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@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ this tip, kicking walls hurts with no foot protection] <p/>
<p>Callout book entry</p>
<div class="callout">07:00 +1</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-06">2016-07-06 to 07</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-06a">2016-07-06 to 07</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>David</u>, Becka, Julian</div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Kracken</div>
<p>We got to the entrance at 10:45am and started the long descent leaving behind a plateau
@ -574,6 +574,44 @@ we left for the next party. We met the team in question at the camp whilst eatin
dinner (~4pm). A long prusik followed.</p>
<div class="callout">07:00 +1</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-06b">2016-07-06</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Elliott</u>, Peachey, Nathan</div>
<div class="triptitle">The pitch formally known as "Haydon's pitch" -> "Long Drop"</div>
<p>Sorry for the write-up delay!</p>
<p>After Haydon had headed down the hill, Nathan, Peachey and I took over the 'project'. Haydon
had said he had dropped ~60m to a large ledge, before getting a 6 second drop off it! Of course,
we didn't believe him.</p>
<p>We tidied up the initial traverse, before Peachey went off to get bolting. As Haydon's team (the
lazy, good-for-nothing *!?#*!?'s) hadn't surveyed squat, Nathan and I got on with it. Approx 50m to
the first ledge, which then forms the take off to a >120m pitch! Balcony has some surprises yet...</p>
<p>From the LHW, a short traverse takes you to a pitch head proper. Approx 25m down, working towards
the right, a good sized window gains access to "ICU with a view". Chock stones provide a chossy floor
on which to stick up a bothy.</p>
<p>I found Peachey in the ICU, having a good garden and looking slightly taken aback by the scale of
things! After re-supplying him with kit, he set off down a rift that leaves the ICU from the North.
Masterful bolting from Peachey saw us ~60m further down a lovely section of rebelays. The pitch follows
the RHW (looking from the ICU), pulling you away from the initial, pretty loose rift. The passage is
4-6m wide, but runs N-S from the main shaft, towards the North for ~80m.</p>
<p>Peachey had got cracking on the next drop, but we ran out of hangers and rope.</p>
<p>NB This actually occurred over two days!</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 17.5 hours (total)</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-06c">2016-07-06</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob</u>, Alice, Katey</div>
<div class="triptitle">Hilti-a-Plenty exploration - rigging trip</div>
<p>Underground by 11am. It being Alice's first expo, we wanted to give her some experience of rigging in
Austria and this seemed a good choice being close to the entrance, quite deep but not too deep and promising
quite a few leads to push later. Alice rigged very well - safe, tight, high and functional rigging all round
and efficient to. Once at the bottom, we decided to have a look around at the leads and what had allready
been surveyed.</p>
<p>First we went left from the bottom of the pitch series to a small bouldery chamber, from there we went
left and along a tightish passage to a draughty aven. Quite a promising lead via a traverse over the aven and
into a small phreatic crawl was left. Then we went back to the small bouldery chamber and went up a vadose
ramp to Spunge Chamber (4 pots in a row), this back to find some excellent mud formations. Then back to the
bottom of the Hilti-a-Plenty pitch and turning right to the large bouldery chamber with many leads. Leaving
pushing for another day, we then headed out.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 6 hours</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-07a">2016-07-07</div>
<div class="trippeople">Andrew, Sioned, Becka</div>
<div class="triptitle">Balcony</div>
@ -657,6 +695,22 @@ low bit in the middle. Continued a bit beyond the "b" entrances, but decided to
finish with oversuits.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 2.5 hours</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-08b">2016-07-08</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob</u>, George and Frank for a bit.</div>
<div class="triptitle">Dropping pitches and finding more</div>
<p>Frank brought his spade/shovel along in case of digging potential, but unfortunately his
illness prevented him from achieving this. Then me and George went to the pitch down the sandy
ramp and climb. I bolted the pitch and put George on book. It turned out this was a bad idea. 14
legs of shit later we derigged and left for Spunge Chamber. We tried to find survey stations but
they were not especially well marked. We found station 73 and got started. Turning left at the
t-junction we passed an aven on the left and down a 2m climb to 5x5m borehole passage. Excite!
