Surface - Rope carry to Homecoming + Trial walk from Garlic Cave to Car Park on painted track
Surface - Reflecting the Homecoming -> Fishface route, scoping out a Homecoming to col route
@@ -454,7 +458,7 @@ Bolts used:
2023-07-07
-Philip Sargent,Janis Huns,Jonty Pine,Nadia Raeburn
+Philip Sargent, Janis Huns, Jonty Pine, Nadia Raeburn
Garlic - Hiking to Garlic Cave
Jonty's car: Jonty/Nads/Janis up to Garlic and return this evening. Taking new reflectors made this morning.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -462,7 +466,7 @@ Bolts used:
2023-07-07
-Honorata Bogusz,Mike Butcher,Radost Waszkiewicz
+Honorata Bogusz, Mike Butcher, Radost Waszkiewicz
1623-290 - pushing deep Fishgesicht
We pushed 60m at the top of "Clap My Pitch Up". Pushing required bolting ~20m of a traverse ( Mike adds: 20m ish of the traverse was new passage surveyed this year but there was about 30m of traverse bolted this year which was naughtily pushed by me - Mike - and Luke last year in the Red Light Spells Danger trip so the traverse is about 50ish m long). The final few metres of the traverse go above a sizeable pitch (30m?). We names the bolted traverse, "European Federalists". At the end of the traverse, we continued walking for another ~40m until arriving at the top of a massive pitch - further pushing would require bolting. The distance from where we were standing to the furthest point down the pitch measured with the disto was ~40m. We kicked rocks down the pitch and the sound continued for 10s, giving rise to a presumption that the pitch may be very deep. If it connects to "Clap My Pitch Up", it's at least 100m deep. IMPORTANT: the traverse passage and the walkable continuation are muddy and slippery; posing a hazard of falling down the pitch. Ash, Jonty, Mealy and Janis want to push the lead further on Saturday 8th July.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -470,7 +474,7 @@ Bolts used:
2023-07-07
-Emily Mabbett,Charlotte Payne,Harry Kettle
+Emily Mabbett, Charlotte Payne, Harry Kettle
Homecoming - Rigging towards Watershed in Homecoming
We wandered down to the cave around 10am, making it to the entrance around 12pm. The entrance series went pretty fast ... at least it did for me as Harry and Charlotte were carrying the heavy bags. On the way we made a quick stop to rerig a knot pass. As we reached the bottom of Wallace and Grommit where they had finished rigging the previous day both me and Harry experienced fizzling as we glazed the dry rope on the final 55m. I did not enjoy this part. We then made our way up the climb and Harry began rigging the small pitches before the long pitch series. The most notable part of this was when Harry appeared the wrong side of a pitch head after following the description and getting lost. It was highly amusing. As Charlotte began rigging the final pitch series me and Harry huddled in a shelter and watched Mathilda the musical. As it came to replacing a bolt Harry left to go help Charlotte and I was left along ... until it was discovered the drill battery was dead and I had to come down with a back up. As 8pm approached we made our way out leaving rope to finish the final part of rigging. On the way out we made a noodle stop at the top of Wallace and Grommit but with no fork a knife had to suffice. The walk back was miserable as we started following new reflectors towards the col and had to turn around and start again. We finally made it back to top camp at 1 am.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -478,7 +482,7 @@ Bolts used:
2023-07-07
-Ashley Gregg,Alice Kirby,Amelia Oliver,Will Kay
+Ashley Gregg, Alice Kirby, Amelia Oliver, Will Kay
Fishface – Surveying Stalagtite Loop to the top of Liquid Luck
Following our previous shallow trip into Fishface we set out to continue the previous combined
leads from the day before. The journey across the plateau and into the cave was uneventful, aside from
@@ -506,7 +510,7 @@ camp for curry.
2023-07-08
-Nadia,Jana,Jono,Oakem,Philip B
+Nadia, Jana, Jono, Oakem, Philip B
Garlic - Garlic Cave Set up + First Nights
After doing a big bounce carry yesterday, we now had sufficient supplies to spend the night and begin the proper set up of camp.
@@ -532,7 +536,7 @@ Still need to find a grike.
2023-07-08
-Philip Sargent,Martin Green
+Philip Sargent, Martin Green
Basecamp - Nerd faff
Another frustrating day with network. WiFi router refused to allow connections - rebooted at ~0830. Ok.
Rebooted network for a reason I can't remember - failed to re-establish routing to router. Much faff standing on chairs typing at netbook as cables all duct taped to the wall with it in final operating position up by ceiling. Found the missing rune, edited into 'runfakenet'. Redocumented everything in handbook. By which time the morning has gone and no progress achieved.
@@ -545,7 +549,7 @@ Afternoon: added lots of expoers to folk.csv and adding lots of mugshots. Partic
2023-07-08
-Janis Huns,Amelia Oliver,Ashley Gregg,Jonty Pine
+Janis Huns, Amelia Oliver, Ashley Gregg, Jonty Pine
Fishface - Pushing deep Fishface
We went to where the group - Honorata, Radost and Mike - had left off the previous day. European Federalists was a very tough traverse that required the use of ascenders. We bolted and rigged (my first bolt!) the pitch at the end of the muddy passage about 10m down to a choke of boulders. At the bottom of it we saw that there is a large, smooth crack continuing east leading to a large, deep chamber that seems to be the same one we saw on the right. If it is it would be elongated roughly in a north east to south west direction. Ash and Mealy also explored some C leads which did not go far.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -553,7 +557,7 @@ Afternoon: added lots of expoers to folk.csv and adding lots of mugshots. Partic
2023-07-08
-Will Kay,Emma Caspers,Mike Butcher
+Will Kay, Emma Caspers, Mike Butcher
Amphitheatre - Following up on Radost and Honorata's prospecting leads (Unlucky Gemse cave and Amphitheatre cave)
Radost and Honorata had found a few promising entrances that they could explore with just a hand line on Thursday so me, Mike and Emma set out with caving kit, bolting kit and a few ropes to investigate further (ropes were slightly out of date ones - ropes were very hard to come by at Top Camp so we pinched two 20m ropes from the stash at Fishface entrance).
@@ -573,7 +577,7 @@ We then walked back, attempting but failing to find Garlic Cave. On the way back
2023-07-08
-Sarah Parker,Charlotte Payne,Harry Kettle
+Sarah Parker, Charlotte Payne, Harry Kettle
Homecoming - Beyond Watershed in Homecoming Flowstone Canyon
I carried my caving and bivvy gear from Top Camp to Homecoming whilst Harry and Charlotte carried Top Camp's second shovel and a camp bed (surprisingliy heavy) to be picked up by the Garlic Cave people.
@@ -597,7 +601,7 @@ Slow, tired progress out saw us leave the cave at about 1am. I stumbled to Garli
2023-07-10
-Philip Sargent,Becka Lawson
+Philip Sargent, Becka Lawson
basecamp - Becka arriving
She is arriving at 0941 at the station, would like lift.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -605,7 +609,7 @@ Slow, tired progress out saw us leave the cave at about 1am. I stumbled to Garli
2023-07-10
-Honorata Bogusz,Ashley Gregg,Christian Kuhlmann,Harry Kettle,Radost Waszkiewicz
+Honorata Bogusz, Ashley Gregg, Christian Kuhlmann, Harry Kettle, Radost Waszkiewicz
festering - Canyoning Strubklamm
We went canyoning on a rest day. The "Strubklamm" canyon is located near Saltzburg, approximately 1h of driving from Bad Aussee. The canyon is graded V1A3 (vertical 1, aquatic 3). It's very aquatic, with many small jumps available and a 300m swimming passage. There are 2 bigger jumps: approx. 8m and 10m, both can be abseiled (topo can be found online).
