Jon and Joe
The previous week French Jeff had once again graced LWS with his presence, and remained very optimistic, stating that one more trip and we would be through to victory. With that, Jon and I returned to claim what lay beyond, being the glory grabbers that we are.
There had been a staggering volume of rain in the week since Rob and Jeff had been in and so we were anticipating the water in the shakehole would have overflowed into the dig and caused backfill and standing water in the bottom of the 1st Reich. On the way down it was clear that this had indeed occurred as there were green leaves which had been washed in. However, the u-bend at the bottom was clear with only a small amount of sludge having been washed in, which was a bit grim but passable.
Jeff reckoned there was only a few caps to get through into a tight squeeze over a flake, which I quickly took care of, albeit awkwardly in the narrow passage. The passage tightens at the bottom so I hoisted myself up and began to squeeze through the constriction with my feet above my head and trying not to let myself fall down. I managed to get my torso through but soon realised I was putting myself in a position I would probably struggle to reverse - I thought it better to widen it further.
The capping was incredibly awkward with Jon and I doing a ridiculous shuffling about of drills and equipment with Jon just getting cold and miserable in the muddy u-bend. I offered to swap but Jon respectfully declined, probably because of all the grunting and moaning I was doing. I proceeded to take two big flakes of rock away, which allowed enough room to manoeuvre myself into the now larger constriction and squeeze into the passage over the flakes. From here it is possible to see the continuation of the rift which appears to close down ahead in a too tight section. In the floor beyond the flakes is a hole which is where the water obviously pours down. This drops around 1-2m to a muddy bouldery ledge and appears to continue ahead off a further drop, unfortunately out of sight.
Having hogged all the digging, Jon joined for some photos and to inspect my work. There is at least another two trips required to get to the ledge as more widening is required, and potentially all while lying with your feet above your head. Might just pay for Jeff’s flights and get him to come and do it…