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A swift hour's caving with minimal gear got us to +yesterday's pushing front. The first 3 hours were spentdropping two pitches (the Snail Trail pitches) ++ surveying in drafty, awkward rift. +They [the pitches?] started the far side of the Snail Trail Traverse. +We ran out of rope so left a decent lead continuing across + down +with a decent lead continuing across + down with a good draft but it would be hard going, +climbing up + rigging up + downin tall, narrow rift. +
We then deriggedall of SNail Trail+ wentto the tube above the mud slope on the main +Hangman's Traverse. George strolled up the steep mud slope to the tube + put in a bolt +for mefor a handline up then abandoned me with 2 bags +and a loose rope to worm my way along a little tube until +it opened out. +
We surveyed then dropped a ? p15m + dropped thenext, deeper hole. +At the top level + down the pitch were amazing large beds of ginger +crystals (see George's photos) at all crazy angles. The pitch turned into a biggy +so it was lucky that I'd brought all 3 ropes along.Finding a clean hang +among the sharp spikes,slopy walls + shit rock proved toomuch +of a challenge for George :-). +
We surveyed downwhilst George was rigging until we hit a big ledge +where we'd run out of rope. There were huge boulders +so we had fun crashing them down (though one monster he +videoed headed the wrong way when I pushed it + I thought +I was going to crush him) + I gotnearly 50m distoXshot further down +so we're still well off the bottom. +
Tired ont eh survey on the way out. Took 90 min from bottom of Hangman's to get +out. + +
Pitch below Prangman's (rigged 19/7) [6]
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Hangman's Traverse ( redrawn from 17/7/18)
+and Snail Trail Traverse (20m after Snail Trail climb)
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[10] Mongol Ralley Pitch - 1 of 3.
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The plan was to get all the gear to camp so that we could spend the night there. +I rerigged the top half of Number of the Beast +with the rope left at Usual Suspects whilst Luke battered his way in with +two big bags. Luke then proceeded to rig Infernowhile I bagged up the +camping gear.We didn't have enough dry bags for all 3 pits so one was left in a bin bag +at the topof Inferno. After a bit of shuffling the rest of the gear +made it to Upper Kraken. Luke rigged the Kraken pitch and I followed. +
+The tent was very damp but not mouldy. There was a bit of slime in the +water collection Daren drums. Luke set about drying out the tent using much of our bog roll. +I started rigging Tentacle Traverse including putting a couple of extra +bolts in the slimy part. +Rigging Infernoand Kraken had required more hangers than stated in the rigging guide, +mostly due to some of the rebelay bolts having been climbed up. +As a result we were a little light on hangers, and I got as far as the +little drop before running out. +
+By 19:30 wehad completed all our jobs. Since it was nowhere near +bedtime, we decided to cook up a curry and head out. +Apart from horrible jammer slip on the Kraken pitch, +Iexited without incident. Luke's footloops snapped on the Kraken +pitch, so he had to come back down to replace them with a sling. +
Rigging in Beckoning Silence/Radio Silence
+All rope lengths estimated
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On the way back from KH entrance, Chris and I detoured to 115 to get 6 litres of water as we were very thirsty. Also took out the museli and flapjack. Left ~4 litres of water and a orange polythene swirl (sp?) bag.