26 June 2019

Old underground project as good as done

When I think of underground projects I tend to think of our own. And I was not the only one! But there was an old project in the mine on the other side for which we had recently done a round of lugging scaffolding around. And now we would have a session trying to finish it off!

The whole issue was that there was a potential through trip through this mine, but there was a tricky point in it. Initially it had been blocked (by some collapse), then it had been unblocked by people but in a rather dangerous way, and we had been chipping away at it, and then with the scaffolding in place it had been stabilised. Now one could get through safely! And what the loose end were we needed to tidy up now I didn't know.

Many had said they would come. But many dropped out. In the end only four of us showed up! David had ideas of what to do; he wanted to put some base props at the top of the pitch for improved rigging. And there was some filling up of gaps in the actual worm hole. We we lugged up the base props, a drill, a ladder for in the actual worm hole, some pegs and resin, another rope, and such bits. We went up the ledge and pulled the props up too. Then we split; I helped David with putting the base props in place while Don and Dave went on and did stuff with the wormhole.

When David and I were done we went through to meet the others. I only now got to see the work done! And I was very impressed! It's so neat and so safe now. The ladder wasn't there; Dave said the rungs bent, even when he put his not-very-impressive weight on it. Unfortunately, the battery of my camera was flat so I cannot show what impressed me so much.

We had a sarnie at the top. Then we proceeded to try to get rid of some pointy rocks that were sticking into the passage leading to the worm hole. And that worked! David Hilti-capped them straight off. And then it was sort of time to go home. The worm hole has water pouring down it; you get wet getting through. And I was getting cold! Dave wasn't averse to leaving either. And it was the day before summer solstice; it was still more or less light outside!

David figured it would take one more trip to really finish it off. One of the things we would like to do is divert the water that comes down on you when you come through. Not sure if indeed it will only be one more trip but as it is, it is already quite marvellous!

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