Having confirmed with Anthony that CUCC AD 03 had not been dropped, the first post-Expo Dinner task for Elaine & Elliott was to take a look at it. It was Elliott's first ever bolting trip. The first bolt went in like a dream. Howeer, whilse setting the second bolt (in the best rock we could find), a large crack appeared around the Hilti, and then the whole bit of rock sheared off. We therefore decided to name the cave Bergkåsehöhle - Mountain cheese cave.
-Subsequent bolts were more successful and we dropped the small pitch to a boulder-floored chamber. The way led on over a suspended boulder floor, past a precarious boulder and on to more boulders. The terminal chamber had a reasonably strong draught, some kind of lacewing-like insect and a lot of suspended boulders, both above and below, but no person-sized way on. Elliott insisted that it was merely eau de death, not the parfum. We went back and surveyed a small downclimb around halfway along our survey. With a suspended boulder ceiling & floor, possibly held up by magic, this was definitely more along the parfum line of things. 2x C leads in this area, but very deathy, and neither of us fancied pursuing them. We derigged out and decided to do a spot more prospecting in the area.
-One nice horizontal entrance proved just too short to count as a cave (just S of CUCC 2002 AD 03) (no tag).
+ +Having confirmed with Anthony that CUCC AD 03 had not been dropped, the first post-Expo Dinner +task for Elaine & Elliott was to take a look at it. It was Elliott's first ever bolting trip. The +first bolt went in like a dream. Howeer, whilse setting the second bolt (in the best rock we could +find), a large crack appeared around the Hilti, and then the whole bit of rock sheared off. We +therefore decided to name the cave Bergkåsehöhle - Mountain cheese cave.
+ +Subsequent bolts were more successful and we dropped the small pitch to a boulder-floored +chamber. The way led on over a suspended boulder floor, past a precarious boulder and on to more +boulders. The terminal chamber had a reasonably strong draught, some kind of lacewing-like insect +and a lot of suspended boulders, both above and below, but no person-sized way on. Elliott insisted +that it was merely eau de death, not the parfum. We went back and surveyed a small downclimb around +halfway along our survey. With a suspended boulder ceiling & floor, possibly held up by magic, this +was definitely more along the parfum line of things. 2x C leads in this area, but very +deathy, and neither of us fancied pursuing them. We derigged out and decided to do a spot more +prospecting in the area.
+ +One nice horizontal entrance proved just too short to count as a cave (just S of CUCC 2002 AD 03) +(no tag).
A very promsining-looking entrance N of CUCC 2002 AD 03 (named "The Devil's Arse" by Elliott) (to be fair it did look like a giant arse crack) went nowhere (any way on is choked or plugged with snow).
-We had a poke about up the hill in which CUCC 2002 AD 03 is situated - yielded 3 tiny entrances that went nowhere.
+ +We had a poke about up the hill in which CUCC 2002 AD 03 is situated - yielded 3 tiny entrances +that went nowhere.
+After being pressured to start pulling gear out of various places, we decided to polish off the Futrell Shaft. Over a dozen hangers and 200m+ of rope was left in there. With Michael bolting, and E,ain and I surveying, we were underground by 12:00. Mike's shaft of Tremendous girth really does live up to its nickname! After some 150m of rope work, I swapped positions with Michael on a ledge at the pushing front, some 30+m from the base of the shaft. Michael started drilling and Elaine and I some cold & awkward SRT surveying. The new pitch consists of a 55m rope, from a good-sized, 10m2 shelf of solid boulders. A Y-hang from a small gully leads to a re-belay, ~10m below. Another ~15m to another re-belay, single bolt, before 10m to the floor of the shaft.
-No obvious leads, except one small < human-sized crawl, no more than a C-lead. Michael had a look and was haued out by his feet. Loose boulder-strewn floor with clean walls gave nothing else away. De-rigging took ~2.30 hours, with the difficult narrow entrance making tackle sack hauling very hard work. Martin & Jacob helped to get gear back to Top Camp, after meeeting them at Balconhöhle.
