The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Trapdoor Chamber, Reservoir Hole.
Got the idea lying in bed today. We have the Showcase but we can look at photographs another way. So anyone can join in. I don't chase perfection as you well know. There are other reasons that make a photograph valid. That is in the story that they tell. Most of the great photos of the past are well known because they tell that story.
Digging at Skyfall was a dangerous pastime. Hence the name but it also reflects a connection with the film which was showing at the time. ( I like topical cave names ). Skyfall lies on the great fault on which the whole of High Country lies. The fault also forms the high wall at the far end of The Frozen Deep . Skyfall dig started at the very bottom moving upwards through large trapped boulders in a heavily scalloped rift. We built a cage to save us from harm whilst using a long pole to poke through it. This worked well until the boulders fell on the end of the pole jamming Peter Glanvill against the wall. He did suffer minor injuries and I completely forgot to take a photo of his anguish. Skyfall kept going up. In the more vertical bits we use polybags to store the debris held back by scaffold poles. Eventually we reached a stal choke the aven continuing upwards through a tight squeeze. Nigel Cox climbed this to a conclusion. The rift continued by the squeeze well hidden by the stal choke. We got through this going upwards through fill to a solid stal ceiling. About this time a boulder fell down Skyfall ladder pitch and snapped my ulna. Accidently kicked by somebody but then I was standing too close to the pitch base. The pain was intense . I demanded that no rescue be called out. They got a sling on me and we started out. The ladder climbs were excrutiating but I managed it even stopping for a photo on the way out. We went back to Martin Grass for the usual tea and bickies but I almost passed out when sitting on the couch. Somebody drove my car home and dropped me off. I was past caring by then so had my dinner in the usual way . I then walked half a mile to hospital in the rain. Slumped then in the corner at A and E for three hours. ( I was the only one there visibly injured though a child had a raisen up her nose ). Eventually I got seen. Would I like a traditional plaster or would I like an operation for a plate. They recommended the former. I was in a pink plaster for a couple of months. When it came off they said that there was " non union ". In effect nothing had repaired and I could still feel the break through the skin ( %30 out of line. ) I cried all the way home. At the same time I was waiting for a painful hernia repair which they would not do until my arm was better. Lord knows way. In fairness they whipped me back in the next day to fit the metal brace. It was New Years Eve. Nobody wished me a happy nrew year. Back to square one with the hernia and broken arm. Finally I got back to Reservoir. They had cut a trapdoor though the stal ceilng to find the pretty Trapdoor Chamber. I went back with Chris Milne to get some hurried photos. ( keeping well clear on the ladder pitch ) . Trapdoor Chamber is a decorated rift with a stal floor. In the roof is a choke with the passge apparently going ever upwards. The chamber would be ruined by digging that so we called it a day. As far as I know only four people have ever been here and its not on the survey. Perhaps its best just to leave it in peace. In any case Reservoir Hole is still closed. My friends Peter Glanvill, Nigel Cox and Chris Milne were very kind in getting me out. I wont say who kicked the boulder down