<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 to the rigging on the way out. I headed down the hill to
<divclass="triptitle">Balkonhöhle - Balkonhöhle Fanny by Gaslight?</div>
<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 recall by 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 in the
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 better grasp of the situation so we headed out to mutter a lot about our written and
verbal instructions about what must be "Fanny by Gaslight" traverse.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<divclass="timeug">T/U: 8 hours (11-3:00 and 17:45-23:00)</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>We headed into Balcony with the 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.</p>
<p>Fettling the new section of the water collcetion and installing ropes on top of the tarp to stop it blowing up and being damaged against the roof of the stone bridge</p>
<p>Martin rigged 'hilti a plenty' whilst I fettled the bivi, then turned up a bit late. Headed down to the 'sponge chamber' sandy slope and missed the low crawl to 'let's be appalling', slid down the low slide onto the pitchhead which we started to rig. Whilst bored I climbed 2m above the pitchhead, gaining access into a tiny tube, 'sponge chamber2 tiny tube'. Phreatic tube trending down, wide enough at the top but slightly narrower below, basically its quite strenuous, pushed for a few meters beyond the end of the survey. The tube continues much the same but it is not draughting much. Headed out because we got cold, found the passage to 'let's be appalling'.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<divclass="timeug">T/U: 14 hrs (Hannah and Harry), 16.6 hrs (Anthony and Chris)</div>
<p>trip with lots of problems but very fun. Mealy forgot oversuit so walked back to top camp. Lucy and Oakem learnt a lot from Frank meanwhile. Descent down entrance pitch and then Oakem and Lucy went and descended down Hiltiaplenty and waited near the bottom. Unfortunately by miscommunication Frank has not appreciated this was the plan. Thinking Lucy and Oakem has gone for water, he and Mealy spent 40 minutes waiting above the pitch. Eventually the group regrouped at the bottom of Hiltiaplenty. Went through crawl pulling ropes to top of next pitch that had been taken down on Lucy, Frank, Paul and Martin's previous trip. Arriving at the start of the pitch however they sat and discovered that no one had happened to bring a spanner. Having considered this they realised they wouldn't be able to rig further. Oakem and Frank set up for rigging while Lucy and Mealy had an explore. They went down some small crawls in the vicinity and found a passage that petered into mid filled passage after around 5m ( was previsouly marked as QMB) though clear was not. They decided this was a good place to dig due to Mealy detecting a 'draft'. So had some fun digging by hand, as moles do and decided to return. Once things to do were exhausted, the group headed on up. We looked in passage on the way back that would later be explored as 'digging matilda'. Trip aim failed but ropes moved deeper (by 50m).</p>
<p>Basically a clusterfuck. I forgot my spanner and lent my survey gear (which contains my spare spanner), everyone else did not realise they needed a spanner - we need to update the expo recommended kit list...</p>
<p>Killed off some qm's in the area, some of which were passaged which were not closed on the mini survey and not actual qm's. The two qmB's above the pitch which links 'Let's be appalling' to 'Can't stop now it's bat country', were mud filled tubes and did not draught, interestingly there is a potential QM'c above the pitch which will require climbing up 4m but I'm not happy doing it.
Just off top camp-fish face path. Snow plug, no draft.</p>
<p>HH-02 47.69165 degrees N, 13.81517 degrees E
Next to HH-01, just off top camp-fish face path. Snow plug, draft. Accessible with rope at far end, down side of snow plug.</p>
<p>HH-03 47.69080 degrees N, 13.81234 degrees E
Approx. 1.5m hole in ground, narrow. Drops ~10m to floor, needs rope to access.</p>
<p>HH-04 47.69062 degrees N, 13.81182 degrees E
Rift approx. 6m deep, free climable. Rift goes ~5/10m before crapping out with boulders. Small draft.</p>
<p>HH-05 47.69025 degrees N, 13.81180 degrees E
Big hole with snow plug and no draft - suspect goes nowhere.</p>
<p>HH-06 47.69017 degrees N, 13.81158 degrees E
Large open pit approx. 25m deep - needs rope to drop., Unsure about draft.</p>
<p>HH-07 47.68906 degrees N, 13.81090 degrees E
Very large entrance, sloping down. Two passages off entrance chamber choking up within a few meters - no way on. Found a gemser skull and ice column.</p>
<p>HH-08 47.68906 degrees N, 13.80940 degrees E
Large rifty hole approx 20m deep. Requires rope to inspect.</p>
<p>HH-09 47.68859 degrees N, 13.80918 degrees E
Large hole with stone bridges over and big snow plug, approx 20m. Needs rope to inspect.</p>
<p>HH-10 47.68797 degrees N, 13.80954 degrees E
Deep rift approx. 20-30m deep. Needs rope to inspect. ~5 away from 1623.p98</p>
<p>HH-11 47.68665 degrees N, 13.81102 degrees E
Approx. 10m shaft with possible but unlikely way on at bottom. Needs rope to inspect.</p>
<p>HH-12 47.68620 degrees N, 13.81185 degrees E
Large hole, craps out.</p>
<p>Of those found, the ones potentially worth revisiting with rope to inspect: HH-02, HH-03, HH-06, HH-08, HH-09, HH-10</p>
<p>Photos of entrances uploaded to expo website.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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 along 2x3m passage but after 100m became a rift went high but became too difficult to continue without a traverse line but promising [phreas] visable 50m further along. Went back down into the rift followed the bottom. Dropped a little hole in the floor and found a pool dead ended. Back up and over hole in the floor and found a nice pitch. Mike bolted a Y hang but then we were out of bolts and rope. Pitch continued so would have to be back. Out of the cave for a lovely sunset.</p>
<divclass="timeug">T/U: 10 hours (10:30 - 20:30 "Double day light")</div>
<p>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. Becka and I led the way whilst Harry and Rob went back to Erechtheion for a forgotten drill. A relatively swift exit was had with no incident.</p>
<p>Rigged down the pitch which links ‘Let’s be appalling’ to ‘Can’t stop now its bat country’. Surveyed the passage up dip from the bottom of the pitch, howling draught coming towards us, the passage ends in a clean washed chamber, possible continuation of the passage in the North East. There is a QMA lead from ‘Let’s be appalling’ above. I need to confirm that all the draught is coming down the shaft, or that the continuation of the lower passage is where the draught is coming from. Needs looking at.</p>
<p>Followed the lower passage down dip to where the survey ended, ducked under the left wall and found a continuation of the passage. Surveyed this. This ends in a pitch into a small chamber with rifts exiting below, and a continuation of the passage across the pitch this appears to go into a larger space. Down appears to be 15m from the floor. Across is 5m or so. Need a drill and a rope. Continued down to below the ‘can’t stop now its bat country’ pitch which is not on the survey. Scan for rigging guide!!!!</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Keiran ably guided us to the east QMs at the far south end of Kubla Khan then Andreas and he both did book in ideal passage for practising surveying - sandy floored phreas. We surveyed steadily past a junction (left we surveyed until it ended, mud-filled, this is almost certainly the other end of the mud filled passage on the R of Kubla Khan just before 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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Trip to Balkonhohle – HiltiAPlenty – Unnamed area above start of Sloppy Seconds pitches
Followed the unnamed area down the canyon to a undescended small pitch. Dropped the pitch with a pushing rig and found it comes out more or less above the top of ‘sloppy seconds’. Surveyed from the unnamed passage above ‘sloppy seconds’ to the previous unnamed canyon, so we should have a loop now.</p>
