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Logbook edited 2024-08-10a

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@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ maintain half a dozen parser functions.
Sorry about all the crap that surrounds the image tags which has been imported along with the content
when UK Caving blogs have been parsed.
Exported on 2024-08-11 08:08 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
Exported on 2024-08-11 09:08 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
See troggle/code/views/other.py and core.models/logbooks.py writelogbook(year, filename)
-->
<body>
@ -2613,33 +2613,20 @@ Large gas bottle (half full?) <br>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2024-08-10a">2024-08-09</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Adam</u>,Fiona,</div>
<div class="triptitle">Balcony - Ferrying for the derig</div>
I only put Fiona in the "other names" field because all others involved with this derig had a very different experience to us. But the others involved in the derig of this cave today were Chris, James, Becka, Nat, Sarah, Rob and Colin.
<div class="tripdate" id="2024-08-10a">2024-08-10</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>ZW</u>,Colin,</div>
<div class="triptitle">Stone Bridge - Hauling Day</div>
<p>
James, Chris, Fiona and I were planning to leave at 1pm, though about ten minutes beforehand I spotted rain clouds coming in. I gathered the clothes outside drying and alerted the others to do the same, awaking them from their pre-cave slumber. After we got everything in, the rain came down. It wasn't nearly as bad as the day before, which had seen the plateau disappear entirely as the rain bouncing off the stone shrouded the world from view. We decided not to leave until after the rain had passed and realised that for a second time running the Welsh Engineering derig team must have been flood pulsed.
<p>
We left after the rain abated at around 2pm, arriving at Balcony half an hour later. The climb down at the end was a tad terrifying, especially with our heavy bags threatening to pull us off the wall. But after lowering oneself down it's very straightforward, no issue. It certainly looks far worse than it is. We got into the cave after a further half hour of getting ready. We arrived at the first entrance series pitches, which were fine in their situation and length but the rope was unpleasantly muddy. Not covered in layers of mud, but almost with a thin film that made grip next to impossible. The final pitch in this section was next to a trickle of water beyond a ledge, a short walk down leading us to some instant noodles in a bag. Maybe it was filled with more stuff, but we didn't really check.
<p>
Some scrambles, walks and crawls then led us to a few junction chambers, where James instructed us to follow the left paths on the way in (thus right on the way out). There was a section that was essentially a downhill slide. A handline was positioned on the side for the way up, but for the way down it was a nice time sliding, unless you hit your tailbone like I did. After a wide, stooping passage, we got to the washing station. Here was a narrow walkway on the right with a traverse line, the floor covered with mud. On the immediate left was a small chamber with a very light waterfall. Also on the left, after the small chamber, was a great drop down. We were to continue on from this point and get to the top of a pitch named Honeycomb, where we'd collect bags and ferry them back to this washing station.
<p>
We continued on past the traverse. The exact details blur, but there were some further tight crawls, some bridging sections over rifts and another pitch. Some of the passages held tiny bat skeletons that were circled in tape to prevent anyone from standing on them. There was also a climb up some sharp white stone that looked like it could simply fall apart, but we followed the trail of mud on it and it held strong.
<p>
We arrived at Honeycomb, looking down at the pitch from a traverse line. I believe it was named for some yellow crystalline rock that lined the sides. After peering over, we went back to the preceding chamber as the pitch-head wasn't an ample meeting place. There, some dry bags were in place for us. These were particularly annoying to carry back as Fiona and I couldn't put them easily on our backs. I recall Fiona used some krabs for hers while I used a sling and a krab to keep mine on my side. Ah, something I'd forgotten to say! I had left my cowstails at Homecoming, so I was using a sling and my hand jammer krab as my two cowstails. We took them back to the washing up place and made the journey back, this time there was a bag left for us at the top. After taking a little rest and explaining the plot of All Tomorrows to her, Fiona took the bag back to the washing station while I waited. I got a bit cold, having also forgotten my baselayer at Top Camp. Soon enough, Sarah came through the gap to Honeycomb and handed me a heavy green bag, which I promptly took back.
