<p>Headed off to Tunnocks with 200m of 11mm, a substantial pile of hangers, slings, krabs, Hiltis, drill, drill battery... so it took a while. I headed down with the intention of fettling the rig so that we could have more than one person on the pitch at a time without kicking rubble on each others heads. Jess sat on the surface and sunbathed for a bit (apart from when it was hailing). I put in a new rebelay that neatly avoided the passing hailstones, then spent ages trying to work out where I was going to put bolts in for the next bit since it was clearly going to be scary and hard. Eventually found a way to put in a particularly airy rebelay (that Jess later enjoyed). Managed to wrap myself round the rope multiple times in the process, so spent 40 minutes untangling myself, then descended landing on the lower end of the first boulder slope as intended. Jess joined me and I proceeded to rig a traverse to the head of the next drop, making use of a pre-drilled Hilti hole and an existing Hilti. By this time we were running out of time so headed out. </p>
<p>Joe on his 3rd day of looking for 107. This time armed with a text message from Wookey at the computer, sent @ 3am, saying to find Wookey's caving gear stash and thus 148, then 107 was 120m away on 220(degrees). Unfortunately this was copied from an area diagram(?) <i>from 107</i>, not <i>to 107</i>, so was backwards. Thus Joe & Aled spent about 3 hrs looking in the wrong place until Wookey arrived from base camp with a map. Armed with correct info 83 was quickly found (has spit but no tag) and thus 107.</p>
<p>Then it thunderstormed (hail) whilst Aled and Joe were collecting rope from stash at edge of plateau. Aled had left cag at 148 so had to hide in bivvi bag (correction - survival bag) for 30 minutes - "toasty"</p>
<p>Finally got underground around 3pm. 107 is a nice cave & O+J get full marks for documentation (rigging guide + desc + QMs + survey). Rigging and route-finding went well. Joe shimmied the ropeless traverse without gear. Aled followed with T-sacks before realising that <b>a)</b> this was foolish &<b>b)</b> he needed to come back & give Wookey hangers for rigging. Short period of excitement was survived.</p>
<p>Rigged down to Ropefree before going home. Cave is v. cold due to strong draught throughout. Bring woolies!</p>
<p>Two days after our previous effort, the same team returned to continue the attempted re-rig of the Tunnocks entrance pitch. I swang around in the shaft putting in an airy-fairy rig to avoid the loosechoss while Jess sat on a rubble slope providing moral support. One deviation and two y-hangs later, team 2 arrived with the intention of putting in a quick `n' dirty rig to the bottom so they could start rigging the rest of the cave. After a few hours sitting with six of us strung out along the pitch with much shuffling of gear, it became clear that this plan was not going to work, so team 1 exited.</p>
<divclass="trippeople">Becka, Neil, Rob A, &<u>Michael S</u></div>
<divclass="triptitle">Team 2 into Tunnocks</div>
<p>Turned up hoping that Team 1 would have finished rigging the entrance series, found to be far from the truth. After a bit of umming and ah-ing on the surface, decided to rig past Team 1 to get to the bottom. Ice plug at the bottom was found to be significantly lower than previous years so existing bolts could not be used exclusively in quick & dirty rig. Inherited drill & bolting kit from Team 1 to rig the bottom, a traverse across the ice slope. From [here] split in two:</p>
<p>Handline found in place at Ribs with Knoedel (?). Caramel Catharsis rigged then continued through Y KeyKey Beach & Max Pleasure. Back through Dubious Pleasure, where all 3 traverse lines were found in place. Reached String Theory top & deposited 100m rope & brew kit, then buggered off out again, picking up Rob on the way.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">Matt & Aled jolly in 107</div>
<p>Did a carry up to top camp with the newly arrived curries, then had a quick pootle round 107 so Matt could learn the way. Got as far as Too Bold for This Spit where met Sam David Jess and Andy. Dropped off bag of rigging gear for Aled's pushing project. Nice trip some of the rigging is a bit "rock and roll".</p>
<p>Came down hill after last trip as Joe needed to fettle phones. Wook kept getting asked nerding questions so didn't leave till 11ish. So underground by 2pm.</p>
