More photos from Water Icicle

I'd been helping with fundraising for DCRO (Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation) during the morning of the next Saturday, so I arrived at Derby Lane in the early afternoon.  The ground was like concrete after all the frosts, so I decided to continue further up the lane than we've been parking recently.  I figured that I would be able to get as far as Pete had gone.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no sign of his car as I headed towards the slope leading up to the end of the lane, but unfortunately I got into the rutted part of the track and the ruts began to get really deep.  Given that the ground was like concrete and I'd already scraped the exhaust a couple of times, I stopped and reversed a bit, but then couldn't get going again.  I reversed further back and tried to get across the ruts, but in the process got the car completely stuck at an angle across the track.  It's probably 40-50 feet wide at that point, so I knew I wouldn't inconvenience the farmer, so I got changed and went underground about 2pm - it was so cold on the surface it felt positively balmy.

I expected to find the boys at the end of Cherty Two Passage, but having crawled over the first bank, I realised that there was no noise coming from up ahead and I retraced my steps and followed Urchin Passage until I came to the pitch.  Paul asked me where I'd left the car and I said 'where it got stuck'.  Apparently he'd sent me a text message saying not to try to get all the way along the track because he'd had to tow Pete out - whoops!!

Anyway, there was much boulder moving going on and lots of falling rocks as more and more of them headed down the pitch, which was opening up nicely.  I got bored after a bit and Pete lent me his camera and I went off to take pictures of some more of the formations on the floor.

Calcite crystals and a piece of very jagged rock.

More crystals near the Sea Urchins.

A drip crater.

Several boulders in both passages are covered in these yellowish calcite crystals.

Boulders covered in calcite, where the rock has then worn from inside the covering of calcite.

Football-sized chunks of calcite, clearly showing the layers of calcite that have been deposited.

Mud formations formed by drips.

Mud formations formed by drips.  The rings at bottom right go down to a depth of maybe 20cm.

These mud formations are classic for an area with lots of drips, but unusual because they are not vertical.  Did the floor shift?

Keith having a peek down the hole they'd opened up.

After another while, I wandered back to the digging effort, by which time a hanger had been placed in the roof of the main passage and Keith had hung off this while they continued to shift boulders - some had needed considerable 'persuasion'.

But in the end three hours or so of standing in Morrisons packing people's shopping took their toll and as I was also starting to get cold, I decided to head for the car.  It was snowing when I reached the surface and dark and I got the car going and cowered behind the tail gate (fortunately the car happened to be pointing into the wind, which was convenient).  I debated waiting for the others to help me get the car out, but decided to have a go at rocking it out myself, which paid off.  I left a note on Paul's car, went back to the shaft to check they weren't on the way up and headed for home.