<p>
The rest blurred, with us ferrying bags back from this chamber, though at some points we met people halfway and only had to take the bags for part of the journey. During the runs, there was only one thing playing in my head on repeat: Toby from the US Office talking about acting as fictional salesman Lloyd Gross. I haven't even seen the Office, but this kept playing in my head to an annoying degree. Upon meeting them halfway, I was asked by Nat and Sarah if I wanted a big bag, so I was given the big red, which was quite bulky but not heavy. It got snagged a few times in the crawls but was otherwise fine. On the pitch up in between Honeycomb and the washing station I soon realised that the pantin was too mud clogged to do anything, so I just left it on my side and used the froggy method. At one point, Becka passed us a traverse line, saying she didn't feel well and was leaving the cave as a precaution. Sarah and Nat later completed their role in the derig and began heading out.
<p>
We met up with Chris and James back at the washing station and headed back to Honeycomb to pick up the last of the bags, to be left to us by Rob and Colin. At the top of the sharp climb, I saw lights and heard voices. The pair were coming out of Balcony anyway, having completed their side of the derig. They were very pleased to see Fiona and I, assuming that everyone else had buggered off. We took a bag each from them and ferried them back to the washing up point. The pair left and James, Chris, Fiona and I started washing up the ropes. Sort of, James got into the wet chamber and Chris started pulling the rope through a brush, actually washing the rope. I fed the rope through to Fiona, who then flaked the rope out and eventually daisy chained it. I made the mistake of keeping my gloves on during the process and so my hands got quite cold; the others kept theirs off so when the process was complete they were able to put on nice dry gloves. Due to the lack of general movement and my cold hands (as well as a rising need to go to the toilet), I was especially eager to leave. When we finished, I hurriedly packed my bags and took off my jacket, stuffing it in the tackle sack alongside everything else, not caring how muddy it got. Indeed, I knew this would be my last cave of the expedition.
<p>
I ran for the entrance series. Upon reaching the bottom of the first pitch, I went to the ledge with the small waterfall and one of my problems was quickly taken care of. After this, my personal tackle sack was taken by Fiona and I took a heavy blue tackle sack up in its place. It was a wet, drippy escape from Balcony. My thoughts went to if we'd truly get some time to relax at the end of the expo or if we'd be completely and utterly swamped with work. My chest jammer also upped its refusal-to-work frequency, with my prussiking and it simply refusing to lock. This led to much frustration and, combined with my other worries, led to me being especially ratty and angry at the cave, at one point hitting my croll to get it to work. It didn't help it work, it didn't make me feel better, who could have guessed? The slipperiness of the rope exasperated all this.
<p>
When I finally got out the cave to the entrance, I expressed my distaste to the rest of the group, though they all seemed to like the cave! I was in disbelief. With all my muddy stuff, packing it into the bag was also a struggle and I just accepted that my bag was going to get mucky. I stated that if there was a way to punch a cave without hurting my hand, I would.
<p>
On the plus side, I saw two bats fly in. Yay.
<p>
I decided to walk back in my undersuit and we left Balcony at 00:13am, having exited the cave half an hour prior. I was thankful to be out finally and to be able to go down the hill in the next few days.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 9.0 hours</div>
Having spent the previous day at Homecoming fettling rope, I had been unable to bounce the car-park to drop my kit off. This was a problem as I had two carries worth of kit to haul.
So on the morning of the Saturday when everyone was getting ready to pack-up Stone Bridge I was already on my way down the hill. I didn't stop once, not for water, shade or rest until I reached the car-park where I offloaded my kit, took a ten minute break and then headed back up.
I was expecting to reach the top camp team on my way back up, and I did, ten minutes away from top camp. Nat explained that Colin would be coming back up for a second run later and that I'd have to get a lift with him. This left me with a considerable amount of time at top camp with nothing to do.
So I did what any reasonable person would do and found a nice sunbathing spot. Fortunately I still had my sleeping kit and so pulled out my pillow and lathered up with Sun-cream before spending a blissful couple of hours in the sun.
Of course I was minorly irritated that, had I known this would happen, I would've hung around earlier and helped with the de-camp, then bounced the car park with Colin. But at least I got a needed break.
As the hours dragged on I began to wonder where Colin was. I'd expected him around five but he didn't arrive until 6!
We then packed up and set off back down to the car-park.
Just as we were climbing off the plateau we heard whooping. So we stuck around the Col until James M and Harry appeared. We then marched down the hill together where we met Chris who drove us down the hill. As we were driving down we marvelled at the light show the Austrians had decorated the Loser and neighbouring peaks with.
</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 0.0 hours</div>
<div class="editentry"><br /><a href="/logbookedit/2024-08-10a">Edit this entry</a><br /></div>
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