<p>Re-rigged the pitch for a trade route, attach line to large boulder; natural down to bolt and another natural over spike. Follow slope down to hang into the lower passage, landing on ledge half way down mud slope. I’m not sure if we can abseil all the way the slope without the rope rubbing. Scan for rigging guide!!!!</p>
<p>Brought drill and kit further up the cave, basically to rig the traverse across the lower ‘Sussex by the sea’.</p>
<p>Lucy and Mealy descended, followed by Martin down Hilti a plenty, withthe idea to rig traverse observed on previous trip of Frank, Lucy, Mealy and Oakem. This was previously rigged by Becka but no rigging guide supplied. They managed to rig across the 1st pitch and while rigging they heard - to their surprise - the sound of Frank beneath them who had gone with Paul and Aaron to rig as described in Frank's description of this day. We however ran out of rope so abandoned this track, returned and spent the rest of the trip investigating small leads. Returning to the passage visited by Lucy, Mealy and Frank on the 31st. This was the much anticipated DIG that had been laughed at in top camp. Lucy and Mealy were armed with s(?????) and most importantly shovels so set to work. By 'work' this meant lying horizontally in narrow passage and singing "Don't come a digging matilda with me" for quite a time. After Martin had endured this with great patience, he taught Mealy and Lucy to survey up the passage 'digging matilda' - Mealy did laser and Lucy did book. Having surveyed they were cold. They set off to explore leads i nthe Martin loop. Lucy was cold and tired and wasn't as entusiastic as Mealy to go down small holes. They explored most small holes on the loop. saw the pretty cracked mud, licked the wall in the chalky passage, took photos. Mealy followed a narrow lead for 20-30m where she found it to widen into a samll ?? before discovering a freshwater body described as a pong, otherwise considerd to be a puddle. There is a pitch to allow the viewer to make their own decision.</p>
<p>On the way up Martin adjusted the rigging and deviation on Hiltiaplenty to make it more user friendly.</p>
<p>Having got used to Fish face yesterday and knowing the way to the leads, it was decided that Becka and 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 previous 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 lead 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 occasionally very large (5cm diameter) indicating a high energy environment of deposition. We proceeded to destroy history in the name of progress by surveying on the sediment banks to a QMC. We then headed back to the main passage to survey along a fault-guided passage (strike 015, dip 65 degrees East). 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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.)</p>
<p>Assisted Martin Green to install solar panel suspension in Traungold.</p>
<p>It is assumed that the solar panel got damaged because it was stored on top of the gear pile and point loaded when the blown in snow consolidated as it melted. There is a ledge on the left but it is known that this gets an ice flow which pushes stuff off it some years, so this is out.</p>
<p>It is intended that the installed ropes are used to suspend the solar panels from the dry roof high enough that they are not buried in snow. Or if powder snow is blown around them it drops away when it consolidated.</p>
<p>1. Basically pack up solar panels in their plywood case,</p>
<p>2. Attach to ends of rope,</p>
<p>3. Haul up into ceiling such the panels remain level and secure.</p>
<p>4. Tie off the ropes on the bolt, on the left wall. (the attached Mallion is a knackered one so try not to remove it).</p>
<p>Set off late after midday due to faff with 200m of new white shiny rope walked to the entrance. Some snow, skull from a few years back still there. Mike had derigged GSH in 2019(?). Keiran and Mike started to rig down the 1st pitch. Mike later returned to this and changed it to a traverse instead. Keiran taught Lucy to rig on the second pitch which she did. The third pitch was a bit confusing with too many bolts for what was needed. Lucy too start to rig.</p>
<p>scan for rigging guide</p>
<p>Continued on, sweets above 20m pitch, we did not descend this but instead traversed into a crawl on the left hand side. Exploring this, wind from thie crawl did NOT howl on and io connection with the previous passage (Keiran returned to pitch 3 to find out). This is therefore a phreatic passage connected to the window poking into the 30m pitch tothe left of the crawl. Looking down the hole in the floor, Mike thought it might be urinad d/f drips (???) and shape of hole, Mike rigged a pitch as descended,</p>
<p>scan for rigging guide. Mike's note: 1st pitch has been replaced by a traverse using the first 2 Hilti bolts of the original bolting, with 2 new thru bolts along the left wall.</p>
<p>up to 100m of rope into a big cylindrical chamber. Rope did not reach the floor by 2m. Big blocks and scree. Lucy and Keiran began prossicking, Mike explored and found a survey point marked 2.6. Is this Fishface?</p>
<p>Trip aim = to connect to Fishface</p>
<p>Prussicking up = fun. Lucy swang badly coming off pitch 3.</p>
<p>Exited the cave after midnight. Walked back under pretty stars. No survey equipment taken :. Need to survey big pitches.</p>
<p>Surveying and psuhing shallow leads (no deeper than top of 3rd pitch)</p>
<p>We went underground planning to survey the new ice plug which me and Wassil dropped last Monday, survey Tasteful Noods and then explore the lead going N at bottom of entrance pitch. First finished bolting and rigging down near ice plug, names "Hig the plug" - Andreas drilling. Put in a second Y hang then dropped to ice - squeezed around but qucikly crapped out. Surveyed (but not to link in - need to redo to close the loop) then got out as very cold.</p>
<p>Surveyed tasteful noods (spanking new trade route and 2nd pitch courtesy of me, keiran and Mike with deviations galore) from station 14 at the top of ice tube, but again didn't bloody link into existing station.</p>
<p>Once done surveying, we went along the surveyed passage at bottom of entrance pitch to drop the unsurveyed pitch. Passage doubles back underneath with some nasty false floor but after another small pitch continues to glimpse a larger chamber with large boulders - needs another short pitch to get in but we were a bit done by this point. Will go back to survey and push into chamber to see where it links into - have left around 90m of rope.</p>
<p>After some last minute plan changed, Chris was able to convince me that a Balkon camp trip would be a good idea, despite the fact I'd only just arrived on expo/up the hill! We packed up the camp and assorted chattels (with Chris trying to unsuccessfully fat-shame Hannah and I into taking less food) along with rope, drill and hangers into several oversized tacklesacks. We managed to find some willing volunteers to assist with the ridiculous carry and we were off.</p>
<p>Steady progress was made down to Pitstop, with some minor route finding issues in Upper Balkon trying to avoid the sandy crawl. Whilst Hannah and I faffed, Chris has found an excellent [], so we commenced work. A while later a cosy camp, wellstocked with a variety of delicious foods, fluids and pits. After a full on day, we got an early night.</p>
<p>After trying to hide from Chris, who got me up at about 7:30, for a while, Hannah and I gave up and got up. After a leisurely start and a 45 minute/hour commute, we were at the pushing front, an about 50m drippy pitch that Hannah rigged under Chris' tutolage avoiding going down the wet shaft to land in a bouldery chamber (Tartarns). A lead off to the right has a cathedral echo and with various bottomless holes in the floor potentially leading down to the same place.</p>
<p> Carrying on down the passage (with various leads on the right) intersects in a passage going up/down (dip/~30degrees) with a wet trench at the bottom. Needing to survey up the pitch we headed back to camp after a long day. (Bed 3am)</p>
<p>After a late start we headed out, fettling various bits of rigging on the way out. (out 23:30). Bolted crappy pitch before Mongol Rally.</p>
<p>Went to bottom for Amelia to rig her 1st pitch.