@@ -639,7 +643,7 @@ Yet again a black bmw slowly moved in front of us with their sign flashing. Anot
2023-07-11
-Philip Sargent,Ashley Gregg,Ely Brookes,Honorata Bogusz,James Waite,Radost Waszkiewicz,Thomas Phillips,Will Kay
+Philip Sargent, Ashley Gregg, Ely Brookes, Honorata Bogusz, James Waite, Radost Waszkiewicz, Thomas Phillips, Will Kay
plateau - walk in
Will and Phil went up as part of the 2-car lift to the carpark. Others all going to topcamp. Cardiff contingent (Ely, James, Thomas) arrived the previous day (at last)
Dep. carpark 10:06 we walked to the col but got spread out, 2 Cardiffians particularly heavily loaded so Ash dropped back to accompany them while James headed on with Radost and Honorata.
@@ -648,7 +652,7 @@ Yet again a black bmw slowly moved in front of us with their sign flashing. Anot
2023-07-11
-Philip Sargent,Will Kay
+Philip Sargent, Will Kay
plateau - Garlic and reflectors
At the col, Will, Philip and ? followed Philip B's col-to-garlic GPS track. Somebody else was with us (memory hazy, is this true?
[correct later editorially]). All OK until we hit the hill in the middle where we followed cairns instead of the GPS track, and got in a bit of
@@ -684,7 +688,7 @@ hours of walking.
2023-07-11
-Wassil Janssen,Oakem Kyne
+Wassil Janssen, Oakem Kyne
Homecoming - Five and Flying
I managed to steal Oakem away from Harry, Charlotte and Becka just as they were preparing to depart from Top Camp. After a quick breakfast
@@ -736,7 +740,7 @@ his own logbook entry.
2023-07-11
-Honorata Bogusz,Ashley Gregg,Radost Waszkiewicz
+Honorata Bogusz, Ashley Gregg, Radost Waszkiewicz
1623-323 - Dropping Amphitheater Hoehle
The Amphitheater Hoehle is named after its entrance which resembles an amphitheather. There are a couple of meters of an easy climb from the very top to the boulder where we started rigging. Rigging starts with an approx. 5-6m down climb, where we put a handline. It's followed by a traverse (10m ?) above the entrance to the first pitch. We rigged a Y-hang at the end of the traverse.
@@ -747,7 +751,7 @@ The Amphitheater Hoehle is named after its entrance which resembles an amphithea
2023-07-11
-Becka,Charlotte,Harry
+Becka, Charlotte, Harry
Homecoming - Watershed
Slogged down from Top Camp to Homecoming and headed down the entrance series. Wassil had snagged the rope on the longish pitch near the entrance (just after snow ends, beyond short crawl). It was so tight that Charlotte had to downprussik to free it. Steady progress to the pushing front in ~2.5 hours.
Charlotte rigged a traverse down and across 2m so Harry and I could survey a side passage that quickly reached a pitch whilst Charlotte remained to finish rigging the pitch. We all descended the pitch to 2 routes.
@@ -759,7 +763,7 @@ Slogged down from Top Camp to Homecoming and headed down the entrance series. Wa
2023-07-11
-Emily,Charlotte,Harry
+Emily, Charlotte, Harry
Fishface - Kresh Konnection exploring and rerigging
The day started fairly quick and we arrived at the Fishface entrance at 10:30am, making our way underground by 11. Joel and Lizzy went around to re-bolt the first pitch in the connection with me and Merryn following after to measure and record rigging diagrams. Due to an odd mixture of rope the first 9m pitch ended up being rigged with a rope from 1999… As we went on Joel and Merryn rerigged P4 and P5 with separate ropes to free up the 50m currently being used so we could bring the 50m down to where we were planning to push. During this time Joel rearranged the ropes and went back to remove the 1999 rope and replace it with an in-date rope. Essentially a good few hours were spent rearranging ropes, during which time me and Lizzy took a nap in a shelter at the bottom of P5.
@@ -771,7 +775,7 @@ For the rest of the trip we actually ended up dropping to the bottom of the seco
2023-07-12
-Emma,Mealy,Jonty,Mike B
+Emma, Mealy, Jonty, Mike B
Fishface - Camp in Fishface - pushing Redlight & Persied Showers
10-07-23 - We wake up early-ish with the goal of leaving at 9/10 but quickly decide MUCH more faff is needed. A stop is made at the shops to buy biodegradable bags and a magazine, eventually Jonty, Mealy and I made it to the car park. It is very very warm and we worried about dehydration. We get waking, faffing more by running into many groups coming off the plateau, and Mike catches up quickly. Once on the plateau the weather seems more pleasant - a cool breeze is present now - when I see the cause - a huge could of rain hanging over the Dachstein. "Nah, that's just mist" says uncle Mike. We make our merry way, not forgetting to bow to the plateau monster (Mike doesn't bow) until we hear a rumble of thunder, "Nah, just a plane" says uncle Mike, soon, to vertical rains start, which we are not dressed nor prepared for, so we hide by crouching against a wall in the plateau. Then, wind turns and we get very soaked so we huddle under Jonty's 1-man emergency bothy. Anyway sun returns, much more faff is had, I take a fall... we don't make it into Fishface until 20:45, carrying LUDICROUSLY large bags! Mealy and I lead the way in, made a little clumsy by our heavy loads - though not as heavy as jonty's, and not at all as bad as mike's whose "side bag" is a full-sized tackle sack containing lots of rope. The first pitch was not my Friend and I dropped a plastic bottle - after that I enjoyed myself - esp. impressed by TK Maxx, a super cool pitch!! Mealy & I get down just after 23.00, followed soon by Jonty and a little later by Mike who had stopped to get even more Rope. Mealy goes of to faff with Cavelink, Jonty & I head over to help and we send the important message "camp creche want more peanut" - it sends. Mealy & I share warmth & noodles. Jonty & mike eat curry, we whip out the mini-Jagermeister, all take a little sip and head to sleep. I apparently caused some disturbance by snoring (sorry) and we all sleep intermittently.
@@ -791,7 +795,7 @@ Transcribers note, 21st July 2024. Whilst I do appreciate the write up and the
2023-07-12
-Merryn Matthews,Emily Mabbett,Joel Stobbart,Lizzie Caisley,Thomas Phillips
+Merryn Matthews, Emily Mabbett, Joel Stobbart, Lizzie Caisley, Thomas Phillips
plateau - Prospecting between Homecoming and Fishface
We started by walking to Unlucky Gamse Cave, mostly following the path to homecoming, as Radost and Honorata had told us there was
an exciting looking entrance around 50m North of it - Rose Blumen Hoehle (2023-hbrw-05). We dismissed their cave as choked by snow, however it
@@ -821,7 +825,7 @@ Caves found:
2023-07-12
-Ashley Gregg,Janis Huns
+Ashley Gregg, Janis Huns
Amphitheatre – Surveying Frozen Unknown
We went back to continue exploring Amphitheatre. Since we were now pushing decently underground, we kitted
up and then headed in. Adjusted the initial traverse line rigging slightly.
