Popped down to derig Martin’s traverse in ‘Bat Country’ pulled the rope to the bottom of the balcony pitch in bat country.
+2006-06 Boganhulhe +
Originally surveyed 2001, but lost.
+We took a picture of the entrance, and resurveyed to both entrances.
+Picutre by Wookey in Rachel Turnbull file.
+Carried on up the hill dropped caves at Top Camp.
+Found 2012-NS-13, took picture of enstrnace - 292 Motte Hohle. Photos were lost, now in R Turnbull folder [Scanned survey notes, but no actual survey existing, so have resurveyed. By Wookey].
+2012-NS-02 - needs to be katastered* (surveyed, photoed, tagged).
+2010 - 02 - Resurveyed zigzag cave - Wookey drawing. Photos on Wookey's phone/device.
+ +Wookey continued the next day with Phil + Dinny.
+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.
+Headed Balcony-wards to continue OCD work completing previous finds.
+2012-NS-15 was first. Tag already present, matching GPS within 10m or so. But leg '20m down' clearly not possible. Rigged off Bunde & sent Dinny down. Did better survey. Cave in a 20m deep (illegible) snow plug. Small hole in (illegible) (~3m) shows a bit of cave passage not actually (illegible) through loose choss, but no draught so not worth returning.
+Surveyed, Re-GPSed, photoed. Katasterable.
+ +2012-NS-05 & 2012-NS-06
+These two are ~12m apart, so surveyed as one survery.
+Tags for both added.
+Dinny descended 05. Paul W descended 06. +05 is qute small joint-controlled cave 0.5m width, 1m long & 10m deep under a chockstone.
+06 is open rift on joint about 5m long, 3m wide 18m deep. About 8m down a passage heads off to NE along joint.
+Gets too tight in 8m in. Probably comes out in diff.
+Again descended from Bunde (NE corner).
+Both photoed (Wook & Philip) so both Katasterable.
+ +T/U 30 mins Dinny
+T/U 30 mins Paul W
+Plague pit - Potato hut in 2022
Trip began very efficiently due to Captain Chris and I deciding not to part take the evening prior and due to pre-trip packing the evening prior. Underground by 10am after a relaxed breakfast. Quickly down pitches and arrive at the Forte, show Chris and Eric the start of the survey at the Mourne of the Moths then headed off to continue bolting down 'Clap my Pitch up'. Chose to name.
+Fri
+I food-panicked and insisted on us taking down infeasible numbers of curries etc. We each had a heavy bag down, taking a lot extra rope. Camp disappointed Nat - dirty cups + very damp pits. Also very muddy hangers. Drip for water very slow.
+Sat
+We all headed to the 70m pitch (is this Tartarus) at the end of Nothern Pitstop + Medusa's Maze. Wookey + Andreas then continued the horizontal lead that Harry + Johnno had left on the previous camping trip whilst Nat + I went down the muddy slope along a deep stream canyon. The angle needed a rope as the mud was thick + treacherous. At the end of their rope Nat bolted + naturaled down a short pitch. We had great hopes of horizontal but just round the corner the ledges returned (not before we passed a gorgeous wall of white crystal/helictite balls). I had been following behind Nat with the survey but I got to rig a short traverse along the muddy ledge (3 bolts, last one particularly poor - there were two hammers at camp but we had failed to bring either so we were using rocks which weren't very effective). The ledge ended + we'd have had to rig a pitch down to continue so we decided to derig all of our rope plus what Harry + Johnno put in. I started on this whilst Nat checked out dropping directly into the stream canyon. He decided this was too depp (>30m?) to do so we plodded on with the derig. I properly ran out of steam fighting to move in the dsigusting thick mud with the ropes + bags + our gear coated thickly in it. Met Andreas + Wookey at the top of the slope + divided out the gear so we all dragged one heavy bag back to camp. 12 hours caving. (Woke 7am, left camp 9am, back 9pm).
+Sun
+Up at 7, packed up, left 9.30, out 2.30 to 3pm. Slow steady plod as we all had big bags, taking out excess rigging gear + the 4th pit from camp. Met Gwen, Kristian, Dinny + Chris Holt at the entrance.
+Trip began very efficiently due to Captain Chris and I deciding not to partake the evening prior & due to pre-trip packing the evening prior.
