More 2014 logbook entries (Jenny)

years/2014/logbook.html

@@ -200,11 +200,11 @@ Craps out in all directions, not worth returning to. On the way out, the Futrell
 <div class="trippeople"><u>Anthony</u>, Rob A, Rob W</div>
 <div class="triptitle">Rig 161g</div>
 
-<p>After a week of effort in 107, the general consensus was that it would be easier to find a connection from the 161 side, so Dr Day's Entrance Pitch Rigging Service was called into action. Trundled over with Rob and enough gear to rig to Strange Downfull, placing a minimal set of reflectors en route. Rigging in proceeded smoothly with few surprises (apart from one handline that had been removed near the start of Peurile Humour - reinstated) and flawless route finding as far as the top of [something starting with k]. Here I discovered that one of the bolts I wanted to use for the pitch head y-hang had been deliberately disabled, so the new rig looks like this:
+<p>After a week of effort in 107, the general consensus was that it would be easier to find a connection from the 161 side, so Dr Day's Entrance Pitch Rigging Service was called into action. Trundled over with Rob and enough gear to rig to Strange Downfull, placing a minimal set of reflectors en route. Rigging in proceeded smoothly with few surprises (apart from one handline that had been removed near the start of Peurile Humour - reinstated) and flawless route finding as far as the top of Knossos. Here I discovered that one of the bolts I wanted to use for the pitch head y-hang had been deliberately disabled, so the new rig looks like this:
 
 <UL>Lovely Drawing</UL>
 
-Route finding through [that thing starting with k, again]/Star Wars/Tower Blocks proved to be a bit more tricky - some reflectors would be useful - but we eventually made it to Staircase 36. The rope for the traverse over a big hole near the bottom of Staircase 36 has been removed and should ideally be reinstated. I rigged Strange Downfull unlike Rob and Rob nosed around in Chicken Flied Nice without finding any obvious route through to Runnel Stone. With that we headed out - a most efficient trip.</p>
+Route finding through Knossos/Star Wars/Tower Blocks proved to be a bit more tricky - some reflectors would be useful - but we eventually made it to Staircase 36. The rope for the traverse over a big hole near the bottom of Staircase 36 has been removed and should ideally be reinstated. I rigged Strange Downfull unlike Rob and Rob nosed around in Chicken Flied Nice without finding any obvious route through to Runnel Stone. With that we headed out - a most efficient trip.</p>
 
 <div class="timeug">T/U: 7 hrs</div>
 
@@ -236,9 +236,11 @@ Route finding through [that thing starting with k, again]/Star Wars/Tower Blocks
 <div class="trippeople">David, <u>Elaine</u> Aled & RobW</div>
 <div class="triptitle">107 - Gemshohle - Attempt #2 to push Wookey & Jess' lead at North end of China</div>
 
-<p>After a later start than was intended (due to my extensive faffinf abilities), we were underground by 11:45. By 1:30pm we had reached "Too bold". This being Elaines 2nd trip of expo, and only her 6th SRT trip, she was not quite so confident on the larger pitches, so we reached the bottom of China by around 3pm. The climb which Wookey had rigged was somewhat precarious to say the least, so we sat on the other side of the choss pile at the bottom in a group shelter until each of us had ascended the climb. Aled & David got to the top and I decided to come up. About halfway up (~2m above the deviation) I felt a massive draught kicking out of a slanting rift in the wall: the lead! The others had gone too high. David dropped down with the drill after I had had a look down the hole, a slanting rift for ~5m which opens out over the top of a reasonable freehang (~20m). The pitch was subsequently dropped by David, who shouted enthusiastically up for someone to follow. I had the survey kit in my bag so I followed on.</p>
+<p>After a later start than was intended (due to my extensive faffing abilities), we were underground by 11:45. By 1:30pm we had reached "Too bold". This being Elaines 2nd trip of expo, and only her 6th SRT trip, she was not quite so confident on the larger pitches, so we reached the bottom of China by around 3pm. The climb which Wookey had rigged was somewhat precarious to say the least, so we sat on the other side of the choss pile at the bottom in a group shelter until each of us had ascended the climb. Aled & David got to the top and I decided to come up. About halfway up (~2m above the deviation) I felt a massive draught kicking out of a slanting rift in the wall: the lead! The others had gone too high. David dropped down with the drill after I had had a look down the hole, a slanting rift for ~5m which opens out over the top of a reasonable freehang (~20m). The pitch was subsequently dropped by David, who shouted enthusiastically up for someone to follow. I had the survey kit in my bag so I followed on.</p>
 <p>After some rigging adjustments, I dropped into a rather large passage with a humongous draught at the end. Very excited! We went round the corner to where Dave had looked to and began surveying. However after 3 legs Dave discovered a survey station which wasn't ours. Strange! This lead us to believe that it was not new passage. We went through a squeeze after a sandy crawl after following a phreatic passage with a gravelly floor, this reached a massive rift with a dodgy looking climb or a dodgy looking traverse [tried doing the traverse but it was a silly idea with us being 2 rather inexperienced cavers on the wrong side of a possibly new bit of passage. We therefore turned round and backsurveyed 8 legs from previous station 18 to the top of the pitch David dropped. By this time, it was getting on for 8pm & with a 12 (midnight) callout we decided it was time to turn round, Aled & Elaine having already headed out. Carrying the drill, bolting kit etc progress was more taxing than expected and we reached the surface around 10:30.</p>
 <p>After some faff and route finding issues we returned to top camp at 11:40pm cutting callout a wee bit fine.</p>
+
+
 <div class="timeug">T/U: 10 hrs</div>
 