<p>Lovely trip, partly as I had thick fleece furry instead of thin one so much warmer, but also [something, something] as 2 independent trips, with Joe rigging ahead & Wook following, sorting the `economical' rigging to ad backups to one-bolt-wonders & swap 51m rope on ropeless traverse(?) for 39m one.</p>
<p>Joe came back to report squeeze then ran off again to keep warm. Wook followed to be confused by implausibly tight crawl with rope for Austria.</p>
<p>Underground by 11 this time, with 3 batts & plenty of keenies. Joe headed for point again, whilst Wookey & AndyA came along as rigging fairies to fix up the dodgy Olly rigging, particularly his propensity for knee-high pitch head bolts. Fixed up entrance stuff the we had left for Aled the day before as he'd gone down the hill, then on to add back-up bolts, and often pitch head bolts too. Caught up with Joe at "Too bold for this spit" when he had managed to scare himself rigging due to having to fish out sling halfway across with a big leg-trembler. He was pleased to see some company. Wook went over and rigged back about 2m higher to turn a horrow into a nice travers. (Fine bit of traversing by O/J).</p>
<p>Aled turned up at this point having come up from base and solo-caved to find us</p>
<p>4-some now continued to big Korea pitch, where we had [something] of the recommended 64m. Andrew rigged it tight and added 2 bolts and skipped two to just reach the floor whilst the rest checked out Land of Confusion QMs. Wook ticked off 13-LC-9C, 13-LC-7C, 13-LC-8X. 13-LC-6C is a C1.5(!) down to a fairly short pitch into China. Joe & Aled decided 13-LC-16A was worth a look.</p>
<p>We all went down to be impressed by China</p>
<p>13-LC-10B across the Korea pitch-head really is a 20-30m blank wall bolting project - too [something]. 13-CH-4B at the bottom is not inspiring. It probably doesn't go, but hard to be sure. Needs a bolt or two to.</p>
<p><b>[is there a page missing here?]</b></p>
<p>Fortunately Austrian couple in posh camper in carpark were able to provide beer, the might of phone [something] and a phone to call for rescue. Julian came and saved me.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">107: Alcove pop + Nipped down</div>
<p>Returned to the "Too bold for this spit" traverse. Andrew climbed up above the traverse to the lead spotted the previous day and put some bolts in so Jess could climb up and survey the small passage found - "Alcove pop", which split after a few meters with both ways ending in mud. Small roof tube ran back into the main rift split into many tiny holes. Meanwhile Sam + David retrieved the rope from Korea.</p>
<p>David replaced the bolt which popped out the previous day, and all returned to the passage and pitch found the previous day</p>
<p>Andrew then finished rigging "nipped down" and David and Jess surveyed it, linking it into Chine before heading out. Possible passage continuation across pitch - QMC. On the way back up the pitch, Andrew noticed the single bolt above the 30m hang and blow the dodgy sling rebelay was pulling out as he prussiked - when he got there, he could pull it out of the wall!</p>
<p>Everyone headed out, Sam having some tight trouble in the squeeze - this is easiest using the low route now most of the popcorn has gone. All out by 20:15, and all headed down to base camp.</p>
<p><b>QMC - Possible passage continuation of popped across on the opposite wall of nipped down - bolt traverse required.</b></p>
<divclass="triptitle">258 - Tunnocks - Rig String Theory + to Beast area</div>
<p>Used rope previously deposited to rig String Theory which was a breeze due to refelctor bolts placed on last year's derig - top gear! Continued on + I rigged Pidgeons in Flight but it needed further tweaking. Anthony + I then went for a [something] checking the in situ nasty red rope on the short climb up + traverse + to look at the Beast pitch + pitch below Bob Om.</p>
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Becka</u>, Neil, Rob A</div>
<divclass="triptitle">258 - Tunnocks - Pidgeons in Flight -> Pidgeon Droppings</div>
