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Online edit of logbookentry 2025-07-23e

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Buck Blake
2025-07-28 22:37:39 +01:00
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@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ re-written. This is prevent spurious re-orderings and spurious git commit lines
Sorry about all the crap that surrounds the image tags which has been imported along with the content
when UK Caving blogs have been parsed.
Exported on 2025-07-28 12:07 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
Exported on 2025-07-28 22:07 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
See troggle/code/views/other.py and core.models/logbooks.py writelogbook(year, filename)
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@@ -1789,6 +1789,47 @@ route, so quite do-able.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 12.0 hours</div>
<div class="editentry"><br /><a href="/logbookedit/2025-07-23d">Edit this entry</a><br /></div>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-23e">2025-07-23</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Buck</u>, Alice</div>
<div class="triptitle">KH - Putting the Green in Greenhouse</div>
KH - Putting the Green in Greenhouse
<p>
The time had come for mine and Alice's final trip* of expo 2025, and after our previous trip to the Enniskillen Toad Series, we were keen to return, despite the long, longggggg journey there and back. Luke, Ash, and Wookey were also bound for that end of KH, but in the interests of expediency, we decided to operate as two separate groups, the three of them investigating the leads off 1AM Shower, whilst Alice and I returned to Hobson's Conduit.
<p>
Reluctant to carry rope such a long way, we decided we'd kill off Hobson's Conduit (if it did indeed die), then de-rig the traverses and use that rope for further pushing elsewhere in the area.
<p>
After a lovely night sleeping out on the plateau beneath the stars, we woke up to find we'd overslept by about 45 minutes. Ah well, it'll give the other three a good head start down the pitches! We packed our bags, ate plenty of breakfast, and finally set off for KH. By 11am, we were heading down the entrance series.
<p>
The journey in was rather smooth and uneventful actually. Knossos, Repton, Satan's Sitting Room, Natural Way, it all went by in a blur. After four trips in KH, I was really starting to feel like I knew the route. I was even finally getting the hang of the top rebelay on Strange Upfall! By about half 2, we were sat at the corner at the pushing front of Hobson's Conduit, getting ready to survey.
<p>
After a short break (for the two of us to layer up, and for me to stuff myself with flapjack) we began surveying up the sandy-floored passage past the corner. We got as far as a short blockage of sand that required scrambling up and over before it quickly became apparent that during our break, we'd actually cooled down quite a lot. Surveying was thus put on hold whilst we ran back and forth along the length of Hobson's Conduit for a little while to warm ourselves up.
<p>
Feeling a bit toastier now, we sped back to the pushing front and returned to surveying. ~15m up the passage we found ourselves in an oval-shaped, high-ceilinged (~12m) chamber. There were two small holes way up in the roof, but the only suitable way on was a window around 5m up on the wall opposite the entrance. Yeah, that looks free-climbable! Hmm, that handhold wasn't as solid as I'd thought from a distance. Ok, that rock is actually a bit slippy. Ah, I see. Turns out the rock here is covered in a ~1cm layer of horrible, soft, crumbly cheese. After several attempts involving stepping on each others' shoulders a bit, and pushing at the backs of each others' wellies to keep them from slipping, I finally made it up to the window and peaked over. I was greeted by the sight of a large rift sloping down and away from me, with what looked like a sandy floor ~15-20m below the window. No draft, but it looks reasonably big, so definitely worth exploring! (QM1 A hobsonsconduit2.6). But all our rope was currently inaccessible in the form of the Hobson's Conduit traverses. Huh.
<p>
After a slow climb down (which I did NOT enjoy), we briefly debated de-rigging the traverses on ourselves and using that rope for pushing, before deciding to just leave it for next year. We retreated back down Hobson's Conduit and into MEAT SOFA, noticing along the way that the pitch in the middle of Hobson's Conduit (QM1 B hobsonsconduit.18) wasn't dripping at all today. We de-rigged the second of the two traverses, leaving the first for now, before having a look around at the other leads in that part of the cave. We had a poke over by Mr Tea Strainer, mistakenly went down the Cutlery Drawer thinking it was one of the B leads off MEAT SOFA, then actually had a quick look at those B leads, before eventually deciding they actually weren't looking particularly tempting to push. Instead, we returned to Mr Tea Strainer to have a look at bolting a traverse along the left side of the p6, aiming for the small window in the far wall (QM9 B enniskillen-toad.30).
