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@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ verbal instructions about what must be "Fanny by Gaslight" traverse.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-07-28a">2022-07-28</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Anthony Day</u>, Amelia Oliver, Hannah Collings, Harry Kettle, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Amelia Oliver, Hannah Collings, Harry Kettle, <u>Anthony Day</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Honeycomb pitch</div>
<br /><br />After Chrs' experiences failing to find Honeycomb pitch, we were quite keen to find out where it actually was. Two vintages of the survey showed an identical depiction of the pitch head, excapt that one was labelled 'P6'; the other 'p52' and 'this bit looks completely wrong'. Some phone calls to Luke and Nat eventually yielded a pitcure of the pitch head that confirmed dthe traverse that Chris had spotted lead to the pitch head. Infused with confidence, we headed in where I started to rig while the others sat in the bothy playing cards. Rigging proceeded mostly without incident, apart from the P7 beyond Honeycomb rainging boulders with disconcerting regularlity. Rigged the Hangmans traverse and replaced the rope of the climb up to the start of Mongol rally. All the ropes were exactly the right length to the inch. Headed out without incident.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 9.0 hours</div>
@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ verbal instructions about what must be "Fanny by Gaslight" traverse.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-07-29b">2022-07-29</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Luke Stangroom</u>, Joel Stobbart, Keiran Appadoo, Wassil Janssen, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Joel Stobbart, Keiran Appadoo, Wassil Janssen, <u>Luke Stangroom</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - rigging trip</div>
<br /><br />After a late carry up to camp in the dark with all the rope needed for the first 9 pitches (thanks to Keiran, Joel and Jonty). It was a slightly slow morning organising ropes, walk down to Fishface was straight forward, leaving reflectors on our way (half complete). Then I rigged the first 2 pitches. The ice plug we used to walk across was completely melted, so the way on was 5m off the ground. Tried swinging and climbing but couldn't do it. Keiran had a shot but the rope rub was too much despite finding a nice natural to rebelay off, it was not possible. So we headed out to get a drill from top camp. Some noodles and walk alter we were back underground where Keiran and Joel had been adjusting the first pitch due to an extra bolt being missed. Me and Wassil rigged up to the 4th pitch. Then out of the cave and back to the top camp before midnight.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 8.0 hours</div>
@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ verbal instructions about what must be "Fanny by Gaslight" traverse.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-07-29c">2022-07-29</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jonty Pine</u>, Amelia Oliver, Anthony Day, Lucy Hyde, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Amelia Oliver, Anthony Day, Lucy Hyde, <u>Jonty Pine</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Natural Highs</div>
<br /><br /><u>Jonty</u>, (visual storyteller), Lucy (scribe)</u>, Anthony, Mealy
<br /><br />Lucy had a careful time descending the long rope on her stop
@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ verbal instructions about what must be "Fanny by Gaslight" traverse.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-07-30a">2022-07-30</div>
<div class="trippeople">Lucy Hyde, Paul Fox, Frank Tully, <u>Martin Green</u>, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Paul Fox, Frank Tully, <u>Martin Green</u>, Lucy Hyde, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Hilti-a-plenty rigging in Balkonh&ouml;hle</div>
<br /><br />Lucy and Martin rigged Hilti a plenty and did a little exploration. Returned to meet Paul and Frank. Went to misidentified pushing front. Redescended some pitches and traverse. Frank explored a tight key hole passage and did a rough survey. Lucy and Paul set out first whilst Frank and Martin found the proper next pitch. Martin got soaked on the entrance pitch by a short 10minute thunderstorm.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 8.0 hours</div>
@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ Although we don't have helicopters or even donkeys we do have a very atmospheric
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-07-31a">2022-07-31</div>
<div class="trippeople">Paul Fox, <u>Frank Tully</u>, Martin Green, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Frank Tully</u>, Martin Green, Paul Fox, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - hilti a plenty</div>
<br /><br />Martin rigged 'hilti a plenty' whilst I fettled the bivi, then turned up a bit late. Headed down to the 'sponge chamber' sandy slope and missed the low crawl to 'let's be appalling', slid down the low slide onto the pitchhead which we started to rig. Whilst bored I climbed 2m above the pitchhead, gaining access into a tiny tube, 'sponge chamber2 tiny tube'. Phreatic tube trending down, wide enough at the top but slightly narrower below, basically its quite strenuous, pushed for a few meters beyond the end of the survey. The tube continues much the same but it is not draughting much. Headed out because we got cold, found the passage to 'let's be appalling'.
@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ all caving together the previous day.]]
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-07-31b">2022-07-31</div>
<div class="trippeople">Hannah Collings, <u>Anthony Day</u>, Chris Densham, Harry Kettle, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Anthony Day</u>, Chris Densham, Harry Kettle, Hannah Collings, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - pushing in Northern Pitstop</div>
<br /><br />A fairly efficient start saw us heading underground by 10:00. Straightforward navigation to the seing off Mongol Rally. A combination of the survey and a passage description on arry's phone enabled navigation through to Northern Pitstop. We overshot the 6m pitch. When we found it, we decided some bolts weren't in order, so out came the drill to install a proper rig (about 10m rope, Y hang, bolt deviation and thread devisation). Shortly after we got to the traverse round a wet pitch and a 5m up pitch which was universally declared to be horrible. More wandering through the maze led to the pushing front in the far north west - three parallel phreatic tubes. Harry and Anthony took the left hand one while Chris and hannah went right. As expected, all the tubes connected in a maze of rock pillars that later inspired the name, Erecktheim. Progress continued in well-proportioned passage thouggh the complexity did not abate. Found a couple of pitch leads, and eventually called it a day at a continuing phreatc passage at the top of a loose climb. Headed out with a few route finding mishaps. The youth zipped out at a lightning pace whilst the veterans were somewhat more sedate.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 14.0 hours</div>
@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ all caving together the previous day.]]
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-07-31c">2022-07-31</div>
<div class="trippeople">Frank Tully, <u>Lucy Hyde</u>, Oakem Kyne, Amelia Oliver, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Lucy Hyde</u>, Oakem Kyne, Amelia Oliver, Frank Tully, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Hilti-a-plenty NO SPANNERS</div>
<br /><br />trip with lots of problems but very fun. Mealy forgot oversuit so walked back to top camp. Lucy and Oakem learnt a lot from Frank meanwhile. Descent down entrance pitch and then Oakem and Lucy went and descended down Hiltiaplenty and waited near the bottom. Unfortunately by miscommunication Frank has not appreciated this was the plan. Thinking Lucy and Oakem has gone for water, he and Mealy spent 40 minutes waiting above the pitch. Eventually the group regrouped at the bottom of Hiltiaplenty. Went through crawl pulling ropes to top of next pitch that had been taken down on Lucy, Frank, Paul and Martin's previous trip. Arriving at the start of the pitch however they sat and discovered that no one had happened to bring a spanner. Having considered this they realised they wouldn't be able to rig further. Oakem and Frank set up for rigging while Lucy and Mealy had an explore. They went down some small crawls in the vicinity and found a passage that petered into mid filled passage after around 5m ( was previsouly marked as QMB) though clear was not. They decided this was a good place to dig due to Mealy detecting a 'draft'. So had some fun digging by hand, as moles do and decided to return. Once things to do were exhausted, the group headed on up. We looked in passage on the way back that would later be explored as 'digging matilda'. Trip aim failed but ropes moved deeper (by 50m).