<p>Looked at the pitch beloe Bob On but decided to rig the one below the traverse just beyond Pidgeons in Flight. Neil rigged whilst Rob + I surveyed down. Neil's pitch ("Pidgeon Droppings") is nicely rigged in 3 short drops (bit loose at pitch head). This lands next to a wet, undescended pitch but we went for the blowing horizontal lead. It was crawly, past 2 fairly freshly dead bats to a bad step traverse. Neil put in a couple of bolts to drop below the traverse which was blind, + then to put a handline over the traverse, we wrapped up the survey here + headed out. En route I replaced the nasty, slippy red 9mm on the climb up to the Balcony (just beyond String Theory) with thicker rope + put the red 9mm as a handline up to that climb.</p>
<p>Headed down to where we left off yesterday, Katey + Nat breezing down all the airy entrance rigging with all of 9 months caving experience a-piece (though they'd just come from the [--] expedition so are expo-seasoned). We set off surveying, following the draft, but quickly got to a pitch, Nat went back to fetch the gear whilst Katey + I surveyed side leads. When we got back to Nat he shame-facedly confessed that one of the drill batteries had rolled out of the bag he was unpacking + down a small hole. He tried to persuade Katey to go in after it but she's no fool so he wiggled in head first, managed to retrieve the battery, attempted to turn around, failed, tried to back out, failed, started to sound a bit stressed + finally begged for assistance. Katey + I got a leg each + he finally was hauled out. After that he needed a while to compose himself so Katey rigged the pitch ("Flying Rats") with 2 spits at the top + a rebelay then we surveyed down to a traverse with a bad step + then teeter along a ledge with loose rock where we ended the survey having decided that it really should have been rigged. Packed the loose gear up + left it at the top of Pidgeon Droppings + went for a quick check on Neil + Rob below Bob On who were surveying out + then exited steadily.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">Prospecting ~NE of Tunnocks</div>
<p>A pleasant day ambling in the sunshine trying to hit Mike's main goal areas. We found surprisingly little given the 5-person comb but we refound <u>CUCC-2005-05</u> which seemed promising <u>unless</u> the air in it is just circulation from the fractured bowl beneath the entrance. Mike, Andrea + Katey surveyed it whilst Nat bolted the right hand pitch to a bridge before running out of rope (we only had 11m + 12m; the only other tope at Top Camo was 200m!) + good rock. This should be returned to + checked out properly.</p>
<p>We also refound <u>2006-05</u> which appeared to have spits to descent but Base Camp couldn't find a report of what happened there, it looks pretty good.</p>
<p>Finally, we found a new cave which we ineptly tagged as <u>CUCC-14-876</u> ("Hot Tub"). Katey rigged this with a backup then y-hang down perhaps 15m to a snow plug which might have a way on beyond. It seemed to have a good draft + is in an interesting position above 258/204 so, again, this would be worth returning to.</p>
<p>Picked up the gear at the top of Pidgeon Droppings including Rob + Neil's 80m rope so we were fairly laden + headed down to Flying Rats pitch. Rigged the traverse off a couple of so-so naturals (trying to conserve hangers due to the hanger-draught at Top Camp) then Nat put a couple of spits in the far side (+another one which completely fractured the rock when he set it) + then another natural. We surveyed on from yesterday + then in loops under ourselves. Nat rigged on naturals down a short pitch. The passage looked big + phreatic + exciting but I went up the nasty loose climb at the end + it just fizzled out, grrr. We surveyed a final loop back to the short pitch then reluctantly decided to derig, slogged out with 2 tacklesacks a-piece so left Pidgeon Droppings rigged + left rigging gear at the top then we plodded out. I think it was 3 hours in + ~4 hours out, emerging just gone midnight + snuck home before the rain really started.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">107 - Gemshohle - Finalising Nipped Down rigging + Pushing lead in Southern China - "The Last TSA"</div>
<p>Nipped down had been rebolted the rpevious trip, but the ropes needed switching to ensure the rope reached the floor. Wookey sorted this while Jess and Michael passed 5m of slack rope along the popped across traverse back to the pitch at too bold for this spit:</p>
<p>Too Bold for This Spit: (computerised image can be found in expoimages in rigging_topos, 107_tooboldforthisspit.svg)</p>