First we went right down hill to a dripping pitch, which could also be traversed to a continuation
beyond.Then we went uphill to a pot which could be dropped (pretty draughty) or traversed over
to the right for another horizontal continuation. We did a bit of an exposed traverse to a straight
on lead, heading up a 5m climb to an uphill ramp to a big draughty pot. Around 150-200m in the book
then out.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 9 hours</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-09a">2016-07-09</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jenny</u>, Olly</div>
<div class="triptitle">16-JB-01 Hohle der guten Hoffnung</div>
@ -676,6 +730,18 @@ undescended. Surveyed out. Cave drops a surprising 40m (over 80m of survey) all
without gear.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 3 hours</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-09b">2016-07-09</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob</u>, George</div>
<div class="triptitle">Annoying resurvey and no Cashback (Pitch is now called Young Love)</div>
<p>After discovering lots of easy horizontal passage the day before, we returned to get that
sorted. After 11 long legs. we popped out in the big bouldery chamber. We later found out that
Nathan had surveyed this passage - quite annoying. Then we went to bolt the pitch at the end of
cock piss partridge - pre-emptively named Cashback. Cashback appeared to be a premature prediction
as the aven crapped out into an immature meander immediately after we got to the bottom. George
then bolted the pitch below the Cock Piss Partridge, which also crapped out immediately. Then out.
Still lots to go at!</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 6 hours</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-10a">2016-07-10</div>
<div class="trippeople">Olly, <u>Jenny</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">171, near old top camp - surveying</div>
@ -698,6 +764,16 @@ down to our camp to check we were safe - thank you!</p>
<p>Callout book entry. Have rope + spare drill battery on surface if needed</p>
<div class="callout">20:00</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-10b">2016-07-10</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nat, <u>Rob</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">The Non Rescue - 1st Response Team</div>
<p>Team were overdue in Tunnocks so me and Nat headed down to camp with the grab bag and first aid
kit. Underground by 8.45. Arrived at Kraken for 11.45 to find rope caught up beneath the overhang
rebelay on a ledge. Then started to head out. Rope at the bottom of magic glue got wrapped around
a large boulder - be aware of the rope catching on the boulder when you ascend the pitch. Out
reasonably sufficiently after waiting to see that Mark D could untangle the rope from Magic Glue.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 7 hours</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-11a">2016-07-11</div>
<div class="trippeople">Ashley, Luke, Alice</div>
<div class="triptitle">Balcony - Long Drop</div>
@ -710,11 +786,50 @@ down to our camp to check we were safe - thank you!</p>
<p>Callout book entry.</p>
<div class="callout">20:00</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-11c">2016-07-11</div>
<div class="trippeople">Chris, Peachey, Rob, Katey</div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Kraken Camp</div>
<p>Callout book entry.</p>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-11c">2016-07-11 to 13</div>
<div class="trippeople">Chris, Peachey, <u>Rob</u>, Katey</div>
<div class="triptitle">Camp - Tunnocks master cave and unprecedented depth potential!</div>
<p>A most amazing trip, which despite being shortened by the rescue of the previous day, managed to provide
much new cave and a lot of new prospects. We arrived at camp for 1.15pm and ate some noodles and soup. Off
down Octopussy for 2pm. Headed to the bottom of the 30m pitch bolted by Anthony et al on the last camping trip.
After a quick reconoitre of the area we split into 2 surveying teams.</p>
<p>Myself and Chris initialy headed in a Northwards direction into a rather nice and very pretty chamber with a
number of very nice stalactites and a wonderful poached egg on the floor. On the far side of the chamber was a
7-10m climb which Chris started but then encountered too many delicate calcite crusts/flakey formations to continue.