<div class="timeug">T/U: 5.0 hours</div>
@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ Also thanks to the recent UKCaving website update it has been possible for me to
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-01a">2022-08-01</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Frank Tully</u>, Oakem Kyne, Lucy Hyde, Amelia Oliver, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Oakem Kyne, Lucy Hyde, Amelia Oliver, <u>Frank Tully</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - forgotten spanner</div>
<br /><br />Basically a clusterfuck. I forgot my spanner and lent my survey gear (which contains my spare spanner), everyone else did not realise they needed a spanner - we need to update the expo recommended kit list...
<br /><br />Killed off some qm's in the area, some of which were passaged which were not closed on the mini survey and not actual qm's. The two qmB's above the pitch which links 'Let's be appalling' to 'Can't stop now it's bat country', were mud filled tubes and did not draught, interestingly there is a potential QM'c above the pitch which will require climbing up 4m but I'm not happy doing it.
@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ Large hole, craps out.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-01c">2022-08-01</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jonty Pine</u>, Luke Stangroom, Mike Butcher, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Luke Stangroom, Mike Butcher, <u>Jonty Pine</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fishface</div>
<br /><br />Went into Fishface to do some surveying at the bottom. Having not been told much about the cave beforehand, I left my water bottle 'halfway', which later became apparant was the bottom of the second pitch. Fortunately my blunder was overshadowed by Luke making an absolute mess of his surveying after numbering his compass diagram anticlockwise. After ensuring Luke was appropriately shamed, we contintued our surveying, discovering License to Kill and making a loop closure, much ot his chagrin.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 10.0 hours</div>
@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ Large hole, craps out.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-02b">2022-08-02</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Hannah Collings</u>, Becka Lawson, Rob Watson, Harry Kettle, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Becka Lawson, Rob Watson, Harry Kettle, <u>Hannah Collings</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - pushing in Northern Pitstop</div>
<br /><br />Rob and Becka had an early start to get up the hill in good time for our trip. Cotinued on from previous pushing trip and frist went to promising borehole where pushing previsouly stopped. Harry and Becka took the borehole which sadly crapped out after about 20m. Rob and I took the passage off from the previously explored rift which quickly connected into the crapped out borehole.So far, not a promising trip, the main achievement being installing two handlines in Erechtheion, one of which was swiftly removed when a bypass was found. Backtracking into Medusa's maze we followed some more A leads, again splitting into two surveying teams. Harry and Becka followed a lead which got too tight so came to help me and Rob with a loop in our area. The passage was very cheesy, with lots of muddy sliding around. We finished the day with a rift which would require a rope to get down, a muddy upwards sloping passage and a potential path through a boulder choke - so there's still lots of potential in that area. There's also a large pitch at the end of Erechtheion which is very drafty. We had a stop for noodles at Northern powerhouse before heading out. Becka and I led the way whilst Harry and Rob went back to Erechtheion for a forgotten drill. A relatively swift exit was had with no incident.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 12.0 hours</div>
@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ Large hole, craps out.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-02c">2022-08-02</div>
<div class="trippeople">Aaron Clair, <u>Frank Tully</u>, Paul Fox, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Frank Tully</u>, Paul Fox, Aaron Clair, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Balkonh&ouml;hle</div>
<br /><br />Rigged down the pitch which links ‘Let’s be appalling’ to ‘Can’t stop now its bat country’. Surveyed the passage up dip from the bottom of the pitch, howling draught coming towards us, the passage ends in a clean washed chamber, possible continuation of the passage in the North East. There is a QMA lead from ‘Let’s be appalling’ above. I need to confirm that all the draught is coming down the shaft, or that the continuation of the lower passage is where the draught is coming from. Needs looking at.
<br /><br />Followed the lower passage down dip to where the survey ended, ducked under the left wall and found a continuation of the passage. Surveyed this. This ends in a pitch into a small chamber with rifts exiting below, and a continuation of the passage across the pitch this appears to go into a larger space. Down appears to be 15m from the floor. Across is 5m or so. Need a drill and a rope. Continued down to below the ‘can’t stop now its bat country’ pitch which is not on the survey. Scan for rigging guide!!!!
@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ Large hole, craps out.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-03b">2022-08-03</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Becka Lawson</u>, Andreas Klocker, Keiran Appadoo, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Andreas Klocker, Keiran Appadoo, <u>Becka Lawson</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Kubla Khan</div>
<br /><br />Keiran ably guided us to the east QMs at the far south end of Kubla Khan then Andreas and he both did book in ideal passage for practising surveying - sandy floored phreas. We surveyed steadily past a junction (left we surveyed until it ended, mud-filled, this is almost certainly the other end of the mud filled passage on the R of Kubla Khan just before station 5; right was suveyed by Becka and Hannah on 4/8/22.) We continued then started climbing up and ended at a more complex area with a possibly free climbable aven and two horizontal leads (surveyd by Rob and Amelia on 4/8/22). Slow out as 3 teams converged on the pitches and Rob was also rerigging.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 9.0 hours</div>
@ -349,7 +349,7 @@ Large hole, craps out.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-03c">2022-08-03</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jonty Pine</u>, Luke Stangroom, Joel Stobbart, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Luke Stangroom, Joel Stobbart, <u>Jonty Pine</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Nicholas Cage traverse</div>
<br /><br />Return to Fishface after a good rest. Joel and I rigged the Nicholas Cage traverse, which we took great pride in. Rob Watson stole our drill as we were deliberating how to finish the traverse. Alice turned up and decided the Nicholas Cage traverse was in fact the Nicholas Cage handline. After gaining access to the far side of the traverse and having been relieved of our drill we dutifully decided to continue on and survey what we strongly believed to be the best lead of expo. This led to the discovery of Keanu Breeze, so named whilst we were fighting for our lives in the cold winds. After reaching the end of our lead at the top of a large pitch we decided to return the next day to bolt it. Getting out this time was a lot easier thanks to the aforementioned rest day.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 10.0 hours</div>
@ -358,7 +358,7 @@ Large hole, craps out.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-03d">2022-08-03</div>
<div class="trippeople">Aaron Clair, <u>Frank Tully</u>, Paul Walko, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Frank Tully</u>, Paul Walko, Aaron Clair, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Hiltiaplenty - Unnamed area above start of Sloppy Seconds pitches</div>
<br /><br />Trip to Balkonhohle – HiltiAPlenty – Unnamed area above start of Sloppy Seconds pitches
Followed the unnamed area down the canyon to a undescended small pitch. Dropped the pitch with a pushing rig and found it comes out more or less above the top of ‘sloppy seconds’. Surveyed from the unnamed passage above ‘sloppy seconds’ to the previous unnamed canyon, so we should have a loop now.