<p>Popped Across Traverse: (computerised image can be found in expoimages in rigging_topos, 107_poppedacrosstraverse.svg)</p>
<p>Nipped Down: (computerised image will soon be available in expoimages in rigging_topos, 107_nippeddown.svg)</p>
<p>Rigging now fettled, the team departed for the N end of China + Korea and spent some time checking for leads at and below floor level - Wookey moved some [scary] boulders under Korea but all that was found was the pitch pushed by O+J the previous year. However, the climb to the alcove 20m up the N wall of the Aven at the N end of China looked promising.</p>
<p>Having so far found nothing new, the three now departed for the A lead at the S end of China - <u>13-CH-11A</u>(?). 7m climb was rigged with a handline from a single bolt 1/2 way down:</p>
<p>[picture]</p>
<p>Large smooth-walled high rift passage was found heading S to a 20m pitch, which J+W bolted:
<p>[picture]</p>
<p>The passage was found to continue as [something corrected by Wookey] until a final chamber with an aven was reached. Due to time now being short, all 3 exited and a return was planned the next day to complete the surveying, though the passage was given the name "The Last TSA" courtesy of Michael wearing his Dad's old TSA oversuit.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">107 - Gemshohle - The Last TSA, Climb N end of China</div>
<p>The return trip to The Last TSA, to finish the survey. Large mud and stone floored phreatic hading(?) rift, heading S and down, with a chocolate mud river flowing down the floor. Large amount of wall peelage LHS - in one place a huge section has flaked off (20m? long) - "the battleship Potempkin". Wookey shinned up into the ceiling after the battleship, finding a window out into the end chamber with the rift continuing up with a slight draft at 30m above the floor - Wookey realised how high he was, got scared and came back - continuing climb up rift QMB. W rigged a handline down the washed out mud and boulder cliff into the final chamber whereon aven enters - QMX. Far wall is solid, W poked around in the boulders and found that the RHW is undercut and could be the continuation, but no way through the very precarious boulderchoke filling the chamber floor and bottom part of 2 walls (RHS, nearside).</p>
<p>De-rigged back into China, and Wookey proceeded to climb up to the alcove visible in the N wall of the aven at the N of China, ~20m up. The climb drafted, but the alcove was a sand-filled passage and didn't go (13-CH-1B). On his way back down, on the RHS of a boulder he had passed on the L on the way up, hefound a rift + small hole below which drafted V strongly out! The rift would be tight and looked like you would need to wedge yourself in then descend a pitch. The small hole below may give easier access if dug?</p>
<p><b>QMA!!! - the way to kH?</b></p>
<p>Due to time + J being tired, plus the lead looking like a trip in and of itself, both headed back out at this point.</p>
<p><u>The Last TSA:</u><UL>QMB - 30m+ climb up hading rift in ceiling between the battleship wall flake and the final aven.</UL><UL>QMX - the aven entering the final chamber.</UL></p>
<p><u>N end of China:</u><UL>QMA - Rift small hole with strong outward draft in N wall of aven 1/2 way up climb to alcove, may require pitch bolting once into rift.</UL></p>
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Michael</u>, Katey, Mike, & Andrea Futrell</div>
<divclass="triptitle">258 - Tunnocks - Sightseeing and C lead at the top of String Theory (09-44C)</div>
<p>The Futrells wanted a sightseeing trip where they could take photographs without being pressured to go fast, and us others wanted an easier trip. Also given to us was the choices of a C-lead at the top of String Theory (09-44C). Took the standard roure to ST (Entrance -> Caramel Catharsis -> Pleasure Series -> ST). C-lead was along a rift out the top of the scree slope at the top of ST heading West. Floor of boulder choke, after ~20m the floor falls out. There is a ga wide enough to fit a person, an 11m tope allowed descent to a second level of boulder choke floor. A third and final level of boulder choke floor was reached by another ~6m pitch. Both ends of the rift choked up at each level. The lowest level was at ~45(degree) angle, any step sent a cascade of rocks down.