Predicting that we might well drop into the passage from somewhere else anyway, we left it behind for another trip
(which there hopefully will be, a lead ramping up heading north and strongly draughting in Tunnocks is not to be
sniffed at!). Then we headed on toward where the others were surveying in the other direction. Chris soon decided that
if we caved ahead we could easily back survey to them and thus avoid the frowned upon scoop - little did we know of the
wonder that lay ahead. After a lot of sprinting along a muddy boulder floor (with an additional handline on a particularly
treacherous mud slope that Peachey and Katey descended with nothing - naughty!) we arrived at a point where we were
presented with two routes - a narrow slot up and a way down among boulders. I took the slot, but before that we noticed
that both routes had one thing in common - we could hear a massive amount of water up ahead, of a magnitude very rarely
found in this cave system. After coming out through the slot, what I saw was just incredible - the absolute essence of
why caving is such an amazing exploratory sport. An absolutely huge passage, at least 15x20m width for height, and
sloping steeply down at around 45 degrees. For those who have been to Octopussy, think slighty less asthetically pleasing
in terms of true borehole shape but overall far more impressive. The roar of the water was by this time was truely
impressive - similar in size to Penyghents streamway. Caught up with exploration fever, Chris and myself climbed a long way
down the boulder ramp until Chris got a hold of himself and decided we were being unnecessarily silly and, the grip of
exploration fever having ebbed away, we surveyed back to the junction where we met Peachey and Katey. Almost unable to
contain our excitement, we told them of our findings. They then headed off up a ramp in the opposite direction to see
what could be found (apparantly a lot of passage) while chris went to fetch the 100m of Anthony's 9mm so we could rig
this thing properly and safely - we were conceivably 800m deep if not more! I was ??? with bolting it, and soon we we
were down, albeit with a few annoying rub points en route!</p>
<p>After dropping this ramp, we headed down through the slippery boulder slope below the master cave only to find the
most amazing development at the bottom: an upward ramping phreatic borehole 4x4m and certainly getting bigger! By now
it was long after 10pm and only getting later, so we resolved to survey the scooped passage tomorrow and headed back to
camp for a welcome tea. In bed by 1am. Up at 8am and needing a shit - the facilities are excellent! The camp overall is
excellently thought out and organised. Many noodle and oatso along with a great water supply, make for a wonderful stay.
After breakfast we headed back to the lead for a survey accompanied by some excellent photographs in Octopussyand at ???.
2 hours of surveying later, myself and Densham had arrived at a steep boulder slope (slippery with a long way down) which
at this depth really needed bolting. Leaving it for the next trip we headed back to camp before attempting to head out of
the cave. I unfortunately got to Procrastination at 7pm just as a flood pulse hit the pitch. I was at the first rebelay when
the pulse hit and luckily was prepared to change over quickly and descend back to Bring on the Clowns to wait it out for 12
hours until we made a break for it at 8am the next day after a rather restless night.</p>
<p>After making a break for it after a long 12 hour wait, I was swiftly out for 10am to meet with Luke and out the entrance
series. Overall a truly memorable and excellent trip, one of my best ever and one to remember my whole life!</p>
<div class="callout">09:00 +2</div>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 48 hours.</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-11d">2016-07-11</div>
<div class="trippeople">Fleur, Pete, Nathan</div>
@ -754,10 +869,32 @@ we were past the Tap Room and Keg Series, so had an uneventful exit.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 12 hours</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-12a">2016-07-12</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nat, Becka, George</div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Champagne on Ice</div>
<p>Callout book entry.</p>
<div class="callout">09:00 +1</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nat, Becka, <u>George</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Derigging and pushing Champagne on Ice</div>
<p>Set off with the intention of derigging traverse beyond Arctic Angle and pushing Nat's lead ("What would your Mother say")
before finally derigging the Champagne on Ice pitch series and derig traverse beyond Arctic Angle and WWYMS. Off to a flying
start I forgot both drill batteries, only realising at the bottom of Champagne on Ice. Subsequently, myself and Becka went to
replace slings on Andrew's traverse past Arctic Angle with rope cut from excess length of the existing rope and salvaged a
couple of hangers from the traverse. At ~14.30 we went to meet Nat to see if progress had been made on his bolt-less bolt climb.
