The day started with deeply unpleasent rising from our nice warm beds after a long day prior. Despite the lethargy, a resonaby efficient departure from Top Camp was acheived. Heavily laden bags containing metalwork, emergency kit, and rope were dragged by Wassil and I to the enterance of Homecoming. Upon reaching the enterance much faff ensued, during which, we were greeted by the arrival of Harry, Emily, and Charlotte who had a similar aim of rigging and pushing within Homecoming.
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<p><b>The descent</b></p>
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Following behind our companions, we descended the enterance series with relative ease. Descending Radogast was very pleasent and we soon reached Definitely Not the Dachstein. Following normal procedure, everyone had their turn to curse at the awkward traverse and we eventually reached the pitchhead of Wallace via a set of small pitches. This was descended to reach Gromit. <i>Gromit has been described as a "sizzly" pitch</i>. After bottoming Gromit, a fun traverse is found and descending this took us to the divergence of the 3 known A leads within homecoming.
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<p><b>Unknown Territory</b></p>
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Setting off down the phreatic rift, we quickly entered the beginning of The Second Coming, where a truly massive gust can be felt. A brief, pleasent passage, was shortly followed by a number of both protected (traverse line), and unprotected traverses with varying degrees of exposure. A fall on any of these without a safety could be catastrophic. This is crossed to a calcited, blackened ledge at the end of a travese line an feels like an obvious end to the first section. Following this, the ante is uped and the traveses become more techinical, involving some harder climbing and some crossing of loose-ish collapses. Eventually, the end of the rift is reached and a sharp leftward bend is found. <i>A number of sumps, puddles, and a few brilliant white formations can be seen on the journey. </i>
Immediately after this bend, a deep cross-rift is found and a swiss-cheese like maze of passage is entered upon crossing the rift (this needs properly surveying and is the end of the currently surveyed passage). Passing through this and trending left (following the draught) leads to a pre-rigged traverse line which continues again in a high-level passage which followed to a Y-hang. Descending this leads to an upward-trending wall traverse which terminates in a 2/3 bolt Y/tri-hang. This hangs over The Lizard King and is descended over something like 50m via a 1-bolt rebelay, a deviation, and two further 2-bolt rebelays, eventually either reaching the floor (we had a good look around here and it didn't appear to be very useful) or a higher level muddy ledge facing away from the rebelay and on the right. This was already bolted and leads to the start of another deep rift.
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<p><b>It begins</b></p>
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Following a new set of bolts placed by myself (the first bolt is at a funky angle and could be replaced but is likely fine), a new traverse line is followed up the roof of the rift along steep-walls. This is easy with a traverse line but is more thought provoking to bolt, rig, and de-rig. Much like the top of The Lizard King, a Y-hang is reached (there is another bolt further used for exploring but was deemed to be useless) and is descended into War of Attrition. A 95m rope was used to righ from the the top of The Lizard King to the Y-hang dropping into War of Attrition. A 1-bolt rebelay is reached and a deviation is used on the opposite wall. This is finally descended to a ledge with another 1-bolt rebelay. Here the intention is to continue down to reach a to-be-bolted Y-hang in the right in an attempt to decrease rope-rub. This would be descended about 7m to a vague ledge system and followed further into the large phreatic tube via a traverse line.
Harry rigged the entrance handline off two bunda. Then continued rigging the rest of the entrance series. ROute finding was fine and we soon arrived at a very large quantity of rope. Chi, Janis, Emma headed out with the bags.
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Harry</u>,Charlotte, Alice, Chi, Will </div>
<divclass="triptitle">Surface - Rope carry to Homecoming + Trial walk from Garlic Cave to Car Park on painted track</div>
<p>After more faff from Chi, we set off about 10AM to carry gear and check out the route to Homecoming. Fishface to Homecoming was well cairned and fairly straightforward to follow.
<p>Then tried the painted track back to car park from Garlic Cave. Track was very easy to find from Homecoming. About an hour and a half from the plateau followed by treacherous cliff traversing - would be very unsafe with a heavy bag/in bad weather. Around halfwat becomes quite pleasant, 3h30m from Homecoming with empty bags. Route very hilly. Heavy carry with bagsfrom car park to Garlic cave likely to be at least 5 hours. Everyone agreed path unsuitable as route to Garlic Cave - takes longer and more dangerous than going via top camp.
<p>After a carrying day on the 2nd, we suspected ff would be snowed in. A faff morning of aquiring shovel. We got to ff with shovels, discovering it did need digging. Jonty got particularly in to this, producing quit the snow trench.
<divclass="triptitle">Fishface - Carrying rope to Fishface and failing to rig entrance </div>
<p>After the complicated operation of handling the solar panels out of the storage cave, the six of us packed kit, rope and a rescue bag and st off for Fishface. It was a hot but pleasant walk and the route was well marked. We arrivced and stashed bags under a nearby overhang then entered through the hole dug through the snow the previous day. Janis and Ash did not go down the cave, instead heading back to top camp, but were a great help hauling rope to the entrance. It was only when we reached the first pitch that we realised that (contrary to what we'd been informed) hangers had not been left in the cave. [Ed. This a lie]. Plus, we hadn't realised it was all bolted with spits so even if we had brought hangers, we wouldn't have had the bolts to rig it.