@ -370,7 +370,7 @@ Followed the unnamed area down the canyon to a undescended small pitch. Dropped
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-03e">2022-08-03</div>
<div class="trippeople">Martin Green, <u>Lucy Hyde</u>, Amelia Oliver, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Lucy Hyde</u>, Amelia Oliver, Martin Green, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Hiltiaplenty</div>
<br /><br />Lucy and Mealy descended, followed by Martin down Hilti a plenty, withthe idea to rig traverse observed on previous trip of Frank, Lucy, Mealy and Oakem. This was previously rigged by Becka but no rigging guide supplied. They managed to rig across the 1st pitch and while rigging they heard - to their surprise - the sound of Frank beneath them who had gone with Paul and Aaron to rig as described in Frank's description of this day. We however ran out of rope so abandoned this track, returned and spent the rest of the trip investigating small leads. Returning to the passage visited by Lucy, Mealy and Frank on the 31st. This was the much anticipated DIG that had been laughed at in top camp. Lucy and Mealy were armed with s(?????) and most importantly shovels so set to work. By 'work' this meant lying horizontally in narrow passage and singing "Don't come a digging matilda with me" for quite a time. After Martin had endured this with great patience, he taught Mealy and Lucy to survey up the passage 'digging matilda' - Mealy did laser and Lucy did book. Having surveyed they were cold. They set off to explore leads i nthe Martin loop. Lucy was cold and tired and wasn't as entusiastic as Mealy to go down small holes. They explored most small holes on the loop. saw the pretty cracked mud, licked the wall in the chalky passage, took photos. Mealy followed a narrow lead for 20-30m where she found it to widen into a samll ?? before discovering a freshwater body described as a pong, otherwise considerd to be a puddle. There is a pitch to allow the viewer to make their own decision.
<br /><br />On the way up Martin adjusted the rigging and deviation on Hiltiaplenty to make it more user friendly.
@ -402,7 +402,7 @@ My overall impression of the cave as we descended was that it was essentially li
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-04a">2022-08-04</div>
<div class="trippeople">Hannah Collings, <u>Rob Watson</u>, Amelia Oliver, Becka Lawson, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob Watson</u>, Amelia Oliver, Becka Lawson, Hannah Collings, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - pushing Kubla Khan</div>
<br /><br />Having got used to Fish face yesterday and knowing the way to the leads, it was decided that Becka and I should return to show some students of survey the way of data and drawing. I rebolted the one-bolt wonder 9th pitch (rigged for convenience only) on the way down; had to nick some rope from the base of the previous pitch. Arrived at the pushing front, Amelia lacked sufficient clothing for a tiny woman drawing in the breeze so Becka lent her an extremely unfashionable vest. Becka and Hannah set off down an A lead heading off East (?) while Amelia and I headed off towads a very sediment-filled passage with a very climbable aven heading far away and drafting strongly down. The sediment had carved much pargenesis, with a lovely anastomosing half tube in the ceiling and many roof pendants. The clasts were occasionally very large (5cm diameter) indicating a high energy environment of deposition. We proceeded to destroy history in the name of progress by surveying on the sediment banks to a QMC. We then headed back to the main passage to survey along a fault-guided passage (strike 015, dip 65 degrees East). This fun soon ended when we reached a pitch and had no rope with which to descend it. So we headed off to find the Japers, but no joy there either, as Jonty was busy sinking all the rope into Keanu Breeze (which predictably turned into a pissing wet no-hoper later on). So then headed out after crapping out a number of Luke's leads just by looking at them.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 8 hours</div>
@ -414,7 +414,7 @@ My overall impression of the cave as we descended was that it was essentially li
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-04b">2022-08-04</div>
<div class="trippeople">Luke Stangroom, <u>Jonty Pine</u>, Harry Kettle, Joel Stobbart, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jonty Pine</u>, Harry Kettle, Joel Stobbart, Luke Stangroom, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - bolting</div>
<br /><br />Enthusiastically we set out to do justice to the Keanu Breeze pitch. With drill, hammer, and spanner we made our way to the bottom of Fishface and layered up in
preparation for the cold bolting job As this was my first pitch bolting job Harry came to help me while Luke and Joel split off for some survey work. After finding a
@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ phreatic passage remains to be attemped by a bold caver who still has the energy
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-04c">2022-08-04</div>
<div class="trippeople">Alice Kirby, <u>Oakem Kyne</u>, Anthony Day, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Oakem Kyne</u>, Anthony Day, Alice Kirby, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Balkonh&ouml;hle</div>
<br /><br />Anthony guided us to the Custard Cavalry in Southern Pitstop using Becka's description. The survey was being used as a "no pissing" sign in Fishface. We rigged a pitch down an aven and off a natural and a hilti down on the left. Ascended the rope left in and began surveying. Alice started with sketching but soon retreated to the bothy. Anthony took over. Oaken weilded the disto with great skill and precision. Overall about 130m of cave were mapped. The tunnel continued down a straight line before taking an obvious right turn (with a B/C lead on the left up a 3m climb.)
<div class="timeug">T/U: 13.0 hours</div>
@ -467,7 +467,7 @@ phreatic passage remains to be attemped by a bold caver who still has the energy
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-04f">2022-08-04</div>
<div class="trippeople">Keiran Appadoo, <u>Lucy Hyde</u>, Mike Butcher, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Lucy Hyde</u>, Mike Butcher, Keiran Appadoo, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Happy Butteryfly - cave (GSH)</div>
<br /><br />Set off late after midday due to faff with 200m of new white shiny rope walked to the entrance. Some snow, skull from a few years back still there. Mike had derigged GSH in 2019(?). Keiran and Mike started to rig down the 1st pitch. Mike later returned to this and changed it to a traverse instead. Keiran taught Lucy to rig on the second pitch which she did. The third pitch was a bit confusing with too many bolts for what was needed. Lucy too start to rig.
