Elliott started the journey to Austria in London on Thursday, July 13th. He then travelled to Braintree to Cambridge to Richmond to Ingleton then to Leeds for the night at mine. Meanwhile I was panic-packing my entire life, moving out of my house and packing for expo all at once. The next morning we left for expo via Cambridge to pick up some survey instruments and Braintree to pick up all the remaining expo food ? a more challenging prospect than it sounds given that the van was already very full when we set off from Leeds, owing to nearly 1.5km of rope between sponsorship rope, rope we?d bought, and kit from the tackle store.
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Lots and lots of rope. Photo Elliott Smith.
@@ -397,27 +397,27 @@ All the rope magically disappeared from the van and everything that wasn't new r
The next day, after nursing a hangover (or four) we pulled the rope out of the river and started processing it ? stretched it, dried it off, and packed it into tackle sacks to carry up the hill.
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Chris Densham removing rope from the river. Photo Elliott Smith.
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300m of rope packed into two tacklesacks (Katey Bender and Chris Densham). Photo Elliott Smith.
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1km of rope disappeared into tacklesacks. Chris Densham and Katey Bender labelling bags. Photo Elliott Smith.
@@ -427,21 +427,21 @@ Despite our best intentions Elliott and I were allocated to the first undergroun
Day 2 of underground camp saw us continue to the deepest passage in Tunnocksschacht ? Song of the Earth, pushed last year to -902m. Minimal rigging after most of the ropes were left in last year made for a quick descent and we soon reached the bottom of the cave. The deepest point of the cave is a mud sump with no way on, though we stopped off there to show Chris as he?d not been before and to take some photos.
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Elliott Smith and Katey Bender, from teams 1 and 2 to visit the mud sump. Photo Chris Densham.
While there, after a brief ?oh bugger?, Elliott pointed out that there was a small airspace on the far side of the mud sump. Naturally, as the smallest person on the trip, I got posted down the hole. As I was headfirst down this rather tight hole, helmet off, Chris decided to take some photos.
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'Just hold still Katey, this is a good photo!? [Note Boots at top right pf photo] Grumble grumble.' Photo Chris Densham.
@@ -449,21 +449,21 @@ We noticed a small draft in the mud sump (very odd) but decided not to be Mendip
The pushing front was a 6m climb, which I?d free climbed at the end of last year but which really needed a rope on to be safe. So, the first task was climbing up it and bolting it.
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Katey Bender free-climbing to the pushing front. Photo Chris Densham.
That done, Elliott and Chris followed me up and we carried on to the exciting part. Elliott did a slightly dodgy semi free-climb, semi bolt climb up the most promising lead while Chris and I surveyed a couple unpromising leads.
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Elliott Smith approximately bolt climbing. Photo Chris Densham.