WWYMS is easily found by bearing left at the 1st junction after the P5 (probably longer than 5m). The way after this is cairned
at major junctions and involves a traverse around a large ~30m hole. We discovered that Nat had bravely/foolishly allready reached
the top of the climb some 6/7m above the traverse previously rigged on another trip. The new rigging differed in that it comprised
completely of extremely sketchy naturals with not a bolt or reliable belay in sight by virtue of my forgetting to bring drill
batteries. We tentatively followed Nat to the top of the traverse/deathtrap - see below for updated rigging diagram.</p>
<p>From the top of the climb, following the draft/draught? leads to a 2/3m climb down, continuing emerges into large hading rift
and good "A" lead requiring rope to continue further. The only other alternative passage atop the climb leads to a large aven
(very drippy at far end) with stream descending 10-15m through hole in the floor (?c).</p>
<p>On the descent, after having surveyed as far as possible, Becka knocked a fairly integral natural belay off the wall with
suprisingly little effort. As a result the rigging was modified to allow me and Nat to get down "safely", see bolow.</p>
<p>To avoid monumentous clusterfuck this was left rigged but using the rope to ascend beyond the bolted traverse should be done
so with EXTREME CAUTION or not at all due to the nature of the naturals it is backed up to. Rather cold and glad to be alive we
began the return journey, derigging the traverse and P5 on the way. Upon arriving at the bottom of Champagne on Ice pitches (~19.00)
Nat reported hearing a flood pulse. At the bottom of the 15m hang we encountered a waterfall not previously reported that rendered
the pitch impassable without getting soaked. We waited ~5 hours in bothy at a ledge below for water to ease. Eventually prussicked
out when flow was weaker but still involved swinging under very drippy section. Higher up was still a bit drippy but not too unpleasant.
Everyone out of the cave by 03.30. Several empty tacklesacks were left below the wet section and one full sack. Drill was brought out
with some hangers.</p>
<p>Nathanael should not be allowed to rig unsupervised in the future.</p>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-12b">2016-07-12</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nathan, Elliott, Alice, Luke</div>
@ -784,16 +921,59 @@ we were past the Tap Room and Keg Series, so had an uneventful exit.</p>
<div class="callout">22:00</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-16b">2016-07-16</div>
<div class="trippeople">Elliott, George, nathan, Michael</div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Kraken, 1 night</div>
<p>Callout book entry.</p>
<div class="callout">09:00 +2</div>
<div class="trippeople">Elliott, George, Nathan, <u>Michael</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">Kraken Camp - pushing Song of the Earth (258)</div>
<p>Down to camp</p>
<p>Being the 6th? camping trip to Kraken, we supposedly had a lot of leads to choose from. Getting to camp was easy enough,
there being almost twice as much rope as passage length along the way. Eliott, Nathan and George descending using stops were
faster than me with my rack, and we went underground at 10.30am and arrived all at Kraken camp by 2.45pm. A brief rest and
some noodles and we were set to go pushing.</p>
<p>Pushing</p>
<p>We went down Octopussy to the gear dump, Elliott bringing up the rear and replacing the 100m line on Octopussy with a 50m
one as the lower section was nicer by comparison. At the gear dump we put together a pushing bag with drill, battery, hangers
and such, with the new liberated 100m pushing rope. This was taken down as yet unnamed "Luke's Pitch" (Indian Rope Trick).</p>
<p>Coming to the start of SOng of the Earth, we left the drill for whichever team needed it, and split up. Nathan and George
took a phreatic tube going upward, and Elliott and I went to find the deep end of Song of the Earth, hoping to push the cave
even deeper.</p>
<p>Song of the Earth continued as a large phreatic tube angled downward at apptox 30 degrees, heading almost exactly west. The
floor was treacherous boulder choke, covered in a layer of slippery black mud. After about 100m of similar passage, with the
occassional rock arch or muddy helictite, it came to a large chamber approx 20m high. The climb down into the chamber was tricky,
but when there the black mud dissappeared from the boulders. A depression in the floor looked to be the filled in way on. Skirting
around the depression and a large boulder pile showed two passages on the far side. The first was a short way to a solid mud sump
that currently marks the lowest point of Tunnocks at -903m, obviously impassable.</p>
<p>The second lead went to a small squeeze with a gravel floor with a howling gale coming through. Not wanting to stop there, we