@@ -855,7 +859,7 @@ Can't really remember the rigging exactly. Continues for about 200 m of rope to
2023-07-12
-Emily,Joel,Lizzy,Merryn,Thom
+Emily, Joel, Lizzy, Merryn, Thom
Plateau - Prospecting near Fishface
After consulting the weather forecast in the morning and seeing 50mnm of rain forecast from 8pm onward we decided the best use of our day would be to prospect. Our first port of call was a previously scoped hole of the path between Fishcace and Homecoming. With no photo and only a rough location we looked in a few holes climbing to the bottom of a couple that looked possible but to no avail. After marking the holes we decided to continue in a vaguely North direction following a passage in homecoming below us. After some impressive Bundah walking we found another prospect in which Joel eagerly descended only to find it also choked out - it was therefore nicknamed Joel's disappointment , which later changed to sunglasses disappointment after he figured out he lost his sunglasses somewhere into the hole.
@@ -867,7 +871,7 @@ From here we began to circle back towards FishFace, on the way we found a large
2023-07-13
-Honorata Bogusz,Charlotte Payne,Harry Kettle,Jonty Pine,Oakem Kyne,Radost Waszkiewicz
+Honorata Bogusz, Charlotte Payne, Harry Kettle, Jonty Pine, Oakem Kyne, Radost Waszkiewicz
festering - Via Ferrata "Panorama Kletterstieg Sisi"
@@ -933,7 +937,7 @@ Pic: Oakem Kyne (L) and Jonty Pine (R) on Panorama Kletterstieg Sisi.
2023-07-13
-Zac,Jono,Sarah,Will
+Zac, Jono, Sarah, Will
Homecoming - Investingating around Radogast
The day started out bleak with the plateau overcast and still soaked from the night before. Zac and Sarah set out from top camp while will and Jono came from base. We all bumped into each other at homecoming which was excellent timing. We proceeded to garlic cave for some lunch where Zac and Sarah got very cold. Phillip joined us there also. we waited for the rain to die away then headed over to homecoming. Sarah followed by Zac, then Will then Jono. The plan was to re-rig the small pitch and traverse after Radogast as well as investigate a phreatic tube 5m bellow the Radogast pitch head. each of these were to be done in pairs but the plan was scrapped when Jono needed the longer rope from Sarah (exploring Radogast) to re rig the pitch and the traverse. In the end Zac re-rigged it under Jono's supervision while the other 2 stood around.
@@ -946,7 +950,7 @@ One the way back to top, Zac slipped and pulled his arm/ scraped his arse meanin
2023-07-14
-James Waite,Charlotte Payne,Harry Kettle
+James Waite, Charlotte Payne, Harry Kettle
Homecoming - pushing down homecoming from flowstone canyon, into alpine showers
after a heavy afternoon at the tatty hut, Harry asked if i fancied coming to
@@ -1048,7 +1052,7 @@ Full details at
2023-07-14
-Honorata,Chi,Merryn,Oakem,Radost,Wassil
+Honorata, Chi, Merryn, Oakem, Radost, Wassil
Basecamp - Floating down the river to Bad Aussee
Floating down the river to Bad Aussee. Me and Radost are leaving today so we wanted to do a fun rest day activity on our last full day. Chi, Wassil, and Oakem agreed to go canyoning to Grabenback (VZVZ)(?) with us. We decided that we wanted to be in the canyon in the hottest moment of the day. We were ready to leave at noon but chi realised he'd lost his car keys. 2 hours of searching for them around the potato hut yielded no results. Disappointed, we decided to float down the river to Bad Aussee where we later had ice cream. Floating down the river has been definitely the most dangerous and stupid thing I've done on expo. Don't do it and if you have to - wear a helmet, gloves and shoes unlike us. I stated rolling on one waterfall and was really afraid I'd hurt my head. Then, I hit my lip really hard on a rock. I'm not gonna do it again. Ice cream was nice though.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -1056,7 +1060,7 @@ Floating down the river to Bad Aussee. Me and Radost are leaving today so we wa
2023-07-14
-Will,Mike,Nadia,Sarah
+Will, Mike, Nadia, Sarah
homecoming - Shallow Homecoming and pushing beyond Hobknob Hallway & Dead Flied Passage
Having seen 2 A-leads at the end of dead flies passage on the big survey we headed down to investigate & push. Arriving at the end of the survey, we reached a small 3x1.5m chamber with a streamway passage (?2018-26A) back to the left and a more rifty passage straight ahead (?2018-25A).
@@ -1074,7 +1078,7 @@ Speaking of, towards the end of Dead Flies Passage we found a tacklesack presuma
2023-07-14
-Becka,Charlotte,Harry,James,Jono
+Becka, Charlotte, Harry, James, Jono
1626-359 - Homecoming . Watershed . Alpine Showers
Walked from Top Camp to Homecoming + headed down quite efficiently, split to 2 groups at the previous survey limit, below CHarlotte's 2nd pitch, Harry, Charlotte + James started surveying downstream. Jono + I surveyed upstream for a mighty 3 legs ("Alpine Waterfall") to where the stream spouted down from on high.
We went up the pitch with the rope + drill aiming to bolt a vertical lead but Harry caught us up to say they needed it so he took the drill + rope + they bolted downstream until they ran out of rope to leave a splashy A-lead continuing downstream.
@@ -1089,7 +1093,7 @@ T/U Becka and Jono 13 hours, the others 15 hours
2023-07-15
-Ashley Gregg,Ely Brookes,Janis Huns
+Ashley Gregg, Ely Brookes, Janis Huns
Prospecting - Up to Homecoming from the Col
Edit this entry
@@ -1112,7 +1116,7 @@ drops approx. 5m with snow at bottom, can't clearly see bottom from top.
2023-07-15
-Ashley Gregg,Ely Brookes,Philip Balister
+Ashley Gregg, Ely Brookes, Philip Balister
2018-DM-04 – Prospecting, exploring, surveying
The plan was to do some prospecting in the relatively uncovered area around Garlic cave.
We met up with Philip at Garlic cave and had some noodles for lunch. Philip had already done some
@@ -1135,7 +1139,7 @@ Top Camp.
2023-07-15
-Christian Kuhlmann,Merryn Matthews,Wassil Janssen
+Christian Kuhlmann, Merryn Matthews, Wassil Janssen
Homecoming - In Search Of Salamanders
Following an impromptu pre-expo-dinner dinner the night before, we all arose with a tinge of hangover. Rapidly consuming breakfast and packing kit, we set off at 8:30am, only 30 minutes after we said we would which in all fairness is very good going for us.
After a smooth ferry to the Loser car park by our wonderful chauffer Alice, we set off up the mountain. Almost immediately after we left the car park a navigational faux pas was made and we found ourselves on the wrong path, and with a small section of off-roading, we headed up to top camp with no other further obstructions.
@@ -1168,7 +1172,7 @@ Overall, a great trip with over ~294m surveyed and more promising leads found. C
2023-07-15
-Becka,Sarah
+Becka, Sarah
2023-BL-01 - Prospecting N of Garlic Cave
We walked under the flanks of the Kleine Wildkogel to the ridge at the top where you can see down to the tiny hut in the bowl between that ridge and the next. The gps track for Becka is [?] downloaded and I logged four caves numbered 2023-BL-01 to 04. Two were horizontal and are katasterable (02 and 04) and the other two (01 and 03) are open shafts that would need to be dropped to be checked out.
