Luke, Chris, Moose, Rob
With LWS now firmly out of the way, we needed a new project. There's lots to do deep beyond Cussey, but the Team needed something else as well, ideally a nice summer surface project. After much debating and disagreeing, plus a few exploratory trips to some shitty projects, we pulled on a few coat tails and got ourselves a look in at Slack Hole. It was originally dug by PB Smith in the 70s, well actually a smaller shakehole just to the east, and then more recently by Moose around 2009 - 2011. Since then it has laid abandoned, awaiting a team.
It is one of the largest shake holes in the Peak and situated right at the top of Cavedale. This is the next field on from Titan, which gives a hint it's in a good location. The closest cave is the Flatmate at the end of the Far Sump Extensions, which is approx 180m below! And it draughts, strongly! Prospects don't get much better than this. Myself and Moose have massively overthought the potential formation of it and what lies below, so if nothing else we need proving wrong....
After a good introduction with the Rowter farmers given by Moose, we grabbed our beers and headed over. The shake hole is indeed massive. Moose's dig started on the southern edge and now worms a route down and anticlockwise around to the east of the centre. The entrance was loose and in desperate need of a gate to stop lambs falling in, an easy win with relationships which we'll sort next trip. A short diversion to the right drops into a natural pot but this doesn't have much draught so is likely to be left alone, at least for now. Following the only other route reaches the dig face after about 50m.
Slightly before the end a spurious pipe descends from the left, roughly 300mm in diameter. This is a classic Moosism. Moving spoil from the end was getting a bit tricky. So they surveyed the dig and realised this point was only 4m from the surface. Rather than putting a new entrance, they sank this pipe through and made up a bespoke bucket to fit. On the surface this pipe is hidden by a hilarious hinged rock!
Whilst Moose hung out on the surface, we set about poking everything we could. The place is weirdly clean washed, almost like no glacial fill dared to enter. The boulders are fluted and water worn, and many have stal formations on them; a weird mix of old and new. The problem Moose encountered before is that basically everywhere draughts! This is still true, so deciding which is the best way is made more tricky. After a little discussions we decided on a spot just back from the face which had been backfilled a bit but looked the most appetising, and cunningly positioned reyt close to the hauling pipe. The draught is certainly very strong there and the way on down looks pretty easy digging.
Today was just for a look so we headed out to the pub. Everyone seems very keen to give it go this summer, lets see if we find some answers...