<UL><i>Drawing of passage with rigging guide (Trireme Rift)</i></UL>
Craps out in all directions, not worth returning to. On the way out, the Futrells took time on the entrance series to take a lot of photos.</p>
<p>After a week of effort in 107, the general consensus was that it would be easier to find a connection from the 161 side, so Dr Day's Entrance Pitch Rigging Service was called into action. Trundled over with Rob and enough gear to rig to Strange Downfull, placing a minimal set of reflectors en route. Rigging in proceeded smoothly with few surprises (apart from one handline that had been removed near the start of Peurile Humour - reinstated) and flawless route finding as far as the top of Knossos. Here I discovered that one of the bolts I wanted to use for the pitch head y-hang had been deliberately disabled, so the new rig looks like this:
Route finding through Knossos/Star Wars/Tower Blocks proved to be a bit more tricky - some reflectors would be useful - but we eventually made it to Staircase 36. The rope for the traverse over a big hole near the bottom of Staircase 36 has been removed and should ideally be reinstated. I rigged Strange Downfull unlike Rob and Rob nosed around in Chicken Flied Nice without finding any obvious route through to Runnel Stone. With that we headed out - a most efficient trip.</p>
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Anthony</u>, Rob A, Rob W</div>
<divclass="triptitle">161 - Reconnaisance trip to Runnel Stone</div>
<p>Following a quick and effective trip the previous day, the same team returned to rig the long way round to the leads near 107. We thought that the trip shouldn't take too long so were in no hurry to leave Top Camp. The flaw in this logic should have been obvious and our failure to get underground before 14:00 proved to be a mistake. Trundled along to Strange Downfull, Rob W prussiked up Strange Upfull to find that the traverse line(?) at the top was (thankfully) still in place. Up Irony of Time and into Country for Old Men, we had a pleasant surprise that the Sudelenland pitch was still rigged - the 100m of rope we had with us was starting to look like overkill. All enjoyed the interesting rig on the Mordor pitch, then along the extreme horizontal stuff at the bottom. By now it was becoming clear that, despite minimal route-finding hassles, the trip was going to take quite a long time.</p>
<p>Arriving at Holey Cow, we finally found something that needed rigging. Rob W rigged down the little climb, then put in a hanger to protect the walk across the ridge to the little traverse on the other side. It turns out that this bolt is pretty good since when Rob made it to the location of the y-hang bolts, the ledge he was standing on disappeared and he took a swing and smacked into the ridge.</p>
<p>After that bit of excitement, we headed off to the Runnel Stone. Survey station 56 looked like the most promising area: there is an undescended pitch with a faint draught. Climbing up into the roof (looks like we are in the bottom of a keyhole) to see if the passage continues at roof level might also be worth a try. The survey puts us 23m laterally and at the same level as a parallel passage to Chicken Flied Nice, so there are a few possibilities here for cutting a significant chunk off the commute.</p>
<p>Next we went to the end of Bundestrasse. The continuing rift at the end goes to a pitch after ~15m. There is a draught, but it is small compared to that in the phreatic passage. This suggests that most of the draught disappears up the aven, which looks like a phreatic tube and Rob A believes might be climbable.</p>
<p>By now it was getting very late, so we returned to the junction at the end of Larchen Republic and ditched the rope. From here it took about 5 hours to get out, with the only significant delay being to install a sling on a greasy climb in Sudelenland that we had waltzed past on the way down. Emerged to steady rain at 03:50. We were very glad of the extra reflectors that had been installed on the walk out during the soggy walk back. Arrived at Top Camp at 05:00 in time for a dawn curry.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">107 - Gemshohle - Attempt to push Wookey & Jess' lead at North end of China</div>
<p>Attempts to go caving from base camp are not a great idea if you want to be underground at a reasonable hour... Rather a lot of faffing and a diversion to the mobile phone shop later, we were en route to 107 and underground at ~1:30pm. It was Elaine & Sophie's first expo caving trip. Progress was somewhat slow, and since it took 4 hours to reach a point just before TOO BOLD FOR THIS SPIT, the decision was taken to turn round at 5:30 pm.</p>
<p>Elaine and David decided to retrieve the hand bolting kits which were left just before Pop Across. David grabbed the kits then D&E caught up with M&S who were making their way out. Once M&S had gone past the squeeze, E derigged the pitch which bypasses the squeeze while D. rebolted & rerigged the traverse at the bottom of said pitch to make it safer. All reached the surface at ~9:45pm. D&E decided to go ahead to top camp to cancel the callout and outrun the thunderstorm which was snapping at our heels. S&M arrived, rather damp, 1.5h later.</p>