<br /><br />scan for rigging guide
@ -483,7 +483,7 @@ phreatic passage remains to be attemped by a bold caver who still has the energy
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-04g">2022-08-04</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob Watson</u>, Hannah Collings, Becka Lawson, Amelia Oliver, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Hannah Collings, Becka Lawson, Amelia Oliver, <u>Rob Watson</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - 2022 exploits in Fish Face – Part 1b of 3</div>
<br>[From blog post dated 19th August.]<br>
With the climbs now bolted and some extra rebelays added to the big pitch to speed things up, I was back again the next day with Amelia, Becka and Hannah. The aim was to push some leads at the southern end of the horizontal level, and Amelia wanted to have a go at doing ‘book’ (making notes of the survey data and drawing the passage), which I was more than happy to supervise (and thus avoid having to do myself). Surveying in Austria is a chilly affair: my usual layering system was to do ‘active’ caving to the pushing front in just a furry suit, and then on arrival to strip down the top half and add a t-shirt and grid baselayer underneath along with a buff and headband, then furry back on (dry layers beneath dry out any sweat accumulated, although the aim is not to sweat) and then a pac-a-mac on underneath my oversuit (to keep the wind off – extremely effective). After starting off pushing down an easy passage full of sediment which ended in a dig, we turned our attention to another horizontal lead heading further south. After a few legs along a clearly joint-controlled passage progress was stopped by a ~10m pitch; having no rope, we set off towards the area where Luke was supervising the japes, with a view to snaffling some. We headed across the ‘Nicholas Cage’ traverse toward the pitch which Jonty was rigging, named ‘Keanu Breeze’ (these names really sum up what the creche is all about – nonsense and japery). Sadly it appeared that Jonty (and by extension Keanu) could not spare any rope, so Amelia and I decided to head out after writing off a couple of other leads (left by Luke and the Japes) simply by looking at them (though Amelia seemed to really want to grot around pointlessly in a sediment bank).<br>
@ -506,7 +506,7 @@ Part two, detailing what we found on our camping trip (lots), will follow in due
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-05a">2022-08-05</div>
<div class="trippeople">Keiran Appadoo, <u>Joel Stobbart</u>, Andreas Klocker, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Joel Stobbart</u>, Andreas Klocker, Keiran Appadoo, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Hug the plug and tasteful noods</div>
<br /><br />Surveying and pushing shallow leads (no deeper than top of 3rd pitch)
<br /><br />We went underground planning to survey the new ice plug which me and Wassil dropped last Monday, survey Tasteful Noods and then explore the lead going N at bottom of entrance pitch. First finished bolting and rigging down near ice plug, names "Hig the plug" - Andreas drilling. Put in a second Y hang then dropped to ice - squeezed around but qucikly crapped out. Surveyed (but not to link in - need to redo to close the loop) then got out as very cold.
@ -519,7 +519,7 @@ Part two, detailing what we found on our camping trip (lots), will follow in due
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-05b">2022-08-05</div>
<div class="trippeople">Hannah Collings, <u>Nat Dalton</u>, Chris Densham, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Nat Dalton</u>, Chris Densham, Hannah Collings, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - N Pitstop</div>
<br /><br />After some last minute plan changed, Chris was able to convince me that a Balkon camp trip would be a good idea, despite the fact I'd only just arrived on expo/up the hill! We packed up the camp and assorted chattels (with Chris trying to unsuccessfully fat-shame Hannah and I into taking less food) along with rope, drill and hangers into several oversized tacklesacks. We managed to find some willing volunteers to assist with the ridiculous carry and we were off.
<br /><br />Steady progress was made down to Pitstop, with some minor route finding issues in Upper Balkon trying to avoid the sandy crawl. Whilst Hannah and I faffed, Chris has found an excellent [], so we commenced work. A while later a cosy camp, wellstocked with a variety of delicious foods, fluids and pits. After a full on day, we got an early night.
@ -532,7 +532,7 @@ Part two, detailing what we found on our camping trip (lots), will follow in due
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-05c">2022-08-05</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Wookey</u>, Aaron Clair, Paul Walko, Amelia Oliver, Mike Butcher, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Paul Walko, Amelia Oliver, Mike Butcher, <u>Wookey</u>, Aaron Clair, </div>
<div class="triptitle">290 - WhichCave - Rigging Amelia's Pitch</div>
<br /><br />[Editor note - Unknown which cave this is, not identified in this logbook entry or in any scanned notes. It is <em>assumed</em>, purely from the people and the date, that this is the same trip that surveyed Horrorbank in 290.]
<br /><br />Went to bottom for Amelia to rig her 1st pitch.
@ -568,7 +568,7 @@ Very windy spot so surveying team (illegible) arses off to about an (illegible)
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-05e">2022-08-05</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nat Dalton, <u>Hannah Collings</u>, Chris Densham, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Hannah Collings</u>, Chris Densham, Nat Dalton, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - first and last of the 2022 Balkon camps – Part 1a</div>
Blog Author: h_collings [Blog post dated 30th August]<br>
<br>
@ -588,7 +588,7 @@ Slow but steady progress was made down to Pitstop, with some teamwork required t
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-06a">2022-08-06</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nat Dalton, <u>Hannah Collings</u>, Chris Densham, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Hannah Collings</u>, Chris Densham, Nat Dalton, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - first and last of the 2022 Balkon camps – Part 1b</div>
<br>Blog Author: h_collings [Blog post dated 30th August]<br>
Chris rose early the next day, unsuccessfully persuading Nat and I to join him with his early start. Eventually we surfaced from our pits and after a leisurely start we headed off down Northern Pitstop to the pushing front. On the previous two pushing trips we had explored two areas off Medusa’s Maze each of which had yielded ongoing leads. We decided to head to the most promising of these, a large, open pitch approximately 50m deep, at the end of Erechtheion. I hadn’t yet rigged any new pitches and was strongly encouraged by Nat and Chris to have a go; I was very nervous and only coaxed into it by the promise that I could do the first couple of bolts and then let someone else take over. This was a good tactic as more confidence was gained with each bolt and, a few hours later, I had rigged the whole pitch. At the bottom of the pitch we landed on a boulder floor, with a further drop to our left, a passage on our right and a climb down straight ahead. We headed straight on, and Nat rigged a short drop down onto a boulder slope. Here there was a lead off to the right with a cathedral echo and various bottomless holes further down the passage potentially lead to the same place. We carried on down the passage and reached an intersection with a passage heading up and down with a wet trench at the bottom, and a lead off to the right just before this. As we needed to survey the new pitch on the way back up, we set off on our return to camp and after a long day got to bed around 3am. The new pitch was later named Tartarus, continuing with the Greek mythology theme of the previous areas.<br>
@ -607,7 +607,7 @@ We had a late start the next morning [7th August], before heading out and fettli
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-07a">2022-08-07</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob Watson</u>, Jonty Pine, Mike Butcher, Luke Stangroom, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Jonty Pine, Mike Butcher, Luke Stangroom, <u>Rob Watson</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Kamp Kresh</div>
<br /><br />Awoke restless after terrible dream that I had spilt all the coffee and had no time to make more before venturing underground. Up the hill in reasonable time,
however in just 15 minutes into the walk to Top Camp Mike managed to topple over and cut himself badly on his hand. We were very poorly equipped to deal with this but
@ -728,7 +728,7 @@ Becoming bored of meandering upstream towards nothing at about 11pm we decided t
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-08a">2022-08-08</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Amelia Oliver</u>, Andreas Klocker, Lucy Hyde, Joel Stobbart, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Andreas Klocker, Lucy Hyde, Joel Stobbart, <u>Amelia Oliver</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Shallow trip looking for HB connection</div>
<br /><br />(Mealy == Amelia Oliver)
<br /><br />Lucy and Joel wento to link Tasteful Noods to entrance survey. Mealy and Andreas went to Captain Crunch to bolt the pitch left previsouly. Swapped ropes around in Captain Crunch. Joel and Lucy then joined us to survey Captain Crunch. Mealy dropped a pitch and found a survey station suspecting she was in Happy Butterfly she was pleased. Dropped antoher pitch 'flying cottage' found more survey points. Surveyed and left.