 <div class="tripdate" id="t2014-07-31a">2014-07-31</div>
@@ -258,7 +260,7 @@ Route finding through [that thing starting with k, again]/Star Wars/Tower Blocks
 
 <p>Slightly later start than anticipated as Aled had to first fetch his gear from 107. It didn't help that the Plateau Monster bit him on the way back to Top Camp.</p>
 <p>Entrance series was a great selection of rebelays, which - as far as the  writer is aware - is different from previous years, but as it was the first time down Tunnocks for Aled, everything was brand new. Neil provided helpful hints throughout the descent.</p>
-<p>After much traipsing and sliding about, the two-and-a-half musketeers arrived at the desired location (which the writer believes was Champagne on Ice), only to decide the proposed pitch should be dropped from teh other side. I can only then assume we backtracked and headed to Hedonism Highway as by this point I hadn't a bloody clue where I was. Sat at the top of the pitch, Neil got ready for some serious drilling and rigging while Andrew & Aled sat patiently. At some point Andrew headed down after Neil as it went very quiet and dark - Aled was now huddled up in his survival bag and couldn't see anything anyway. Some time passed, and Andrew arrived back declaring we should go off to "cross off some of those fucking leads".</p>
+<p>After much traipsing and sliding about, the two-and-a-half musketeers arrived at the desired location (which the writer believes was Champagne on Ice), only to decide the proposed pitch should be dropped from the other side. I can only then assume we backtracked and headed to Hedonism Highway as by this point I hadn't a bloody clue where I was. Sat at the top of the pitch, Neil got ready for some serious drilling and rigging while Andrew & Aled sat patiently. At some point Andrew headed down after Neil as it went very quiet and dark - Aled was now huddled up in his survival bag and couldn't see anything anyway. Some time passed, and Andrew arrived back declaring we should go off to "cross off some of those fucking leads".</p>
 <p>Many holes squeezed through, precarious climbs climbed, rocks replaced, boulders shuffled, and mud clawed away, and we have discovered the following:</p>
 <p>07-770: Soil filled phreatic passage. Filled to roof, no draft. Probably worth 1 session (with a shovel).</p>
 <p>07-99C: 5m to complete rockfill - draft out.</p>
@@ -271,6 +273,61 @@ Route finding through [that thing starting with k, again]/Star Wars/Tower Blocks
 <p>"Hahaha... nope!" (cries)</p>
 <div class="timeug">T/U: 8 hrs (N & Andrew) 8.5 hrs (Aled)</div>
 
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2014-07-27a">2014-07-27</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Matt, <u>Aled</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">107: Aled wants to drop a pitch, take 1</div>
+<p>Mucho faffos today! Helped not in the least by Aled needing to collect gear from Top Camp first. Underground by 4:30pm!!</p>
+<p>Matt - "No time to rig, just gimme a tour"</p>
+<p>Gave him a tour , I did.</p>
+<p>Got to "Too Bold for This Spit", & found David, Andrew, Jess & Sam coming up the other way! Left bag of rope & rigging gear attached to said traverse. No time to push. Headed back out feeling cheated :-( </p>
+<p>(Also just realised Matt has already written this...)</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 4 hrs </div>
 
