Charterhouse Cave
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Trip 2, and another fantastic day out visiting another new cave and helping with a dig in the 2008 extensions. Underground around 11ish, and good progress made down the ‘old’ cave to the breakthrough choke. Of particular interest in the old cave is the citadel – a large and impressive chamber. Soon at the choke (around 100m or so of boulders stacked vertically on top of each other – an impressive achievement from alison and co to pass this), and this was passed to gain a very interesting and varied streamway with only one short ladder pitch, several climbs, crawls and a narrow but straightforward rift ‘the narrows’ leading down to a sump at a depth of around 209m. Some excellent formations were admired along the way, including one of the finest curtains i’ve ever seen. After visiting the sump, a few hours were spent digging a dry sandy passage (hoped for sump bypass) before having a bite to eat and heading out, reaching the surface after a 5-6hr trip. Many, many thanks to Alison for inviting us along and leading the trip!!!