Online edit of logbookentry 2025-07-16d

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@@ -1043,6 +1043,21 @@ Strange big yellow thing in sky seen as tehy were leaving. Peculiar absence of v
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+<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-16d">2025-07-16</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Charlotte</u>, Joel, Jonty, Russell</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Gruffalo - Replacing Pulses and Dropping Jaberwocky</div>
+The day after expo dinner I wasn’t convinced I’d find anyone keen enough to be dragged out of bed at 6:30 and walk up the hill for more caving. However, Gruffalo was looking so promising that keenness for caving won out and we committed to a slightly more sensible bed time. So it was with minimal encouragement that we got up in time to make it up the toll road and said goodbye to Alice who was debating coming up the hill before sobering up from the night before, but eventually went back to bed instead. 
+<p>
+We walked to Gruffalo via the Fishface route, turning off into Three Larch Valley and across a few Bunde heavy climbs until we reached the bottom of the Valley of Death and scrambled up to the entrance. The plan was for Joel and Jonty to go ahead and start bolting the big pitch Jaberwocky while Russell and I followed - swapping out the Pulses for through bolts and replacing slings with deviation tat. We also brought survey gear ready to survey the pitch and whatever lay beyond. 
+<p>
+It was my first time to Gruffalo and the draught was as strong (and cold) as had been promised, looking very good for finding a new entrance with more accessible leads. I swapped out the first few pulses, then changed with Russell for him to do the rest and we worked our way down to meet the others, listening to the increasingly loud thunder of gardening as we got nearer. When we reached the others, Jonty was just starting to place bolts at the top of the pitch. Thorough, enthusiastic  gardening had lowered the floor level by about a metre so the traverse line was now above head height but things were looking better for dropping the pitch. 
+<p>
+I was very cold by this point so insisted on getting the shelter out and huddling inside, listening to Jonty get further away as he continued to make his way down the pitch, avoiding the obvious hang which also looked very likely to get wet. After a brief nap I woke up to see that the time was 6:30pm and with heavy storms forecast from 8pm, and a call-out at 9pm I felt that all of us dropping and surveying the pitch that evening was sadly getting out of reach. Russell and I turned around regretfully from the inviting draughty pitch at 7pm to head out. Our initial frustration at finding blue sky from the entrance was quickly corrected by rain starting before we’d managed to finish getting changed. This rain rapidly set in to a downpour within 10 minutes and I thoroughly regretted not paying more attention to the route as we navigated it in reverse through sheeting rain. The rain finally abated just as we approached top camp to find the masses had descended and beds had come into high demand. 
+<p>
+Jonty and Joel continued to the bottom of Jaberwocky to find two horizontal leads heading off from the large chamber, to be returned to soon with survey equipment! They managed to dodge the rain entirely and hadn’t even realised that we got a drenching on our walk back, the entrance pitches had only been slightly drippy for their exit and they got out after the rain had stopped.
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 <div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-17a">2025-07-17</div>
 <div class="trippeople"><u>Philip S.</u>, Philip B.</div>
 <div class="triptitle">Vdr SMK path - Relocating entrances</div>