Online edit of logbookentry 2025-07-31a

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@@ -2130,6 +2130,74 @@ we soon arrived at the entrance and found buck and wook who had almost been left
 A 6am base camp start had Ash and I walking up the hill far too few hours after we'd walked down.  After a swift top camp noodles we headed to the entrance and were underground by 11am. Luke, having slept at Top Camp, was well ahead of us. We met 2 bag Alice at the top of Hangman's, 2 bag Buck on the traverse below, and 2 bag Wookey at the top of Mongol Rally. Luke was just powering up the final Mongol Rally rebelays with 2 ridiculously heavy bags, saving James and Ned from needing to head any further down. Ash and I found our burdens at the bottom of Mongol Rally - one beast each.  We started out, jammers slipping and foot jammer mostly useless. Everyone had gone by the time I reached the entrance at 5. I emptied the tacklesack that had been left with emergency gear at the bottom of the entrance and took it down to pack the entrance rope. Ash had derigged the bottom. I let him past and finished the derig at 6. Fortuitously, James H and Hannah UG turned up as we were changing to help carry our three tacklebags back.
 <div class="timeug">T/U: 7.0 hours</div>
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+<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-31a">2025-07-31</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Becka</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">Email updates about Expo - Three email updates as Expo progressed</div>
+By popular request, here are the three email updates that I wrote for the Expo email list in 2025:
+<p>
+From: Rebecca Lawson <beckalawson@gmail.com>
+Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2025, 15:51
+Subject: Final Expo uodate Re: Update after the Expo Dinner Re: Start of Expo update - Wed week 1
+To: Expo List <expo@lists.wookware.org>
+<p>
+
+Here’s my final Expo update after yesterday’s mammoth derig.
+<p>
+After my last, post-Expo dinner update the KH leads all - finally - started paying out. Charlotte and Russell had a well-deserved bonanza of a trip with Lara, pushing the uninspiring QM at the end of Natural Way. This led down a grotty, muddy pitch then into ~500m of fine, walking horizontal passage, Enniskillen Toad, including a lovely chamber (with an awful name), Meat Sofa. Subsequent trips extended this area substantially, with more walking, stooping and crawling passage and some good QMs remaining. Meanwhile, Ash explored over 400m in one of the 19 leads in Country for Old Men (Country for Young Men) leaving much left to do there. Finally, Shrinking Prospects in the Runnelstone area turned into a substantial and ongoing pitch. This, Knossos and the entrance were derigged.
+<p>
+Meanwhile, in new cave news, Anfanger Gluck Hohle (where the original name, Popperhohle, seems to have stuck instead, referencing the esteemed Anglo-Austrian philosopher, Karl Popper and definitely not Amyl Nitrite which already exists in Kaninchenhoehle albeit misnamed as Amyl Nitrate) was extended though most leads there have now been pushed. Another new cave, Kaninchenjager, was found nearby and started heading straight down. This needed derigging before too many trips had pushed it so it should be a good target next year. Gruffalo was derigged last week due to too many other going caves but my money is on it being the next big thing in that area of the plateau – it has both an excellent location and a massive draught. Finally, Hamish ‘fessed up to an abandoned rope rigged in a cave he’d found weeks before, Brothoehle, near Fischgesicht. This turned out to be a promising shaft with a strong draught out and it looks like another fine project for 2026.
+<p>
+Only one more pushing trip happened in Balkonhoehle after a series of different issues affected various camping plans. It would be good if the set up and rebolting effort here was taken advantage of in 2026. On the pushing trip, Frank and Chris looked at a lead in Gorgon’s Lair whilst Becka and James headed down to underground camp with a last minute arm twisting Signal message sent to Luke who had only just arrived at Base Camp. To our surprise, he took the bait and headed in to hunt us down. Luckily, Cavelink has worked well this year so we waited for him at camp before going down to Grendel’s Mother. We pushed 2 pitches below to get the deepest point in Balkonhoehle but it ended in a tight, wet rift so we derigged back to Charon.
+<p>
+All this gives us over 3.7km surveyed this year despite some atrocious weather. After a scorching start we have endured unending rain, with several deluges. In particular, the derigs had to be squeezed into fleeting weather windows between successive downpours. Despite this, cavers remained remarkably upbeat. We spent a whole day trapped at Top Camp as the rain lashed down, ropewashing using two of the mid-sized blue barrels and the highly effective spiral rope-washer that James Waite had sourced on Wob Rotson’s recommendation. A portable speaker blasted out whilst we used our endless water supply to clean, with interludes of dancing, singing and mass cuddles.