T/U: 0.17 hours
@@ -1176,7 +1180,7 @@ We walked under the flanks of the Kleine Wildkogel to the ridge at the top where
2023-07-16
-Ashley Gregg,Evelyn Surman
+Ashley Gregg, Evelyn Surman
Prospecting - Much prospecting near Balcony
Deciding I wanted to go prospecting but didn’t particularly want to walk back over to garlic cave,
so recruited Evelyn, our resident non-caver to go wander around near balcony. Armed with known cave
@@ -1209,7 +1213,7 @@ yield any new caves.
2023-07-16
-Mark Shinwell,James Waite
+Mark Shinwell, James Waite
surface - Walk from Gschwandt Alm
Walk from Gschwandt Alm below the western edge of the plateau.
[note taken from gps23.svx]
@@ -1250,7 +1254,7 @@ Having arrived at top camp we decided to go and poke the hole we had found at th
2023-07-17
-Ashley Gregg,Emma Caspers,Oakem Kyne
+Ashley Gregg, Emma Caspers, Oakem Kyne
Fishface – Kresh connection confusion
Joel had discovered an exciting new cave, unfortunately this left us with rope and a lead down in
the Fish face – happy butterfly connection which no-one was going to. I was naively convinced to go and
@@ -1360,7 +1364,7 @@ Despite ~300m of passage being surveyed minimal progress was made in getting clo
2023-07-17
-Joel,Lizzie,Thom
+Joel, Lizzie, Thom
Tempest - The Tempest Diaries
Rearing to go and with many promising leads to explore we raced down to Tempest to continue the work we finished. Tom's bolt which means the scree slope was marginally safer to descend. I continued down to a choke above a short pitch with a ledge to LH whilst Lizzie and Tom surveyed from the entrance. Some serious gardening was required which occupied me until the other two arrived. Thyen we bolted a traverse into the short pitch and entered the chamber now known as Narnia. Due to the impressive frozen waterfalls and other ice formations we surveyed into this chambers noting again exciting leads to both left and right of the pitch base, then headed back to the surface.
T/U: 5.0 hours
@@ -1368,7 +1372,7 @@ Rearing to go and with many promising leads to explore we raced down to Tempest
2023-07-18
-Ashley Gregg,Merryn Matthews,Zac Woodford
+Ashley Gregg, Merryn Matthews, Zac Woodford
Tempest – Touch of Death
Excited to go and see (and kill) this new cave, two groups set off to push the two ‘A’ leads at the
extent of Tempest. Arriving at the cave we prepared the bags and realised we’d forgotten a hammer, so
@@ -1458,7 +1462,7 @@ The hype was growing and not one but two groups went to push (or kill in Ashs ca
2023-07-19
-James Waite,Jono Lester
+James Waite, Jono Lester
Homecoming - pushing beyond death sump and the heifer
jono and i had spotted an A lead bolt climb off the edge of propane nightmares over the death sump. armed with bolts and mikes drill we set off from garlic cave and after much faff we finally enteretd into homecoming. we got our kit into two bags of very heavy nature and set off down the cave. the entrance pitches went easily and eventually we got to the traverse . this was a interesting with large blokes and large bags stuck in the rift. after a large amount of swearing we got down to wallace. this went easily, and we got onto grommit. this was rather "fun" as the rope was looking interesting, and you had to go very slowly to avoid sizzling. at the bottom of grommit we gathered some bolts and hangers from the bag down there and set off into propane nightmares.
@@ -1474,7 +1478,7 @@ we regrouped at the base of the heifer after adding a bolt to make the pitch hea
2023-07-19
-Ashley Gregg,Will Kay,Zac Woodford
+Ashley Gregg, Will Kay, Zac Woodford
2023-ASH-15, 2023-ASH-16 - Prospecting – dropping Boring Hole and Dead on Arrival
Took Zac to bolt a cave he had previously found not too far of the path to Fishface. Slight delay as
we’d forgotten something important (bolts maybe?), which Will went back to get.
@@ -1489,7 +1493,7 @@ rift the were no continuations. Will named it Dead on Arrival (2023-ASH-15). Sur
2023-07-19
-Ashley Gregg,Will Kay
+Ashley Gregg, Will Kay
Plateau - Surveying Little Tent and Gollum Grotto
Deciding we weren’t done for the day yet an afternoon evening trip was decided upon to survey some
of the caves Evelyn and I had found a few days ago. Will and I gathered the necessary gear and set off
@@ -1508,7 +1512,7 @@ off on the edges of the plateau. Plus curry for dinner.
2023-07-19
-Joel,Ely,Lizzie,Merryn,Thom
+Joel, Ely, Lizzie, Merryn, Thom
Tempest - The Tempest Diaries
On what would really turn out to be our last day in Tempest, two groups went down once more - an intense pushing group and some tourists, me, Lizzie, and Ely attempted to bash a bigger hole to get into the rift at the bottom of Tomb Raider, achieving virtually nothing after an hour of work and deciding once again to drop in without SRT kits, we were joined by Merryn and the skeleton team squeezed in to survey the rift. This sadly crapped out ion chokes at both ends of the rift and along a continuation to the right, but we surveyed and got some good photos before returning out the hole to discover mildly hypothermic Tom waiting for us in his gimp poncho like some frozen wizard. Concluding that despite our best efforts the cave was going nowhere. We de-rigged the cave in stages and left all the rope at fishface. Defeated but content, we retreated to Top Camp.
@@ -1518,7 +1522,7 @@ On what would really turn out to be our last day in Tempest, two groups went dow
2023-07-19
-Nadia,Flo,Kai,Max
+Nadia, Flo, Kai, Max
surface - Prospecting near Fishface
We found a cave with 2 entries that linked together in several places. We dropped the first one and it didn't go anywhere so we dropped the second pitch which had loads of ice features which some of which had to be destroyed to stop them squishing people. The second part of the cave sent straight down then opened up slightly with a low flat chamber.
T/U: 2.0 hours
@@ -1526,9 +1530,11 @@ We found a cave with 2 entries that linked together in several places. We droppe
2023-07-19
-Becka,Sarah
+Becka, Sarah
2023-BL-05 - Prospecting W of Garlic cave
-See Becka's track log for route and 2023-BL-05 to 09 for 5 logged caves. Adam descended three of them on naturals but sadly they all ended immediately, as did the two horizontal areas that we logged, we also failed to circumnavigate the Flares wilks kogel which made me both sad and cross. I checked out Paul Walko's lidan hole in the bunde which turned out to be a grassy bowl with no hole whatsoever.
+See Becka's track log* for route and 2023-BL-05 to 09 for 5 logged caves. Adam descended three of them on naturals but sadly they all ended immediately, as did the two horizontal areas that we logged, we also failed to circumnavigate the Flares wilks kogel which made me both sad and cross. I checked out Paul Walko's lidan hole in the bunde which turned out to be a grassy bowl with no hole whatsoever.
+
+[Ed. But Becka's GPS track has not been uploaded to expofiles/gpslogs ]
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -1542,7 +1548,7 @@ See Becka's track log for route and 2023-BL-05 to 09 for 5 logged caves. Adam de
2023-07-20
-Ashley Gregg,Thomas Phillips
+Ashley Gregg, Thomas Phillips
Plateau - Surveying Top Camp Band and Bat versus Rat
Decided to go and survey/kill a couple more caves before heading down off the plateau for the year.
