One more - the right wall of this passage is sediment, and the vein above looks decidedly waterworn, and is breaking out into another pipe at this point. The shape of the passage suggests natural, but who knows? But the sediment had to get in somewhere.

I did get a Nokia smartphone though ;)

It's also worth remembering that aside from the mining, there are several fragments of quite significant natural cave in Odin, which by definition, are in solid rock. These have never been properly documented - ironically the trip we discovered the floor collapse on, in Feb 2011, was meant to be...

I was using the Nokia 800 Tough until a year ago, which is great, but it only uses 3G for messaging, and Vodafone essentially told me that as they would be switching off 3G completely soon, I needed to upgrade to keep all that - so I had to bite the bullet and get a smartphone.

You're on the list! And both these are not Odin for context - photos by Gaz

I found a pick head in a briefly-open passage in the Pit Props series, and five tinned waistcoat buttons in Pit Top Passage, and John put all that in their display cabinet, so I think Speedwell would possibly be a better location for long-term display of local artifacts.

I should also add that a qualified mine inspector accompanied us on the first trip after re-opening (!at the NT's insistence) in order to assess the suitability of the trade route, and it passed.

Sam's in the TSG too. The lower levels are in some places much safer than the upper levels, not least as there are fewer floors to fall through. I've spent years researching Odin, and there are many sites that are regularly visited that are 'less safe', let's say. I'm not aware of which novice...

You did ask...

I can think of plenty of places less safe than Odin - it feels almost homely to me. And to be fair that dig was always going to be a bit sketchy given where it is - it's the only obvious water input at that level. But in terms of access we are often relying on ancient shit that should just be...

Our boulder choke hasn't moved an inch since we started, and there's been something like three earthquakes and fifty quarry blasts since then, but I guess our scaffolding must be doing the job. I think the Winnats timber snapped as it was fifty years old and holding back several tons of loading...

whoopsie-daisy

Never heard of it.

The sough's right down in the lowest part of the valley, pretty much following the natural stream course that would run there - sometimes does in wet weather. But it's a good 20m below surface there.

It's not an unfamiliar situation. Devonshire is one thing, but these are deep shafts, and it just keeps happening. We have 'wondered' whether it's not cavers doing this, but I think that's just as we're being kind. Mind you, I don't think anyone's used the climbing shaft as a toilet lately :(

As an editor of a club journal and a regional caving magazine, I'm finding it incredibly difficult to get content suitable for publication, and a 'quarterly' magazine (The Derbyshire Caver) is currently reduced to one a year at the moment (next issue imminent though!) due to the lack of...

The vintage photos from the 1940s and 50s are just fabulous - I hadn't seen most of these before, and the quality of the photographs, particularly the lighting, is stunning.

Hmm, this 'pot' problem doesn't seem to go away. If only the caves in Yorkshire had been named more imaginatively - for AI purposes. But IMO, this is the digital equivalent of poking a corpse with a stick to check if it's really dead. Some of us actually try to make a living from creating images...