A canyonning trip was suggested, and as I'd done it a couple of times before and thus knew where it was, and what to look out for, it @@ -1291,7 +1291,7 @@ Zac did break the log book, while waiting around. But Phil got very grumpy about
@@ -1345,7 +1345,7 @@ Jono
@@ -1660,7 +1660,7 @@ We slept out under the shooting stars and milky way. Every time I woke, relieved
Lucy having already covered much of the trip in I will only fill in the gaps alluded to
@@ -1684,7 +1684,7 @@ I was so happy to find that we had made it out in time to catch the sun and spen
@@ -2094,7 +2094,7 @@ The positive outcome of the trip was the realisation that the traverses may well
@@ -2135,7 +2135,7 @@ Nothing happened, apparently. Odd.
@@ -2189,7 +2189,7 @@ Finally there were a series of snow plugged shafts in the area of 33T 411482 528
@@ -2267,263 +2267,6 @@ We had managed to de-rig 4 pitches, had created an unlinked survey and spent 10
-In addition we checked out a blocked shaft, 33T 411490 5284140 Alt ~1892. Rubble slope to a choke - finished, not worth katastering. Becka photo. -
-Also Gemse Graveyard, 33T 411542 5284276 Alt ~1920. This was a small choked chamber 8m x 2m. Nat has a photo. Finished, not worth katastering. -
-Finally there were a series of snow plugged shafts in the area of 33T 411482 5284210, elev ~1882m. We didn't have time to look at any of these. -
[Main write-up above - This is Wook's writeup of his somewhat separate trip]
- -Long walk over from Stone Bridge with all our gear, cairning and reflectoring on the way.
- -Dropped gear and went to look at Garlic cave (first visit for me) and grab some gear
. - -James rigged in, whilst the rest of us sat in the sunshine and got -changed slowly. So slowly in fact that he reappeared after about an -hour for the second bag of rope that no-one had delivered. Oops - we -are bad assistants.
- -The others headed down and I stayed at the back doing a rigging -resurvey, to get good rope lengths and an accurate rigging guide, as -the one we had was a bit vague. Spent a long time measuring both bolt -drops and rope lengths and knot types (and then later on the surface -measured how much rope various knot flavours use) in order to get -accurate lengths. This is quite tricky to do solo on longer pitches, -but my new SAP6 seemed to work, so that was good.
- -I had forgotten my main light batteries somehow so was on my Fenix -backup, and after a while I realised as I had no spare battery for the -Fenix and thus no light whatsoever if I had light or battery failure, -and was in a cave I'd never been in before with no real idea of where -to go, and I'd not seen anyone else for about 2hours, maybe I should -stop faffing about and catch up with the others. This is exactly the -sort of thing we tell people not to do in Austria :-)
- -Got a bit confused at an apparent dead-end before finding the -up-pitch rope, and soon enough was dropping a big pitch where I found -the others coming up, with a pressie in the form of a bagless dirty -rope to extract from the cave. Spent 40mins(!) undoing a knot in one -of the left ropes.
- -This cave seems notably devoid of floor after the first few -pitches. Out after a very civilised 4hrs, with a tedious slog back -to the Stone Bridge.
- -Wassil was excited to finally make some progress on 2nd coming, so -we walked over to Homecoming from top camp with a nice new rope to -have a serious rigging attempt.
- -Met Charlotte's group at the entrance and had an awkward -conversation about rope as they were short, but we wanted to use what -we'd carried over to rig down so couldn't really spare any.
- -In fact on packing we realised that we could spare about 40m, but -the others had gone. Sent quick-change Sieds down to try and catch -them up but he was too late, so that didn't help in the end.
- -When I got to 2nd Coming I was _very_ impressed with the draft, -which is massive despite a very tall rift. Wassil and Sieds went off -to start rerigging down the pitches and I was left to tart up the -dodgy traverses, using my nice new Miwaukee M12 drill. I'd not -actually put a through-bolt in since China in 2014 so a quick refresh -was done to be sure I didn't screw it up. I now spent about 7 hours on -my own except for 2 visits from Sieds looking for more bolts and/or -nuts. The existing rigging was pretty shoddy with a few bits of cut -rope on traverse segments, but not much rhyme or reason about which -bits were rigged and which weren't. It was true that much of it didn't -exactly _need_ a rope, but as a trade route it really wasn't very safe -without one.
- -I started where the previous trip had left off after a couple of -bolts, soon noticing that there was a perfectly good floor about 6m -down so went to see why not just go that way. It was a bit narrow in -places and after about 80m you end up pushed back up to the traverse -level by rockfall, so maybe staying at the traverse level made sense, -although it seemed marginal. Initially I replaced the old 2012 rope -with some in-date stuff, but rapidly ran out of new rope and had to -put the old stuff back on the next section. Someone to discuss rigging -with would have been nice, as it was very hard to decide which bits -should have a rope and which didn't need one, but as it was just me I -did my best to make it not-shit. Did some gardening too.
