<p>Rigged handline with nice rope (replaced with tatt later). Rigged the entrance, Hannah arrved just as I was finished We went off to see if Natural Highs was rigged, it wasn't, back to the entrance to get the rope. (Needs more than 26m). Then rigged Natural Highs, 2nd traverse and 10m down pitch, all in need of fettling. Went to the top of Honeycomb for an explore and then back to the entrance to find Alice and Chris. Arrived just as Alice was descending. Hannah led everyone back to Honeycomb, we all helped put a bolt in then left Alice and Chris to rig Honeycomb. Me and Hannah left with minor fettling tothe rigging on the way out. I headed down the hill to sort out rope for Fishface. TU 6 hours.</p>
It was great to be equipped with laminated surveys and a system expert in the form of Luke to show us the way forward, as I hadn't been further in the cave since first rigging natural highs and Leeds Bypass years ago. Luke demonstrated impressive recallby pointing out a tiny pocket in the wall on the far side of Honeycomb as a necesssary deviation thread, then he and Hannah left me and Alice to it. One of the pitch head Hiltis was rusty and sticking outa few mm so I put in a new thru bolt and descended to Luke's thread. Having stuffed string down the hole, I abbed down a metre to look up and see it was indeed a long thread with my string stuffed inthe top. Looking below I couldn't help but notice the floor about 2m below. Hmm. I derigged the string and popped down a neighbouring pit, to so encounter the floor at about 6m. Back up at the pitch head, there was an obvious traverse level with a pit beyond where rocks (all about 50m. Could this be the actual Honeycomb?) I could only spot 1 bolt a yard above my reach and didn't fancy waltzing across without a beteeer grasp of the situation so we headed out to mutter alot about our written and verbal instructions about what must be "Fanny by Gaslight" traverse.
28/7/22 Balkonhöhle
Harry, Hannah, Mealy, ANTHONY
After Chrs' experiences failing to find Honeycomb pitch, we were quite keen to find out where it actually was. Two vintages of the survey showed an identical depiction of the pitch head, excapt that one was labelled 'P6'; the other 'p52' and 'this bit looks completely wrong'. Some phone calls to Luke and Nat eventually yielded a pitcure of the pitch head that confirmed dthe traverse that Chris had spotted lead to the pitch head. Infused with confidence, we headed in where I started to rig while the others sat in the bothy playing cards. Rigging proceeded mostly without incident, apart from the P7 beyond Honeycomb rainging boulders with disconcerting regularlity. Rigged the Hangmans traverse and replaced the rope of the climb up to the start of Mongol rally. All the ropes were exactly the right length to the inch. Headed out without incident. TU 9 Hours
29/7/22 Balkonhöhle
Harry and HANNAH
10-21:00
Rigged Mongol Rally - ropes for wich were taken down on a previous trip and left at the bottom of Hangmans. I rigged first half and then we swapped on a big ledge, and Harry rigged the second half. Harry rigged a knot pass just over half way down - suggestions have been made afterwards for this to be re-rigged. Got to the surface before heavy rain set in.
29/7/22 Fishface rigging trip
11-3:00 and 17:45-23:00 - TU 8hr
LUKE, Wassil, Keiran, Joel
After a late carry up to camp in the dark with all the rope needed for the first 9 pitches (thanks to Keiran, Joel and Jonty). It was a slightly slow morning organising ropes, walk down to Fishface was straight forward, leaving reflectors on our way (half complete). Then I rigged the first 2 pitches. The ice plug we used to walk across was completely melted, so the way on was 5m off the ground. Tried swinging and climbing but couldn't do it. Keiran had a shot but the rope rub was too much despite finding a nice natural to rebelay off, it was not possible. So we headed out to get a drill from top camp. Some noodles and walk alter we were back underground where Keiran and Joel had been adjusting the first pitch due to an extra bolt being missed. Me and Wassil rigged up to the 4th pitch. Then out of the cave and back to the top camp before midnight.
30/7/22 Hilti-a-plenty rigging in Balkonhöhle
Lucy, MARTIN, Frank, Paul Fox
12-20:00 8hrs
Lucy and Martin rigged Hilti a plenty and did a little exploration. Returned to meet Paul and Frank. Went to misidentified pushing front. Redescended some pitches and traverse. Frank explored a tight key hole passage and did a rough survey. Lucy and Paul set out first whilst Frank and Martin found the proper next pitch. Martin got soaked on the entrance pitch by a short 10minute thunderstorm.