+ +After being pressured to start pulling gear out of various places, we decided to polish off the +Futrell Shaft. Over a dozen hangers and 200m+ of rope was left in there. With Michael bolting, and +E,ain and I surveying, we were underground by 12:00. Mike's shaft of Tremendous girth really does +live up to its nickname! After some 150m of rope work, I swapped positions with Michael on a ledge +at the pushing front, some 30+m from the base of the shaft. Michael started drilling and Elaine and +I some cold & awkward SRT surveying. The new pitch consists of a 55m rope, from a good-sized, +10m2 shelf of solid boulders. A Y-hang from a small gully leads to a re-belay, ~10m +below. Another ~15m to another re-belay, single bolt, before 10m to the floor of the shaft.
+ +No obvious leads, except one small < human-sized crawl, no more than a C-lead. Michael had a +look and was haued out by his feet. Loose boulder-strewn floor with clean walls gave nothing else +away. De-rigging took ~2.30 hours, with the difficult narrow entrance making tackle sack +hauling very hard work. Martin & Jacob helped to get gear back to Top Camp, after meeeting +them at Balconhöhle.
++ Down 107 so Matt could fulfill his promise to Joe to find out where SSB (Smooth Sandy Bottom) + actually goes. Matt came down from stone bridge but we still got underground before 10. Whizzed + down to China then down the implausible hole in the floor of China, which for some reason goes + down 25m without being full of rocks. SSB is rather small passage so very tedious surveying. Found + last few survey dots but no numbers, so surveyed 3 legs to make sure it would join up. Surveyed + for ages down the passage, occaisionally getting a leg nearly 3m long! Eventually got to some + unscooped passage (after about 6 hours surveying on 2 trips - Joe owes us all beer!). and shortly + after that it opened up at a T-junction. Exciting! Except that all the air was going up into some + dodgy-looking boulders. Climbing up determined that we were looking at the bottom of a + boulder-choke, with a very tempting small hole (maybe possible to get a person through, maybe not) + looking through into blank space. Very frustrating. A disto tells us that the roof the other side + is 5m away but trying to climb through would need a proper nutter. The rocks are medium sized, and + the hole small so very likely to move if you tried to get through, but big enough to squash + you. So we reluctantly ran away. +
+ ++ The survey shows that this space is nowhere near anything else so it's very interesting, but it + really needs poking with a 5m stick or blowing up, or someone who is a proper nutter. +
+Underground by 10am. George's 1st proper 107 trip so he gets to see the delights of pushing the envelope, lots of rifty shinning and traversing, China and the comedy connetion pitch, then more shinning in 161 and blown out. On the way down wook checked land of confusion and derigged the 12m CUCC rope there. matt had arrivwed at the entrance to collect his pantin whilst we were getting ready so we quizzed him on lost SSB rope. thus we were able to find that too. (slightly _downhill_ from SSB). Got back to pushing front in 3.5. Bringing 38m and 12m bits. Should be enough.
-Took good look at lay of land and decided that traverse round RH wall from bouldery ledge between the 2 pitches we did last time looked like something that was do-able and should let us dropl down in the dry to connect. Wook went a-rigging with a lot of faffing and muttering about having 2.5 slings amongst lots of threads (hundreds in balcony, allegedly :-). . 2nd bolt split but pressed on anyway. Eventually got across and into rift. another bolt cracked. re-did. Could see down short pitch the other side with definite carbide mark at what looked like spits for rebelay. Woo!
+Underground by 10am. George's 1st proper 107 trip so he gets to see the delights of pushing the +envelope, lots of rifty shinning and traversing, China and the comedy connetion pitch, then more +shinning in 161 and blown out. On the way down wook checked land of confusion and derigged the 12m +CUCC rope there. matt had arrivwed at the entrance to collect his pantin whilst we were getting +ready so we quizzed him on lost SSB rope. thus we were able to find that too. (slightly _downhill_ +from SSB). Got back to pushing front in 3.5. Bringing 38m and 12m bits. Should be enough.