Aware that I would have a lot of data to sort out and vague plans to go canyoning Friday before the
@@ -1574,7 +1580,7 @@ Either way, glad to see it being pushed towards the rest of the system!
2023-07-20
-Sarah,Becka
+Sarah, Becka
Homecoming - Goosebox -> Lassitude Chambers
Managed to get underground before noon (!) at about 11:40am, Becka had gone via fishface to pick up her caving kit and some drill batteries. We got to the bottom of Grom,it without incidence and sorted through the drill and drill accessories that had been stashed there. They were in a holey tackle bag with no dry bag so drill was extremely dirty. We repurposed Adams sainsbury's bag to Hobnob hallway, dead flies to the pushing front. We dropped to a large ledge near where I had run out of bolts on a previous trip. I drilled up whilst Becka and Adam layered up. I descended to my previous single bolt rebelay and turned into a Y hand. I abseiled around 1 further sm and put in another rebelay. Here, the initial rift meets a perpendicular canyon with a small waterfall coming in from the side. I descended another 10m and peeked around the corner finally spotting the bottom of the pitch with my spot. I rigged a final rebelay and reached the bottom.
@@ -1603,7 +1609,7 @@ After a long drive across Europe consisting of pension, traffic, H52 and car tal
2023-07-23
-Adam Baldock,Kai
+Adam Baldock, Kai
plateau - Mendip Man & Silver Moth
We set off to the fishface gear strone on a fine sunny day. I was promised some proper mendip esc horizpntal passages, exactly what I came to expo for.
Kai showed me into mendip man, past the dollop of snow on the rather impressive entrance and set off down boulder and rock rubble, [?] crawling passage.
@@ -1634,7 +1640,7 @@ With a great draft draft out of the hole we planned to return with a handline an
2023-07-23
-Emily,Joel,Lizzy,Merryn,Thom
+Emily, Joel, Lizzy, Merryn, Thom
Plateau - Prospecting near Fishface
After consulting the weather forecast in the morning and seeing 50mnm of rain forecast from 8pm onward we decided the best use of our day would be to prospect. Our first port of call was a previously scoped hole of the path between Fishcace and Homecoming. With no photo and only a rough location we looked in a few holes climbing to the bottom of a couple that looked possible but to no avail. After marking the holes we decided to continue in a vaguely North direction following a passage in homecoming below us. After some impressive Bundah walking we found another prospect in which Joel eagerly descended only to find it also choked out - it was therefore nicknamed Joel's disappointment , which later changed to sunglasses disappointment after he figured out he lost his sunglasses somewhere into the hole.
@@ -1646,7 +1652,7 @@ Yet another Bundah battle later we emerged to 2 rucksacks on the plateau and rea
2023-07-23
-Botcherby,Rob Watson
+Botcherby, Rob Watson
Fishface - 4th pitch derig
After storming up to Top Camp, we decided to make use of the rest of the day by de-rigging the 4th pitch in FishFace. I enjoyed learning the route to FF and the progression of alpine flowers. We arrived around 1700 only to discover that Rob's drill was not in the alcove. After having a meltdown and shouting at no one in particular, Rob decided to run back to Top Camp to get a drill whilst I chilled out in the sun. We actually got down around 1800, quickly smashing down to the offending pitch around 1900. While Rob got the drill set up I went down to identify which rope was the new one (Nadia had previously started the re-rig) and show Rob where to head for at the bottom. After faffing about changing ropes, I got down to the bottom, then up the handline to the new bottom of the pitch. As it would take some time, I decided to explore a bit. I ran down a few pitches which was easy due to [?]. Went wrong once when I popped through a little hole to a crumbling slope above a big drop. After a while, I thought maybe I should return, but maybe just one more pitch... This was the massive TK Max. At the bottom it was really time to return (2015) so I quickly stepped it back, returning to a (slightly worried) Rob at 2100ish. He'd been done for 40 minutes and had had the time to de-rig most of the old rope. To my disappointment he'd opted not to pass the rope through the little window. We got back to camp at around 2230 where the other were a bit suprised by our lateness. Ate a massive bowl of tortelloni.
Thru bolts used: 5
@@ -1657,7 +1663,7 @@ Thru bolts used: 5
2023-07-24
-Joe Stell,Kai Trusson
+Joe Stell, Kai Trusson
Fishface - Tourist Trip to Pisspot
Tourist trip down Fishface to Pisspot. Already more SRT than Joe has done in his entire lifetime combined, hopefully not holding up Kai too much.
Turned around and headed back out after 2 hours or so as felt we had done enough SRT practice
@@ -1666,7 +1672,7 @@ Thru bolts used: 5
2023-07-24
-Joe Stell,Kai Trusson
+Joe Stell, Kai Trusson
Surface - surveying/prospecting small leads found yesterday by Luke, Becca and Max
Becka checked with Joe Stell and Kai Trusson to clarify this write-up. It does describe Mendip Man albeit confusingly. The paragraph starting "upon leaving" is the main, left route after the entrance. The initial write-up refers the shorter, right route. This was surveyed on this trip but there was a problem with the data collected and so the data wasn't added to the database. It also isn't clear where the GPS location referred to below was taken.
@@ -1679,7 +1685,7 @@ Thru bolts used: 5
2023-07-24
-Rob W,Nadia
+Rob W, Nadia
Homecoming - Rigging fixing
Various reports/complaints had made it clear that the rigging in homecoming left a lot to be desired so since the forecast for the afternoon precluded the possibility of derigging Big Bastard or making moves to push Clap My Pitch Up Nadia and I derived to go and fix this.
The walk between this cave from FF is one of the most irritating pieces of plateau bashing I have ever had to do. Lots of snaking up and down rugged terrain, through large patches of bunde and dwarf willow, with little idea how close you are to your destination. So SA to a good start. Eventually arrived and kitted up. Headed down the first couple of pitches with banks of snow before arriving at the pitches after the crawl. I installed a new bolt at the pitch head just after the crawl to make a traverse line. Then installed another rebelay near the bottom of this to reduce rub.
@@ -1695,7 +1701,7 @@ We turned around at ~20:30. On the way out I noticed that Radagast, forced along
2023-07-24
-Luke,Becka,Botch
+Luke, Becka, Botch
surface - Wombling around tidying up the mess
After Becka was finally ready we set off to FF, underground before 11am. Got to camp in 1hr making note of all the equipment abandoned in the cave. 2x ropes, 1xbrew kit, 2x tackle bags. Went to de-rig morning the moths it was dry, no water insight, con-try to previous explorers reports. Both derigged removing the nuts (take note for returning explorers no nuts. After much discussion we decided to go to coconut shy to rejig our memory on the way and jokingly sent Botch down a rat hole, Unfortunately it went and he disappeared for too long and I realised I would have to regrettably follow him to survey it. We started to survey as the passage got progressively smaller and muddier before a final letter box which shot you out into a rift. Well Botch and Becka surveyed. I desperately looked for a way to get back to known passage without going back through the letter box, I succeeded by climbing up through the rift but would need bolting if people return. Went back to see that Botch and Becka had survey to a point that would need rope. I sent them back through the letter box (gerbialhole.sux) and did the dodgy climb one more time. Little scuttle around coconut shy. Then it was time to go home. Fettled the cave link, went out of the cage removing excess and dirty rope above ground before sunset.
