Winnats Head Slot Choke Collapsed - Now Fixed

[A_Northerner]

The large boulder that was being propped up by the splintered beam above The Slot choke in Winnats Head, below Fox Chamber, has fallen out of the roof and is now perched above the choke.

We went down today with the aim of replacing the splintered wood, but found it to have fallen down the Slot along with lots of other debris.

We've removed a lot of the debris but the main boulder was too big to manage with the kit we had.

We've worked with what we had, to stabilise the remaining rock above the offending boulder. We hope to get it sorted in the next few weeks, but until then I probably wouldn't recommend going down the Slot! Whilst you can get past it, the boulder is poised to block it entirely, and is probably about a tonne.

Hopefully once work is finished the choke will be a lot safer, with proper scaffolding instead of the splintered timbers!

The boulder on the slope in the centre is the one perched above the Slot. Back in June it was beside the other propped boulder in the upper right.

Sketchily drilling into the other perched boulder...

Belt and braces...

 

[Tritim230]

Thank you. Keeping caves open is an important but thankless task. I hope the work doesn't turn out to be too much of an epic. Good luck!

 

[A_Northerner]

This is now fixed, please can a moderator/admin update the title of the pinned thread to reflect this.

The boulder that was poised ready to block the Slot has been removed from the chamber, and the remaining hanging death above has been secured. We've also added in scaffolding to aid in climbing out of the slot, instead of timber that was there before.

Finished chamber

The small chamber where you enter the Slot can now be moved around in very freely (trust us, we had 4 people working in there at one point!) without fear of anything substantial coming loose.

We're now confident in saying that people shouldn't have any issues in going past the Slot. Unfortunately, despite a number of requests, we don't have the time or means to make the Slot any easier! However people should feel a lot more comfortable going down it with a lot of the loose stuff above now being secured.

Grinding the scaff in Fox Chamber

Bringing the boulder down to size once the hanging death had been secured

Separating the rock chunks

Nice and safe down the slot now, with bonus scaff to hang onto

 

[wellyjen]

Fantastic stuff. Not finished yet though. You need to replace the red bucket that was there.

 

[paul]

This is now fixed, please can a moderator/admin update the title of the pinned thread to reflect this.

Moderator comment: Done.

 

[Wardy]

Oooh looks just as inviting as it always did
Thanking you all for keeping it open

 

[SamT]

Yes, good work.. Thanks!!