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Giants Hole - loose boulder in roof near top of East West Passage.

Jenny P

Well-known member
DCA has just received this information:

Giants Hole - loose boulder in roof near top of East West Passage.

The loose boulder is in the roof of the alcove on the right of the bad step between the scramble up and the start of West Passage.

Facing the drop/pitch with 2 resin bolts in the roof is an unstable/loose boulder.  Its right side is perched on a plate of rock which has become detached from the wall (half of which has already come off), there is a vertical crack/air space between the plate and boulder and the wall. The left side of boulder is just resting on the wall.

The fall line of the Boulder is out of the alcove, through the point where instructors tend to stand to spot a group past the drop, down the pitch and into the bottom of the lower passage (the normal route in to the main cave system).

As this is a well used group route it might be best avoided or else use extreme caution if in that area until the boulder has been made safe or dropped in a controlled manner.

Jenny Potts,
DCA Hon. Sec.
 
Having already done some work in this area this month, I suspect the few bits of very heavy rain have lubricated the cave and got things moving a bit. I am making plans to go and make this rock safe later today. Will update when completed.
 
The PICA rapid reaction squad deployed this evening with a long bar. The large rock mentioned was very nearly a half ton of boulder and dropped with barely a touch, a really good spot here by cave instructor Jez Parr, would have been very nasty. We also prodded a few bits above the passage and brought down a load more gravity defying bits. All in all, about a ton or 2 of rocks safely moved to the floor.
We spent a good time making the new rockery as easy to pass in the passage as possible but there was a lot of very big stuff so some new 'steps' have been created.
Visitors to the cave should be very vigilant in the area as there may be some settling. Any other concerns please contact the DCA.
Thanks to Jez Parr and Beth Knight.

Pete Knight
DCA Projects
 
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