<p>We decided to sit and sulk for a while. Joel contemplate running all the way back to top camp to get bolts + hangers, but given the weather forecast of rain latert, we didn't want to end up caving too late. After ~20 minutes, we left the cave. Mealy kicked an icicle at Jonty on the way out. We left the rope underground, by the head of the first pitch and left our caving kit under the small overhand near the entrance, then headed back to top camp.
<divclass="triptitle">Surface - Reflecting the Homecoming -> Fishface route, scoping out a Homecoming to col route </div>
<p>Joel, Lizzie and Philip fettled the tarp (where some water had pooled overnight) whilst I had a go at attaching the big Daren drum (filled with the solar panels and cables) to my rucksack, ready to carry from top camp to Garlic Cave.
<p>After minimal faff, we set off west. We reached Fishface in ~40 minutes and Joel dropped off some metalwork ready for rigging. We continued to Homecoming and Joeal and Lizzie put reflectors down for the route from Fishface to Homecoming.
<p>We reached Homecoming, had a flapjack and water break, then went off in search of the Hunter's track whislt Joel et al. went to reflect the last part of the route and Philip had a siesta.
<p>I found the Hunter's path by heading NE past Homecoming (i.e. skirting past the entrance on a little path to the RHS), through a clearing in the Bunde, turn left, then climb down ~1m onto some limestone slabs. Turn left and follow the limestone along, past a snow plug. You hit the Hunter's path just before a cliff - you'll see cairns and white and green painted stripes.
<p>Having successfully found the Hunter's path, I returned to Homecoming, and we decided we didn't have time to scope out Garlic Cave. I left the solar panel stuff near the entrance and we began scoping out a route across the plateau towards the col.
<p>The route was a mixture of actually quite pleasant slabs to walk across and some grim bits (hopefully can be bypassed as rhe route gets finessed). We found a few holes to return to with gear and rope on a later day, including a particularly promising one (big entrance, goes briefly vertical, but then horizontal (I scrambled down as far as my comfort zone would allow to have a peak around the corner), with a big-looking passage. Excited to return.
<p>Overall, progress was a bit slow - it took ~3 hours to get back to the col, hope we can get it down.
<p>Rest of the walk was atmospheric, with lots of gusts and rolling, ominous clouds. We had just gotten back to the car when it started raining.
<divclass="triptitle">Plateau - scoping out a route from col to Garlic Cave </div>
<p>We set out to improve the direct route from the start of the plateau to Homecoming. The way down the wall after the second pole was suprisingly nice. This was followed by an easy flat section until the bunde and tiny cliffs obscured all the alternative paths we tried. Most of the way was already cairned, but we did find some nice fresh transitions through the bunde walls separating the easy-to-walk-on slabs. At Homecoming, we met Harry, Christian, Alice, Merryn getting ready to rig the cave. Then we visited Garlic cave - a massive above ground hole that leads to a bridge below which are the entrances to the cave itself. There was loads of snow - just as in every entrance - but there was a nice campable bit , plenty of water dripping. I sensed some garlic smell, remembering the story that this smell gave the name of the cave, but was still mysterious. Then Maddie realised we were surrounded by chives! Mystery solved.
<p>On the way back we met Jono, Evelyn, and Oakem who were on the way to Garlic. At Homecoming, Honorata and Radost told us they had found 3 intriguing holes while prospecting. We found a baloon with a sweet note on it and read it to them.
<p> Just after, we found a loose wellie which now acts as another cairn. The final pathwe made is quite nice except for one climb over a ravine that seems to be unavoidable without drastic changes to the route. It was a nice day. On the way back, we saw the Dachstein for the first time , complemented by all the numerous kinds of mountain flowers.
<p>This was a long day that started at Base Camp with the intent of rigging the entrance series of Homecoming cave. We set off only slightly later than the planned 8:00 [illegible] some faff. Quite surprising since Will was not part of the team.
<p>The walk up to Top Camp took almost 2 hours, just as expected. We were also carrying drills, string, food, and other Top Camp equipment. We followed the reflectors to Fishface. They were white on both sides, which could make it frustrating if you are someone who is lost on their way to Top Camp. Instead, it should be red that leads to Top Camp, while white leads to caves and the car park.
<p>From Fishface, it was only a short walk to Homecoming. Wassil rigged the first few ropes of the cave. . The first rope is a 14m on which we descend the entrance pitch. Then Wassil used a ~70m rope which was used to rig the next few pitches. After the entrance pitch, [illegible] come 2-3 small pitches rigged without rebelays. This makes it easier to climb on the way out. Wassil rigged everything up to Radagast.
<p>Harry rigged 'Definitely not the Dachstein', while Chi di Wallace and Grommit, including an awkward traverse.