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2014-08-01c">2014-07-01</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Michael</u>, Becka, Rob W.</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Surface prospecting, NW of Tunnocks</div>
+
+<p>From Tunnocks entrance walked for ~15 min NW down the large gully before prospecting started, following the cairned route. Took a large loop by heading up the lower slopes of the Grei&#223;kogel, then following the bedding plane NE and upward. After a few hours found only one good lead (2014-777) and decided to turn for home, travelled S back to the end of the cairned route but found a more promising hole (2014-888) which was partly blocked by choss but had a very strong draft coming out.</p>
+<p>777 was tagged & GPS logged, but 888 was only GPS logged for lack of time.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 0 hrs </div>
+
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2014-08-02b">2014-07-02</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Michael</u>, Matt, Sophie, Sam</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Checking Ants in Your Pants for snow level</div>
+
+<p>AIYP (2013-03) is a possible back entrance to Tunnocks, explored in 2013 but found to be blocked by snow. Corresponding but of cave underneath found snow & leaves, so almost certainly connected.</p>
+<p>From the surface, looked like a straight hang to the floor, kicking all the snow & ice of 2013, particularly ice bridges across the shaft. Found to be not the full 60m shaft but only 30m down to what was marked a ledge on 2013 survey, so rest of shaft blocked by snow. Could not see bolts for traverse shown on 2013 rigging guide.</p>
+<p>Also checked 2012-ns-01 for connection into Tunnocks. Snow level was lower than 2013 as it connected straight into AIYP, but required ~30m hand line when walking over snow slope.</p>
+<p>Need snow level to be much lower for hope of making the connection into Tunnocks, even though 2014 has a particularly low snow level anyway.<p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: <1 hrs </div>
+
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2014-08-03a">2014-07-03</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Michael</u>, Neil, Mike & Andrea</div>
+<div class="triptitle">2014-888 and MF unmarked pit</div>
+<p>Follow up on 2014-888, a drafting hole blocked mostly by choss. Took crowbar & bolting kit to prise all the precarious large rocks away from the entrance and rig the pitch that could be seen just beyond them.<p>
+<p>Spend ~ 1 hour trying to clear the entrance, removed most of the small to medium rocks but there was 1 large boulder which wobbled but wouldn't move down the hole. In the end it was wedged to one side so it was passable.</p>
+<p>Neil then bolted the pitch, which went down ~8m to a small chamber where the draft was coming out of a rift too small to pass, with a similar tiny hole in the floor.</p>
+<UL><i>Sketch survey </i></UL>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: <1 hr </div>
+Then proceeded to a large open pit that Mike Futrell found in 2013. Snow plug at the bottom, ~25m drop and ~5m across.</p>
+<p>Entrance was made easier by a hard climb down ~6m on the W side, emerging in a balcony from where the bolting started. Neil gave me his drill and an introductory course on how to bolt & rig (the first cave I had done so on!). [Meanwhiles Mike & Andrea, and Elaine and Same who arrived after their own trip across the valley, discovered that caving can also be a spectator sport. There is a large window opposite the balcony, and they cheered Michaels every move as he bolted the pitch.]</p>
+<UL><i>Sketch survey </i></UL>
+<p>Crapped out on both sides of the snow plug, didn't go anywhere.
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 1 hr </div>
+
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2014-08-03b">2014-07-03</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Becka, Andrew, RobA, <u>RobW</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">107 - KH connection made / KH derig</div>
+<p>I was awoken early by Becka who was very excited about the previous days trip. Survey data was examined & quizzing began. However, being not properly awake i did not provide any useful information at all, so we arranged to go back into 107 with lots of tackle sacks to examine the lead: if it was, as could have been the case, a connection into Korea, we would derig 107. If not, then who knew what was going to happen! After some inevitable faff (I dropped my wellies on the walk over) we got underground around half 11. We were in China by 1pm, and after some flapkjack split into two twos: Rob & I went through the rift & down the pitch, & Andrew & Becka went into Korea & we would shout at each other to see if it connected. On dropping down the pitch, I showed Rob what we had done the day before and we headed up the sandy ramp to the slit. At this point, Rob proclaimed "I bet you &pound;500 that we're in Blown Out." On looking at the traverse I half attempted the previous day, we rescinded the bet until further evidence arose. He found a way to climb down which bypassed this obstacle, and we poked around a bit at the bottom until we heard Becka & Andrew Whooping with surprise: we were indeed in Blown Out! Apparently my failure to mention how sandy the other side of the connection was or that we had found survey station 4 on the other side of the slit. In hindsight, it did look rather like the other leads in KH that I had looked at (Chicken Flied Nice). We decided that we would do the through trip out of KH, derigging as we went. After Becka had done one last survey leg to link mine & Davids data [something] China (using our station 8 & station 4 (?) off the top of the large boulder opposite Wookeys death climb) & me and Andrew had gardened the death climb until there was only half a ledge left to rig off, we set off through Blown Out, Rob rigged the 5m traverse, and we continues derigging en route. Mordor was derigged (and would need rebolting if it is ever descended again), along with Sudenland, Strange Downfall, Knossos & the Entrance. Strange Upfall, Staircase 36 & Repton were left rigged. We were out by 9, & a lightening storm ensured a hasty walk to Top Camp.</p>
+<p>27 min walk to beat the thunderstorm - a fine trip!</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 10 hrs </div>
+ 
+ 
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2014-08-01d">2014-07-01</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Katey</u>, Nathanael</div>
+<div class="triptitle">2005-05</div>
+ <p>After 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!).</p>
+ <div class="timeug">T/U: 3 hrs </div>
+ 
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