Yesterday myself and Robbie broke through the Titan Streamway Boulder Choke into a series of largeish chambers and a short, very small, continuation of the streamway. The main way on seems to be a 15-20m high aven which we will be bolting up soon.

The dig is still very dodgy and the 2nd chamber is nicely decorated so please can people not attempt to visit until after our stabalisation and photographic work is completed.

Thanks to all who have helped us over the last two months, especially those who have given us digging supplies.

Nice one yoof, 

Good effort lads, well done.

(Is there aything that needs diving ?  )

Yeeeesss well done guys     

can't wait to see your write up in Descent ot wherever.
Hope you get planty more after climbing that aven.

Sorry John No sumps to play in 
We haven't really moved to far away from the area around the breakthrough/boulder choke.
Hopefully this aven will provide us with something phreatic ??? (wishful thinking i know) 

watch this space!

Fair play Rob and Robbie. How much horizontal progress, and do you think you have got the source of the draught from the left hand passage?

Yay it does count toward the metre to kilometre now
Well done anyway, should have got my arse in gear and come and helped.
I guess you might need some assistance whilst shone is away 

Very little horizontal development apart from the first rectangular shaped chamber.
We followed the small stream passage running alongside the chamber for about 8m through a 'lovely' helmet off narrow section.
That is about it for horizontal passage. Beyond here a short 10m 'chimney' like free climb topping out at a window overlooking the upper section of the first rectangular shaped chamber.
Couldn't quite see up into the blackness of the aven from here, but get the impression it continues up a fair (ish) way. very pretty with loads of calcite on the walls.
At this point there is a very prominent bedding plane, running right the way around this level in the chamber.
Could be same bedding plane that we followed from the base of the surface shaft that now leads to Titan's breakthrough window. It has a very similar undulating roof!

As for the draught - no real idea apart from up the aven. We lost it once we climbed into the chamber. Very smokey for a long time!  :-\

Interesting. May have to come and have another look when I have some free time.
Does the streamway stop completely, or is it choked?

Brendan said:

...do you think you have got the source of the draught from the left hand passage?

Click to expand...

I would guess that the draft in that lefthand passage comes from the chamber above. In fact, now we've made a clear route through the boulders i don't imagine that passage to draft much any more.

Brendan said:

Does the streamway stop completely, or is it choked?

Click to expand...

It comes out of a passage about 6 inches wide and half full of water. Not yet been fully pushed but it doesn't draft and sounds very sump like. I may go for a gander while Robbie's bolting, but it's bound to be very miserable... 

nice one!!!

Well done, keep digging ! 

a few metres for 2009 then! nice work

After yesterdays trip we have managed to stabilize the breakthrough choke so that no obvious rocks are likely to fall down the scaffolded section.
We took a few photographs of the impressive parts and the not so impressive parts!

One thing that was plain to see was the size of the larger of the two chambers 'Revelation'. On first sighting we thought it must have been in the region of 20m+ high, but that was largely due to the mist from our digging efforts. On our more recent trip, we could see that it is only 10-15m to the roof where there looks to be a passage heading off.

Yesterday we managed to bolt half way across to it from the 'Crows Nest' (already 12m up).

We will return tomorrow to continue the traverse around the top of the chamber and into the 'passage'!

Nice one - keep going..

Yesterday Robbie completed the "Just In Time" traverse to gain access to a 2m wide, 3m high passage ("Frozen In Time") at the top of the Revelations aven. It is extremely well decorated! After a few meters it reduces to around 1.5m high and wide and continues for about 70m. It is very difficult to move through due to the extremely delecate formations everywhere. At 70m in, the passage fills with calcite, but a wet oxbow (the Lake District) passes the restriction and the main passage continues further, but smaller in height. Progess here was very slow and difficult to avoid damaging the formations. About 25m after the Lake District a tight, muddy duck was passed but shortly after the main passage, now 3m wide and 0.6m high, was fully blocked with a calcite flowstone formation.

Just before on the left a small grovel soon met a 1m diameter phreatic tube. Right ended with the same flowstone blockage, however left went for a few meters before closing down to a strongly draughting dig.
This will be inspected more closely on the survey/photography trip next week, although first impressions show that this might be close to the surface.

The other way at the end of traverse lead into a 20m passage that pops out in the top of Absolution, the smaller of the two chambers found last Sunday. This passage is even more well decorated!

Again, please can people stay clear of these extensions until the formations have been photographed. The total length of new cave is expected to be more than 200m

Good effort. Will be exam free in 2 weeks, so free for some survey trips if needed

Great find guys - well done 
Can't wait to see the pics

On both of the breakthrough trips i took my Canon G9 and actually filmed some of the passage being discovered. My plan was to put something nice and snappy together with the footage but for now I have just quickly put them together and uploaded it onto YouTube. The sound is rubbish cos the camera was in it's waterproof housing, sorry about that!

You can get to the video through http://www.peakdistrictcaving.info/, where there are also a few snaps from the extensions.