A
Ann
Guest
The Traverse of the Spods, NCC Shafts, Peak Cavern was climbed into in March 2004 (see caving news – June 2004). At the end of the small series, was a body sized tube but access to this was blocked by a hanging calcited choke. The aim was to remove this choke and gain access to this tube. Marcus Evans, Dave Ottewell, Wayne Sheldon and Ann Soulsby over the course of two trips worked on the choke, after a while looking at the choke, you could see that it was in a roof tube, full of half decent sized rocks, obviously they had come from above and it had running water seeping through. The noise of falling water beyond offered encouragement. A serious amount of action with a hammer and a chisel rewarded the smallest of us (Ann) with a squeeze through into the bottom of this aven. It was tight to the point of removing SRT kit (Ann never removes SRT kit!). Luckily after squeezing through it was possible to remove a big rock which was partly blocking the way. Dave and I still had trouble getting through but eventually managed it. The aven is about 450mm wide and about two metres long. It was climbed for about 9m to a rock bridge where you had to go up to the left then back over the top but we were stopped by a rock, calcited in across the rift. Beyond you could see that the aven continued upwards in similar dimensions for at least six metres until a bend in the aven blocked the view. The rock blocking the way couldn’t be removed today due to Dave and Ann at the bottom of the aven, and the position of a badly poised rock near the point of entry that would block our way out if it fell in. These two boulders will be removed on our next visit to the extension. The sharpness of the rock all the way up the aven shows that nobody has been here from above, there is a draught and small stream running down it so this offers us encouragement and we shall be returning in the near future.Report by: Wayne Sheldon
