Coxie
New member
This week Choomsend Chasm was on the agenda and after meeting up at The Ten Tors Minty, Rob and I departed for the cave.
I was a little unsure how to find the quarry as the last time I visited it was dark and I was merrily following along not paying too much attention. With minimum fuss we found the entrance and descended the short rift into the main chamber (or chasm). The entrance rift was a little longer and deeper than I remembered, almost like a mini Afton. :-\
We hung a right passed the large cracked column continuing on to the lower entrance, neglecting to visit Lung chamber due to the sporting nature for the chunky (sorry Minty
). The lower entrance consists of a large corrugated iron pipe which is gated at the surface. Over the years the boulders on top of the pipe have moved and as a result, the route through is extremely tight in places? Horrendous seems the only fitting adjective.
We continued on to the Long gallery by way of the vertical phreatic tube and snooped around the various chambers noting many unspoilt formations and one particularly tight squeeze which I had to be extracted from by force once the panic had well and truly set it.
We returned to the cracked column via a cascading calcite window and through Helictite chamber, one wall of which seemed to have a blue frosting on it. Once back in the Chasm we ferreted around some of the smaller chambers before doing a short loop past impressive formations back to the ascending rift.
The only picture I took:
A dirty drape? We spent so long exploring that we ran out of time to snap the good stuff.
A great place to visit
I was a little unsure how to find the quarry as the last time I visited it was dark and I was merrily following along not paying too much attention. With minimum fuss we found the entrance and descended the short rift into the main chamber (or chasm). The entrance rift was a little longer and deeper than I remembered, almost like a mini Afton. :-\
We hung a right passed the large cracked column continuing on to the lower entrance, neglecting to visit Lung chamber due to the sporting nature for the chunky (sorry Minty
). The lower entrance consists of a large corrugated iron pipe which is gated at the surface. Over the years the boulders on top of the pipe have moved and as a result, the route through is extremely tight in places? Horrendous seems the only fitting adjective. We continued on to the Long gallery by way of the vertical phreatic tube and snooped around the various chambers noting many unspoilt formations and one particularly tight squeeze which I had to be extracted from by force once the panic had well and truly set it.
We returned to the cracked column via a cascading calcite window and through Helictite chamber, one wall of which seemed to have a blue frosting on it. Once back in the Chasm we ferreted around some of the smaller chambers before doing a short loop past impressive formations back to the ascending rift.
The only picture I took:
A dirty drape? We spent so long exploring that we ran out of time to snap the good stuff.
A great place to visit