+<p>
+The derig went smoothly, but Balkonhoehle was always going to be tricky, given limited stoke and a flood-prone entrance. Remarkably, Buck and Alice decided to cut short their Dolomites jolly to help out. At 17.00 on Mon they messaged to ask if there was space on the derig trip. Er, yes! They got to Base Camp at 01.00 on the Tues and headed up the hill before 8am to beat our cable car curfew. That afternoon they headed down to Balkonhoehle camp. Another body was required. Wookey started to mutter that if nobody else was keen and found himself added to the trip. Buck and Alice derigged Tartarus whilst Wookey packed at camp. The next morning Luke set off from Top Camp and took 1h20 to zip from the entrance to camp, meeting the others ascending Mongol Rally. Luke picked up 2 behometh bags and powered up Mongol Rally, admiring the deviations en route, before James relieved him of one. After an early morning, Base Camp start, Becka and Ash collected the last 2 bags from the bottom of Mongol Rally and we were all out of the entrance by 18.00 on the most efficient derig I can remember. Balkonhoehle remains rigged to Charon except for the entrance and Tartarus. Meanwhile, on the surface the rest of the team had a heavy day taking down Top Camp so we could head down the hill at dusk.
+<p>
+It’s been a grand Expo – thanks to Harry and Charlotte for leading, for an unusual level of pride in surveying (Lara and Ash showing how it’s done and Dylan, Tom, Hannah, Hannah and others taking pride in their work) and to everyone here for putting their shoulder to the very heavy boulder that is Expo and shifting it onwards and upwards. The weather (and it’s still hissing down as I type) could have had us in a bad place but that hasn’t happened – thanks, folks!
+<p>
+Cheers, Becka
+<p>
+
+On Wed, 16 Jul 2025, 10:55 Rebecca Lawson, <beckalawson@gmail.com> wrote:
+We're now about halfway through the Expo and we had the Expo dinner last night.
+<p>
+Since my initial week 1 email we have endured a relentless series of storms, downpours and cold weather whilst apparently Blighty has been baking. Surprisingly, caving, and even prospecting, has continued despite the repeated dousings.
+<p>
+A KH camping trip at the base of 161g entrance (which gets very wet, but luckily can be avoided using the nearby and horizontal 161h entrance) managed to rerig as far as the Runnelstone area. The leads we checked here weren't especially stellar, but we've only been once so far. Also in KH, persistence and an awful lot of rebolting, driven by Charlotte and Russell, reached the A lead at the end of Natural Way. Sadly, this wasn't as inspiring as hoped. There's not been time to actually push that area yet. Finally in KH, Ash has been eyeing up a pitch in Country for Old Men before Crack of Doom but, again, this area hasn't had a pushing trip yet. So lots of effort in KH for very little gain to date, but hopefully it'll pay off in time.
+<p>
+A camping trip into Balkon completed the rerig of Mongol Rally but it was too wet to descend Tartarus. The next camping trip had to be aborted after a rock fell from the walls of Honeycomb onto an unfortunate's leg. Harry and Hannah C subsequently went in to rig Tartarus and Charon as far as the pushing front in Grendel's Mother. They returned, most impressed with the vertical lead beyond, so all it needs is better weather and keen cavers to push this.
+<p>
+Finally, many days of prospecting has come up with 2 fine, new caves. Dan and Dylan have pushed Anfanger Gluck Hohle to over 100m deep. It's in a fine position, fairly near Natural Way in KH and is continuing. Meanwhile, Joel has been focused on Gruffalo, which blows out an icy gale and they're there today to rig a 3s drop. Sadly the Reflectorist died, possibly due to over-enthusiastic gardening.
+<p>
+Cheers Becka 
+<p>
+On Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 10:25 Rebecca Lawson, <beckalawson@gmail.com> wrote:
+Expo has had a cracking start, I can't remember such efficiency. 
+<p>
+Since the first 2 cars arrived on Sat
+-  base camp has been set up, complete with a fine and huge single tarp
+- all the gear has come out of Traungold 
+- Top Camp has been set up with a novel cargo net tarp design
+- Garlic Camp has been stripped down to minimal kit suitable for a lightweight prospecting team and everything else has been moved to Top Camp
+- over 1km rope has been taken out of Homecoming and walked to Top Camp leaving just the Daren Drum of Doom there
+- Balkon entrance is rigged and the Mongol Rally rope has been taken to the pitch head
+- Kaninchenhoehle 161G entrance has been rebolted 
+- all routes have been reflectors
+<p>
+There has even been time for prospecting and today we're returning to a good looking 2025 find, the Reflectorist.
+<p>
+The 8am deadline to get through the toll road barrier may be a blessing in disguise ... by 6.30 Base Camp is abuzz, cars leave at 7.15 and we can be walking at 8. Given temperatures have been getting to well into the 30s an early start really helps. 
+<p>
+The only fly in the ointment has been the lack of rain so far and almost complete lack of snow, so we've been walking up with 4+ litres of water. This drought should, though, soon be sorted
+<p>
+It's all been a fine team effort with everyone pitching in, so it feels wrong to name any individual but I'm going to anyway - here's a shout out to Hamish Weir for singlehandedly running a bread production line. At 6 this morning there were 2 full loaves ready for the hungry hordes.
+<p>
+Time to go caving!
+<p>
+Cheers Becka
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 0.0 hours</div>
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