Very windy spot so surveying team (illegible) arses off to about an (illegible) whilst Mealy & Mike started down the pitch. Calibrated disto & fiddled with Topodroid to while away time.</p>
<p>Descended 1st 10m pitch whuich didn't lead to more horizontal (illegible), but (illegible) (much bigger) pitch.</p>
<p>Wookey got very annoyed by topodroid's perverse interface & returned to paper for 2 legs (which it seems TD lost anyway so they had to be re-done!).</p>
<p>Mike took other & did sterling job of desceining ~28m pitch, and then another 20m below to wet sumpy place where water disappeared into crawl. Weather forecast was bad so this was only inspected for ~10m to the point where you would get wet. Deeply unpromising - the big wind had gone (illegible). So that was derigged.</p>
<p>Remaining options are out the col halfway down shaft or swing into the windows at the N end at about the same height.</p>
<p>Long prusik out. Very nice cave!</p>
<p><i> Rigging guide and plan in hard copy to be scanned and uploaded </i></p>
<p>Awoke restless after terrible dream that I had spilt all the coffee and had no time to make more before venturing underground. Up the hill in reasonable time,
however in just 15 minutes into the walk to Top Camp Mike managed to topple over and cut himself badly on his hand. We were very poorly equipped to deal with this but
cleaned it as best we could with hand sanitiser and soldiered on to the Stone Bridge. Once we had begun packing in earnest Mike decided he was committed and rolled his
karrimat in a big red AV bag. Packed the shiny nice 8.5mm, Mike's drill, bunch of hangers etc. Down the cave in reasonable time, discovered an excellent kitchen
counter in the main passage towards Miracle Maze so began to decant food there. Then went to have a look at the leads in Coconut Chamber while waiting for the Jape to
show up. Once he arrived, it transpired that his entire supply of food for the camp was three chocolates and 3 curries, the first jape of many.
<br><br>After setting up the
cave link and failing to send/recieve anything we had a curry. Then Mike and I headed off to survey Balcony's arse while Luke and the Jape fettled the Cave Link. Got
very muddy in the Arse only to break out at a junction, where we elected to look at the meander rather than the small tube higher up. Left a QMC pissing off upstream
then back to camp for noodles. Schnapps and bed.
<br><br>Awoke around 8am for an enormous shit then off to survey Balcony's Nostril, just off the start of the Elizabeth line.
That ended in a dig, then we tied up the phreatic tubes in the Arse whilst Luke and the Jape bolted at the end of Red Light. Quick noodle stop at camp then back to the
front and down to the bootom of the pitch, heading east along a very big rift with phreatic development on the other side (big traverse needed from pitch head). Around
70m deep to ledges leading to a further 4s drop, very promising. Stripped the nice 8.5mm out leaving metalwork in (so that the light rope could be used for pushing).
Then inserted noodles into the Japebefore commencing to kill Keanu Breeze by shuffling and scuttling across the big jammed flakey block. This done (after having to
place a rebelay bolt above my head) I surveyed into a downstream meander and realised that the shrapnel in my eye was more persistant than I initially realised.
<br><br>Two
more small pitches then the measnder continued as an utter shreadpiece and it was time to stop japing for the day. Surveyed back to an unlabelled Jape station then
curries, candle worship and the last of the Schnapps. Tried to sleep the eye off but it didn't happen. Coffee grinding was a less involved process as Luke and Mike
decided they couldn't risk it given the volume of shit in the Jape Drum. A final visit to admire the tarp and penultimate jape to surface via cave link then we headed
out, abandoned the Jape to worship the candles, left him the drum, which he proceeded to empty into the Grike, sandwhich bags and all. </p>
<p>Went on a trip with ARGE (Arndt Karger) to see their new cave, Reutner-Express, which has the pleasing characteristics of a) being a 20min walk from the car-park & b) only being about 60m deep.</p>
<p>This sounded short enough that Philip decided he'd come caving (and had his gear at base - I'd carried mine down specifically after a whole one trip at top camp).</p>
<p>Arndt had a lead from the day before, off 'Schwarze Biest' chamber that needed surveying.</p>
<p>To get to the cave take the usual path to part where the split between loser alm/plateau and eizhohle/(illegible) is & turn right (!) off the path up a few meters into a gully in front of an obvious wall a few m high on the left. Except this morning it wasn't obvious at all as it was thoroughtly misty & we could only see about 20m.
We found the rope up the cliff that the (illegible) had installed & then the (illegible).
Cave starts with short tight pitch then a couple of bigger ones leading to a tricky up-pitch.</p>
<p>The lead we had to survey turned out to be quite small. AC6 into a twisty passage to the right & an even smaller one to the left. Philip huffed & pulled round a couple of corners & tight bits before deciding that pressing the '(illegible)' was not wise, and retreated back to the chamber. Wook & Aradt continued to the pitch it pops out into, then went back & surveyed the left passage. This rapidly degraded to comedy person-sized surveying but with a flat floor it wasn't quite miserable enough to give up so we surveyed for about an hour (& 50m).