T/U: 10.0 hours
@@ -1703,7 +1709,7 @@ After Becka was finally ready we set off to FF, underground before 11am. Got to
2023-07-27
-Joe Stell,Frank Tully
+Joe Stell, Frank Tully
Surface - Check your bits
Hearing of an exciting new lead, "Mahlstromhöhle", from Frank, Max and Flo, Frank and I embarked on a walk westward out of Fishface gear dump. Upon finding the entrance (which took considerably longer than anticipated) we quickly started kitting up, only to find an absence of any drill bits in the drill bag, contrary to what Frank believed to be the case. Frank then left for fishface gear dump in search of drill bits, whilst I waited patiently, in kit.
@@ -1714,7 +1720,7 @@ After Becka was finally ready we set off to FF, underground before 11am. Got to
2023-07-27
-Becka,Luke
+Becka, Luke
Fishface - Rerig clap my pitch up + 4[??] pitch
Down Elizabeth line +rigged the red [light?] for danger traverese, 2 short pitches + then luke rigged clap my pitch up.
We exited + luke rebolted the 4th pitch further back giving a hang that avoided the traverese + the awkward rebelay that had previously been tried - this is the 4th + hopefullly the final iteration of the 4th pitch this expo.
@@ -1723,7 +1729,7 @@ We exited + luke rebolted the 4th pitch further back giving a hang that avoided
2023-07-27
-Botch,Nadia
+Botch, Nadia
Fishface - Rigging and Gerbil Hole ATtempt
After a freezing night in the cloud at top camp, the prospect of an underground camp wasn't seeming too bad. We got going slowly due to the chill, then walked over to fishface. The camping team was myself, Nadia, Rob and Kai plus a non-camping team of Luke and Becka. We were last so spent some time re-rigging the 4th pitch - removing the footless traverse in favour of two rebelays. I was a bit concerned it'd be too tight but we didn't want to put any bolts in so left it at that. We got to underground camp and had some noodles - no utensils so we ate with a pencil. We then went to bolt down the rift that Luke freeclimbed to the lead in the rift at the end of Gerbil hole. Rigging took a while due to the confusiong nature of the rift and shit rock. We'd used our two ropes to get to the lead so just surveyed out to complete a loop. By the time we got back to camp it was 2100 so we just madesoopy smash curry and ate it with spanners.
@@ -1733,7 +1739,7 @@ After a freezing night in the cloud at top camp, the prospect of an underground
2023-07-27
-Rob,Becka,Botch,Nadia
+Rob, Becka, Botch, Nadia
Fishface - Camping without utensils
Did a bit of packing the night before but it was too chilly to want to really to the past. So that had to be done on the following morning, when it was equally cold. Which made us all a bit grumpy. Plan for day 1was for Kai and i to visit the European Federalists area to see if we could work out what was going on there while Like was also there rigging CMPU.
After an uneventful commute we arrived at the traverse above red light. This was very much the return of Balcony's Arse. Disgusting sticky mud everywhere and they had used the 8.5mm rope to rig it. Thus making the rope really nasty. One part of the traverse was pretty strenuous and muddy, no one needed that. I feel bad for whoever had to wait while it got bolted. Anyway, got to the end and it was a total minger. Super chossy pitch combined with a mud festival. No thanks. Got a voice connection with Becka at the top of CMPU but couldn't see her light. Decided to fuck off as it was almost certainly just the top of Apis Medicus. Left it rigged for now. A visual connection can be made later. Then we headed back along the traverse to the head of CMPU to try and traverse across the 'free arse' that Luke and I had spotted the year previously. It quickly became apparent that traversing at the level of the 'free arse' would be very difficult, so I decided instead to traverse above and then drop in from the top. Some very muddy and naughty traversing ensured with a handy dose of choss. But a short while later and I was bolting at a rather nice phreatic passage with two junctions visible immediately. Very promising!
@@ -1746,7 +1752,7 @@ Next day we struggled to find motivation to leave sleeping bags but eventuallu m
2023-07-28
-Joe Stell,Frank Tully
+Joe Stell, Frank Tully
Maelstrom - Finally Underground
After the brilliant success of yesterday's failed pushing trip, Frank and I returned to Mahlstromhöhle to actually go underground and push. After the entrance pitch, there is a small hole in the floor, from which several small-ish pitches follow.
@@ -1757,7 +1763,7 @@ Next day we struggled to find motivation to leave sleeping bags but eventuallu m
2023-07-28
-Lea,Luke
+Lea, Luke
Fishface - Fishface - perseid shower to flaque vente
Descended to camp near perseid showers.
Left some of our gear there and continued down Perseid showers.
@@ -1774,7 +1780,7 @@ What an amazing feeling to be at the bottom of fishface! WOW!
2023-07-28
-Becka,Adam A,Adam E,Ben
+Becka, Adam A, Adam E, Ben
Fishface - Claw_crane off coconut shy
steady abseil down the entrance series.
Ben + Adam EJ decided to head out from there so we had a quick tourist up Elizabeth line then they headed out.
@@ -1791,7 +1797,7 @@ For some reason Adam dawdled at camp + ended up exiting last + was late back to
2023-07-28
-Nadia,Botch,Kai
+Nadia, Botch, Kai
Fishface - Theopillus Goon, above CMPU
After Rob and Kai travered over the top of CMPU the day before, finding a phrease window, Botch, Kai and I got to reap the Horizontal rewards.
Starting at the window we took the small phreatic tube on the left of the window.
@@ -1823,7 +1829,7 @@ Also there is another small rift on the left earlier on in the passage that I co
2023-07-29
-Joe Stell,Frank Tully,Nadia Raeburn
+Joe Stell, Frank Tully, Nadia Raeburn
Maelstrom - "Undersold"
Hearing of our great success with this shallow lead, Nadia, having returned from a fishface camping trip the day before, decided she would join us for a nice easy surface trip.
@@ -1837,7 +1843,7 @@ Also there is another small rift on the left earlier on in the passage that I co
2023-07-29
-Kai,Becka,Luke
+Kai, Becka, Luke
Mendip man - Mendip man - Surveying trip
We headed out early ish and headed down to fish face gear store to find becka almost ready complaining about the quality of Distos lasers in the [day?] even tho she didn't [not?] to bring hers.
After some above ground ffaffing we headed to the entrance where Becka rigorously ran through propa[sic] surveying techniques with me.
@@ -1854,7 +1860,7 @@ Luke then showed me a hole he found that drafts
2023-07-29
-Botch,Rob
+Botch, Rob
surface - Garlic Cave area prospecting
We were both tired from 2 days in FIsh Face so went to prospect around Garlic Cave. We took a couple of blue barrels over for GC storage. We stopped via Homecoming to have a look and took some extra stuff to take down the hill. We dallied a bit looking at plants and arthropods and also got a bit lost. Once at GC we relocated the Jape Drum and removed the soup inside then had bread and cheese while looking at the view. We had limited time to prospect so set off quickly. At first we found little but then by levitating over some bunda we located a couple of decent prospects - one hole under a green alder (needs capping due to boulders) and another large slope to a small square hole with a 10m drop below in big area of bunda, no movement. We then headed back and got very lost on the 'well cairned' route back. On the way we located a very good lead, drafting with a snow plug and a massive train tunnel near the path that has leads in the back that could have been blocked by a snow plug before. We were very late to meet our lift back, but so were they. Back down for a swim in the lake with lightning.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -1897,7 +1903,7 @@ Also, it is now our closest cave passage to the neighbouring Schönberg system (
2023-07-30
-Rob,Becka,Botch,Lea,Luke
+Rob, Becka, Botch, Lea, Luke
Fishface - Pushing The bottom of fish Face - camp #2 - part 1
Headed underground at~10pm on 30/07, arrived at camp around half 11.
