Water Icicle Close Cavern

While we had been away walking the Dales Way, Keith and Pete had another breakthrough in their dig in Water Icicle Close Cavern, so after breakfast in Monyash the two of us dropped down the rope rigged by Keith and Pete earlier and arrived at the choke at the end of Cherty-Two Passage.

Pete had told Karen that this was tightish and I had a look first at the low passage going off to the right. It was low and a bit narrow, solid on the left and the roof but a bit loose on the right. This led downslope for a metre or so to a tiny chamber with a few small rocks then up again over a few boulders and slabs and I could see that didn't appear to tight or awkward. The problem was that I had gone through down the slope legs first and couldn't easily turn around to pass the upward boulders and slabs. I may have got turned around with a bit of a struggle but if any of the stuff on the right was dislodged it could block us all in!

Going through head first would be easier as I could just continue and climb up the other side. The problem then would be if I couldn't continue, getting back feet-first would be bloody difficult and I would be more likely to knock against some loose stuff..

So, I told Karen to continue and have a look at the new stuff and say Hello to the diggers while I waited hoping that the connection would be improved soon and I could also pass through.

Karen managed to turn around fairly easily and popped through to see the new stuff.

She came back a short while later and reported that the continuation was quite different in character to the rest of this part of the cave and was rifty with lots of chert. There was also a pitch about 8 metres deep (currently blocked at the bottom) which had to be traversed around and a largish chamber!

Excellent! So the two of us made our way back to the surface leaving Keith and Pete to get on with their digging.

We got changed and had a revisit to Monyash café for a celebratory piece of chocolate cake!

Later in the evening Keith and Pete turned up reporting good progress before we went in search of a meal (they were planning to stay at the OCC Hut). The Miners Standard was very busy and so was the Bowling Green so it was down to the chip shop in Darley Dale for fish and chips (chip cob for me) then back to the Miners for drinks.