dug the squeeze until it was large enough to pass through (Don't Stop Me Now). this entered another vedose passage now leading
upward and north east, obviously a different passage feeding the large chamber. We only followed this a short way because we ran
out of time, and headed back to camp.</p>
<p>On the way back, we found another 20m of rope had been tied to the end of the shortened Octopussy rope. Apparantly Nathan and
George had found the rope a bit too short, and had spent 40 minutes digging footholds to get up to the rope. We were all back in
Kraken camp by 10.30pm.</p>
<p>Faffing</p>
<p>Intending to get up and do some pushing before heading out, we agreed to get up at 8am. However it turns out we were all very good
at faffing about, so no caving got done in the end. It didn't help that Nathan and George crapped out all their leads except ones that
needed bolt climbing, so the only viable lead (Don't Stop Me Now) was a 4 hour round trip from camp. Instead we opted to wait around
for a bit to see if the next camping group arrived before we would leave. By 1pm noone had arrived (they had intended for a 6am start)
so we opted to go out.</p>
<p>Nathan went first,and just went hell for lesthor prussicking out, leaving George behind to also exit the cave alone. Not a clever
move since Nathan was supposedly leading the trip. I came third with Elliott close behind, he being faster than me. In the end, we
were all up on the surface by 7.30pm, where we found the wether a bit grim and claggy. That was the reason the second camping group
hadn't come underground, and indeed lower Procrastination had been a bit drippier than usual.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 33 hrs</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-16b">2016-07-16</div>
<div class="trippeople">Olly, Jenny</div>
<div class="triptitle">2016-JB-01</div>
<p>Callout book entry. UTM 33T 0410646 5281563</p>
<div class="callout">20:00</div>
<div class="trippeople">Olly, <u>Jenny</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">2016-JB-01 Hopeless</div>
<p>Walked up in the morning, having had a tooth extracted the previous day - I promised the dentist that I would avoid
strenuous activities for a few days and also not cave if it was raining (he was very concerned that we might underestimate
the flooding risk underground!).</p>
<p>Went to look at the remaining lead in 16-JB-01. This time we had a rope so started it on the ledge overlooking the chossy
chamber, avoiding the dodgy climb, I put a bolt in and Olly went through the slot while I fetched the survey kit. Olly got
down with a natural rebelay to a small aven/chamber. This led to a second connected similar aven/chamber, but no train
tunnel passage sadly. We each climbed up in different places, my climb from the 2nd chamber looked to connect with the second
slot near the pitch head. Olly's from where the chambers join became an inlet.</p>
<p>Surveyed and derigged out. I carried gear up the climbs, while Olly had a final look in the chossy chamber, and found us
another lead for the next trip.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 4 hrs</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-16c">2016-07-16</div>
<div class="trippeople">Rob, Peachey, Martin</div>
@ -807,6 +987,32 @@ we were past the Tap Room and Keg Series, so had an uneventful exit.</p>
<p>Callout book entry.</p>
<div class="callout">22:00</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-17a">2016-07-17</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jenny</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">Tagging Jobs</div>
<p>It rained and rained some more, so enthusiasm was low for going underground and getting wet. It brightend up
in the afternoon (ie was claggy not actually raining) so Olly made up some cave tags and we changed the Bivi
cave (2004-01) to 269, then I walked to Cairn Cave and tagged it (2006-70) and finally retagged 1987-02 as 267.</p>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-17b">2016-07-17</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob</u>, Luke</div>
<div class="triptitle">Hilti a Plenty - Pushing and Evening Breakthrough</div>
<p>After a morning of grim rain delayed the campers from camping, myself and Luke became bored of shit-talking and card games
and headed to off into Balcony in the mist to see what could be found. In quickly and soon I was bolting one of the three pots
that me and George found in "Lets be Appalling" last time in. After a wee while, and one rogue bolt which decided to fall out
along with some of the wall while I was setting it, we were down. It was pretty draughty and seemed quite promising. We could
see a shit looking immature rift in the floor below where we had hopped off the rope with some water in it. Not so promising.