<p>
After running through a quick plan for it together, Alice set to work doing the bolting whilst I headed back to Hobson's Conduit to de-rig the first traverse. Before I got to work, I quickly sped up Circuit Laundry (briefly stopping to pick up a kazoo I'd dropped during my previous trip) to have a quick look at the drippy aven at the end of the rightmost passage (QM3 hobsonsconduit.20). Last time I'd been there, we were in flood, and it had been far too drippy to be safely passable. But today, with the much drier weather, it was only a little more than a drizzle. Poking my head round the corner, I saw what looked like the top of a pitch at the far end. Maybe worth having a better look at next year!
<p>
As I headed back to Mr Tea Strainer, de-rigging the traverse along the way, I was greeted the sounds of Alice's speaker blasting the small selection of songs she had downloaded on her phone. It was actually a little eerie to hear music from a distance whilst I was de-rigging, but definitely in a nice and atmospheric way!
<p>
I returned to the scene of Alice methodically hammering at anything and everything she could, trying to find a single patch of rock that wasn't crumbly or fractured so she could put another bolt in before traversing around a wall protrusion. We both hammered around for a little while before eventually finding/making a suitable spot, and I left Alice to her bolting once again, heading towards 1am Shower to meet up with the other group.
<p>
Wow, do the passages in 1am Shower draft! I quickly came upon the other group's bags dumped in the middle of the passage, and it wasn't much further on that I found them surveying a low bit of passage. They quickly finished up and we chatted briefly. They'd done their bit for the day and were heading out, so they passed on what they'd surveyed and what they hadn't, and I headed back to re-convene with Alice. We both decided we were most invested in finishing this traverse and seeing what was on the other side of it, so Alice got back to work bolting. Luke popped by briefly to inform us he was leaving a 10m rope at the base of the pitch by Floordrobe Junction that we were welcome to use if we wanted to.
<p>
Soon after, we reached the window at the other side of the traverse. Looking back over the p6 at the opposite wall (RHW if looking from beside Mr Tea Strainer) we could see a large arched passage leading off its base (QM2 A ptgig.2). Through the window, we found a slippery sandy sloping passage. Between this and the traverse was a wall of consolidated sand right where the rope wanted to go, so Alice spent about fifteen minutes excavating it, during which she finally learned why Jonty loves gardening so much. It was such an important experience for her that we decided to call the traverse 'Putting the Green in Greenhouse' (since it was the best 51 Enniskillen Road reference we could think of that had a link to gardening). She put a bolt in at the other side, then I put one final bolt in before descending down the muddy slope. Unfortunately, our rope only made it halfway down, but it was far enough for me to see the huge chamber it led into, with multiple large avens and rifts leading off of it, the sounds of water coming from some of them (QM1 A ptgig.4). The slope comes in somewhere up the wall of this chamber (I couldn't get close enough to the edge to see the bottom, but rocks I threw took 3-4s to reach the bottom, so it's a considerable pitch!). This route definitely leads somewhere interesting, but it might be easier to try pushing from the bottom of the p6 first, as it likely leads to the same place.
<p>
Either way, we didn't really have the rope to continue, so we headed back across the traverse and began surveying. I took a little while shooting splays into QM1 to try to capture its shape (this broadly failed as I wasn't really far enough down the muddy slope to see around the corners properly). Apart from that, it went pretty smoothly, but by the time we finished, it was actually rather late. Once we'd packed everything away and were ready to go, it was already twenty to ten!
<p>
The way back was fine, but longgggg. Our jammers were sad and muddy, so pitches were slow and painful, and we had an especially tiring time getting past the tyrolean in Satan's Sitting Room (the rigging definitely needs rethinking next year. Even just a knotted traverse line alongside it would make a huge difference, as it's quite a pain hauling yourself up when you've come back from a long trip and are already exhausted!).
<p>
The rest of the journey wasn't specifically painful, just long. Shoutout to Alice's speaker for keeping our spirits high! My favourite part was waiting in the large passage just past the top of Strange Downfall whilst Alice ascended. There's something really cosy about that part of the cave! I think it's the fact that it's got downpitches on either side, so you feel both the remoteness of being deep underground and also the remoteness of being perched safely in a high up place. Probably my favourite part of KH.
<p>
By just after half two, we found ourselves at the top of the entrance series. Alice had an especially interesting ascent, as her chest jammer was in manual mode the whole way up. After a little faff, we finally headed back up the side of the plateau to Topcamp for another night beneath the stars.
<p>
*Or so we thought!
<div class="timeug">T/U: 15.5 hours</div>
<div class="editentry"><br /><a href="/logbookedit/2025-07-23e">Edit this entry</a><br /></div>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-24a">2025-07-24</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>philip s</u>, alice, ash, buck, frank, hamish, musky, james h, james w., janis, lara, luke, ned, bigtom, wookey</div>
<div class="triptitle">basecamp - rainy day</div>