I went another 10m but it got awkward in the same vein.</p>
<p>Back in the chamber, Philip had finally cooled down to a reasonable temp (his furry was too warm). We set off to traverse the system & do the the through-trip to the Windloch (031*) entrance. This was very pleasant with a few short pitches & an entertaining mud sump, which was apparently full of water 2 years ago, but now is just a friction-free U-bend.</p>
<p>Met the other ARGE group on the way out. Still foggy but we managed to get back to our gear & return after very civilized trip.</p>
<p><i>Editor note - 031 is named as Elchole in cave list. 032 is Windloch. Should this be corrected? (Gwen Tawy)</i></p>
<p>Lucy and Joel wento to link Tasteful Noods to entrance survey. Mealy and Andreas went to Captain Crunch to bolt the pitch left previsouly. Swapped ropes around in Captain Crunch. Joel and Lucy then joined us to survey Captain Crunch. Mealy dropped a pitch and found a survey station suspecting she was in Happy Butterfly she was pleased. Dropped antoher pitch 'flying cottage' found more survey points. Surveyed and left.</p>
<p>Found 2012-NS-13, took picture of enstrance - 292 Motte Hohle. Photos were lost, now in R Turnbull folder [Scanned survey notes, but no actual survey existing, so have resurveyed. By Wookey].</p>
<p>Back to flying cottage. Suspecting HB was near, a team had gone that way to make noise. Unsure which was to explore the rift, we went one way until we had to chissle Joel out of a boulder choke and we could go no further. A small water hole was found. We went back to flying cottage. The day before we had found some hilti bolts making a Y hang over a large rift. Using these, Mealy descended. Kresh connection was found. </p>
<p>Visual/ Audio connection was made withthe HB team. However due to a lack of rope Mealy was levitating about 30m above/diagonal from Emily. We turned around with plans to bring more rope. Insert scanned rigging guide!!!</p>
<p>Tourist trip for me :¬)Went down to the top of the defying gravity pitch and surveyed back across the traverse. As we completed the survey Amelia appeared high up in a parallel rift and much shouting and celebrating occurred, it was very loud. Not enough rope to make the connection.</p>
<divclass="triptitle">Fishface - Through trip</div>
<p>The creche had made the connection between Fischgesicht and Happy Butterfly on the previous day, so the plan today was for a group to go into Fishface to do the
through trip and survey the connection, while another team followed to survey some unsurveyed passages in Fishface and derig behind the other team once we knew they
were through to Happy Butterfly. Amelia, Joel, Charlotte and Rachel were on the 'throughtrip' team. Despite giving them a head start we caught up with them at the
entrance. Tobias and I [] got dressed, not knowing what awaited us as it was our first ever expo trip. I was surpirsed by how cold the entrance was compared to the
boiling temperatures outside. I was even more surprised when I bumped into the other team who had dropped their drill down the first pitch. After [] the bag, Amelia
realised the drill was not working, so her and Joel left to get a reserve. </p>
<p>Out team continued with the original plan, so we dropped down to the pitch above the 50m above the connection. We were dismayed to see survey points here, meaning
someone had done the job before but the data was missing. We completed the survey quickly and caught up with Rachel and Charlotte who were rerigging the 50m pitch
above the connection.</p>
<p>Eric, Tobias and I then went up a couple of pitches to a passage Erik had explored on a previsou trip. This passage ended quickly in a boulder choke so the survey
didn't go as long as expected. After completing the survey we went back down to the 50m pitch to see if we should be derigging on our way out. By this time, Joel and
Amelia had returned and were bolting the traverse in Happy Butterfly. It sounded like they had a long way to go, so we decided to leave without derigging in case they
<p>Covid crew + Nathan headed to the bottom of Fishface and had noodle lunch at the waterpool before checking out the Coconut Chamber leads. We started to survey at old station 11 (of Coconut Chamber 3) then, 3 stations later, tied into Coconut Chamber 3.14... oh well, at least it confirmed our tie-in. The rest of the survey trip was confusing - we surveyed back under ourselves to a deep canyon which is the same one in Coconut Chamber. However the two C leads above this seem to be sepereate and are still not pushed. We then headed in the opposite direction (N), up the canyon. This soon lead to a low but wide chamber with many rock pillars. The canyon continued N but it is deep with slippy, muddy, sloped sides which would need rigging to explore safely. The only other lead was a QMB in the top left of the chamber. We exited with a very pleasent curry, couscous and 2nd noodle tea before prossicking out in about 2.5 hours. </p>
<p>It was time for my penance. Adam Aldridge and I did such a shit job of surveying in 2017 that no survey was written up for half of Nothing to See. The purpose of this trip was to show this series to someone more competant to ensure it is further explored. It is heading to Bat Country - a T junction is encountered shortly before the pitchhead for tBat Country. Turn right at this T junction and a pit is encountered (left takes you to Bat Country). Traverse over the pit and drop a small pitch. Way on is true right. True left is a view of a lower passage that conencts to Bat Country; there is a hole in the floor that has potential to be dropped. Way on leads to GalactiRamp. GalactiRamp was dropped in 2017, and links to GalactiShaft. Exposed traverse around GalactiRamp leads to a 4 way junction. levft is an exposed traverse to GalactiShaft MAze. Right is a passage that soon ends with a too tight rift in the right. Straight on drops into a chamber with a pit in the floor (unknown if this has been dropped). Beyond chamber, a passage leads on and a passage to the left leads to Galacti-cock, a 200m (estimate) shaft dropping to Galactica. Carry on the passage to a T Junction. Right leads to Dead Battery Run a blind pit that has two leads from the top, a QMB and QMC. Left goes down into a Fucking Maze with leads A-Fucking-Galore and will be a treat to survey on a future trip. </p>
<p>Back to the entrance pitch there is a [] in the left of the high level which leads tothe GalactiShaft to maze series. I'm gonna have to survey that.</p>
<p>There is a load fo work still to do in this area so revisit will be done. Notable events of the trips were that K Brook's rigging is amazing and Rebelays are NOT TOO TIGHT. If you weigh less than 7 stone, you C rig, and the double stop method is optimal. Insert scan of rigging guide !!!</p>
<p>2 Teams descended Fishface. I'd never been so was relieved of the pressure of knowing anything remotely navigational. Mealy led the way through the entrance, immediately tossing her tackle sack with the drill and batteries down the entrance pitch and onto the traverse line. After an enormous thud, she went to retrieve it and hid in the sandy crawl. This entrance pitch is still a bit loose and we descended one at a time. I abbed to the the sound of her sad 'Oh's. Mealy called up the pitch, 'is it allowed to ooze?'. Unsure whether she was talking about the drill or batteries, I shouted to her to keep her hands clear. Ooze was something I was fairly sure was not good. Thankfully, the batteries were not oozing, just the drill. Everyone else descended, we faffed and discussed what to do. Eric's team had caught up with us by this point and it was decided he could show Charlotte and I to the lead, whilst Mealy and Joel went to investigate if there was a spare drill at the Stone Bridge. They removed the drill and batteries and left the rest of the bolting gear at the bottom of the entrance pitch.</p>
<p>Erik showed us the way. We were baffled to see our route had been previsouly bolted on hiltis and survyed, and wondered why we were back there. To kill time, I rerigged the 50m pitch above the connection to a long, thicker rope. Charlotte dropped it as a sub-optimal free hang, noting the rebelays we didn't have the bolting gear to utilise. Unable to get safely off the rope, she ascended and we surveyed the top of the pitch area and waited for Mealy and Joel.</p>