An upper continuation of the rift with a big draft into ran left - I believe it links in with the most northerly pitch of the
3 we found in "Lets be Appalling". To the south of the pitch was a significant warren of nice sandy floored passage ramping
down - great leads! After a quick scoop, we got on with surveying as much as we could. We pushed some large passage to a pitch
head which we left for another team to probe. We then headed south to find the dripping most southerly pitch in "Lets be Appalling"
- traverse across still to be done but not as promising as the pitch from earlier. At the bottom a small streamway flowed out,
culminating in a too tight passage with what appeared to be a mud sump at the end. We then went uphill on the ramp rather than
downhill and found a promising horizontal B lead - continuation of the ramp - and a climb up a phreatic tube in which the sound
of water could be heard. Exciting stuff, and judging by the survey heading off in an as yet unexplored direction - an excellent
prospect for next year!</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 6 hours.</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-18a">2016-07-18</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob<u>, Ash, Anthony</div>
<div class="triptitle">Long Drop - final push, survey &amp; Derig</div>
@ -827,7 +1033,68 @@ and despite an extremely antisocial double fishermans right below a rebelay we g
out and it ran pretty smoothly. At the top it was 10:15 &amp; we were pushing callout, so I headed
out while the others sorted things out. Back at Top Camp for 11:25, our midnight callout was made.
Great success!</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U 11.5 hours (Rob) 12.5 hours (Ash and Anthony).</div>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 11.5 hours (Rob) 12.5 hours (Ash and Anthony).</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-18b">2016-07-18 to 19</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Katey</u>, Elaine, Fleur, Peachey</div>
<div class="triptitle">Camp Kraken - Song of the Earth + Derig (Downstream)</div>
<p>To be read in conjunction with Fleur's report...</p>
<p>While Fleur and Peachey headed to the uphill lead, Elaine and I went down to the lead advertised as being
a 2m wide rift with a howling draft, reached by a massive chamber with a mountain in it! Wow! As it turns out,
the chamber was similar dimensions to the rest of the preceeding passage... okay. The sandy crawl was rather
less drafty than advertised, but drafts are fickle, right? Three survey legs later we reached the end for that
day. A 6m climb up lead to an upward sloping phreatic passage with a mud/water channel in the floor. The climb
was a bit neeky for -900m and Elaine didn't fancy it, so I marked the final station and climbed down. The continuing
passage we called a QMB and it will likely need some bolting to progress - steep incline + slippery mud = sadness.