@ -738,7 +738,7 @@ Becoming bored of meandering upstream towards nothing at about 11pm we decided t
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-08b">2022-08-08</div>
<div class="trippeople">Tobias Turner, <u>Rachel Turnbull</u>, Wookey, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rachel Turnbull</u>, Wookey, Tobias Turner, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Plateau - Finding Orphaned Caves</div>
<br /><br />2006-06 Boganh&ouml;lhe
<br /><br />Originally surveyed 2001, but lost.
@ -815,7 +815,7 @@ We considered continuing, but now I had a medical issue of my own: some shrapnel
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-09a">2022-08-09</div>
<div class="trippeople">Eric Landgraf, <u>Amelia Oliver</u>, Joel Stobbart, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Amelia Oliver</u>, Joel Stobbart, Eric Landgraf, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Happy Butterfly connection</div>
<br /><br />Back to flying cottage. Suspecting HB was near, a team had gone that way to make noise. Unsure which was to explore the rift, we went one way until we had to chissle Joel out of a boulder choke and we could go no further. A small water hole was found. We went back to flying cottage. The day before we had found some hilti bolts making a Y hang over a large rift. Using these, Mealy descended. Kresh connection was found.
<br /><br />Visual/ Audio connection was made withthe HB team. However due to a lack of rope Mealy was levitating about 30m above/diagonal from Emily. We turned around with plans to bring more rope. Insert scanned rigging guide!!!
@ -827,7 +827,7 @@ We considered continuing, but now I had a medical issue of my own: some shrapnel
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-09b">2022-08-09</div>
<div class="trippeople">Andreas Klocker, <u>Frank Tully</u>, Charlotte Payne, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Frank Tully</u>, Charlotte Payne, Andreas Klocker, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Happy Butterfly - make that connection</div>
<br /><br />this trip should have included Charlotte, Andreas, others?
<br /><br />Tourist trip for me :¬)Went down to the top of the defying gravity pitch and surveyed back across the traverse. As we completed the survey Amelia appeared high up in a parallel rift and much shouting and celebrating occurred, it was very loud. Not enough rope to make the connection.
@ -837,7 +837,7 @@ We considered continuing, but now I had a medical issue of my own: some shrapnel
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-09c">2022-08-09</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Wookey</u>, Dinny Davies, Paul Walko, Philip Balister, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Dinny Davies, Paul Walko, Philip Balister, <u>Wookey</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Plateau - Sorting more caves</div>
<br /><br />Headed Balcony-wards to continue OCD work completing previous finds.
@ -875,7 +875,7 @@ So, camp was pretty successful, tying up plenty of leads and leaving some great
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-10a">2022-08-10</div>
<div class="trippeople">Tobias Turner, <u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Eric Landgraf, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Eric Landgraf, Tobias Turner, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Through trip</div>
<br /><br />The creche had made the connection between Fischgesicht and Happy Butterfly on the previous day, so the plan today was for a group to go into Fishface to do the
through trip and survey the connection, while another team followed to survey some unsurveyed passages in Fishface and derig behind the other team once we knew they
@ -900,7 +900,7 @@ couldn't get down Happy Butterfly.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-10b">2022-08-10</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nathan Walker, <u>Becka Lawson</u>, Christopher Holt, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Becka Lawson</u>, Christopher Holt, Nathan Walker, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - to Coconut Chamber, surveying Coconut Sky</div>
<br /><br />Covid crew + Nathan headed to the bottom of Fishface and had noodle lunch at the waterpool before checking out the Coconut Chamber leads. We started to survey at old station 11 (of Coconut Chamber 3) then, 3 stations later, tied into Coconut Chamber 3.14... oh well, at least it confirmed our tie-in. The rest of the survey trip was confusing - we surveyed back under ourselves to a deep canyon which is the same one in Coconut Chamber. However the two C leads above this seem to be sepereate and are still not pushed. We then headed in the opposite direction (N), up the canyon. This soon lead to a low but wide chamber with many rock pillars. The canyon continued N but it is deep with slippy, muddy, sloped sides which would need rigging to explore safely. The only other lead was a QMB in the top left of the chamber. We exited with a very pleasent curry, couscous and 2nd noodle tea before prossicking out in about 2.5 hours.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 9.5 hours</div>
@ -909,7 +909,7 @@ couldn't get down Happy Butterfly.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-10c">2022-08-10</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Kristian Brook</u>, Frank Tully, Emily Mabbett, Lucy Hyde, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Frank Tully, Emily Mabbett, Lucy Hyde, <u>Kristian Brook</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Nothing to See (resurveying 2017's Shite)</div>
<br /><br />It was time for my penance. Adam Aldridge and I did such a shit job of surveying in 2017 that no survey was written up for half of Nothing to See. The purpose of this trip was to show this series to someone more competant to ensure it is further explored. It is heading to Bat Country - a T junction is encountered shortly before the pitchhead for tBat Country. Turn right at this T junction and a pit is encountered (left takes you to Bat Country). Traverse over the pit and drop a small pitch. Way on is true right. True left is a view of a lower passage that conencts to Bat Country; there is a hole in the floor that has potential to be dropped. Way on leads to GalactiRamp. GalactiRamp was dropped in 2017, and links to GalactiShaft. Exposed traverse around GalactiRamp leads to a 4 way junction. levft is an exposed traverse to GalactiShaft MAze. Right is a passage that soon ends with a too tight rift in the right. Straight on drops into a chamber with a pit in the floor (unknown if this has been dropped). Beyond chamber, a passage leads on and a passage to the left leads to Galacti-cock, a 200m (estimate) shaft dropping to Galactica. Carry on the passage to a T Junction. Right leads to Dead Battery Run a blind pit that has two leads from the top, a QMB and QMC. Left goes down into a Fucking Maze with leads A-Fucking-Galore and will be a treat to survey on a future trip.
<br /><br />Back to the entrance pitch there is a [] in the left of the high level which leads tothe GalactiShaft to maze series. I'm gonna have to survey that.
