Possibly time to have a rest from logbook typing as my eyes are going funny ;-)

Only 5½ pages to go unless someone comes down and writes stuff tonight...
Andy W

years/2015/logbook.html

@@ -347,6 +347,92 @@
 <p>With a 1h40min [?] book, we wombled back out to camp</p>
 <div class="timeug">T/U: 6.5 hrs</div>
 <hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-28b">2015-07-28</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Pete Talling</u>, Sarah, Ben W (and then Matt helped survey)</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balcony Höhle Frozen North</div>
+<p>We followed route of previous day from Frozen North Chamber to the chamber.</p>
+<p>Sarah placed first bolts to get into A lead heading south. We found footsteps in it ! And then a survey station ! And the other cavers !!! So this connects back into "Ein und Zwanzig Chamber". Connected at their station number 8.</p>
+<p>Then Ben dropped short pitch down to gain chamber 1 via a short tube with right angle - two junction tubes in this area were exlored later in day.</p>
+<p>Chamber 1 had a crawl on far side that connects into known passage in ~30m.</p>
+<p>Chamber 1 quickly connects to Chamber 2 via short tube. Unfortunately Chamber 2 ends at a solid boulder choke. There is a good (A) lead in right side of Chamber 2 - which is easy 10m pitch down into rift. Looks interesting.</p>
+<p>Matt climbed up from Chamber 2 to meet the end of a sandy tube that other had pushed.</p>
+<p>[Big sketch plan to the left of those first five paragraphs. Need to scan and insert]
+<p>LEADS:</p>
+<p>(X) 10m pitch down from Chamber 2 - easy Y-hang at top.</p>
+<p>(Y) There may be a high level that can be reached by 3 bolt traverse from (Z)</p>
+<p><u>Lower Tubes off Chamber 1</u></p>
+<p>- Back in these tubes Ben et al dropped a pitch - and they found "300-200m" of tube-passae beyond, that ended in a choke (Martin et al surveyed to pitch later in day).</p>
+<p>- Pete, Sarah; Matt followed a walking tube from Chamber 2 that linked back to Chamber 1 - near survey station 26. They then followed a VERY drafty tube north for ~40m to a choke that also drafts. En route they heard Michael and Ben in their leads.</p>
+<p>My feeling is that leads X + Y are well worth a look - more so than tubes ??</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: [not mentioned]</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-28c">2015-07-28</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Fleur</u>, Viz, Roxy</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Clayton's Cockup</div>
+<p>Having arrived on expo to calls from Wookey & Anthony to rig to the Clayton's Cockup leads, I duly obliged.</p>
+<p>Managed to persuade Roxy + Viz to join me, despite tales of an even extra acrobatic entrance series to Tunnocks.</p>
+<p>Made very steady progress downwards. Was pleased to remember the way to the top of String Theory & into the West Side Story. Climbs were more strenuous than I remembered. C10 in a tube. P3 with Knotted rope should probably be a real pitch.</p>
+<p>Arrive at Clayton's Cock up & started rigging down "Boom Boom Pitch". All Tom's bolts still functional but I added another deviation. 60m rope saw me to the 2013 limit.</p>
+<p>[Rigging diagram to scan and insert here]</p>
+<p>Viz was starting to feel the remoteness, so after I placed a bolt + tied the rope, we left.</p>
+<p>But, boy did the lead look good.</p>
+<p>May need some rigging. In retrospect perhaps go back up and swing out to get further down the rift/pitch.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 12 hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-29a">2015-07-29</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Fleur</u>, Pete, Roxy</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balcony - Bipedal Passage</div>
+<p>After 12 hrs underground the day before, I fancied a shorter trip and targeted a south pointing lead after Natural Highs.</p>
+<p>Directions: After Natural Highs traverse, instead of going right up the climbs into Leeds Bypass, turn left, follow the main passage, a walking sized rift. It ends in a big hole.</p>
+<p>The hole was, in fact, somewhat longer + deeper than I had remembered. Looking good though!</p>
+<p>We had a 39m rope + 1½ drill batteries. Starting with the new drill battery, I started to bolt round the ledges on the right hand wall. 1½ holes later the battery died - grrr!! The remaining € battery got us ~1/3 way along the right wall.</p>
+<p>[small rigging diagram to scan and insert here]</p>
+<p>Still hard to see how far the straight ahead lead would go - potentially a top level + a mid level need to be checked.</p>
+<p>After the drill batteries went, I belayed Pdete across asmall (!!) rock bridge to check out a side passage, but it ended in a blind pot.</p>
