Headed down to where we left off yesterday, Katey + Nat breezing down all the airy entrance rigging with all of 9 months caving experience a-piece (though they'd just come from the Picos expedition so are expo-seasoned). We set off surveying, following the draft, but quickly got to a pitch, Nat went back to fetch the gear whilst Katey + I surveyed side leads. When we got back to Nat he shame-facedly confessed that one of the drill batteries had rolled out of the bag he was unpacking + down a small hole. He tried to persuade Katey to go in after it but she's no fool so he wiggled in head first, managed to retrieve the battery, attempted to turn around, failed, tried to back out, failed, started to sound a bit stressed + finally begged for assistance. Katey + I got a leg each + he finally was hauled out. After that he needed a while to compose himself so Katey rigged the pitch ("Flying Rats") with 2 spits at the top + a rebelay then we surveyed down to a traverse with a bad step + then teeter along a ledge with loose rock where we ended the survey having decided that it really should have been rigged. Packed the loose gear up + left it at the top of Pidgeon Droppings + went for a quick check on Neil + Rob below Bob On who were surveying out + then exited steadily.
@@ -374,28 +374,28 @@ Route finding through Knossos/Star Wars/Tower Blocks proved to be a bit more triAfter prospecting with Becka, Mike + Andrea a couple of days before, Nat and I decided to revisit 2005-05 to carry on dropping the pitches there. Rob bailed, leading to a rather late start, but we set off with a ~40m and 2 x 11m ropes, plus the bosch drill older than either one of us. We re-rigged the first pitch that Nat had dropped earlier and landed on a stone bridge between two pitches. Nat decided to drop the western pitch since it seemed to look more promising, so bolted a rebelay and carried on downwards. After dropping through a slightly narrow gap we landed on a loose, rocky slope with a ledge to one side. Nat bolted another rebelay and started on one of the 11m ropes but rapidly came back since there was a pitch that was too big for us to drop with the kit we had - exciting times! I went down to take a look then we went off to the ledge to commiserate. We reckoned the pitch had about a 2-second drop, making it somewhere between 20 and 30 metres. As we were cold and out of gear, we decided to return the next day with more rope (and our oversuits!).
We returned with a 100m rope and the same drill (well, the same battery). Unfortunately, the drill was shit (read: the battery was very low) and we only managed to put in 1 ¼ bolts. This was especially frustrating as Nat had converted a dingle bolt rebelay to a Y-hang, so the 1/4 hole was right above the big pitch! Even more frustrating, we'd neglected to bring a spit driver due to inexperience and general incompetence. We headed back to camp promising that the next day we'd finally drop that pitch!
We returned to the cave with a lighter drill and brighter spirits, and with surprisingly minimal faffing dropped the pitch. A nice long abseil down a clean-washed shaft landed on a rocky ledge with one more short drop before the cave opened into a chamber. I bolted the small pitch, which turned out to be more challenging than anticipated, and we were in the chamber! Finally a use for the compass/clino we'd brought! Unfortunately, in our trying not to be overly optimistic and scare the cave off we were very low on extra layers, meaning we couldn't survey for very long. On the plus side, the cave was nice and drafty! Despite cold and surveying inexperience we got about 60m surveyed with plenty more to go. We also finally settled on a name for the cave - Balcony Höhle - based on the truly excellent entrance.
Since the cave was now going beyond the pitch series, we thought it would be a good idea to ask someone with more surveying experience for help, so along came Noel. With his help (and the use of a Disto) we got a lot more surveyed - nearly 200m in 3 hours - with several ?As and a very solid ?B. We also put up cairns and reflectors on the route to the cave.
@@ -543,7 +543,7 @@ Route finding through Knossos/Star Wars/Tower Blocks proved to be a bit more triBack to Pit Pot. We derigged the deviation & pulled up the rope from the previous trip and swung on to the boulder bridge. I was drilling -> put in a couple of bolts on the rock bridge & abseiled down a very short pitch ~3m. Landed on a boulder + mud slope. This was rather treacherous, particularly near the edge of the slope where there was a vertical section. I put in a couple more bolts on the left hand side of the passage to attempt to keep us away from these boulders. Was OK but not great. Landed on a boulder floor, then called Nat down. We had been surveying at each stage of the rigging, so Nat had been sat on a boulder on the boulder slope whilst I rigged (and generally made unhappy sounds at the boulders). In this time, Nat had managed to sit on his nail varnish - breaking the neck & pour nail varnish all over himself & the boulder. :(