NCC shafts 29/6/24 - Michael Holliday
Present: Michael Holliday (SUSS/TSG), Alex Ried (TSG), Toby Wheatcroft (SUSS)
The NCC shafts have always been a favorite of mine (https://tinyurl.com/SUSSNCCreport), and I intend to give it a good once-over in the next month or two. My source for almost everything is the excellent summary report by Wayne Sheldon in TSG18 - if anyone else has any good sources, do let me know.
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Edited and annotated survey of the NCC shafts area, from 2024 Peak Cavern master survey by W Sheldon et.al.
The obvious first point of exploration potential is a ~1.5m diameter phreatic passage called Mark and Angela's Wedding Present (M&A’s). This passage intersects at almost the top of the up-pitches, on the level of the White River series. Heading SE it quickly closes down, but to the NW a passage continues for ~25m after passing a bat skeleton. The termination was dug for a little while by Martyn and Jess, but they stopped after being told “it’ll just connect into white river”. The new 2024 survey shows this to be (at least according to the data) a lie! As such, me and Alex made a plan to take another look at the dig and see if it could be to our liking. A phreatic of that size must go to and from somewhere, eventually, right?
Recruiting a keen young SUSS-ite to carry bags and provide enthusiasm, and with Alex Ried supplying an SDS drill; caps; a chisel-bit; PPE; and a solid mattock. We also had a TSG rope to temporarily re-rig some cored rope on the way up to M&A’s. Alex Ried, despite having been there only weeks before, misremembered Focal Recall as an awful ordeal and convinced Toby that such well-proportioned men as themselves would struggle. Nonetheless, we made swift progress and reached the dig face in about 75 mins. Alex and Toby got started on digging whilst I re-rigged the rope and measured the pitch lengths for a permanent peak keyholder replacement rope. Alex had around 90 mins at the dig face, whilst me and Toby entertained ourselves stacking the spoil more compactly. During this, I noticed some wear in the ceiling that looked like another conduit joining into the main phreatic, a few meters back from the dig face and in the East wall. Me and Toby started shifting some rocks to have a poke, until myself and Alex swapped at the dig face.
Toby admires Alex’s hard work, with his feet about level with the side dig.
I spent about an hour digging, and confirmed what Alex had already realised: the dig just can’t be done with our technique. The infill that needs removing is a frustrating mix of calcite; dirt and gravel; small stones; and a few large rocks. The calcite is hard enough not to break easily, but soft enough that it simply absorbs the shock from caps. Of note are: a ~40cm diameter void with a small trickle of water emerging, that we are almost into; and a selection of hard, dark, and heavy rocks which we presume to be basalt. Through a couple of voids it can be seen that at least 2m of this blockage is present, and there’s no real reason to suspect that it doesn’t go on for tens of meters. In the almost 3 hours we spent enthusiastically digging, we probably made around 20cm of progress! Any attack on this dig would need an incredible (insane) amount of perseverance, or a different technique (such as more aggressive chemical persuasion).
During my digging, Alex and Toby continued the little side dig until they were a full body length in. At this point, the way onwards was blocked by some larger rocks that needed breaking up to progress, but looked no less promising than when we started (ie. “a little promising”). Thus, we all agreed to spend the rest of our time bringing our full resources against this more rewarding side dig. Since I was the skinniest amongst us, I spent about 30 minutes capping rocks in the tube/choke below me and managing not to have to point the capping rod at myself. I had to constantly awkwardly pass the tools and spoil tightly up past my own body, which left me surprisingly scratched-up but was good exercise! With 15 minutes until our turnaround time, we did a bit of tidying up and examined our progress.
Alex R at the main dig face.
About 3m of comfortably body-sized passage ends in a rift in the ground, probably formed by the ceiling/wall of the main M&A phreatic delaminating and collapsing into a void below. This rift could be capped wider and entered to see if there’s any prospect below in the small void, but requires someone small-ish like myself (a skinny Large). Upon later examination of TSG18, I believe this may be the site of the voice-connection with the unnamed rift below. I intend to go back and check this rift out soon, and will position someone in the new dig to confirm the connection.
Running a touch late, after Alex had given me some genuinely useful pointers about my rigging, we made a swift exit. Since we’d been doing maintenance work, the cave-guides let us leave a little closer to the concert starting than usual. At the foot of the Devils Staircase we could hear music in the distance, and we all despaired at the thought of having to wait the 5 hours until the concert would end. Thankfully, what we could hear was just the soundcheck - and we got out of the showcave with plenty of time to spare.
I plan a series of return trips, to finish the re-rigging with and explore a variety of items mentioned in TSG18. I’m intending to write an article in the next TSG journal, covering the area: so expect more in 2030 (if not slightly sooner).