<p>After a later start than was intended (due to my extensive faffing abilities), we were underground by 11:45. By 1:30pm we had reached "Too bold". This being Elaines 2nd trip of expo, and only her 6th SRT trip, she was not quite so confident on the larger pitches, so we reached the bottom of China by around 3pm. The climb which Wookey had rigged was somewhat precarious to say the least, so we sat on the other side of the choss pile at the bottom in a group shelter until each of us had ascended the climb. Aled & David got to the top and I decided to come up. About halfway up (~2m above the deviation) I felt a massive draught kicking out of a slanting rift in the wall: the lead! The others had gone too high. David dropped down with the drill after I had had a look down the hole, a slanting rift for ~5m which opens out over the top of a reasonable freehang (~20m). The pitch was subsequently dropped by David, who shouted enthusiastically up for someone to follow. I had the survey kit in my bag so I followed on.</p>
<p>After some rigging adjustments, I dropped into a rather large passage with a humongous draught at the end. Very excited! We went round the corner to where Dave had looked to and began surveying. However after 3 legs Dave discovered a survey station which wasn't ours. Strange! This lead us to believe that it was not new passage. We went through a squeeze after a sandy crawl after following a phreatic passage with a gravelly floor, this reached a massive rift with a dodgy looking climb or a dodgy looking traverse [tried doing the traverse but it was a silly idea with us being 2 rather inexperienced cavers on the wrong side of a possibly new bit of passage. We therefore turned round and backsurveyed 8 legs from previous station 18 to the top of the pitch David dropped. By this time, it was getting on for 8pm & with a 12 (midnight) callout we decided it was time to turn round, Aled & Elaine having already headed out. Carrying the drill, bolting kit etc progress was more taxing than expected and we reached the surface around 10:30.</p>
<p>After some faff and route finding issues we returned to top camp at 11:40pm cutting callout a wee bit fine.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">107: Aled wants to drop a pitch, take 2</div>
<p>Heavy rain in the morning meant Andrew's proposed walk up the hill at 6:30am was postponed enough for Aled to wake up and decide he also wanted to go caving. An early start on the Plateau walk was hampered by shitty weather (lots of rain) and traffic in the form of cows and sheep. upon reaching 107, Aled was happy to find his SRT kit had helpfully been brought down from the bunde-hill from the day before by Matt & co, so caving could commence!</p>
<p>Ominous sounds of water echo through the cave, but waterfalls confined to predicted places, most notably the "Easy Traverse", but Andrew's previous fettling of the rope to make it tighter kept us out of the worst of the water - phew!</p>
<p>An hour and a half into the cave saw us reach the far end of "Too Bold for This Spit", where the new route into China was mostly hidden by torrential water. Aled's proposed lead drop was quickly found (it is an A lead, after all), and would be great if it dropped into China as it was <u>BONE DRY</u>. Unfortunately, the rigging gear Aled & Matt dropped off the previous day had been unhelpfully moved to the bottom of "Nipped Down" so basically out of practical reach.</p>
<p>Andrew - "You could go down to fetch it, but you wont be coming back"</p>
<p>Looking at the dropped pitch at the end of "Too Bold for This Spit", Aled quickly agreed. Headed out feeling cheated :-( </p>
<divclass="triptitle">Tunnocks - Rigging Coldfinger by Champagne on Ice</div>
<p>Slightly later start than anticipated as Aled had to first fetch his gear from 107. It didn't help that the Plateau Monster bit him on the way back to Top Camp.</p>
<p>Entrance series was a great selection of rebelays, which - as far as the writer is aware - is different from previous years, but as it was the first time down Tunnocks for Aled, everything was brand new. Neil provided helpful hints throughout the descent.</p>
<p>After much traipsing and sliding about, the two-and-a-half musketeers arrived at the desired location (which the writer believes was Champagne on Ice), only to decide the proposed pitch should be dropped from the other side. I can only then assume we backtracked and headed to Hedonism Highway as by this point I hadn't a bloody clue where I was. Sat at the top of the pitch, Neil got ready for some serious drilling and rigging while Andrew & Aled sat patiently. At some point Andrew headed down after Neil as it went very quiet and dark - Aled was now huddled up in his survival bag and couldn't see anything anyway. Some time passed, and Andrew arrived back declaring we should go off to "cross off some of those fucking leads".</p>