Good nigts sleep, unike the following night.
@@ -1930,7 +1936,7 @@ thru bolts used 16
2023-07-30
-Rob,Becka,Botch,Lea,Luke
+Rob, Becka, Botch, Lea, Luke
Fishface - Pushing the bottom of Fishface Camp#2
Headed underground at ~10pm on 30/07, arrived at camp around half 11. Good nights sleep, unlike the following night. Packed rope, bolts etc before facilitating a quick start. Fixed up the rigging on Apis Mediary on the way down, arrived at the first pitch which was left in the canyon by myself, Nathan and Max last year. Much wetter than last time so decided we needed an additional rebelay bolt way out to the left. Next drop rigged then we were into new territory. Scuttled along the top of the traverse after trying to force a lower route & deciding it was too shit. Reached a big pitch, decided the scuttle needed to have rope so began bolting along while Luke and Lea surveyed, Luke returning to the hang to get additional rope in the meantime . Dropped down the pitch towards a ledge, swung out to avoid the sprat of the pitch with a skyhook. PING! It was off, I swung across the shaft, stopping myself from hitting the wall with my hand which was unusable for the rest of the trip.
@@ -1942,7 +1948,7 @@ Called it Dentelle de Caca after Lea said that the flaky calcite precipitates on
2023-07-31
-Joe Stell,Ruairidh MacLeod
+Joe Stell, Ruairidh MacLeod
Surface - Prospecting alternative entrances for Maelstrom
After a leisurely (not quite for Ruairidh, carrying far too much) walk up to topcamp with Frank and Nadia following a leisurely morning start from me, Ruairidh and I decided that we could attempt to find an easier, quicker entrance to Maelstrom by following the rift from the surface whilst the other two and Sam were actually in the cave derigging. First we found a large basin, containing what appeared to be a large cave entrance, but upon further inspection, choked out towards the back of the cave. Ruairidh did find a nice complete Gaemse skull though, which he seemed quite happy about. Another potential entrance found further along the rift with a steady flow of water disappearing into the ground which could explain some of the bigger drippy pitches after the lovely squeeze. The rift splits into two further on, with some promising, but inaccessible, looking gorges on the right fork as you follow it. The left seemed less promising from memory but this area is definitely worth another look with bolting kit to make sure. Realising we'd actually got quite close to the col, we decided to simply hike towards the slabs and rejoin the carpark-topcamp path and head back.
T/U: 0.0 hours
@@ -1950,7 +1956,7 @@ Called it Dentelle de Caca after Lea said that the flaky calcite precipitates on
2023-07-31
-Ben Chaddock,Adam E,Charlie Crossley
+Ben Chaddock, Adam E, Charlie Crossley
Fishface - Cocoa Channel Bolting Mission
[Adam E = Adam Erskine-Jones]
On the morning of my first pushing trip deep within Fishgesicht (5 minutes from camp) the nervous energy carried me up and away through the bountiful faff. After triple checking that we had all the equipment for bolting and surveying a rift that apparently continued but was too sketchy without a traverse line, Charlie, Adam EJ and I traipsed across the plateau for even more faff outside the entrance. After a prompt descent we met the camping team who showed us the way to silverback scoop including a stop at the tap and going down a wrong branch. Squeezing through a pitch head to descend 7m into a dusty tight canyon with a tackle sack full of heavy gear, I did wonder what I was doing, but once the drill was out that fell away completely.
@@ -1963,7 +1969,7 @@ Called it Dentelle de Caca after Lea said that the flaky calcite precipitates on
2023-07-31
-Botch,Becka
+Botch, Becka
Fishface - Fuck Keanu - U/G camp Day 1
After getting underground late the light befroe we got going relatively promptly at 0830.
We were supposed to check Keanu Breezze, a wet lead that was supposed to be decent.
@@ -1987,7 +1993,7 @@ We got back to camp around 2030 and made dinner with a very wet Rob springint in
2023-07-31
-Adam Baldock,Kai
+Adam Baldock, Kai
Mendip Man - and Silver Moth
We set off to the Fishface gear store on a fine sunny day. I was Promised some proper Mendipesque horizontal passage, exactly what i came to Expo for. Kai showed me into Mendip Man, past the dollop of snow in the rather impressive entrance and set off down boulder and rubble floored crawling passage. At a junction we started to survey a descent lead to the right. I was on disto and Kai on book. The passage was low and surveying was pretty tight. We surveyed on and the passage gently descended with a few turns and low squeezes and a junction halfway on the right. The roof lowers and craps out after about [no number given] metres. The ceiling is decorated with cloud and plume like lumps of calcite. After the passage crapped out we pushed back and surveyed along to the right. This just led us round in a loop to earlier in the entrance series. Before going left at the first junction I attempted to dig out a slope while Kai went for a piss. The dig was fruitless and we proceeded on through a rather rude and grumpy bit of low passage with a sea of rude routes on the floo and pushed into a standing height chamber with boulders in the center. There were two leads here. The first was a small crawling passage, not quite flat out, which ended quickly, and was filled with bat poo and fungus growing up on it. The other lead was after a climb up through a squeeze. After the squeeze a 4m rift appeared, human sized in width! It seemed to descend to floor level and we didnt descend it. It is still a open lead but definitely a D lead, and probably goes back to floor level. We surveyed to the rift and called it a day on Mendip man. Without a good dig it doesn't appear to be going.
@@ -1997,7 +2003,7 @@ Before heading back to camp we checked out a hole which Luke had found which nee
2023-08-01
-Joe Stell,Adam Aldridge,Manfred Wuits,Nathan Walker
+Joe Stell, Adam Aldridge, Manfred Wuits, Nathan Walker
Surface - Hike to Garlic
Woke up to see a sub-optimal forecast. Somehow I was convinced that hiking to Garlic Cave Camp was of course the best course of action to take, so we set off. It was actually dry for the first third or so to fishface gear dump to collect our caving gear, but this did not last.
@@ -2008,7 +2014,7 @@ The path is a little treacherous in the wet, so it was a little slow going and s
2023-08-01
-Lea,Botch
+Lea, Botch
Fishface - Bavarian Gentian
Descended big pitch pitch rigged by Both and started surveying the chamber.
It was a wet day and we heard the water at the back of the pitch start flowing with more energy. We surveyed a rift at water level. Didn't finish surveying it and lleft it as a QM. We surveyed the rift at the back of the chamber which led bback to coconut chamber?
@@ -2022,7 +2028,7 @@ Very nice caving day. Went back to top camp after 2 nights in underground camp.
2023-08-01
-Becka,Luke,Rob
+Becka, Luke, Rob
Fishface - Pushing the bottom of FishFace - camp #2 - part 2
After a slowish start we surveyed [?] Delicate steve
Rob's traverese into a phreatic window opposite the [clap?] my pich up pitch [ahead?], reapeating the Rob and Kai survey that had been deemed inadequate.