The climb up will also need bolting for any handline/rope. That done, and slightly disappointed, we headed out to
meet Fleur and Peachey.</p>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-18c">2016-07-18 to 19</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Fleur</u>, Katy, Elaine, Ian</div>
<div class="triptitle">Song of the Earth and Camp Derig</div>
<p>It was supposed to be a 2 night camp starting on Sunday. But on Sunday we woke up and it had been raining in the
night and continued to rain. So we deferred to avoid starting off cold and wet. Instead an "alpine start" was called
for and I got everyone up at 6am on Monday. We were underground by 8am and down at camp for a late lunch. The idea was
to try and make some good going leads in Song of the Earth. Elaine and Katy went to the downstream limit, supposedly
drafting and blowing sediment in your face. Meanwhile I agreed to belay Ian up the upstream lead.</p>
<p>As we left camp I was impressed with Chris and Anthony finding the way on via Tentacle traverse - now a very
slippery beast indeed! Luke's Pitch down into Song of the Earth was much bigger than I expected, and perhaps a tad
underbolted.</p>
<p>As we entered the master cave, Ian and I went "upstream" via the bouldery awfulness eventually arriving at the
limit of exploration. Ian was certainly correct that it was a promising location - howling gale going uphill and the
??? appearing to continue in a ramp translated higher up. However, it was a long way up!</p>
<p>Ian was efficient though, climbing up around 10-15 metres until the rope drap was too much, while I went through
my song repetoire. He then rigged a pitch for the first section while I took some photos. Then, after chocolate, we both
went up to the belay so Ian could climb the next section. This was mostly a ramp as opposed to a true pitch. Although Ian
was efficient again (another 15+m ascended) I got very cold tied off to the belay. Unfortunately at the top of the pitch
the passage got smaller, continuing as an upstream canyon with trickle of water, before finishing at an aven. Time to go
home to Kraken.</p>
<p>By this time Elaine and Katy had appeared so it was a quick survey before departure. The others had not had much luck
"downstream" so it was decided to derig the master cave. I was very tired (+ Elaine very cold) so Ian and Katy did this
while Elaine and I took the drill, etc back to camp. We arrived back about 11pm after 15 hours caving. The other two were
about an hour to 90 mins behind us.</p>
<p>The campsite was great, and we had a comfy night, oversleeping and not getting up until almost 10am.</p>
<p>It took around 3 hours to get breakfasted and pack up camp. We sent Elaine out first. Then me and Katy. Ian derigged
Kraken and we three paelled up the master cave ropes in the base of Inferno. [Note - Octopussy, Tentacle, Luke's pitch etc
all left in situ]</p>
<p>I left the base of the Inferno pitch around 5pm. Half an hour later Ian was shouting up about something catching. He and
Katy ended up derigging a little more. Meanwhile I prussicked on, catching Elaine up at the top of String Theory. We did the
last section together and exited around 11pm.</p>
<p>Ian and Katy returned to Steinbrucken about one hour after us.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 39 hrs</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-18d">2016-07-18</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jenny</u>, Olly</div>
<div class="triptitle">16-JB-01 Dirty Snow</div>
<p>Weather wasn't great, so we had quite a slow start. Headed back to 16-JB-01 to look at Olly's new lead. Again we
started the rope at the ledge, but went down further along, then Olly went to the northen end of the cheesey chamber
and over a rock bridge to a rift. The end of this dropped down to a very dirty snow cone, with deep drip holes.
Firstly all looked south, and saw two tight rifts dropping in (the ones we were the top side of on the 9th). To the
East was a short passage heading off which quickly ended. Traversed round the west of the snow, underneath is a layered
snow plug, so presumably it has been here for many years. Passage continued to the north through a squeeze, through some
rocks and up a climb. Although there were a lot of boulders and collapse it felt fairly solid. Decided that we couldn't
get further without gear. Surveyed out.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 4 hrs</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-19a">2016-07-19</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Mark</u>, David, Ashley</div>
@ -843,6 +1110,38 @@ more conveniently done via the crawl, rather than going all the way round, which
slightly dodgy pitch and a couple of traverses.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U 8 hours.</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-19b">2016-07-19</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Pete</u>, Aiden, Elliott, Martin, Rob (guide - went off to Long Drop after guiding us)</div>
<div class="triptitle">"Just Keeps Giving" and "Water Torture" (Below Hilti-a-Plenty)</div>
<p>The team kept pushing the lead below Hilti-a-Plenty rigged by Rob and Luke on 17/7/2016 (Evening Breakthrough). Rob
kindly showed the rest of the team to the right place. Aiden and Pete surveyed upwards from T-junction up a steeping
phreatic tube that was muddy but relatively easy to climb. The passage had the sound of water (mmmmm) and a draft (mmm)
but the muddy phreatic tubes choked. The noise came from a squeeze on right into a tight meandering rift. Pete squirmed
down rift for 5m to small stream. It was too tight upstream and would need a lump hammer to make progress down stream
-although it seems to widen a bit after approx 5m. I wonder if this is the same stream heard at bottom of pitch rigged
by Rob and Luke the day before.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Elliott had rigged and dropped a nice 15-20m pitch from the end of Rob and Lukes far point. This is very
promising and goes into a bigish chamber with two ways on. But the two ways on may be going to the same place. They both
have a good cold draft. The first way involves scrambling easily around a big jammed boulder to the low point in the chamber.
