I settled down at the bottom of the entrance and transferred the spoil from skip to skip, […]
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Nick, Tav, and later, Caroline. A lovely sunny day perfect for digging, and long may it continue. Tav turned up laden with digging skips and a rope net expertly constructed by Dave Brook and kindly donated to the cause by Alison Moody. These were to be put into use as soon as […]
Vince, Jake, Brockers and Tav. A depleted team today, some have gone diving and another has vehicular and mobility problems. No matter just means we will have to stack stuff in the entrance and work in shifts. All underground, Jake digging, Tav and Brockers clearing away the filled bags and I stacked the spoil in […]
Vince, Jake, Brockers, Nick, Tav, Jon, Duncan, and Mike. A ‘full’ complement of participants today, we split into two groups; one group on the surface consisting of me, Jake and Brockers, the second group underground. The extra pair of hands on the surface enabled spoil heap management to be undertaken and the slope was redistributed. […]
At last breaking free from lockdown and the digging team assembled for the first time in 2021. After a quick chat underground, I returned to the surface with Brockers to haul-out and empty bags, etc. The rest of the team mixed it up underground and shared the duties. The filled bags emerged from the cave […]
Vince and Roz.
Vince and Roz
Just me today. Some spoil management required, the morning spent trying to extricate my boots from especially glutinous mud!
A low turnout for the first digging session of 2021 but, not wholly unexpected. The UK government has imposed more corona-virus pandemic restrictions, that includes an ever-fluctuating and rather confusing “Tier” system. And, the weather is not great, temperatures are just about at freezing point or below and the roads are icy. As a follow […]
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Nick. and Duncan. Boxing Day digging session, Nick and Duncan were up front, although I expect Nick did the vast majority of the digging. Jake was at the junction, I was at the bottom of the entrance, Brockers did the hauling on the surface. I did offer to rotate places with Brockers […]
Vince, Nick, Jake, Jon and Brockers. After some discussion at the entrance me and Nick went along to the “Cold Gnarly North” while Jake, Jon and Brockers returned to the “Sunny South West”. We had decided to revisit the “Cold Gnarly North” to retrieve the empty packs of bags, tools and other sundry items including […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Nick. The winter migration to the ‘Sunny South West’ continued. We had a plan, well, more of a cobbled together idea really that came to fruition. Brockers sourced a generator, Jake brought along his 110v Hilti breaker, there were cables a plenty and everything was carried up the hill to […]
With Jake, Jon, and Nick. A mellow morning digging session back in the “Sunny South-West” passage. We had spent quite some time enlarging this passage only to put it on the ‘back-burner’ in favour of the “Cold Gnarly North”. Nick was poked into the rather constricted end and left to his own devices in an […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Nick. Missed last weekend (5th-6th September) as I was excavating at Bagpit with Professor Danielle Schreve and Ali Moody to extract some Pleistocene animal bones, mainly aurochsen and horse. This meant that there was nothing to clear this weekend. A bit of a re-assessment at the current end of the […]
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Duncan and, another late show by Nick (it is becoming a habit!). The usual thing, up to the end, check all was good and start clearing the debris. All the loose material loaded directly into the skip to be bagged elsewhere. Some hammer and chisel work removed fractured rock from the walls. […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, and a later appearance by Nick. At the end of Cold Gnarly North, all was as it should have been. To save time I got on with the clearing of debris, hammer and chiselling the fractured rock from the walls as well. The “eye-hole” has been opened enough to get a […]
It’s been a bit hectic lately and haven’t had the time to update the blog until now. 15th August 2020 Vince, Jon, Jake, Duncan, Brockers and Nick. Might be under some time pressure today as the Hunter’s has re-opened at last. As expected, the main topic of conversation at the farm was – the pub’s […]
Vince, Brockers, Jon, Tav and a late appearance by Nick. At the current end of Cold Gnarly North, checked to make sure all was good before the morning’s activities got underway, quite a lot of gravel had had been ejected along the approach and needed tidying. Tav followed me up for a gander but declined […]
Vince, Jake, Nick, Jon, Brockers and Duncan. Yep! Another bang to clear. At the dig I went along to check al was as it should be, all good I returned to the small chamber near the aven. Nick went up to clear the debris, I hauled the skip back and bagged the loose debris comprising […]
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Nick. Yesterday I had spent some time fettling a dozen skips for use in HR from six 25 litre containers supplied by Hugh Tucker, these were loaded into the van along with the rest of the kit, all prepped and packed, ready to go. At the farm, the team congregated, […]
4th July 2020 Vince, Jon, Jake, Brockers and Duncan. It was pleasing to see a bigger pile of debris on arrival at the current end of the Cold Gnarly North, the bang had been effective. There was still a lot of gravel but more cobble and small boulder-size lumps too. The crystalline calcite band was […]
The global pandemic, Covid-19 (corona virus), that is spreading at an alarming rate requiring various Governments around the world to take draconian measures to protect us all, well that’s what they want us to believe, has in a roundabout sort of way, affected our activities in Hallowe’en Rift this week too. Earlier in the week, […]
Report by Vince Vince, Jake, Jon, Brockers and Alex. Prior to setting off up the hill to meet the team and go digging – another bang to clear, I spent some time charging drill batteries, cleaning the drill and ignition device and generally sorting out kit and sundry items. Met at the Hunter’s as usual […]
Report by Vince Vince Stuff all prepped and ready to go, a new drill battery was delivered today, and I’ve charged that ready for use. Didn’t get underground until 19:30 this week so it was a later finish. Shouldn’t have rushed my dinner, it was now heavy in my stomach, and shouldn’t have worn a […]
With Jake
Due to
circumstances, some beyond his control, Jake hasn’t been to An Unexpected
Development , 28th July 2019 was the date of his last digging
trip along the approach passage. Then went on holiday, injured knee, surgery
followed, almost…
With Jake,
Jon, Brockers and Tav
We
assembled at the usual time, 10:00, in the Hunter’s car park. Waited around a
while for Nick, although Nick did say on Thursday evening, he might not be
available, so headed down towards Wookey Hole, to the farm…
With Jon, Nick and Tav.
The Cold Gnarly North was my destination today, the others decided
to dig in the Soft South, which is the easier, more comfortable option.
Drag line attached, bags attached, drill tube and wire reel in
hand I set off al…