31/7/22 Balkonhöhle - pushing in Northern Pitstop
Hannah, Harry, Chris D, ANTHONY
A fairly efficient start saw us heading underground by 10:00. Straightforward navigation to the seing off Mongol Rally. A combination of the survey and a passage description on arry's phone enabled navigation through to Northern Pitstop. We overshot the 6m pitch. When we found it, we decided some bolts weren't in order, so out came the drill to install a proper rig (about 10m rope, Y hang, bolt deviation and thread devisation). Shortly after we got to the traverse round a wet pitch and a 5m up pitch which was universally declared to be horrible. More wandering through the maze led to the pushing front in the far north west - three parallel phreatic tubes. Harry and Anthony took the left hand one while Chris and hannah went right. As expected, all the tubes connected in a maze of rock pillars that later inspired the name, Erecktheim. Progress continued in well-proportioned passage thouggh the complexity did not abate. Found a couple of pitch leads, and eventually called it a day at a continuing phreatc passage at the top of a loose climb. Headed out with a few route finding mishaps. The youth zipped out at a lightning pace whilst the veterans were somewhat more sedate.
TU 14 hrs (Hannah and Harry), 16.6 hrs (Anthony and Chris)
Rob and Becka had an early start to get up the hill in good time for our trip. Cotinued on from previous pushing trip and frist went to promising borehole where pushing previsouly stopped. Harry and Becka took the borehole which sadly crapped out after about 20m. Rob and I took the passage off from the previously explored rift which quickly connected into the crapped out borehole.So far, not a promising trip, the main achievement being installing two handlines in Erechtheion, one of which was swiftly removed when a bypass was found. Backtracking into Medusa's maze we followed some more A leads, again splitting into two surveying teams. Harry and Becka followed a lead which got too tight so came to help me and Rob with a loop in our area. The passage was very cheesy, with lots of muddy sliding around. We finished the day with a rift which would require a rope to get down, a muddy upwards sloping passage and a potential path through a boulder choke - so there's still lots of potential in that area. There's also a large pitch at the end of Erechtheion which is very drafty. We had a stop for noodles at Northern powerhouse before heading out. Backa and I lead the way whilst Haryr and Rob went back to Erechtheion for a forgotten drill. A relatively swift exit was had with no incident.
3/8/22 Fishface rebolting
ROB and Alice
Headed into Fishface with the Japers and Becka's survey team not far ahead. Route well reflected by Luke and quick progress made to the climbs at the Bubbly Bypass (Bx4) that neeed to be bolted. Alice commenced rigging but after 1.5 holes, battery 23 stopped working unexpectedly and smelled of electrical fire - deduced to be short circuit. Battery 6 provided no holes so we decided to head down to the Kubla Khan level to inspect the leads there and possibly pinch a battery off the Japes. Flew down to the TK Max which is pretty big, passed Mr Naughty where Luke had left a note instructing us to add some rigging. On arrival at the Nicolas Cage traverse through some excellent howling passage we acquired the necessary gear and it was deceided that I would add 2 extra reblays to the TK MAX then rig Mr Naughty before Alice finished bolting the climbs. Added the necessary rebelays, first was suboptimal as one of the bolts causes some rub (left bolt of the Y hang). Then continued up, rigged Mr Naughty with the others hot on my heels then cracked on to the find Alice and continue her rebolting. this eventually done after more battery issues (no. 20, big tick) we were out and back at camp around 11.
TU 10 hours
[Insert Rigging Guide Fish face - Updated TKMAX]
4/8/22 Fishface Kubla Khan Pushing
Hannah, Becka, Amelia, ROB
Having got used to Fish face yesterday and knowing the way to the leads, it was decided that Becka dn I should return to show some students of survey the way of data and drawing. I rebolted the one-bolt wonder 9th pitch (rigged for convenience only) on the way down; had to nick some rope from the base of the previsou pitch. Arrived at the pushing front, Amelia lacked sufficient clothing for a tiny woman drawing in the breeze so Becka lent her an extremely unfashionable vest. Becka and Hannah set off down an A led heading off East (?) while Amelia and I headed off towads a very sediment-filled passage with a very climbable aven heading far away and drafting strongly down. The sediment had carved much pargenesis, with a lovely anastomosing half tube in the ceiling and many roof pendants. The clasts were occassionallyvery large (5cm diameter) indicating a high energy environemtn of deposition. We proceeded to destroy history in the name of progress by surveying on the sediment banks to a QMC. We then leaded back to the main passage to survey along a fault-guided passage (strike 015, dip 65degreeEast). This fun soon ended when we reached a pitch and had no rope with which to descend it. So we headed off to find the Japers, but no joy there either, as Jonty was busy sinking all the rope into Keanu Breeze (which predictably turned into a pissing wet no-hoper later on). So then headed out after crapping out a number of Luke's leads just by looking at them.
TU 8 hrs
BECKA note: Becka and Hannah surveyed a complex area that connected back to known passage in 3 locations but via some sections of lovely walking phreas. TU 9 Hours.