-Rigged Y-hang then delicate traverse round corner. Turned round to see red rope hanging down, and recognised spot as the foot of starcase 36 at the end of YAPATE. yay, perfect: that was where we actually wanted to get to. This is place with more potential: there are holes in roof and maybe passage above CFN. I wonder if the hole we just dropped in through was noted at all? I.e Runnelstone area was always v. close to yapate but up a couple of short pitches. +
Took good look at lay of land and decided that traverse round RH wall from bouldery ledge between +the 2 pitches we did last time looked like something that was do-able and should let us dropl down +in the dry to connect. Wook went a-rigging with a lot of faffing and muttering about having 2.5 +slings amongst lots of threads (hundreds in balcony, allegedly :-). . 2nd bolt split but pressed on +anyway. Eventually got across and into rift. another bolt cracked. re-did. Could see down short +pitch the other side with definite carbide mark at what looked like spits for rebelay. Woo!
+ +Rigged Y-hang then delicate traverse round corner. Turned round to see red rope hanging down, and +recognised spot as the foot of starcase 36 at the end of YAPATE. yay, perfect: that was where we +actually wanted to get to. This is place with more potential: there are holes in roof and maybe +passage above CFN. I wonder if the hole we just dropped in through was noted at all? I.e Runnelstone +area was always v. close to yapate but up a couple of short pitches.
-Went on a quick tourist to Knossos to show george some proper big cave. Added 2015 to the writing rock. Then surveyed back over traverse (now 'back to the future'). Pulled extra rope through and rerigged horrid traverse rigging into something that could be used for transport. 11 bolts in total. Got into a right mess with the string going back and forth. pity we didn't have a camera. George put in his first HKD. Wook redid the cracked one (but didn't smahs it as in good place - maybe OK to use backed-up if need be?). + +
Went on a quick tourist to Knossos to show george some proper big cave. Added 2015 to the writing +rock. Then surveyed back over traverse (now 'back to the future'). Pulled extra rope through and +rerigged horrid traverse rigging into something that could be used for transport. 11 bolts in +total. Got into a right mess with the string going back and forth. pity we didn't have a +camera. George put in his first HKD. Wook redid the cracked one (but didn't smahs it as in good +place - maybe OK to use backed-up if need be?).
-Once all that was done we went back to 'quality belays' traverse. Wook derigged rope whilst george started rigging a sensible pitch into wellypopper instead. Gardened part of the massive pile of boulders round the edge of the hole. He had trouble with cratering and one bolt cracking and it was getting late so Wook put in last 2 (only 2 hiltis left!). Then we packed up all the (unused!) rope and drill and stagerred out with 3 bags. Eventually got out (leaving one rope bag in china tied to rope, and drill plus other rope bag at Coldest PIE. Forgot (and out of time) to derig connection pitch. + +
Once all that was done we went back to 'quality belays' traverse. Wook derigged rope whilst +george started rigging a sensible pitch into wellypopper instead. Gardened part of the massive pile +of boulders round the edge of the hole. He had trouble with cratering and one bolt cracking and it +was getting late so Wook put in last 2 (only 2 hiltis left!). Then we packed up all the (unused!) +rope and drill and stagerred out with 3 bags. Eventually got out (leaving one rope bag in china tied +to rope, and drill plus other rope bag at Coldest PIE. Forgot (and out of time) to derig connection +pitch.
-In total Back To The Future traverse and Quality Belays pitches have 20 hangers and one sling on them. Details in survey notes. None of the ropes are labelled. BTTF has the one left for a year in KH. 2014 10mm? ~55m? The top is an 11mm 12m-ish bit. The Quality Belays pitch is ~18m. Could be joe's rope? + +
In total Back To The Future traverse and Quality Belays pitches have 20 hangers and one sling on +them. Details i n survey notes. None of the ropes are labelled. BTTF has the one left for a year in +KH. 2014 10mm? ~55m? The top is an 11mm 12m-ish bit. The Quality Belays pitch is ~18m. Could be +joe's rope?
Just about made our callout, getting out at 7:30pm, and were surprised to find Ol + Jenny coming out at the same time as they'd had success too. Turns out that base-camp hadn't even noticed our SMS anyway so no need to worry much about missing callouts...
We weren't quite sure how many tacklesacks derigging 107 would take, but almost certainly more @@ -566,6 +661,7 @@ immediately before Pushing The Envelope squeeze.