<p>They reappeared, and Joel rigged the remainder of the pitch and bolted a traverse below that headed along the rift to a stone bridge. Down and across the traverse, we passed under the Bridge and formally into Happy Butterfly. Wuheyy. Found HB survey points to tie into. Erik's group were due to derig behind us, but due to us being 4 hours behind schedule, they'd left, leaving the traverse and pitch into Fishface rigged. There was a climbing traverse into HB that Mealy was hesitant to derig and despite lots of tickling, that got left. Down the hill, we found out there might be potential leads there anyway.</p>
<p>Expected time underground - 6 hours. Actual time underground - 11 hours. A warm welcome to the creche. Insert Kreshconnection rigging topo below.</p>
Headed in and lifted the rigging kit from ‘top of ‘bat country’ to ‘lets be appalling’, so that we could rig across the traverse into nowhere. Rigging down the small pitch is a bit rubby an it hooks under a flake, it might be easier to rig it as a traverse towards the maze traverse.</p>
<p>Surveyed from the large boulder overlooking the pitch to the sandy climb down – dead battery run, so named because Christian tried to drop the pitch only to find the drill battery was flat, so went out to the Stone Bridge to get another battery and that was flat too… a 2018 story.</p>
<p>The rigging gear is stored at the top of the 40m pitch between ‘lets be appalling’ and ‘bat country’</p>
<p>Notes on leads left around here: (Before I head home)
The ‘Suffolk by the sea’ survey went up the bed from the bottom of the ‘lets be appalling’ and ‘bat country’ 40m pitch. It stopped where a shaft came in probably from the QMA above, see survex.</p>
<p>The passage is very windy with the draft blowing down the bed. The upper ‘lets be appalling’ is believed choked? So the draught must be coming in from across the pitchy area. </p>
<p>Down from lower ‘Suffolk by the sea’ there is a traverse across a pitch which appears to already be on survex, however it appears the passage continues. Probably requires a few bolts.</p>
<p>The ‘bat country’ (martin’s traverse) has been de-rigged and the rope is at the bottom of the balcony pitch in bat country. We could cut the bottom of the rope and rig the pitch down into the unnamed passage which connects the top of ‘sloppy seconds’ and ‘Galactica’.</p>
<p>I food-panicked and insisted on us taking down unfeasible numbers of curries etc. We each had a heavy bag down, taking a lot extra rope. Camp disappointed Nat - dirty cups + very damp pits. Also very muddy hangers. Drip for water <u> very </u> slow.</p>
<p>We all headed to the 70m pitch (Tartarus) at the end of Nothern Pitstop + Medusa's Maze. Wookey + Andreas then continued the horizontal lead that Harry + Johnno had left on the previous camping trip whilst Nat + I went down the muddy slope along a deep stream canyon. The angle meant that it needed a rope as the mud was thick + treacherous. At the end of their rope Nat bolted + naturaled down a short pitch. We had great hopes of horizontal but just round the corner the ledges returned (not before we passed a <u> gorgeous </u> wall of white crystal/helictite balls). I had been following behind Nat with the survey but I got to rig a short traverse along the muddy ledge (3 bolts, last one particularly poor - there were two hammers at camp but we had failed to bring either so we were using rocks which weren't very effective). The ledge ended + we'd have had to rig a pitch down to continue so we decided to derig all of our rope plus what Harry + Johnno put in. I started on this whilst Nat checked out dropping directly into the stream canyon. He decided this was too deep (>30m?) to do so we plodded on with the derig. I properly ran out of steam, fighting to move in the disgusting thick mud with the ropes + bags + our gear coated thickly in it. Met Andreas + Wookey at the top of the slope + divided out the gear so we all dragged one heavy bag back to camp. 12 hours caving. (Woke 7am, left camp 9am, back 9pm).</p>
<p>Up at 7, packed up, left 9.30, out 2.30 to 3pm. Slow steady plod as we all had big bags, taking out excess rigging gear + the 4th pit from camp. Met Gwen, Kristian, Dinny + Chris Holt at the entrance.</p>
<p>[Missing logbook entry for Cpt Chris & Eric trip ?]</p>
<p>Trip began very efficiently due to Captain Chris and I deciding not to partake the evening prior & due to pre-trip packing the evening prior.</p><p>Underground
by 10am after a relaxed breakfast. Quickly down pitches & arrive at the (illegible). Show Chris & Eric the start of the survey at Mourning The Moths then
headed off to continue bolting down 'Clap my pitch up'. Chose to name the passage 'Bee Doctor' [Apis Medicus] (in latin) after Keiran's antics on Wednesday where he
attempted (succesfully) to save a drowned be (and was then stung by a different bee). Hopped down a traverse then down a very impressive 50-60m shaft to a very
bouldery collapse chamber from which a muddy meander passage was heading nearly due south. We surveyed dilligently along this until we reached a watery impasse (3m
drop, (illegible) without getting soaked) just beyond a drippy inlet (suspect this passage is not ideal in wetter conditions, considering we are in a drought it would
appear this is probably wet often especially as we expereinced much drippier conditions in 'clap my pitch up' during its exploration eariler in the week which we
disliked). However it was only just 6pm at this point & we felt it premature to leave, so I lashed some dyneema around a thread then attached some slings to that
& we made a highly japist descent, only to discover that just around the corner the water plunged down a further 10m pitch.</p><p>Back to the big pitch for the
drill then Nathan had his first go on the bolts to drop the climb of pitch on the last of the nice 8.8mm rope which we cut from the base of the big pitch (felt bad).
This done we rounded another courner, with the passage becoming ever more meandery & shit, only to discover that a further ~10m pitch lay just ahead. With no
further drill batteries, rope or enthusiasm we decided it was time to head out, derigging the lead as we went. <p>After a stint in my group shelter, I took the full
rope bag & Nathan took over derigging from Max while we headed off to make noodles. This done we began to head out. Nathan & I arriving at the surface shortly
after Eric & Chris at 2am. After waiting till 3am for Max we then began a slow plod back, only to see his light emerge when we had just arrived at the convenient
viewing point. Happy days! Curry & cous cous were very welcome. Then Chris, Max & I partook in a very fine moon & stars before turning in at 8am.</p>
<p>The aim for this trip was to de-rig the traverse into Happy Butterfly and everything above it, excluding the entrance pitch. We quickly made it down to the traverse whre Rachel pointed the way on to Happy Butterfly, which she had de-rigged the previous day. Here, we decided to split into two groups.</p><p>Keiran and Rachel looked at a lead above the traverse, while Dinny rigged a rope into the rift below for me to descend. It appeared that Keiran and Rachel's passage was an oxbow back into the top of the rift I was exploring. The rift I was in had two survey stations at the bottom (1.5 and 36 - since located on HB survey). The rift ended in a pitch which has previously been dropped as there were bolts at the pitch head.</p>
<p>After ruling out any other leads we turned to de-rigging. Rachel head out first with a couple of bags while I assisted Keiran with derigging the lower pitches. I then derigged the last pitches with Dinny's assistance.</p>
<divclass="triptitle"> Fischgesicht - Connecting the Kresh Connection </div>
<p>Rob tipped us off to a window ledge opposite the pinnacle on the 3RD pitch of Fischgesicht.</p>
<p><u> SUN </u> I tried to faff for a day but by 1pm was fully resorted to never endulge in this again. Headed underground in FG with Nathan. Came off the rope onto the safety scree on the 3RD pitch and Nathan descended to the pinnacle to swing to a window on the far wall. </p>
<p>The rope was rigged off a very conveniently placed thread off the right hand wall. This passage continues meandering, to a pitch (13/16?m) into a rift I sort of recognised with blocked rock and bridge. </p>
<p>Closer to the thread there was a climb on the right hand wall (total 8m). This circles back into the rift with the main pitch (illegible).