@ -920,7 +920,7 @@ couldn't get down Happy Butterfly.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-10d">2022-08-10</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rachel Turnbull</u>, Joel Stobbart, Amelia Oliver, Charlotte Payne, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Joel Stobbart, Amelia Oliver, Charlotte Payne, <u>Rachel Turnbull</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - to Happy Butterfly Connection via Kreshconnection</div>
<br /><br />2 Teams descended Fishface. I'd never been so was relieved of the pressure of knowing anything remotely navigational. Mealy led the way through the entrance, immediately tossing her tackle sack with the drill and batteries down the entrance pitch and onto the traverse line. After an enormous thud, she went to retrieve it and hid in the sandy crawl. This entrance pitch is still a bit loose and we descended one at a time. I abbed to the the sound of her sad 'Oh's. Mealy called up the pitch, 'is it allowed to ooze?'. Unsure whether she was talking about the drill or batteries, I shouted to her to keep her hands clear. Ooze was something I was fairly sure was not good. Thankfully, the batteries were not oozing, just the drill. Everyone else descended, we faffed and discussed what to do. Eric's team had caught up with us by this point and it was decided he could show Charlotte and I to the lead, whilst Mealy and Joel went to investigate if there was a spare drill at the Stone Bridge. They removed the drill and batteries and left the rest of the bolting gear at the bottom of the entrance pitch.
<br /><br />Erik showed us the way. We were baffled to see our route had been previsouly bolted on hiltis and survyed, and wondered why we were back there. To kill time, I rerigged the 50m pitch above the connection to a long, thicker rope. Charlotte dropped it as a sub-optimal free hang, noting the rebelays we didn't have the bolting gear to utilise. Unable to get safely off the rope, she ascended and we surveyed the top of the pitch area and waited for Mealy and Joel.
@ -934,7 +934,7 @@ couldn't get down Happy Butterfly.
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-10e">2022-08-10</div>
<div class="trippeople">Emily Mabbett, <u>Frank Tully</u>, Kristian Brook, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Frank Tully</u>, Kristian Brook, Emily Mabbett, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - NOTHING TO SEE</div>
<br /><br />Quick trip into Balkon HiltiAPlenty, nowhere,
Headed in and lifted the rigging kit from ‘top of ‘bat country’ to ‘lets be appalling’, so that we could rig across the traverse into nowhere. Rigging down the small pitch is a bit rubby an it hooks under a flake, it might be easier to rig it as a traverse towards the maze traverse.
@ -967,7 +967,7 @@ The ‘Suffolk by the sea’ survey went up the bed from the bottom of the ‘le
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<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-12a">2022-08-12</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Becka Lawson</u>, Andreas Klocker, Wookey, Nat Dalton, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Andreas Klocker, Wookey, Nat Dalton, <u>Becka Lawson</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Charon &amp; Underground Camp</div>
T/U Fri ?7, Sat 24, Sun 15
<br /><br />(also Wookey + Andreas on camp)
@ -983,7 +983,7 @@ T/U Fri ?7, Sat 24, Sun 15
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-13a">2022-08-13</div>
<div class="trippeople">Max Weiser, <u>Rob Watson</u>, Nathan Walker, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob Watson</u>, Nathan Walker, Max Weiser, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Apis Medicus- Below Clap My Pitch Up</div>
<br /><br />[Missing logbook entry for Cpt Chris & Eric trip ?]
@ -1030,7 +1030,7 @@ Chris, Max &amp; I partook in a very fine moon &amp; stars before turning in at
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-13b">2022-08-13</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Dinny Davies, Keiran Appadoo, Rachel Turnbull, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Dinny Davies, Keiran Appadoo, Rachel Turnbull, <u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Derig Kresh Connection</div>
<br /><br />The aim for this trip was to de-rig the traverse into Happy Butterfly and everything above it, excluding the entrance pitch. We quickly made it down to the traverse whre Rachel pointed the way on to Happy Butterfly, which she had de-rigged the previous day. Here, we decided to split into two groups. <br /><br />Keiran and Rachel looked at a lead above the traverse, while Dinny rigged a rope into the rift below for me to descend. It appeared that Keiran and Rachel's passage was an oxbow back into the top of the rift I was exploring. The rift I was in had two survey stations at the bottom (1.5 and 36 - since located on HB survey). The rift ended in a pitch which has previously been dropped as there were bolts at the pitch head.
<br /><br />After ruling out any other leads we turned to de-rigging. Rachel head out first with a couple of bags while I assisted Keiran with derigging the lower pitches. I then derigged the last pitches with Dinny's assistance.
@ -1096,7 +1096,7 @@ finished changing on the surface
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-14b">2022-08-14</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Wookey</u>, Nat Dalton, Becka Lawson, Andreas Klocker, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Nat Dalton, Becka Lawson, Andreas Klocker, <u>Wookey</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;le - Camping in Pitstop. N. Powerhouse leads</div>
<br /><br />Main trip already written up by Becka. (Becka and Nat also on the trip). This is an addition on our finds. Becka + Nat took the inviting, muddy ramp lead, whilst we went to check out the 'P4' at end of side passage. We got drill first, but a short inspection showed that the "P4' was a very easy C6 with no need for bolting. Took drill back to others, then spent some time looking for survey stations. Couldn't find end points so went back till we found 3 in a row to sync to. Also checked out upper canyon not on survey. Shit with gear, but blowing. Left for water.
@ -1120,7 +1120,7 @@ We wore Andreas out on the way out (not least due to slipping croll). Nice to ge
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-14c">2022-08-14</div>
<div class="trippeople">Christopher Holt, <u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Dinny Davies, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Dinny Davies, Christopher Holt, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;le - Bolt traverse in Nothing to See</div>
<br /><br />Today's plan was to visit Nothing to See and rig a traverse to it. Kristian was planning on showing us how to get there but suddenly fell ill at the entrance. Unfortunately nobody else on the trip had been in Balkon before, let alone been to Nothing to See, so Kristian drew a crude map for us before rushing off to be sick.
<br /><br />Once we had the crude map and survey, we made our way down to the bottom of the entrance pitch. There was a bit of route finding to do here as Kristian hadn't told us about the slope we needed to walk up shortly after the bottom of the entrance pitch. We eventually reached a chamber where we found more clues from Frank. Frank's clues had been very welcome earlier in the trip as they had led us to Hiltiaplenty. Frank's note in the chamber pointed to Sloppy Seconds. This appeared to be nowhere near Nothing to See in our survey, so we ignored this and retraced our steps, and went left at the bottom of the Hiltiaplenty pitches rather than right. This took us to a rabbit warren of crawls, which didn't sound like Nothing to See, as Kristian had assured us that there was no crawling. Eventually we decided to return to the chamber and follow Frank's signs to Sloppy Seconds. Soon we found a traverse line, which suggested we were on the correct path. We then got to a pitch that Kristian had previously rigged. He wanted us to bolt a traverse across the top of the chamber to make the crossing to Nothing to See safer. <br /><br /> I initially descended the pitch and quickly realised that it landed on a number of large boulders suspended on top of a 200m drop into Galactica. I switched over and we decided that Chris should bolt the traverse across the chamber into Nothing to See. Dinny and I clipped into the existing traverse line to the top of the pitch and got the bothy bag out. Eventually, after much moving we acheived 'peak comfort', which involved me lying directly on top of him.
