Post date: Aug 6, 2012 1:22:29 PM

Petie, Al

Saturday

Expecting an all-out assault on this site, Al and I loaded up with tools for almost every conceivable situation. Scaff, ladder, hammer, chisel, two crowbars, drill, camera kit, rope, slings and a capping kit. Thankfully we didn't require the capping kit because we forgot to bring caps anyway. Heavy rain the previous day had turned the bog in Brookfield into a squelchy morass, topped up by a shower as we trudged up to the cave. The heavy rain also meant that the cave was taking a lot of water. Undaunted, we carried on, first sorting out the area beneath the initial drop into the boulder chamber. A rock the size of a small child was hauled out and it was safe to proceed further into the cave where a torrent of water was dropping down through boulders and into the rift. The unstable slope heading down to the dig had come apart somewhat, this was tidied up and we could make it down to the bottom of the cave. Digging here was quite fun, though a tad bit unnerving. The water rushing down the rift meant that digging meant prodding at fist-sized cobbles and letting the water pull them down the pitch. This was quick but it meant that the floor you were standing on was disintegrating with alarming ease, causing rocks to crash noisily down the shaft as you scrambled back up to safer territory. Al rigged up a rope off a convenient flake giving a bit more security and on the digging went. After a few hours our heads were at the level of the scrape marks higher up the wall where we'd started digging. Looking down the pitch the floor was now only 2m away, our spoil heap having brought the floor up to meet us. The rift looked just about passable. Behind us was a precarious wall of almost vertical boulders, mostly just sitting there, not really jammed into place. With the white water torrent coming over it, it was hard to gauge what was was supporting it, although we could see patches of mud between the boulders being washed away before our very eyes. A final bit of digging and we reached a reasonably solid floor of larger limestone blocks. There was by now far more water entering the cave than when we'd first arrived so we called it quits after 4.5 hours work.

Sunday

Despite rain the previous night and that morning the water was much reduced in Komarov Cave, meaning that working conditions at the bottom of the cave were greatly improved. Nothing had moved overnight either, so Al climbed down to the bottom of the cave and started trying to shore up the threatening wall of boulders. It wasn't easy. None of the scaff pieces were of quite the right length to jam across the passage, nor was there anywhere on the flat walls to actually hold the staff in place. After trying just about every position imaginable, Al finally managed to concoct a web of scaff to hold back the wall and give a good deal of reassurance for the push down into the cave. While Al was doing this I was looking into the boulder chamber and marveling at what was supporting all the large blocks.

Al was first to attempt the squeeze. A ladder was rigged off a convenient flake directly above the drop. Wriggling in at the lowest point Al made it through and dropped to the bottom. He scrambled down to the lowest point and returned to report that it was still going down. I then took my turn at the squeeze making it down without any problems. Back at the bottom of the rift we climbed around a large flake and followed the water down a 2.5m pitch, followed immediately by another short pitch. Here, at a depth of 16m the cave pinched off suddenly, the water flowing into a narrow crack, and bending around a corner just beyond that. The draft seemed have dropped off a bit at the end. On the way back up we poked our heads into a few cracks but nothing was forthcoming. Looking up, the rift climbs up a considerable distance in places, though looks unpromising. Returning up the squeeze was tight, though not savagely so, though I did have the benefit of being able to hand my helmet up to Al before venturing up. And despite the drop being just over 2m deep, getting up without a ladder would be almost impossible.

So Komarov Cave is the deepest pot found on the Marlbank in some time, probably since Hillary's Hemorrhoid Pot was found in 1986. A tad disappointing however, given we were hoping it would run into a stream passage heading in the Prods direction. We'll be back to push the end though, more in hope rather than expectation.

Petie

Left: Al dropping down through into the boulder chamber. The stream sinks just above the Peli case. The ground in this image is actually a large rock bridge over a boulder chamber. It's all glued together with mud and gravity. Right: Al looking down into the rift. The stream tumbles in just to the right of the sling.