+<p>On the way back, Pete threw rocks down - 2 second free fall and a further 8 second rattle!</p>
+<p>We then did two token survey legs before retreading.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 4½ hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-28d">2015-07-28</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Martin, <u>Jacob</u> and Elliott</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balcony - to Gösser Wager</div>
+<p>Having walked up to top camp late and therefrore being ready in the afternoon, we left for a shortish trip to look for bits in Balcony. We descended the entrance series pitches and then followed the main route, roughly in the direction of Icecock aven. Eventually we reached the gear dump to find the other two groups down Balcony Höhle having a natter. Michael bet Martin a Gösser that we couldn't find the rift they had just found. We continued down Turtle Head, up a short handlined climb and down another pitch to the rift the other group suggested we survey. We surveyed along it about 20m and then back to the pitch. At the bottom of the rift is a small but potentially descendable hole with a long rattle. Managed tgo muddle our way out without any difficulties.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: [not mentioned]</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-24c">2015-07-24</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Martin and <u>Jacob</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balcony - Hiltaplenty and Pubic S</div>
+<p>We returned to Balcony to drop a pitch that Martin had his eye on. After the entrance pitches, turn left at the scary hole. I demonstrated how slow I am at rigging and then Martin bolted the pitch down whilst I sat in a bothy bag to keep warm at the top. Eventually Martin ran out of rope (66m) at a ledge and another short pitch. I followed with the other rope and kit and we surveyed the muddy crawl which extended from the ledge. Once we had finished this, Martin started to rig remaining pitch down ready for next time. Once he descended it, I took the remaining gear back up the Hiltaplenty pitch and attempted to head out. I unfortunately missed the turn off to the scary hole the first time and ended up getting muddled in a spiky crawl. Once I realised my mistake I returned to the actual route, which was irritatingly obvious second time round. By the time I was halfway up the big pitch on the way out, Martin caught up with me. The weather turned nasty for the return walk to top camp.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: [not mentioned]</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-29b">2015-07-29</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Wookey, Matt + <u>Jenny</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">107 - near coldest</div>
+<p>Decided to go back to Double Beep and look at the drafting side passage and the pitch 13-CO-1A which seemed likely to be the same pitch that Double Beep has a window out on. Matt appeared and we set off. Again derigged the Coldest rope to use on the way into Double Beep (really another rope would be less tedious!). Matt + I headed in to survey while Wookey looked at 13-CO-1A. I was very disappointed to discover that I had failed to bring my balaclava, instead bringing a pair of pants tat I was going to take down the hill to wash - idiot ! Matt + I went to the junction, and followed the [??] drafting passage north. Small at first (phreatic with a small floor trench with water which we were following uphill). It got bigger and we clambered over some flaky boulders into an aven-chamber with water coming in from the roof. Beyond this were some pretty mud/gravel formations that we managed to carefully step over. Beyond this, the way on appeared to be to drop down in the rift, but you'd need a rope. The dripping noise meant that I couldn't hear the beeping Disto. So its called <u>Beepless</u>. Got back to hear Wookey rigging into our passage to give us an easier way out. Unfortunately, although he was in a window into our passage, he was about 8m too high. So he gave up on that and continued down the pitch. The real window was too hard to get to to be worthwhile.</p>
+<p>Wookey ran out of rope, so we attempted a DistoX leg down. After some 3m and some 138m answers, the Disto settled on 30m, which sounded plausible. Matt and I each put in a bolt on the Sleepless traverse, so there was a Y-hang on each side.</p>
+<p>Got out to find it dry, but only for 15 minutes. We sat at the entrance for a while in the rain. Were very happy to find Anthony's van there to shelter in for the 3 hrs we needed to wait for our lift down the hill.