30/7/22 Balkonhöhle
Wassil and ALICE
11:00-20:30
We headed into Balcony withthe intention of rerigging the pitch after Honeycomb but first decided to descend to the bottom of Mongol rally to have an explore. Having somehwta underestimated how long it would take to ascend from Mongol Rally, we found ourselves cutting it too fine with out callout to have time to complete the rigging Therefore our rerigging plans turned into an enjoyable tourist trip and we made it out in time to watch the sunset.
1/8/22 Fishface
Luke, Mike, JONTY
11:00 - 21:00
Went into Fishface to do some surveying at the bottom. Having not been told much about the cave beforehand, I left my water bottle 'halfway', which later became apparant was the bottom of the second pitch. Fortunately my blunder was overshadowed by Luke making an absolute mess of his surveying after numbering his compass diagram anticlockwise. After ensuring Luke was appropriately shamed, we contintued our surveying, discovering License to Kill and making a loop closure, much ot his chagrin.
TU 10hrs
3/8/22 Fishface
Luke, Joel, JONTY
12:00-22:00
Return to Fishface after a good rest. Joel and I rigged the Nicholas Cage traverse, which we took great pride in. Rob Watson stole our drill as we were deliberating how to finish the traverse. Alice turned up and decided the Nicholas Cage traverse was in fact the Nicholas Cage handline. After gaining access to the far side of the traverse and having been relieved of our drill we dutifully decided to continue on and survey what we strongly believed to be the best lead of expo. This led to the discovery of Keanu Breeze, so named whilst we were fighting for our lives in the cold winds. After reaching the end of our lead at the top of a large pitch we decided to return the next day to bolt it. Getting out this time was a lot easier thanks to the aforementioned rest day.
4/8/22 Fishface
Luke, Joel, Harry, JONTY
12:00 - 22:00
Enthusiastically we set out to do justice to the Keanu Breeze pitch. With drill, hammer, and spanner we made our way to the bottom of Fishface and layered up in preparation for the cold bolting job As this was my first pitch bolting job Harry came to help me while Luke and Joel split off for some survey work. After finding a nice natural for the leading line, the first Y hang was easy to install. We had a good discussion about game plan during which Harry kettle's love of deviations became apparent. I descended a short distnce and found a nice ledge witha potential clean hang to the bottom. The obvious place to place the bolt happened to be in a very large boulder that looked like it didn't want to be part of the wall. Harry did not seem concerned about this until we swapped places and he got a look at it himself, at which point we agreed to bolt next to the boulder instead on into it. As we did not have a skyhook this involved a sustained heel hook, during which I nearly lost a welly, as I drilled the first hole. After some time and some strange noises from the bothy I completed the rebelay. We then proceeded proceeded to descend the pitch and Luke soon appeared at the top shouting something about us having left the survey kit behind. As he descended the pitch he made some faces and muttered something about 'nasty water'. Joel and I had faith however and postulated that we may even have discovered the Loser master cave. Being the rigorous caving team that we are, we took our measurements and, having got slightly wet, left hastily despite Harry reckoning he could push the wet passage. The Keanu Breeze pendlum to a nice looking phreatic passage remains to be attemped by a bold caver who still has the energy to go to the bottom of Fishface.
3/8/22 Fishface - Kubla Khan
Andreas, Keiran, BECKA
TU 9 hrs
Keiran ably guided us to the east QMs a the far south end of Kubla Khan then Andreas and he both did book in the ideal passage for practising surveying - sandy floored phreas. We surveyed steadily past a juntion (left we surveyed until it ended, mud-filled, this is almost certainly the other end of the mud filled passafe on the R of Kubla Khan just beofre station 5; right was suveyed by Becka and Hannah on 4/8/22.) We continued then started climbing up and ended at a more complex area with a possibly free climbable aven and two horizontal leads (surveyd by Rob and Amelia on 4/8/22). Slow out as 3 teams converged on the pitches and Rob was also rerigging.
4/8/22 Balkonhöhle
OAKEM, Anthony and Alice
TU 13 hrs
Anthony guided us to the Custard Cavalry in Southern Pitstop using Becka's description. The survey was being used as a "no pissing" sign in Fishface. We rigged a pitch down an aven and off a natural and a hilti down on the left. Ascended the rope left in and began surveying. Alice started with sketching but soon retreated to the bothy. Anthony took over. Oaken weilded the disto with great skill and precision. Overall about 130m of cave were mapped. The tunnel continued down a straight line before taking an obvious right turn (with a B/C lead on the left up a 3m climb.)
2/8/22 Fishface - A lead off Elizabeth line
TU 10hrs
10:30 - 20:30 "Double day light"
Mike and LUKE
Mike rigged a Y hang for a slope on cramblely slide, lots of excitement about how much the wind there is. Mike then rigged a traverse line up into the window on the right, large free arse (phreas?) tube. Started surveying