- -Hours with no floor is a pain. I had to unchain a ~60m rope without -anywhere to put the loops except one wedged rock. Turns out it can be -done, by draping the rope carefully over your legs braced across the -rift and taking a lot of care not to get things tangled, but that was -another 40 mins gone.
- -Eventually the others returned, having run out of nuts, even the -ones scavenged from my rigging. I had put 11.5 bolts in (with a 4ah -battery) and it still wsn't quite dead, so that was good. Wassil told -me to put rope on the couple of sections I'd decided were easy enough -to remain unroped, so apparently I should have just done the whole lot - anyway.
- -I put one more hole in on the way out, near the top of Wallace, -just above the deviation, in order to get rid of the ridiculous offset -rebelay and epic return deviation, but that finally did finish off the -battery so I had to leave it as a job to be finished another time. 12 -holes final score. Got out about midnight, and we still had that -bloody walk back to the Stone Bridge as Garlic was full of Charlotte's -team. It's 150m of height gain over the 2nd kilometre, plus another -35m of extra up-and-downing (according to my GPS), which is why it -feels like bloody hard work, especially carying all your gear at -2am. At least our improved reflectoring and cairning (and less cloud) -meant we didn't get lost this time.
- -A good trip, although it was a pity I didn't get to see more of the -route in the end, as I was now decamping to Balcony to help get that -rigged.
- -Ar ddiwrnod cinio'r expo ymgasglodd grŵp tag rag o ogofa o dan darp y cwt tatty. Roedd yr ogofwyr hyn i gyd yma am y rhesymau anghywir i gyd. Yn gyntaf, roedd y goruchaf arweinydd a'r cynllunydd teithiau Marie wedi mechnïo ar ogofa yn hytrach na golchi ei danwisg. Nesaf mae gennym Wassil a oedd yn gohirio ei draethawd meistr ac yn teimlo trueni drosto'i hun am ladd ei dennyn ei hun. Yn olaf mae gennym Dickon a benderfynodd fynd ar alldaith ogofa er ei fod yn casáu ogofa, ac o ganlyniad yn cael ei ethol yn mynd canyoning. Wrth fwrw ymlaen â ffurfio'r triawd gogoneddus hwn, penderfynodd Chi ddangos ei wyneb yn dilyn taith wersylla anghysbell na arweiniodd at wersyll yn digwydd ac a oedd ar ben colled. Mae'n debyg bod Marie, Wassil, a Dickon yn edrych fel grŵp addas i fynd â'r ceunant gyda nhw a rhywsut fe benderfynon nhw y byddai Chi yn gyd-chwaraewr addas.
--
Er iddi ddeffro am naw am a gadael am ddeg, llwyddodd Marie rywsut i faffio am ddwy awr. O ganlyniad i'r rhuthr i baratoi, ni astudiwyd y disgrifiad llwybr o'r canyon a ddewiswyd y noson gynt (er efallai na ddylai fod wedi cael cyfrifoldeb llawn y sefydliad o ystyried mai hon oedd ei thrydedd daith canyon erioed). Ar ôl tri stop pwll ar gyfer hetiau, sbaneri a hwmws post-canyoning (nid yn y drefn honno - bydd y drefn a'r cyfuniad yn cael eu gadael fel ymarfer i'r darllenydd), nid oedd Marie bellach yn edrych fel y mwyaf garw ar y daith. Yn anffodus, symudodd y bai yn ôl i Marie pan fu'n rhaid i Dickon yrru am gyfnod heb ei ddatgelu i lawr y ffordd i gael rhyngrwyd i lawrlwytho'r disgrifiad o'r llwybr fel ein bod yn gwybod beth oedd ar y gweill.
--
Gan fod Dickon yn delio â llanast Marie, gwisgodd Chi ei siwt wlyb a'i sanau gwlyb. Yn anffodus, roedd yr archeb yn is-optimaidd, ac roedd angen ei haddasu. Byddai hyn yn gofyn am gyfnod hir o noethni, a fyddai'n amlygu celciau beicwyr i ddyndod Chi ei hun. Ar ben hynny, byddai fflachio Dickon wedi newid deinameg y grŵp fel y byddai Marie a minnau'n teimlo ein bod ni'n drydydd a phedwaredd olwyn.
--
Ar y daith gerdded i fyny, cyflawnwyd bondio grŵp wrth i Wassil rannu ei ofn dwfn o dyllau gwlyb bach, a cheisiodd ei wynebu trwy fynd i mewn i dwll o'r fath (pibell ddraenio dan rod). Ar wahân i t, ni ddigwyddodd dim o unrhyw ddiddordeb ar y daith gerdded i fyny. Cyraeddasom ben y canyon, pan benderfynasom ein bod yn glaf o gerdded wrth ymyl y streamweay a disgyn i mewn iddo.