<p><u> MON </u> We returned for an efficient trip with Cpt. Chris, returned to the pitch where Nathan put in two bolts, and dropped to a ledge then found the cave had
been pre-bolted, and I joined him to confirm we were,as I had suspected the day before, in the Kresh Connection. </p>
<p>Main trip already written up by Becka. (Becka and Nat also on the trip). This is an addition on our finds. Becka + Nat took the inviting, muddy ramp lead whilst we went to check out the 'P4' at end of side passage. We got drill first, but a short inspection showed that the "P4' was a very easy C6 with no need for bolting. Took drill back to others, then spent some time looking for survey stations. Couldn't find end points so went back till we found 3 in a row to sync to. Also checked out upper canyon not on survey. Shit with gear, but blowing. Left for water.</p>
<p>Main passage is nice 3m (illegible), windy, with deep (~5m) trench in floor. Down the c6 we ended up in awkward trench and surveyed about 6 legs with the 90kg Andreas getting increasingly unimpressed, until Wook realised a slightly wide bit allowed him to climb up back into main passage, which was dramatically wider. Worked out how to bypass the shit bit, and continued surveying for another ~50m to a large cross-rift. Pitch to left (~15m) with strong wind blowing out and very dodgy false floor. Realised whole floor here may be false. Very hard to tell if there was any solid floor. Crossed assorted dodgy boulders over a couple of ~10m climbs, probably until the bottom of the same rift (needs rope).</p>
<p>Arrived at spot with very pretty floor. Real shame to cross without (illegible) as no obvious 'best' route. Up to L is a fairly easy 6m climb (QMA) into what is almost ceratainly the continuation. Ahead in 15m dead straight passage to blockage of rocks. But there is a thrutchy climb possible up into black space (QMB). Almost certainly the same passage. May be esaier route?</p>
<p>Ascending these really needed a rope, if only to avoid having to climb down again. We had left that at the start & time was a-passing so we returned to start & surveyed the other way down the passage. Beautiful water-filling pool then a descent into canyon. Looks like it gets a bit small, and needs a rope. QMB downstream, C upstream (no wind). Also a couple of small passages near the pool not (illegible) QMB.</p>
<p>We were following the wind the whole time. Becka & Nat were going into the wind, so this route should be 'downstram' even though it is gently rising.</p>
<p>Also checked out shitty rift/canyon at start, concluding that it rally is quite committing & almost certainly is just the floor canyon in what we surveyed (drawing-up should clarify). Overall a nice day out, 180m surveyed & number of QMs increased. This is still going strong.</p>
<p>Camping with the Nat & Becka slow was fun & it was good to have such a strong team.
Campsite rather muddy & the razor-gauntlet to go & have a piss was awkward, but over all a pretty comfy 2 nights.</p>
<p>The far end of N. Powerhouse leads quite remote, at a solid 8hrs caving (with bag) from the entrance.
We wore Andreas out on the way out (not least due to slipping croll). Nice to get in a satisfying trip for (illegible) go before going home, even if it was ridiculously hard work.</p>
<divclass="trippeople"><u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Dinny Davies, Christopher Holt</div>
<divclass="triptitle"> Balkonhöle - Bolt traverse in Nothing to See</div>
<p>Today's plan was to visit Nothing to See and rig a traverse to it. Kristian was planning on showing us how to get there but suddenly fell ill at the entrance. Unfortunately nobody else on the trip had been in Balkon before, let alone been to Nothing to See, so Kristian drew a crude map for us before rushing off to be sick.</p>
<p>Once we had the crude map and survey, we made our way down to the bottom of the entrance pitch. There was a bit of route finding to do here as Kristian hadn't told us about the slope we needed to walk up shortly after the bottom of the entrance pitch. We eventually reached a chamber where we found more clues from Frank. Frank's clues had been very welcome earlier in the trip as they had led us to Hiltiaplenty. Frank's note in the chamber pointed to Sloppy Seconds. This appeared to be nowhere near Nothing to See in our survey, so we ignored this and retraced our steps, and went left at the bottom of the Hiltiaplenty pitches rather than right. This took us to a rabbit warren of crawls, which didn't sound like Nothing to See, as Kristian had assured us that there was no crawling. Eventually we decided to return to the chamber and follow Frank's signs to Sloppy Seconds. Soon we found a traverse line, which suggested we were on the correct path. We then got to a pitch that Kristian had previously rigged. He wanted us to bolt a traverse across the top of the chamber to make the crossing to Nothing to See safer.</p><p> I initially descended the pitch and quickly realised that it landed on a number of large boulders suspended on top of a 200m drop into Galactica. I switched over and we decided that Chris should bolt the traverse across the chamber into Nothing to See. Dinny and I clipped into the existing traverse line to the top of the pitch and got the bothy bag out. Eventually, after much moving we acheived 'peak comfort', which involved me lying directly on top of him. </p>
<p>After some time Chris revealed the traverse was ready. We came out of our bothy bag and joined him at the other side of the traverse. We were expecting to need to survey some passages here, as Kristian had assured us there were loads of leads. Instead, we found it was simply a series of dangerous holes into Galactica. Nothing to See is a suspended swiss cheese of mud and is not worth returning to. After ruling out any leads, we returned the way we came and were out of the cave by 11pm. </p>
<p>After a long morning persuading Nat that I was capable of caving despite the covid and establisling that no covid free person was keen to take my place, we were allowed to go caving. But only after Dinny and Nat repacked my bag as they took great issue with the tackle bag swinging off the back - they were so proud of their handy work they got a picture with the finished result. We finally got underground at around midday and Jono promptly disturbed the peace of the cave by descending the entrance series with his speaker! It was Charlotte's first trip down to Pitstop, so I pointed out the sites along the way.</p>
<p>We got down to camp around 16:00 and after a quick snack of noodle soup headed off to southern pitstop for some afternoon pushing. It was a first time for all of us down southern putstop and we pushed a good A lead beyond Safe and Comfortable. Charlotte and I surveyed whilst Jono did his 3D scanning. We did around 100m up a fairly steep, muddy passage (this new passage was named Covid Corner) ending with a passage down into a rift and a climb up connecting into the same rift higher up. The lower passage is too tight so the only way on is the higher passage which requires rigging to drop down into the rift. A little cold and hungry we headed back to camp for a glorious dinner of curry and smash, during which we filmed some fantastic media content in the hopes of curry sponsorship for futre expos.</p>
<p>We had a slightly slow morning on Tuesday, setting off from camp around 11:00 to head down Northern Pitstop. A little confusion was had finding the pushing front beyond Tartarus and Ichythes, in which Charlotte, as the smallest person, was sent first down a swiftly narrowing rift. A climb up out of the rift revealed the much roomier way on. The pushing front was very pretty with a wall of popcorned stals and calcite on the floor - photos were taken before carefully picking a route across the floor. The immediate way on promptly met an awkward thrutch up a bouldery climb which ended in a 20m pitch. We double backed and followed an A lead on the left which started in a exposed climb. Jono tackled this as an aided climb, bolting on his way up - a bold decision for his first time bolting. But with expert training and strong encouragement from moi success was had and Charlotte and I were able to safely follow up. Charlotte had a go at book for the first itme with me on Disto and Jono 3D scanning. Above the pitch nice passage was found with two pools in the floor and water could be heard nearby. Further on a rift intersected the passage with a large passage above heading off on the right - this would be potentially challenging traverse to persue. We continued down to junction with a lower and higher passage both coming into the same slanting rift - we ended our day here. We noticed bat bones at this junction. We headed back down the passage and Jono fettled his rigging before we all headed down the new pitch. This was left rigged with the crab removed from the deviation.</p>
