Up to page 11. All still needs independent proof checking.

Andy

years/2015/logbook.html

@@ -88,6 +88,58 @@
 <p>Rachel rigged the 'Natural High' traverse. This is getting slippy so a rope should be left in place. We then pushed the A lead at the end of Dark Arts. After ~20m of passage we hit a large shaft. It looked like the phreatic passage continued requiring an easy traverse...</p>
 <div class="timeug">T/U: [not mentioned]</div>
 <hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-12b">2015-07-12</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>David</u> & Matt</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balcony</div>
+<p>We returned to traverse the shaft. It appeared that the shaft intersected some large horizontal passage ~15m down, so we dropped the pitch only to find a deceptive alcove! A small body-sized tube led to another drippy chamber with a deep hole in the floor. After this disappointment I bolted the traverse only to find the phreatic passage became too small with no draft. There is a second, much deeper pitch, which is likely where the howling gale in Dark Arts disappears to. This is worth dropping but is drippy in dry weather and may be deadly in wet weather.</p>
+<p>[sketch survey needs scanned and added]</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: [not mentioned]</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-13a">2015-07-13</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>David</u>, Rachel & Luke</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balcony</div>
+<p>We tied in the surveys from the 2 previous trips in Dark Arts and pulled the gear back to the main passage. Oh, and I retrievedc the hanger I dropped.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 4 hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-11d">2015-07-11</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Joe, Luke, <u>Matt</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">107 Pushing</div>
+<p>By this point Joe had rigged to China so decided to join them for a trip to survey a lead we had poked our head in last year.</p>
+<p>A short pitch with 2 Y-hangs drops down the side wall through the boulders onto a sand and rubble slope.</p>
+<p>There is a scary looking climb down to the left QMC and a small passage going off to the right QMC.</p>
+<p>At the bottom of the slope we entered a narrow phreatic rift with a sandy floor "Smooth Sandy Bottom".</p>
+<p>Surveying was slow and 4½ h later we hadn't really got very far. We left an aven lead QMB and the rift continues with a slight draft QMB</p>
+<p>[ small rigging diagram to scan]</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: [not mentioned]</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-13b">2015-07-13</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Joe, Olly, <u>Jenny</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">107 - Wonderland: Wild West + Dire Straits</div>
+<p>Decided on a short trip for Joe's final day so that we could head down the hill afterwards. We gave Joe a (slightly too long) head start so that he could retrieve his gear from Restless, and then we all headed through the Sea of Fudge and into Wonderland. Gotot the Wildwest lead (last seen in 2013 when the drill battery died and attempts at lassooing a spike as a belay resulted in rockfall).</p>
+<p>Joe placed 2 bolts and clambered up before placing a final bolt at the top. We joined him up there. Almost immediately the passage hit a T junction, right went to a soil/gravel dig. We followed left along a lovely phreatic passage with a few formations which got photoed (badly) by me, and also dead insects and oddly some animal droppings. We followed along to a short climb up and down again to the bottom of an aven. Joe climbed this (being very careful of the loose flakes), and we sent the rope + drill up for him to rig for us.</p>
+<p>Followed this to another aven. Main way on appears to be 18m up - would almost certainly need a bolt or two. There was also a small tube only a few metres up, which didn't draft. Joe removed his SRT kit and explored, after a bit I followed. A low crawl led to a rift and then left bent then another badly sized crawl to a widening. Joe climbed down to a lower level which was small but may go. Straight on led to another aven.</p>
+<p>We surveyed back to Olly, despite being small passage and horrible to have to wriggle backwards while survey was lovely and straight so didn't require too many legs. We named this <u>Dire Straits</u>. Once we got back to Olly, Joe headed out to start carrying his gear down and we finished the survey.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: Joe 7½ hrs Jenny+Olly 6 hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-14a">2015-07-14</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Mark, Dan, <u>Anthony</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks Rigging ctd.</div>
+<p>A wet night at the bivi meant that plans for a long rigging trip were put on hold in favour of a shorter trip that would allow us to bolt down the hill. Ferried Big Bertha Mk II containing 200m of 10mm (intended for Procrastination and Number of the Beast) as far as the top of String Theory. Mark and Dan put in some bolts to protect the chossy traverse round the 80m deep wet hole on the approach to String Theory. I completed the String Theory rig. With that we headed out.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 6 hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-16a">2015-07-16</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Dan, Matt, <u>Anthony</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">Team Fiasco go surface prospecting</div>
+<p>The plan was to go and find Organhöhle (located by Wookey and Olaf in 2012) plus swing by some of the holes Duncan and I found in the same area in the same year. Since expo was quite sparsely populated, we decided to take advantage of drill availability to drop some of the short pitches we had found. We decided to take two oversuits, two helmets and one SRT kit between us and also some surveying gear to give ourselves the option of verifying that we really had found Organhöhle.</p>
+<p>Things did not go entirely according to plan.</p>
+<p>We first swung by Tunnocks to pick up an SRT kit. It was at this point that I realised that I hadn't seen any rope being packed. It was hot and fairly late so we pressed on to Balconhöhle from where we took a somewhat roundabout route towards Organhöhle via a subsidiary summit of the Hohes Augsteck. Coming off the back of this, Dan spotted a cave. There is a hole in the side of the cliff leading onto a rift pitch, with another couple of surface shafts above that go to the same place - definitely worth a tag. Since we had a drill, this should have been a quick job. However, a lack of drill bits was going to make it a lot harder. Fortunately, we had a hand bolting kit, so I made up a tag (2015-DL-01) and Dan set about placing a hand bolt for it.</p>
+<p>Whilst Dan was drilling, I set off in the direction where Mark's GPS said Organhöhle was supposed to be. Found a hole in the right place, and headed back to Dan who had by now stopped drilling - not because the bolt was complete but because the head of the bolt driver had sheared off.</p>
+<p>We all trooped over to the Organhöhle candidate entrance, where we could have started surveying.... if we had brought a tape measure. I donned oversuit and helmet and set off to verify that we had the right cave. After a bit of walking / crawling I found a decent sized pitch with two spits for a Y-hang at the top (one of which looks good, and one is shagged) - so I'm pretty sure we've got the right cave. It looks a bit like this:</p>
+<p>[sketch plan to scan and insert]</p>
+<p>With that we headed back towards Top Camp via a more direct route, placing cairns as we went. Eventually we picked up a cairned path that I suspect goes to Bullet's 2nd Höhle. This route is fairly direct and the terrain reasonable, but it is going to takae a while - likely over an hour from Balconyhöhle.</p>
+<p>Our final act was to take a look at Ants in Pants schlucht. The snow level looks pretty low, so this might be worth revisiting later on expo.
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 0</div>
+<hr>
 
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