--
O ganlyniad i anghofio popeth a ysgrifennwyd yn y canllaw (cawsom ychydig o sesiwn darllen grŵp), roedd y Canyon yn llif cyson o syrpreisys. Roedd y diffyg gwybodaeth hwn yn atal ein gallu i neidio, gan ein gorfodi i droi at abseilio yn lle hynny. Un rhaeadr arbennig, Wassil abseilio gyntaf (nid yw'n hoffi dŵr cymaint â hynny mewn gwirionedd). Yna holodd Chi ynghylch dyfnder y pwll, ac atebodd Wassil "dau fetr", mewn gwirionedd yn golygu "o leiaf dau fetr". Y gwir yw, mae ofn dŵr dwfn ar Wassil ac nid oedd wir eisiau plymio ymhellach nag 20cm.
--
Aeth y Canyon yn ei flaen gyda set o feysydd diddorol ond technegol gan gynnwys rhaeadr ddwbl gyda throbwll a achosir gan hypothrtmia a llinell groesi hynod o uchel a rwystrodd Marie rhag gadael y pwll a grybwyllwyd. Ar ôl cael ei llusgo allan o'r pwll, nid oedd Marie bellach yn marw o hypothermia. Roedd ail gam y rhaeadr ddwbl yn cynnwys yr hyn a oedd yn edrych fel naid ond a ystyriwyd yn rhy dwp i Chi hyd yn oed roi cynnig arni. Er mwyn llywio hyn yn ddiogel bu'n rhaid abseilio i tua 3m oddi ar y dŵr ac yna disgyn yn rhydd. Ni chafodd Wassil y neges, gan arwain at dorri ei benelin ar silff fechan. Roedd yn ymddangos yn eithaf trist am hyn ac roedd angen cyfres o sesiynau cwtsh gourp i atal hypothrtmia yn ei siwt wlyb fer (pam fyddech chi'n canyon mewn hosrt wetsuit? - mae Wassil yn dadlau bod undersuit a oversuit yn gwella hyn. Nid yw'n gwneud hynny.)
--
Roedd yr ychydig leiniau nesaf yn llawer symlach ac ni hawliodd unrhyw anafiadau pellach. Fe wnaethom bhowever, aros yn eithaf oer a dechrau awydd diwedd y daith. Ar y ffordd daethom o hyd i rannau amrywiol o gloddio wedi'u gwasgaru ar draws y ceunant ac yn y diwedd cyrhaeddwyd y brif afon. Ar ôl taith gerdded fer yn ôl i'r car, gwledd a ffaff hwmw, penderfynodd Dickon fod yr arwyddion llwybr ceffyl yn amlwg wedi'u bwriadu ar gyfer cerbydau modur, er mawr siom i bawb arall yn llythrennol. Gan gynnwys cerddwyr. Dangosodd tri beiciwr eu diolchgarwch ar ffurf ystumiau wyneb amrywiol ac yn ystod ein hantur aethom drwy dwnnel diddorol a phontydd lluosog nad oedd yn ymddangos yn addas ar gyfer car o bedwar. Er gwaethaf protestiadau'r teithwyr, ni wnaeth Dickon droi o gwmpas ac roedd yn bendant bod ei "l
wybr" yn gyflymach. Daeth i'r amlwg bod ei "lwybr" mewn gwirionedd 6 munud yn gyflymach ac fe gyrhaeddon ni gyd i'r pryd expo ar amser. --
[See other logbook entry on this date] -
-we then decided to leave by the normal route to end up doing the round trip to do a sporting trip. which is ironic on an expedition. there was much cursing of how bastardly and awkward some of the pitches are. I had all of the bolting kit along with a 40m rope that we had de rigged a couple of days ago so that was a heavy bag resulting in some slow prussiking. I also waited occasionality to tell the others where to go for some of the navigation required. we were out of the cave for 18:00. - -
-well what to say. A very eventful night. Expo leaded read a speech, Expo leader got thrown in the river, What else copuld have happened???? -
-
-We're now sat in the tatty hut listening to the rolling stones. -
-IMPORTANT TO REMBER
-
-broken bottles cut hands
-
-dont drink too much
-
-drink water.... that reminds me
-
-dont drink too much
-
-
-well as I speak big tom himself has given up -he has collapsed on the floor, absolute scenes, he had to be lifted up be Chi -
-he is back on the floor. Isaac begins to fight him. -"ill break your knee caps" says big TOm -"its comfy" he adds. -isaac gives up and returns to his seat. -
-now. Bon Jovi begins to play. May I(bier tent) add that this song fucking sucks. Ok well big Tom is up and dancing with Isaac(I know the development). -'we gotta hold on to what we got' -
-the music cuts. -
-the music continues. -
-Isaac and big tom are fighting. -
-now they are sat down... very civil. -
-the river is being discussed. -
-pink floyd came on for about 1.5 seconds. -philip S was happy about that. -
-ok about time that I (bier tent) joined in with this great party(went to sleep). -
-Just a reminder:expo is over, we found all the cave.
-
-Expo is now more of a holiday really, just going down all these already discovered leads...
-
-anyway -
-bier tent out! o7 -