@ -1182,7 +1182,7 @@ Huge thanks to everyone that I caved with who made this year such a good one, an
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-15a">2022-08-15</div>
<div class="trippeople">Christopher Holt, <u>Rachel Turnbull</u>, Nathan Walker, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rachel Turnbull</u>, Nathan Walker, Christopher Holt, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Connecting the Kresh Connection 2</div>
<br /><br /><u> MON </u> We returned for an efficient trip with Cpt. Chris, returned to the pitch where Nathan put in two bolts, and dropped to a ledge then found the cave had
been pre-bolted, and I joined him to confirm we were,as I had suspected the day before, in the Kresh Connection.
@ -1197,7 +1197,7 @@ been pre-bolted, and I joined him to confirm we were,as I had suspected the day
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-15b">2022-08-15</div>
<div class="trippeople">Jono Lester, <u>Hannah Collings</u>, Charlotte Payne, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Hannah Collings</u>, Charlotte Payne, Jono Lester, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - Camping trip at Pitstop pushing Southern &amp; Northern Pitstop</div>
<br /><br />After a long morning persuading Nat that I was capable of caving despite the covid and establisling that no covid free person was keen to take my place, we were allowed to go caving. But only after Dinny and Nat repacked my bag as they took great issue with the tackle bag swinging off the back - they were so proud of their handy work they got a picture with the finished result. We finally got underground at around midday and Jono promptly disturbed the peace of the cave by descending the entrance series with his speaker! It was Charlotte's first trip down to Pitstop, so I pointed out the sites along the way.
@ -1208,7 +1208,7 @@ been pre-bolted, and I joined him to confirm we were,as I had suspected the day
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-15c">2022-08-15</div>
<div class="trippeople">Christopher Holt, <u>Nat Dalton</u>, Becka Lawson, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Nat Dalton</u>, Becka Lawson, Christopher Holt, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Fischgesicht - Perseid (ex - Big Bastard)</div>
<br /><br /> Becka had disappeared down the hill in the previous day (in need of a wash) so a leisurely start was had with Becka arriving back at Top Camp for second breakfast at ~1100.
@ -1221,7 +1221,7 @@ been pre-bolted, and I joined him to confirm we were,as I had suspected the day
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-15d">2022-08-15</div>
<div class="trippeople">Emily Mabbett, <u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Dinny Davies, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Dinny Davies, Emily Mabbett, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Plateau - Surface Prospecting between Balkonh&ouml;le and Griesskogelschacht</div>
<br /><br />Having had a couple of underground days and one planned for the following day, Dinny and I decided that a day surface prospecting would be sensible. Nat and Becka suggested we scout the area between Balcony and Griesskogelschacht (#232), as there may be a better way into the deeper parts of Balcony between the two entrances.
<br /><br />As we were getting ready to leave, Emily decided she wanted to join as she wasn't feeling well enough for a caving trip.
@ -1314,7 +1314,7 @@ Jape: member of the creche whose name begins with J. Especially prone to making
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-15i">2022-08-15</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Paul Walko</u>, Andreas Klocker, Philip Balister, Aaron Clair, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Andreas Klocker, Philip Balister, Aaron Clair, <u>Paul Walko</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Plateau - "interesting" holes</div>
Blog Author: pew<div class="bbWrapper">Prospecting adventures:<br>
<br>
@ -1405,7 +1405,7 @@ All "in cave notes" from 2022 survey folder are scanned to either Wook laptop or
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-16b">2022-08-16</div>
<div class="trippeople">Jono Lester, <u>Hannah Collings</u>, Charlotte Payne, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Hannah Collings</u>, Charlotte Payne, Jono Lester, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - 2 Camping trip at Pitstop pushing Southern &amp; Northern Pitstop</div>
<br /><br />[trip continues] We had a slightly slow morning on Tuesday, setting off from camp around 11:00 to head down Northern Pitstop. A little confusion was had finding the pushing front beyond Tartarus and Ichythes, in which Charlotte, as the smallest person, was sent first down a swiftly narrowing rift. A climb up out of the rift revealed the much roomier way on. The pushing front was very pretty with a wall of popcorned stals and calcite on the floor - photos were taken before carefully picking a route across the floor. The immediate way on promptly met an awkward thrutch up a bouldery climb which ended in a 20m pitch. We double backed and followed an A lead on the left which started in a exposed climb. Jono tackled this as an aided climb, bolting on his way up - a bold decision for his first time bolting. But with expert training and strong encouragement from moi success was had and Charlotte and I were able to safely follow up. Charlotte had a go at book for the first itme with me on Disto and Jono 3D scanning. Above the pitch nice passage was found with two pools in the floor and water could be heard nearby. Further on a rift intersected the passage with a large passage above heading off on the right - this would be potentially challenging traverse to persue. We continued down to junction with a lower and higher passage both coming into the same slanting rift - we ended our day here. We noticed bat bones at this junction. We headed back down the passage and Jono fettled his rigging before we all headed down the new pitch. This was left rigged with the crab removed from the deviation.
@ -1420,7 +1420,7 @@ All "in cave notes" from 2022 survey folder are scanned to either Wook laptop or
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-16c">2022-08-16</div>
<div class="trippeople">Gwenllian Tawy, <u>Emily Mabbett</u>, Dinny Davies, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Emily Mabbett</u>, Dinny Davies, Gwenllian Tawy, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;le - De-rigging Hiltiaplenty and sloppy seconds and nothing to see</div>
<br /><br />Today I joined "Gwinny" as a third wheel...The idea of derigging Hiltiaplenty originally soudned like a nice little jolly, until we realised how much shit Frank had been storing in that area. On top of the 200m+ of pitch ropes and traverse lines we derigged, Frank had left us a lovely present of an extra 120m of rope, a drill and hangers. All in all we ended up with 7 bags between us (including personal kit) which we slowly slogged out the cave with. Despite having a little more rope than originally planned we were still efficient. Once down Hiltiaplenty we split into 2 groups with Dinny going to de-rig Nothing to See and me and Gwen heading to de-rig sloppy seconds. We managed to start the trip early ~8:30am, which combined with our efficiency meant we were ot of the cave by 2:30pm :)
<div class="timeug">T/U: 0.0 hours</div>
@ -1429,7 +1429,7 @@ All "in cave notes" from 2022 survey folder are scanned to either Wook laptop or
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<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-16d">2022-08-16</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Kristian Brook</u>, Tobias Turner, Alex Hanam, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Tobias Turner, Alex Hanam, <u>Kristian Brook</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Plateau - Prospecting - NS-01, NS-13, NS-14</div>
<br /><br />I was fucked and coming down from cave-allergy. Alex had arrived at expo the night before so determined to get me out of my funk. After a quick shop for food and water we set off up the hill, Alex carrying all his gear and me and Tobias carrying a fuck ton of water as top camp was running low on water. I was personally carrying 17 litres.