@@ -2036,7 +2042,7 @@ I got all the rope back to camp + sorted it to prusik out (beasing bags) + some
2023-08-02
-Joe Stell,Adam Aldridge,Manfred Wuits,Nathan Walker
+Joe Stell, Adam Aldridge, Manfred Wuits, Nathan Walker
Buzzard - dropping Buzzard Hole on the northerly Kleiner Wildkogel ridge
After our lovely sleep, we woke up to dry weather, and set off to the top of the ridge above Garlic. Carrying the thick, wet 90m up the mountain was not conducive to good balance so I did fall over in the bunde and struggle to get back up. We reached Buzzard, Adam rigged it, first to the bunde, then hand bolting whilst we waited patiently. The improvement in weather did give a lovely backdrop of the Braeuningzinken for photos. Nathan went down next, followed by Manfred whilst I stayed outside enjoying the view. Upon Adam's return, I swiftly fell asleep, and awoke to find Nathan and Manfred had finished their survey and were finalising some sketches. Adam spotted some interesting holes beneath us on the plateau, so wet set off to prospect (see next entry).
T/U: 3.0 hours
@@ -2044,7 +2050,7 @@ I got all the rope back to camp + sorted it to prusik out (beasing bags) + some
2023-08-02
-Joe Stell,Adam Aldridge,Manfred Wuits,Nathan Walker
+Joe Stell, Adam Aldridge, Manfred Wuits, Nathan Walker
Surface - Prospecting east and south of Kleiner Wildkogel
After dropping Buzzard, the fours of us decided to drop down the north face of the ridge, heading east at first, then split to form two prospecting
groups, Adam and I heading further east to wrap around to the south face of the ridge, and Nathan and Manfred following the north face westwards to
@@ -2063,7 +2069,7 @@ that seem to follow a rift along the base of Wildkogel, then back to Garlic camp
2023-08-02
-Hannah Collings,Nadia Raeburn
+Hannah Collings, Nadia Raeburn
Fishface Camp - Pushing Theophilus Goon
Tuesday was another wet day so a day of top camp fettling was had whilst plans were made for a fish face camp the following day. We had a (fairly) efficient morning, departing top camp shortly after 10 having received a debrief from the previous camp group, who had returned in the early hours, on the state of the latest leads.
@@ -2083,7 +2089,7 @@ that seem to follow a rift along the base of Wildkogel, then back to Garlic camp
2023-08-02
-Becka,Adam E,Lea,Luke
+Becka, Adam E, Lea, Luke
Plateau - Prospecting around FishFace
A mellow, pleasant wander in the sunshine, we found + sechecked 2019-CUCC-RH-01 (GPS 47.69156 13.81210 alt 1659) - this was (still) a p4 to a ramp fown to a choke.
We then [found?] 2023-BL-10 Lea + Adam EK dropped a p5 to a 5*5m loose chamber with a crwal to the N to a 2*4m chamber 4m high with no way on.
@@ -2094,7 +2100,7 @@ Luke then [...] a more direct, better route to Homecoming as he and I ferried ou
2023-08-02
-Botch,Rob
+Botch, Rob
Plateau - Cold Shallow Holes
prospecting N of FishFace
After gettinng out of a 48h camp we were a bit knackered so wanted t do some prospecting.
@@ -2116,7 +2122,7 @@ They showed us a promising potential bivvy site too.
2023-08-03
-Joe Stell,Adam Aldridge,Becka Lawson,David Botcherby,Nathan Walker
+Joe Stell, Adam Aldridge, Becka Lawson, David Botcherby, Nathan Walker
Garlic - Fettling
Woke up. 10am. It was rainy :(
@@ -2132,7 +2138,7 @@ did also later. I took some photos and made some shoddy diagrams of the tarps. G
2023-08-03
-Lea,Adam E,Ben C,Manfred
+Lea, Adam E, Ben C, Manfred
FishFace - Channel number 2 (continuing Cocoa_channel)
Descended fishface antrance series with tourist trip (adam B, Sam Lee, Kai). Had a snack in the kitchen and went to the end of cocoa_channel.
Ben bolted new travers lines, adam EJ was on nail polish duty, manfred had Wookey's disto and I was doing the notes (for the first time).
@@ -2148,7 +2154,7 @@ Adam EJ derigged and we came back to top camp.
2023-08-03
-Nathan,Becka,Botch
+Nathan, Becka, Botch
Homecoming - Pushing/derigging trip down Homecoming - Goosebox - Sticky trigger
Having no plans to cave at Garlic camp I set off for homecoming with no plans, a bag full og gear of hope.
I met becka as they were descending the entrance and joined their pushing/derigging trip to their evident relief.
@@ -2168,7 +2174,7 @@ We surfaced near 10 and I returned to Garlic with becka.
2023-08-03
-Rob,Chi,Luke
+Rob, Chi, Luke
Homecoming - Homecoming - second coming shitshow
Chi had come up to top camp hoping to continue pushing 2nd comng with some people who might help him carry the gear out after, unlike some.
So we set off in the drizzle for Homecoming entrance, making use of part of the shortcut to the [?] that we scouted when dropping off our gear at the entrance the day before.
@@ -2216,7 +2222,7 @@ thru bolts used: 2
2023-08-04
-Joe Stell,Hannah Collings
+Joe Stell, Hannah Collings
Basecamp - Garlic Guide
Following a swift departure from Garlic in the morning, and an even swifter (and sweaty) hike across the plateau carrying the thick 90m rope with
all my other kit, I partially completed the garlic camp guide.
@@ -2242,7 +2248,7 @@ The website currently on shows 3,233.2 m 2023-08-06
-Charlie,Adam B,Adam E,Ben C,Nathan W
+Charlie, Adam B, Adam E, Ben C, Nathan W
Fishface - The Three-Day Bound for The Four-Day Week-End
-It all begins in the tatty hut, several gossers short of a brewery. "let's go up in the weather window!" charlie had not done enough caving and wanted to camp in FF. "We'll call it the three-day bounce"."then we'll have a four-day weekend!" "We go to find the four day weekend!"
-
@@ -2324,7 +2330,7 @@ After about 20 legs Rob had finished his rigging and came and collected Botch to
2023-08-06
-Hannah Collings,Nadia Raeburn
+Hannah Collings, Nadia Raeburn
Fishface - Camp: Muddy Goons
Blog Author: h_collingsFishface Camp - Muddy Goons
@@ -2363,7 +2369,7 @@ The pitches back to camp were painful, despite their shortness, due to our mud c
2023-08-08
-
Sam,Adam A,Becka,Hannah
+
Sam, Adam A, Becka, Hannah
Homecoming - Homecoming push Derig - Watershed
After a big (double noodle) breakfast we packed all three of our through-bolts ... and headed down from garlic to Homecoming. Our mission was simple, push a lead in watershed, then derig Waterershed and the top of the entrace series. Our lack of through-bolts did not deter us.
@@ -2574,7 +2580,7 @@ expo suggestion - double sized both container bags 6 no. [?] (current bags don't
2023-08-10
-
Rob Watson,David Botcherby,Kai Trusson,Nadia Raeburn
+
Rob Watson, David Botcherby, Kai Trusson, Nadia Raeburn
fishface - Connecting FF to SMK: a step further
Blog Author: nobrotson
Connecting FF to SMK - a step further
-
