pwhole
Well-known member
As I was first out of Oxlow on a novice-training SRT trip the other day, I had plenty of time on my hands, so had a poke around a couple of other bits. I climbed up the fixed rope at the top of the third pitch which goes to a large bridge overlooking East Chamber - I've been up here once before, but the rest of the party wanted to leave then, and dragged me down again. To the right of the bridge there's another rope heading up through a fractured and rather unstable-looking hole. As it looked like it probably needed a deviation to avoid razor-sharp edges, and with no knowledge of what the rope is attached to, I decided against climbing up. Is this another way up to Jim's Crawl, and was it ultimately abandoned?
More interestingly, I had another look at the small passage up the dirt ramp at the west end of the entrance chamber, before the 180? turn to the second pitch. There are two hangers in the wall and two lengths of rope running down the floor, but at least one of these was buried at its upper end with boulders. There was also some bang wire, and more strangely some lengths of rusty rebar stuck into the choke with squirty foam adjacent. Given there's also squirty foam behind the Armco barriers opposite, I wondered if they might be connected. But does anyone know what the dig there was hoping to achieve, and was it abandoned due to instability?
Finally - toward the far end of East Chamber, near the second shaft at the mouth of the blind level - I stepped on a very large piece of calcite that must have weighed a quarter-ton. It immediately slid out of position and slipped a couple of feet downslope. It's not a danger to the shaft, but it is on gravel, so stabilised it as best I could - just in case anyone heads down there soon, just be careful on that.
More interestingly, I had another look at the small passage up the dirt ramp at the west end of the entrance chamber, before the 180? turn to the second pitch. There are two hangers in the wall and two lengths of rope running down the floor, but at least one of these was buried at its upper end with boulders. There was also some bang wire, and more strangely some lengths of rusty rebar stuck into the choke with squirty foam adjacent. Given there's also squirty foam behind the Armco barriers opposite, I wondered if they might be connected. But does anyone know what the dig there was hoping to achieve, and was it abandoned due to instability?
Finally - toward the far end of East Chamber, near the second shaft at the mouth of the blind level - I stepped on a very large piece of calcite that must have weighed a quarter-ton. It immediately slid out of position and slipped a couple of feet downslope. It's not a danger to the shaft, but it is on gravel, so stabilised it as best I could - just in case anyone heads down there soon, just be careful on that.