Friday 5th November Dave went in with capping gear while Becka and Julian finished off the surveying. The chamber at the end was enlarged and a start made on the rift. Sunday 7th November Pete Hall and Dave Ramsay. Pete was so efficient at capping that I made the decision to watch and learn while he capped, and hammered at the rock in between capping rounds. After just 8 holes we were through to the end of the rift, at … Read More
Sunday 21 November 2004 Pete Hall, Dave Ramsay in attendance (no Neil as he seems to have given in to the light side). We returned to continue where we left off two weeks ago, with Pete capping and me bashing with hammer. It wasn’t long before we had capped our way to the head of the short pitch, where I placed two bolts and dropped the pitch using a ‘Y’ hang. Using a shunt for protection I climbed down the … Read More
Wednesday 24th November Dave and Brian survey from the Main stream to the top of the aven, result is that the end of the new discoveries is now closer to Lost John’s. Thursday 25th November Neil and Dave return to the end with a crow bar, we hammer at a boulder blockage until there is enough space to see through into the passage beyond. It is as straight as an arrow and the light from my halogen bulb is not … Read More
Thursday 25/11/04 Dave Ramsay, Neil Pacey A trip to the end of ‘pleasures of the palm’ resulted in the way on being left wide open…. We soon reached the end of last Sunday’s activities and started removing boulders from the rift passage in front. This gained us access round a corner and we were soon able to see the passage ahead, one boulder blocked the way on… With a bit of hammering a squeeze was enlarged above the boulder, we … Read More
Sunday 28th November Bill, Dave and Tony Rooke. Returned carrying the 8ft “Proddling Stick” (Patent Pending) and surveyed in to the end. At the end I assembled the Proddling Stick and stuck it in – result – Nothing. I wiggled it about and two football sized boulders fell from the wall but no more would come. I decided it was time to get up close and personal so I called for the crow bar, using this I managed to loosen … Read More
Thursday 9th December Dave and Pete succumbed to the pleasures of the Palm while Neil looked at the draughting hole near the end of ‘On the Other Hand’. This report only covers the Pleasures of the Palm. We got to the end carrying capping gear then Pete had a look at the boulders, it was possible to squeeze past the boulders so we did not have to do any capping. Pete trundled a few more boulders and then decided it … Read More
Wednesday 15th December Dave, Bill and Richard in attendance. We carried in rope and bolts for Thursday nights dropping of the pitch as well as cement, two aluminium bars and capping gear. Bill capped the squeeze at the top of the first drop down while Dave and Richard started to stabilise the gritstone boulders at the start of the first loose section. The squeeze is no more but the gritstone boulders could still do with more work.
Thursday 16/12/04 Dave, Hugh, Neil In summary, very wet prussik – could do with more deviations on the back wall of the shaft, or don’t bloody well go there on such a wet day… Pleasures of the Palm seems quite stable now after the efforts of Bill, Richard, Dave, plus the squeeze down the pit is non existent after capping. Started surveying with Hugh while Dave bolted the pitch, surveyed about 10 legs from the climb down with the ‘Y’ … Read More
Thursday 16th December Dave, Neil and Hugh StLawrence Wet conditions (much wetter than last night), no way to avoid the water on the big pitch so we were quite damp by the time we arrived at the pitch head. We carried our gear to the end where Neil and Hugh surveyed while I bolted the pitch. Also carried in was a small amount of rope to re-rig the climb down which, when done will free up another 9m of rope. … Read More
I got an invite!! Tried to get out of it by running 10miles the night before, but leg wasn’t gammy enough so had to go… Thursday night was a bit squally and main stream was quite fresh. Even fresher was Ollie’s aven which involved 100ft of prussiking under a waterfall despite the deviations. I’d come dressed for a ‘dry trip’ but had obviously been sandbagged – with the state of my Meander, I might as well have been wearing a … Read More
Again to pleasures of the palm with Dave R and Simon Jobling. I mixed cement to the consistency of Christmas pudding whilst Simon and Dave played with it by means of fingering it into the cracks between boulders. Simon was sprayed by pudding residue . Whilst, on the other hand my thoughts centred onto Thursday night. A difficult pitch head Dave has advised, I truly hope I don’t make a fist of things on our return. Bill
Thursday 30th December Dave Ramsay, Pete Hall An evening trip to cap out a boulder in the area between the first pit and the cemented squeeze, where a possible continuation can be seen (a very small stream appears to enter here in wet conditions). While Pete collected the capping gear I resurveyed four legs in this section as it appeared that one leg was wrong, (after checking my notes this assumption would appear to be correct). After one hole had … Read More
Wednesday 5th January Dave Ramsay, Pete Hall Continuing where we left off last time, enlarging the chamber to enable us to gain access to the possible passage above. Once this was done to our satisfaction Pete started to lever the boulders above, some large flakes peeled off, closely followed by another even larger boulder. The next ones will not move without capping so I capped the two boulders which were partially blocking the way into the chamber, using up the … Read More
Wednesday 16th February Pete Hall, Dave Ramsay Pleasures of the Palm We returned to cap up into the space previously mentioned in reports from the front. A poor start was had when Pete realised that the batteries were not fully charged, two rounds later and most of the rock obstructing progress was on the floor. With just one block jammed in the rift and a large flake seemingly held up by a very small chunk of loose rock it was … Read More
Team Pete Hall, Paul Windle Date March 26 Cave Notts 2 Flogging a dead horse passage may be renamed to Piano passage Up Oliver Lloyds Aven then along to the junction with on the other hand. Taking the left fork there is an interesting wriggle under a rib of rock. Reaching flogging a dead horse passage Pete took first look at the sharp end while I stacked some deads in a cross rift. The walls looked fairly solid but the … Read More