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 5½ hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-27c">2015-07-27</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Andy, Ben Whetton, <u>Anthony</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - pushing Kraken</div>
+<p>Despite heavy overnight rain, we decided to press on with our planned trip on the basis that if Procrastination were passable on the way in, it would most likely be passable on the way out as well since the overcast conditions meant that afternoon thunderstorms were unlikely I thought the rain had eased off, but as soon as we left the bivi it became clear that it was raining quite heavily and we got thoroughly drenched on the walk to the entrance.</p>
+<p>Underground, water could be heard in lots of places where it normally isn't. However, usual Suspects didn't sound too bad, so on arrival at Procrastination, I was despatched to assess the water levels. The deal was that if the pitch was passable but we would get a soaking we would abort - I think we were all half hoping for this outcome. The water on the bottom hang was higher than usual but mostly OK. Just as I was starting to think that if it got much wetter we would have to leave, the bottom of the pitch appeared - so we were committed.</p>
+<p>Carried on down to the pushing front, pausibg briefly to measure one leg with a tape measure where the previous survey had encountered a DistoX refusal. Andy started rigging the way on from the top of the mud ridge in the Kraken chamber. This proved to be quite tricky since everything was either covered in mud or falling apart or both. After much head scratching he elected to rig a short drop then a bolt traverse along the wall where there was some good rock to try to get beyond the edge of the mud slope. I went down to have a look, and thought there looked like some reasonable rock that I could just about reach at full stretch from the end of the mud slope that would make a reasonable rig if we could find a way to get there. Ben went down and swung around on a sky hook for a while, eventually finding a placement for an intermediate rebelay. Then I went down and doubled it up, but by now it was getting late so we headed out.</p>
+<p>Overall a frustrating trip with little actual progress and a lot of time spent cowering in the bothy bag. However, at least water levels were back to normal so we had a relatively dry exit.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 15½ hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-29c">2015-07-29</div>
+<div class="trippeople">Andy & <u>Anthony</u></div>
+<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Pushing Kraken (again)</div>
+<p>Zipped back down to Kraken to the point where we had left off two days previously. I wielded the drill to try to execute the rigging plan from the previous trip. I put in another intermediate rebelay that got me down to the edge of mud slope. Here I placed a truly awful rebelay bolt - cratered and overdriven such that the anchor went right to the back of the hole when setting t. Fortunately, I had a bollard with me to hide the evidence.</p>
+<p>Heading nto new territory, I got lucky when I found a nice overhang with some beautiful clean rock - presumably because part of the ceiling has become the floor in the not too distant past. From here I got a beautiful 40+m hang to the floor, so called Andy to join me.</p>
+<p>The pitch lands on a large boulder slope - pretty much the same as the upper level of Kraken Chamber. Heading downhill closes off but there is a rift on the north wall that leads to a mud slope where I couldn't see Andy's light - so presumably going somewhere different (QM-A). There may be a passage high up at the western end that would need a bolt climb to gain access - a better light is needed to assess this (QM-B). There is a nice cracked mud floor in one corner. Going east from the bottom of the rope leads to a further shortish looking pitch (~10m) QM-A. This may simply go to the bottom of the boulder pile - hard to see if there is a way on. So there are a few levels, but nothing that screams "push here for more cave". This is a very big space so it is hard to tell if there is a draught - especially since the draught was weaker than when the weather was baking hot theprevious week.</p>
+<p>We surveyed this lot using a Pony and Wookey's Chinese Disto knock-off. The latter proved vey tedious when the leg length exceeded about 10m. "error 160" was seen quite a lot, with "Error 155" in second place and the occasional "Error 154". Eventually got everything in the book and headed out to completr a fine trip. The survey data puts us 626m below the entrance, and ~25m above the level of the Razordance sump, which helps explain why I was quite tired.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 14 hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<p>[Two whole page diagrams of below Procrastination, and Inferno]</p>
+<hr/>
 
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