<p><i> Rigging topo to be scanned and inserted here </i></p>
<p>I derigged Tartarus and the short pitch below it on the way out, leaving the ropes at the top of the pitch. Attempts to rescue seized crab on northern powerhouse up pitch were unsuccessful so maillon and crab were left on the y-hang - bigger plyers needed in future to get crab off. Next short pitch in northern pitstop was rerigged with rings and rope pulled up to top - deviation tat left in.</p>
<p>Back at camp we made a strong effort to eat as much camp food as possible to reduce the carry out tomorrow - struggles were had with consuming teh vast quantities of smash. After a long day we got ot bed around 2:30am. A reasonably early start was had to pack up camp on Wednesday morning, with another meal of mass smash consumption.</p>
<p>With camp packed up we left pitstop around midday weighed down with camping kit, leaving a couple of bags we couldn't manage for the de-rig team who were heading in for the afternoon. A slow and muddy progession was made up mongol rally with some slightly unhappy jammers and a lot of commentary from Jono. We met Becka, Nathan and Alex at the top of mongol rally - the first wave of the de-rig mission. Jono's struggles up mongol rally were summed up by Becka's commentary at the top - "Have you caved before?". We met the rest of the de-rig team at the top of Hangman's - Nat, Kristian and Toby. Bags were swapped and shared out between people before heading out. Nat and I dropped back down to the top of mongol rally as Becka was coming up with the remaining camp bags. Nat remained whilst Becka and I headed out with the camp kit. On route, Becka rerigged short pitch between Hangman's & Honeycomb with rings so it can be left in. I continued out, catching up with Charlotte, Toby and Jono just below the entrance pitch. We were out by 20:30, just to catch the remaining light of the day. All in all a successful last Balkon camp for 2022 and we think Charlotte enjoyed her first expo underground camp.</p>
<p> Becka had disappeared down the hill in the previous day (in need of a wash) so a leisurely start was had with Becka arriving back at Top Camp for second breakfast at ~1100. </p>
<p>Walking over to Fishface in the midday heat was slightly gruelling but we arrived & were underground by ~1400. At the entrance we picked up Christopher who had been on a disappointingly quick trip with Nathan and Rachel. It was my first trip in Fishface & I was exceedingly surprised at how pleasant it was & all the pitches were very manageable (despite a variety of rigging styles, there was very minimal mud & very little to complain about!). </p>
<p>After ~1 hour 15 we were at Becka's noodle bar, which we immidiately put to good use. Becka banged in a few bolts whilst I enjoyed a smashed Mi Goreng. Once sated, I kitted up ∓ Becka & I swapped places. Swift progress was made due to some optimistic rigging (later corrected by Gwen - thank you (!)) until a large window was encountered. This seemed wetter than the drippy clean-washed shaft I was in, so I carried on down our original shaft until I reached a particularly puzzling section. This whole section is clean washed and feels like it will get wet, but I was unable to avoid it entirely; it will be interesting to see what this does on a wetter year. A few more bolts took me to ~30m above a large ledge with a big black hole swallowing lights (& rocks; a ~3 second drop plus rattle @ end). At this point I was down to my last hanger so put a rebelay in with a vague hope of being able to utilise cord & threads to progress further down. With limited mental capacities & a wall of cheese (Becka after I hit a promising looking natural with a hammer: "No thank you!"), I headed back up to offload gear (drill batteries stuffed down my front) to Becka. After ~100m rope of pitch descended we headed back to the noodle bar for a quick snack before ~3 hours saw us out at the surface. On the way up I admonished Becka for dropping little rocks on me to be told "they're only small shooting stars". After a while watching Chris get changed & pack in a spectacularly inefficient way I strobed him with my light to try & inspire a sense of urgency. This had limited success & Becka proceeded to get more exasperated after Chris had offered us figs & I suggested Becka do some mindfulness. We were finally ready & we were back at Stone Bridge for 3:00am.</p>
<p>Having had a couple of underground days and one planned for the following day, Dinny and I decided that a day surface prospecting would be sensible. Nat and Becka suggested we scout the area between Balcony and Griesskogelschacht (#232), as there may be a better way into the deeper parts of Balcony between the two entrances.</p>
<p>As we were getting ready to leave, Emily decided she wanted to join as she wasn't feeling well enough for a caving trip.</p>
<p>With minimal batteries on our phones we set off to Balcony, where we dropped off our caving gear for the following day. We then walking along a path waymarked by cairns that Dinny had followed on a previous prospecting trip with Wookey to Noel Snape's previous discoveries. </p>
<p>We then followed the best available path towards Griesskogelschacht. We split up along the way to check out any potential holes. Most were already tagged or were mere alcoves or bridges. We were keeping a keen eye out for any horizontal leads, similar to the Balcony entrance, but found nothing of interest.</p>
<p>Eventually we found Griesskogelschacht and spent some time exploring this area, not that we were expecting to find anything of interet, as it had clearly been explored by others before. Dinny found a stash of gear in one cave entrance, believed to belong to the Germans. We stopped for lunch after wandering around for an hour or so. While eating lunch we saw two holes at the opposite side of the valley. We decided to visit them on the return journey, but they turned out to be alcoves that went nowhere. </p>
<p>We took a slightly different route on the return to Balcony, but nothing of note was found. This area appears to have been fairly well explored by CUCC/the German cavers previously. </p>
<divclass="triptitle"> Balkonhöle - De-rigging Hiltiaplenty and sloppy seconds and nothing to see</div>
<p>Today I joined "Gwinny" as a third wheel...The idea of derigging Hiltiaplenty originally soudned like a nice little jolly, until we realised how much shit Frank had been storing in that area. On top of the 200m+ of pitch ropes and traverse lines we derigged, Frank had left us a lovely present of an extra 120m of rope, a drill and hangers. All in all we ended up with 7 bags between us (including personal kit) which we slowly slogged out the cave with. Despite having a little more rope than originally planned we were still efficient. Once down Hiltiaplenty we split into 2 groups with Dinny going to de-rig Nothing to See and me and Gwen heading to de-rig sloppy seconds. We managed to start the trip early ~8:30am, which combined with our efficiency meant we were ot of the cave by 2:30pm :)</p>
<p>I was fucked and coming down from cave-allergy. Alex had arrived at expo the night before so determined to get me out of my funk. After a quick shop for food and water we set off up the hill, Alex carrying all his gear and me and Tobias carrying a fuck ton of water as top camp was running low on water. I was personally carrying 17 litres.
Arriving at camp we found the water situation was not as dire as predicted so that was a waste of single use plastics. </p>
<p>Camp sorted we set off to look at some orphaned caves, wrecking as much of the plateau as we go. Heading to the area of NS caves aiming to look at NS-01, NS-13 and NS-14.</p>
<p>NS-01 was found amongst a series of shafts on the side of a rubble-filled valley. This entrance is a free climb down to a couple of passages that link the shafts in the area. No clear way on.</p>
<p>NS-13 was upon a lump above the valley and simply a tube that led through a rocky outcrop. NS-15 was looked at but Wookey and Dinny had already done this.
NS-14 was the last call of the day and appeared on the website as a dummy tag for March of the Penguins. This it was not and it was a rift leading to a small hole. A rock drop revealed that this hole was very deep and a visit was needed with a rope as we saw no sign of a previous drop.</p>
<p>Setting off from top camp 2 hours after Becka's group we descended and met the last camp team at the bottom of Honeycomb. Nat continued down to assist the first derig team at Mongol Rally. Tobias and I assisted Charlotte, Jono and Hannah with their bags back to the water that comes in near Natural Highs.