Elliott climbed down sketchily for approx 7m to see two possible pitches that are probable 10-15m deep?</p>
<p>The second way on from main chamber is a 15m traverse from the jammed block into a large descending phreatic tube. Nicely
rigged by Martin from a bolt and various naturals/slings. It then goes to a blind aven, but there is also a 10-15m pitch
down with good draft.</p>
<p>Overall, these are A leads with a draft.</p>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-19c">2016-07-19</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jenny</u>, Olly</div>
<div class="triptitle">76 Derig</div>
<p>Decided to derig 76 whilst it wasn't raining, and to free up rope for 16-JB-01. Last year I masterminded a very efficient
derig of 107 with 3 people and 6 bags of gear. This year we had 2 people for 76, 4 bags, and 6 bags worth of gear. I went down to
Keg series to derig that. I met Olly at the Tap Room, from there I shuttled bags out the cave while Olly derigged.</p>
<p>5 hours after entering the cave, after much miscommunication, shouting and inefficiency, we had 3 and a half bags out
and everything derigged to the Ledge Below the Ledge.</p>
<p>Went back in for another 2 hours of derigging (Olly) and bag shuttling (me). Now we never need return!</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U 7 hours.</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-20a">2016-07-20</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Olly</u>, Jenny</div>
<div class="triptitle">16-JB-01: Hohle der Guten Hoffnung</div>
@ -854,6 +1153,29 @@ the previous survey, briefly hampered by Jenny taking out a survey station which
to the boulder it was on than it appeared to be.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U 6 hours 5 Minutes.</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-20b">2016-07-20</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Anthony</u>, Elliott, David, Mark, Rob</div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks derig, Upper Kraken to String Theory</div>
<p> The objective of this trip was to derig at least as far as the top of the flood-prone Procrastination pitch. The
intention was to use the PAELLA (Pull An Extremely Long Length Altogether) technique which, a practice run in Long Drop
apart, none of us had really done before. A planning session the day meant we had a good idea of what we wanted to
do on each pitch, which made for a pretty slick operation. The previous camping team had also done us a massive
favour by tackling the Kraken pitch and the bottom hang of Inferno so we only had to go two thirds of the way down
Inferno.</p>
<p>The paella proceeded as follows: (diagrams)</p>
<p>AT the top of Procrastination, the timely arrival of reinforcements in the shape of Pete, Ash and Aidan allowed us
to paella and derig up String Theory by means of brute force.</p>
<p>At the top 9 tacklesacks were waiting, so all the rope (approx 1200m of it) was bagged and ferried out of the cave. A
most satisfying and effective detackling trip and a good, solid effort from all concerned.<p>
<p>Other events of note:</p>
<p>When prussicking up the bottom part of Widow Twankees, Rob managed to pull a TV sized boulder off that caught him a
glancing blow on his helmet and shoulder, smashing the glass on his Duo. He walked away shaken but substantially unhurt.
It could have been a lot worse - care required!</p>
<p>When derigging String Theory, Elliott left his personal bag at the bottom so had to put a couple of bolts back in to
go down and retrieve it. This news was greeted by sympathetic laughter at the top.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 14 - 15 hrs.</div>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2016-07-21a">2016-07-21</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jenny</u>, Olly</div>
<div class="triptitle">16-JB-01: Nervous Breakdown</div>