18/03/2026 - Evening

 18/03/2026 - Evening - Alex Randall, Sam Hill, Oli Hill    2 hrs

AR arrived first, and sent the big skip down with the required equipment, and then headed down to be caught up by the other two at the bottom of Echo. SH had planned to do this evenings drilling, but a lack of dry caving kit to put on meant he was unequipped, so AR headed down. 9 x 500mm holes drilled, and stepped to conserve supplies. These are the first holes drill exclusively to follow the passage after it makes the right hand turn, hence why a shorter drill bit was used. A bit of a milestone. Meanwhile the other two hauled up to the 166'.

Toward the end of drill OH joined AR seeking tools to disassemble the Echo pot winch controls, which had been glowing from within and electrocuted SH. While amused by this AR did not have suitable tools so these were sourced from surface.

Hauling output was all bags from the bottom taken up to Echo, and all but 15 of these taken to the 166' and loaded into the skip for raising. These 15 not making it with the winch out of action.

At the end a loud noise was made, and the Echo winch remote removed for repair. SH managed to drop his tools on the way up, so they'll be retrieved next time. 

11 skips to surface so far this year.

Below, a video of the glowing from within the winch control.



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