<p>In the meantime, Merryn, Alice and Wassil were waiting in the group shelter practicing the fiddle.
<divclass="triptitle">Fishface - Rigging and pitch-measuring trip </div>
<p>An ambitious day which slowly went increasingly wrong. The group departed base camp at a stunning 8.20AM, blitzed up the plateau and promtly became mired in several hours of faff which soon descended into more festering. The plan had been to rig the entrance series of Fishface down to the bottom of Blitzen Boulevard (4th pitch), from where we expected everything to be left rigged. However, confusion about rope lengths and metalwork and some impressively long grike trips meant that the two shallow pushing groups planning to explore from Blitzen and Liquid Luck caught us up at Top Camp. Uncle Mike was not amused. We swiftly bombed down to FF in 25 mins and started rigging. Joel was left to do everything as Jonty's light 'broke'.
<p>The entrance pitch/spiral traverse thing was completed on a 40m rope. Tasteful noods (2nd pitch) didn't quite go on a 27m due to rerigging around the top rebelay to avoid rub, so Joel initially reached the bottom on a knot pass and Jonty rerigged to the bottom on a 32m. The traverse at the bottom of Tasteful Noods (2A) and pitch 3 both had rope left from last year but not rigged - some of the knots didn't line up and required rerigging but the lengths were fine. Pendulum pitch needs some more bolts at the bottom, possibly as a traverse, to make getting on and off the pitch less deathy. Uncle Mike rigged Blitzen for us as we got too scared, he insisted the step over the huge rift with no traverse was fine, so we left him to it. There may or may not be a bolt there now
<p>past Blitzen, everything remained rigged in situ from last year. We checked everything to the traverse at the bottom of Liquid Luck (pitch 6) and apart from some loose bolts all ropes were fine and hangers non-corroded. On the way back, we measured pitch lengths using the ULSA disto and Jonty drew up a definitive rigging topo that takes into account the route changes last year. The pitch lengths will be entered into the box below when Jonty reappears at Base Camp.
<p>[Ed. Needs finishing here]
<p>Having decided we'd held eveyone enough, we joyfully skipped back up the Plateau to bed.
<p>Another frustrating day with network. WiFi [illegible] to allow connectionds - rebooted at ~0830. Ok.
<p>Rebooted network for a reason I can't remember - failed to re-establish routing to router. Much faff standing on chairs trying [illegible] as cables all duct taped to the wall with it in [illegible] operating position up by ceiling. Found [illegible], edited into [illegible]. Redocumented everything in Handbook.
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Emily M</u>,Lizzy, Charlotte, Mike, Emma </div>
<divclass="triptitle">Fishface - Surveying around Benign Bubble Baby Bypass </div>
<p>After hiking up to plateau to arrive for midday, we discovered the advanced rigging party still above ground... In order to leave them time to start rigging the first 4 pitches of Fishface, an ungodly amount of faff began. We finally arrived at the cave at 3pm, thinking we'd left plenty of time for the riggers, we quickly changed and headed underground. Alas, our hopes were crushed as we came to the bottom of the first pitch to discover the other pushing party sat freezing their tits off at the top of the second pitch as the riggers rigged just below them. Needless to say, it took some time to descent to the bottom of Blitzen Boulevard with Mike taking over the rigging of the 4th pitch after a debate over placing another bolt at the pitch head. Once arrived at Benign Bubble Baby Bypass, we conducted a quick something time to refresh our surveying technique before splitting into 2 groups. Me and Mike went ahead through the tube leading on through the bottom of the climb heading towards the liquid luck ptch head to bolt the small pitch at the end of the traverse whilst the others began surveying from said turn off. As me and Mike arrived at the pitch head, I asked if I could begin my bolting lesson before a big scary hole. I was refused. Instead I was told to tie the rope around a small head sized bolder wedged in the rift, which were currently both stood on. I thought this was a silly idea but obliged. The actual bolting of the pitch went well (I think?), however comments about placing bolts higher were made which was somewhat impossible given my height. The final bolting and rigging became passable so I decended the large (4m...) hole.
<p>As we finished bolting, the survey team emerged behind us. At the bottom of the pitch, 3 leads emerged, a large passage with a traverse sloping down in front of us, a small drafty tube to the right, and a hole heading into the ceiling behind us. With the rigging team and pushing team 2 in the near vicintity of the cave around us, me and Mike were a bit naughty and scooped the large passage in front of us, as we reached the end, we could hear voices in the rift above us, thinking it was the other pushing team we called up. It was not. It was Buck from the rigging team stood near the base of Blitzen Boulevard essentially where we started. Discovering we'd done a large circle , we returned to the base of the pitch where the survey team were. As we arrived, Zac from the team 2 appeared in the hole above us, they had also done an circle.
<p>Once regrouped, it was approaching 9:30PM so we decided to leave the small drafty tubeand started to make our way out of the cave eventually making it back to top camp just before midnight.