<p>Many holes squeezed through, precarious climbs climbed, rocks replaced, boulders shuffled, and mud clawed away, and we have discovered the following:</p>
<p>07-770: Soil filled phreatic passage. Filled to roof, no draft. Probably worth 1 session (with a shovel).</p>
<p>07-99C: 5m to complete rockfill - draft out.</p>
<p>07-79X: Climb to soil filled slot, dig, finishes in small rock hole, draft out. Roof looks to be immature, closes down.</p>
<p>07-85C + 07-83C plus unlabelled roof tube to west of 85 and 83: Climbs up and joins in larger rift, everything above too tight.</p>
<p>Headed back to Neil, who I believe accomplished his task, munched some chocolate and headed out.</p>
<p>Neil & Andrew insisted on Aled leading - big mistake. Sat idly by whenever he headed in wrong direction. Bluffed at one particular passage causing much confusion for Aled, then sneaked off when his back was turned;</p>
<p>"C***S!"</p>
<p>Tiring climb out for Aled, crawled to surface like a beaten house-elf about half an hour after Neil & Andrew. Face down on the limestone, Aled is asked if he wants to go back down with Becka & Rob who arrives;</p>
<divclass="triptitle">107: Aled wants to drop a pitch, take 1</div>
<p>Mucho faffos today! Helped not in the least by Aled needing to collect gear from Top Camp first. Underground by 4:30pm!!</p>
<p>Matt - "No time to rig, just gimme a tour"</p>
<p>Gave him a tour , I did.</p>
<p>Got to "Too Bold for This Spit", & found David, Andrew, Jess & Sam coming up the other way! Left bag of rope & rigging gear attached to said traverse. No time to push. Headed back out feeling cheated :-( </p>
<p>(Also just realised Matt has already written this...)</p>
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Michael</u>, Becka, Rob W.</div>
<divclass="triptitle">Surface prospecting, NW of Tunnocks</div>
<p>From Tunnocks entrance walked for ~15 min NW down the large gully before prospecting started, following the cairned route. Took a large loop by heading up the lower slopes of the Greißkogel, then following the bedding plane NE and upward. After a few hours found only one good lead (2014-777) and decided to turn for home, travelled S back to the end of the cairned route but found a more promising hole (2014-888) which was partly blocked by choss but had a very strong draft coming out.</p>
<p>777 was tagged & GPS logged, but 888 was only GPS logged for lack of time.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">Checking Ants in Your Pants for snow level</div>
<p>AIYP (2013-03) is a possible back entrance to Tunnocks, explored in 2013 but found to be blocked by snow. Corresponding but of cave underneath found snow & leaves, so almost certainly connected.</p>
<p>From the surface, looked like a straight hang to the floor, kicking all the snow & ice of 2013, particularly ice bridges across the shaft. Found to be not the full 60m shaft but only 30m down to what was marked a ledge on 2013 survey, so rest of shaft blocked by snow. Could not see bolts for traverse shown on 2013 rigging guide.</p>
<p>Also checked 2012-ns-01 for connection into Tunnocks. Snow level was lower than 2013 as it connected straight into AIYP, but required ~30m hand line when walking over snow slope.</p>
<p>Need snow level to be much lower for hope of making the connection into Tunnocks, even though 2014 has a particularly low snow level anyway.<p>
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Michael</u>, Neil, Mike & Andrea</div>
<divclass="triptitle">2014-888 and MF unmarked pit</div>
<p>Follow up on 2014-888, a drafting hole blocked mostly by choss. Took crowbar & bolting kit to prise all the precarious large rocks away from the entrance and rig the pitch that could be seen just beyond them.<p>
<p>Spend ~ 1 hour trying to clear the entrance, removed most of the small to medium rocks but there was 1 large boulder which wobbled but wouldn't move down the hole. In the end it was wedged to one side so it was passable.</p>
<p>Neil then bolted the pitch, which went down ~8m to a small chamber where the draft was coming out of a rift too small to pass, with a similar tiny hole in the floor.</p>
<UL><i>Sketch survey </i></UL>
<divclass="timeug">T/U: <1hr</div>
Then proceeded to a large open pit that Mike Futrell found in 2013. Snow plug at the bottom, ~25m drop and ~5m across.</p>
<p>Entrance was made easier by a hard climb down ~6m on the W side, emerging in a balcony from where the bolting started. Neil gave me his drill and an introductory course on how to bolt & rig (the first cave I had done so on!). [Meanwhiles Mike & Andrea, and Elaine and Same who arrived after their own trip across the valley, discovered that caving can also be a spectator sport. There is a large window opposite the balcony, and they cheered Michaels every move as he bolted the pitch.]</p>
<UL><i>Sketch survey </i></UL>
<p>Crapped out on both sides of the snow plug, didn't go anywhere.