Arriving at camp we found the water situation was not as dire as predicted so that was a waste of single use plastics.
@ -1489,7 +1489,7 @@ With camp packed up, we started the long, muddy slog up Mongol Rally, weighed do
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<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-17a">2022-08-17</div>
<div class="trippeople">Jono Lester, <u>Hannah Collings</u>, Charlotte Payne, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Hannah Collings</u>, Charlotte Payne, Jono Lester, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkonh&ouml;hle - 3 Camping trip at Pitstop pushing Southern &amp; Northern Pitstop</div>
<br /><br />With camp packed up we left pitstop around midday weighed down with camping kit, leaving a couple of bags we couldn't manage for the de-rig team who were heading in for the afternoon. A slow and muddy progession was made up mongol rally with some slightly unhappy jammers and a lot of commentary from Jono. We met Becka, Nathan and Alex at the top of mongol rally - the first wave of the de-rig mission. Jono's struggles up mongol rally were summed up by Becka's commentary at the top - "Have you caved before?". We met the rest of the de-rig team at the top of Hangman's - Nat, Kristian and Toby. Bags were swapped and shared out between people before heading out. Nat and I dropped back down to the top of mongol rally as Becka was coming up with the remaining camp bags. Nat remained whilst Becka and I headed out with the camp kit. On route, Becka rerigged short pitch between Hangman's &amp; Honeycomb with rings so it can be left in. I continued out, catching up with Charlotte, Toby and Jono just below the entrance pitch. We were out by 20:30, just to catch the remaining light of the day. All in all a successful last Balkon camp for 2022 and we think Charlotte enjoyed her first expo underground camp.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 0.45 hours</div>
@ -1498,7 +1498,7 @@ With camp packed up, we started the long, muddy slog up Mongol Rally, weighed do
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<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-17b">2022-08-17</div>
<div class="trippeople">Tobias Turner, <u>Kristian Brook</u>, Nat Dalton, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Kristian Brook</u>, Nat Dalton, Tobias Turner, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balcony - Derig</div>
<br /><br />Setting off from top camp 2 hours after Becka's group we descended and met the last camp team at the bottom of Honeycomb. Nat continued down to assist the first derig team at Mongol Rally. Tobias and I assisted Charlotte, Jono and Hannah with their bags back to the water that comes in near Natural Highs.
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@ -1509,7 +1509,7 @@ Tobias, Hannah, Charlotte and Jono left for the surface and I went 2 minutes bac
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<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-17c">2022-08-17</div>
<div class="trippeople">Nathan Walker, <u>Becka Lawson</u>, Alex Hanam, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Becka Lawson</u>, Alex Hanam, Nathan Walker, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balcony - Derig: scrabble & flail</div>
<br /><br />We'd had no peep from the Balkonhoehle cavelink so we weren't sure when the campers would have left so we headed off leisurely but there was no sign of life at the top of Honeycomb so Nathan + I dragged Alex on a trip down memory lane to Icecock aven. The ice is in a sorry state with rotten, melting ice lumps melted from the avens littering the floor. I wanted to check out the snow ramp but it was so melted that there wasn't enough left to climb up.
@ -1583,7 +1583,7 @@ Jono had been gamely insisting that he wasn't cold but he must have been relieve
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<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-18a">2022-08-18</div>
<div class="trippeople">Dinny Davies, <u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Becka Lawson, </div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Gwenllian Tawy</u>, Becka Lawson, Dinny Davies, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Perseid Showers, Fischgesicht</div>
Nat had convinced me it was a good idea to go on one pushing trip before the end of Expo seeing as all my other trips had been shit according to him. Then there was a plan to return to Perseid Showers to fix some of the rigging and venture further into its depth. I took a day off on the previous day to conserve my energy for the trip. I almost ended up using that energy on a rescue mission that evening when Dinny and I arrived at camp at 8 pm to find no cavers there. The 9 pm callouts arrived with no sign of anyone. Just as we were preparing to leave we saw lights on the horizon. For future reference please can we add columns to the callout form to say when a party left camp and how long they expect the trip to take!
@ -1610,7 +1610,7 @@ I think my Expo fitness had increased by now though as I found myself flying up
<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-18b">2022-08-18</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Kristian Brook</u>, Alex Hanam, </div>
<div class="triptitle">NS-14 - Failure</div>
<div class="triptitle">2014-NP-01, 2022-KB-01 - NS-14 Failure</div>
<br /><br />We set off for NS-14 [actually 2014-NP-01, they had misidentified it by misreading the tag] to drop it and investigate this massive hole. Kristian carrying a very heavy survey kit and Alex carrying 100m of rope, metal work and the drill and batteries. Alex was carrying the trip. We got to NS-14 and while looking for suitable bolting locations we found two bolts that suggested the hole had been dropped. Further investigation revealed that this was 288 [no, 288 is nearby 2014-NP-01, but not the same] and useless cunts had not linked it [more care with GPS accuracy required by all involved it seems].
<br /><br />Stoked killed we went to the next hole over where a hole in the side of a rifty depression showed some mystery. After some umming and ahing we decided to appeoach the hole from above as it was 6m above the ground. K Brook rigged the drop and found the hole blind and only 7m long. Not enough for a Kaster number but it will be entered as 2022-KB-01.
<br /><br />Time wasted we set off down the hill to avoid further rain.
@ -1623,7 +1623,7 @@ I think my Expo fitness had increased by now though as I found myself flying up
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<div class="tripdate" id="2022-08-21a">2022-08-21</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Becka Lawson</u>, Alex Hannam, Jono Lester, Chris Holt, </div>
<div class="trippeople">Alex Hannam, Jono Lester, Chris Holt, <u>Becka Lawson</u>, </div>
<div class="triptitle">Balkon rope wash</div>
Walked up the hill in clag and up to Balkon. The water pool was perfect for rope washing using the small astroturf tube. Alex and I were about half way through when Jono (sadly without his wetsuit) and Chris turned up. We chained the rope and left it on a washing line then took the metalwork out and I derigged the entrance pitch getting still damper in the process. Foolishly I'd sent Alex and Chris off with just the metalware so Jono and I ended up with monster to stagger back with and we had to teeter around picking up the reflectors. Once we could see top camp on the way home I shouted "can you help us carry?". Unfortunately, this was heard as "help, help, help!". Alex and Kristian dashed up and helped us back in the rain.