Tobias, Hannah, Charlotte and Jono left for the surface and I went 2 minutes back to take a bag off of Becka. Back at the water spot I set up a stove for noodles and smash while the others hung the rope in the water in anticipation for the next couple of days of deluge. All set up and fed we left the cave and went back to top camp in sweaty conditions. </p>
<p>We'd had no peep from the Balkonhoehle cavelink so we weren't sure when the campers would have left so we headed off leisurely but there was no sign of life at the top of Honeycomb so Nathan + I dragged Alex on a trip down memory lane to Icecock aven. The ice is in a sorry state with rotten, melting ice lumps melted from the avens littering the floor. I wanted to check out the snow ramp but it was so melted that there wasn't enough left to climb up. </p>
<p>That jaunt frittered away an hour + we headed on down + met the campers exiting at the top of Mongol Rally. They hadn't managed to empty camp so I went down + collected the final 2 bags then I derigged the swing in at the bottom of Pitstop. As I tried to gently swing from the Pitstop ledge to the main pitch I realised I may have screwed up by having 2 heavy bags hanging off me.</p>
<p>Scrabble, flail and I was swinging free in space, hurrah, success. I got ready to prusik + realised in the kerfuffle I'd lost my pantin. "I've dropped my pantin", I wailed up at Nathan...then looked up more carefully - shit, shit, shit, the rope had caught round a sharp flake + I was now swinging in space. Sod the pantin, I'm gonna slice my rope + freefall 50 metres. I spun + saw a small spike that I managed to grab. I gingerly unloaded the rope, flicked it off the flake + swung back on then gently prusiked up to the rebelay, checking the rope - it loked fine, I'd got away with it.</p>
<p>At the rebelay I waited for Nathan to come down so he could continue the derig + glanced down and - there was my pantin! I'd put it on the outside of my left foot - doh!</p>
<p>After that I plodded out whilst Nathan derigged & Alex + he took out the Mongol Rally rope then Nat continued the derig. We got the rope to the water pool at the start of the 2nd traverse. Kristian was noodle-wallah, cooking endless cups whilst we got the rope unpacked, stripped the metalwork + undid some very tight knots.</p>
<p>I went back to help Nat with his 2nd bag then us two + Kristian finished sorting the rope out so it could be left to soak. We three were the last out of the cave at 9pm.<.p>
<p>We set off for NS-14 to drop it and investigate this massive hole. Kristian carrying a very heavy survey kit and Alex carrying 100m of rope, metal work and the drill and batteries. Alex was carrying the trip. We got to NS-14 and while looking for suitable bolting locations we found two bolts that suggested the hole had been dropped. Further investigation revealed that this was 288 and useless cunts had not linked it.</p>
<p>Stoked killed we went to the next hole over where a hole in the side of a rifty depression showed some mystery. After some umming and ahing we decided to appeoach the hole from above as it was 6m above the ground. K Brook rigged the drop and found the hole blind and only 7m long. Not enough for a Kaster number but it will be entered as 2022-KB-01.</p>
<p>Time wasted we set off down the hill to avoid further rain.</p>
<p>2022-KB-01</p>
<p>Location = 47.69869 degrees N, 13.82425 degrees E</p>
<p>Nat had convinced me it was a good idea to go on one pushing trip before the end of expo seeing as all my other trips had been 'shit' according to him. There was a plan to return to Perseid (formally Big Bastard) to fix some of the rigging and venture further into its depths.</p>
<p>I took a day off on the previous day to conserve my energy for the trip. I almost ended up using that energy on a rescue mission that evening when Dinny and I arrived at camp at 20:00 to find no cavers there. The 21:00 callouts arrived with no sign of anyone. Just as we were preparing to leave we saw lights on the horizon. For future reference, please can we add columns to the callout form to say when a party left camp and how long they expect the trip to take?</p>
<p>After the stress of the evening before I was worried I would be too tired for a long trip, but I was committed now. We set off at a reasonable time and were underground around 11:15am. Becka sent me in first, assuring me it was essentially a nylon highway all the way down and then I should be able to follow the reflectors. Despite being keen that I was leading, Becka would occasionally find herself in front of me at a pitch head (she later referred to Dinny and I as slugs). I was surprised by the number of pitches, some of which were practically steps, but others were considerable. When we reached the pitch prior to Perseid, Becka told me to drop my bag in the kitchen before looking at the pitch that I would be bolting. After peering over the edge I wasn't sure I would be able to do it. To calm my nerves I agreed to get water with Becka and Dinny. Becka then went down the pitch to collect some gear. Dinny and I ate some noodles then cooked some for Becka when we heard her getting close. I was then kitted up with the drill and hammer.</p>
<p>Becka gave me instructions on where to put in the deviation. Thankfully, we had gone through the theory before arriving, but I wasn't confident I would do a good job. My initial task was to put in a second deviation to avoid rub on a nearby flake. This took me some time as I had to balance between the flake and wall whilst drilling - not as easy as it looked! I occasionally could hear muffled noises from above, so I knew Becka and Dinny hadn't died of hypothermia yet. After an eternity, my deviation was complete. I initially told the others I was going to come back up and leave the Y-hang to Becka as my right leg was dead from the weight of the hammer and drill. Once I put my hand jammer on, the blood returned to my leg, and I decided I could continue.</p>
<p>I descended to the rebelay below and dressed the rock for a Y-hang. It took me a long time to work out where to place it, because the rock wasn't good. I eventually went for it, but messed it up by initally dropping the nut. I then tried to screw another nut on, but it wouldn't go. I used my spanner and found to my dismay that the throughbolt hadn't set properly. I lost confidence and called up to Dinny and Becka to say I was coming back up, dejected. </p>
After fixing my Y-hang, Becka placed an additional rebelay on the descent then called rope free. I was pleased to find my deviation worked. After leaving the new Y-hang, I was surprised to see how deep the shaft below my feet was. I had been so engrossed by bolting that I hadn't really thought about the depth. I eventually met Becka on a ledge. She suggeted I bolt a Y-hang here to avoid the Y-hang Nat had bolted below the ledge in water. Before getting started, I had to derig Nat's Y-hang. This involved lying on my stomach on the ledge and posting my head and torso vertically down below the ledge to remove the Y-hang. Once this was done I could bolt the new Y-hang higher from the ledge itself. This was much easier than the other one, and having Becka right next to me gave me some confidence. Becka then went ahead of me to descend to the next ledge, where they had previously reached. Here she bolted a new rebelay and Y-hang. Unfortunately there was not enough rope to go further, so we only surveyed two new legs on the way back up. As I reached the top of Perseid I shouted out to our chef to put on some curries for us. Dinny and I ate our curries together while waiting for Becka to finish surveying. When she returned she announced she needed to do an inventory, so Dinny and I set off on the slow slog out. I think my expo fitness had kicked in by now though, as I found myself flying up the pitches with Dinny hot on my heels. When nearing the entrance we started to wonder if Becka was OK as there was still no sign of her. Had she gone out a secret bottom entrance or got lost? 15-30 minutes later she emerged complaining that we had somehow evolved from slugs into butterflies. Great trip!</p>