<divclass="triptitle">107 - KH connection made / KH derig</div>
<p>I was awoken early by Becka who was very excited about the previous days trip. Survey data was examined & quizzing began. However, being not properly awake i did not provide any useful information at all, so we arranged to go back into 107 with lots of tackle sacks to examine the lead: if it was, as could have been the case, a connection into Korea, we would derig 107. If not, then who knew what was going to happen! After some inevitable faff (I dropped my wellies on the walk over) we got underground around half 11. We were in China by 1pm, and after some flapkjack split into two twos: Rob & I went through the rift & down the pitch, & Andrew & Becka went into Korea & we would shout at each other to see if it connected. On dropping down the pitch, I showed Rob what we had done the day before and we headed up the sandy ramp to the slit. At this point, Rob proclaimed "I bet you £500 that we're in Blown Out." On looking at the traverse I half attempted the previous day, we rescinded the bet until further evidence arose. He found a way to climb down which bypassed this obstacle, and we poked around a bit at the bottom until we heard Becka & Andrew Whooping with surprise: we were indeed in Blown Out! Apparently my failure to mention how sandy the other side of the connection was or that we had found survey station 4 on the other side of the slit. In hindsight, it did look rather like the other leads in KH that I had looked at (Chicken Flied Nice). We decided that we would do the through trip out of KH, derigging as we went. After Becka had done one last survey leg to link mine & Davids data [something] China (using our station 8 & station 4 (?) off the top of the large boulder opposite Wookeys death climb) & me and Andrew had gardened the death climb until there was only half a ledge left to rig off, we set off through Blown Out, Rob rigged the 5m traverse, and we continues derigging en route. Mordor was derigged (and would need rebolting if it is ever descended again), along with Sudenland, Strange Downfall, Knossos & the Entrance. Strange Upfall, Staircase 36 & Repton were left rigged. We were out by 9, & a lightening storm ensured a hasty walk to Top Camp.</p>
<p>27 min walk to beat the thunderstorm - a fine trip!</p>
<p>After prospecting with Becka, Mike + Andrea a couple of days before, Nat and I decided to revisit 2005-05 to carry on dropping the pitches there. Rob bailed, leading to a rather late start, but we set off with a ~40m and 2 x 11m ropes, plus the bosch drill older than either one of us. We re-rigged the first pitch that Nat had dropped earlier and landed on a stone bridge between two pitches. Nat decided to drop the western pitch since it seemed to look more promising, so bolted a rebelay and carried on downwards. After dropping through a slightly narrow gap we landed on a loose, rocky slope with a ledge to one side. Nat bolted another rebelay and started on one of the 11m ropes but rapidly came back since there was a pitch that was too big for us to drop with the kit we had - exciting times! I went down to take a look then we went off to the ledge to commiserate. We reckoned the pitch had about a 2-second drop, making it somewhere between 20 and 30 metres. As we were cold and out of gear, we decided to return the next day with more rope (and our oversuits!).</p>