Underground by 10am after a relaxed breakfast. Quickly down pitches & arrive at the (illegible). Show Chris & Eric the start of the survey at Mourning The Moths then headed off to continue bolting down 'Clap my pitch up'. Chose to name the passage 'Bee Doctor' [Apis Medicus] (in latin) after Keiran's antics on Wednesday where he attempted (succesfully) to save a drowned be (and was then stung by a different bee). Hopped down a traverse then down a very impressive 50-60m shaft to a very bouldery collapse chamber from which a muddy meander passage was heading nearly due south. We surveyed dilligently along this until we reached a watery impasse (3m drop, (illegible) without getting soaked) just beyond a drippy inlet (suspect this passage is not ideal in wetter conditions, considering we are in a drought it would appear this is probably wet often especially as we expereinced much drippier conditions in 'clap my pitch up' during its exploration eariler in the week which we disliked). However it was only just 6pm at this point & we felt it premature to leave, so I lashed some dyneema around a thread then attached some slings to that & we made a highly japist descent, only to discover that just around the corner the water plunged down a further 10m pitch.
Back to the big pitch for the drill then Nathan had his first go on the bolts to drop the climb of pitch on the last of the nice 8.8mm rope which we cut from the base of the big pitch (felt bad). This done we rounded another courner, with the passage becoming ever more meandery & shit, only to discover that a further ~10m pitch lay just ahead. With no further drill batteries, rope or enthusiasm we decided it was time to head out, derigging the lead as we went.
After a stint in my group shelter, I took the full rope bag & Nathan took over derigging from Max while we headed off to make noodles. This done we began to head out. Nathan & I arriving at the surface shortly after Eric & Chris at 2am. After waiting till 3am for Max we then began a slow plod back, only to see his light emerge when we had just arrived at the convenient viewing point. Happy days! Curry & cous cous were very welcome. Then Chris, Max & I partook in a very fine moon & stars before turning in at 8am.
+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.
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.
+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.
+Rob tipped us off to a window ledge opposite the pinnacle on the 3RD pitch of Fischgesicht.
+SUN I tried to faff for a day but by 1pm was fully resorted to never endulge in this again. Headed underground in FG with Nathan. Came off the rope onto the safety scree on the 3RD pitch and Nathan descended to the pinnacle to swing to a window on the far wall.
+ +The rope was rigged off a very conveniently placed thread off the right hand wall. This passage continues meandering, to a pitch (13/16?m) into a rift I sort of recognised with blocked rock and bridge.
+ +Closer to the thread there was a climb on the right hand wall (total 8m). This circles back into the rift with the main pitch (illegible). + Nathan forgot the drill bit, no fault of his own, so we left. T.U = 5 hrs
+ +MON 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.
+ +I welcomed him to Happy Butterfly and we tied in the survey.
+On the way out, Becka + Nat napped Chris and we reflected on a well spent day. TU = 3hr
+ + Rigging guide for Kresh Connection Connection to be scanned and uploaded +Trip written up by Becka. This is an addition on our finds. Backa + 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.
+ +Main passage is nice 3m (illegible), windy, with deep (~5m) trench in floor. Down the c6 we ended up in awkward trench and surveyed about 6 legs with the 90kg Andreas getting increasingly unimpressed, until Wook realised a slightly wide bit allowed him to climb up back into main passage, which was dramatically wider. Worked out how to bypass the shit bit, and continued surveying for another ~50m to a large cross-rift. Pitch to left (~15m) with strong wind blowing out and very dodgy false floor. Realised whole floor here may be false. Very hard to tell if there was any solid floor. Crossed assorted dodgy boulders over a couple of ~10m climbs, probably until the bottom of the same rift (needs rope).
+ +Arrived at spot with very pretty floor. Real shame to cross without (illegible) as no obvious 'best' route. Up to L is a fairly easy 6m climb (QMA) into what is almost ceratainly the continuation. Ahead in 15m dead straight passage to blockage of rocks. But there is a thrutchy climb possible up into black space (QMB). Almost certainly the same passage. May be esaier route?
+ +Ascending these really needed a rope, if only to avoid having to climb down again. We had left that at the start & time was a-passing so we returned to start & surveyed the other way down the passage. Beautiful water-filling pool then a descent into canyon. Looks like it gets a bit small, and needs a rope. QMB downstream, C upstream (no wind). Also a couple of small passages near the pool not (illegible) QMB.
+ +We were following the wind the whole time. Becka & Nat were going into the wind, so this route should be 'downstram' even though it is gently rising.
+ +Also checked out shitty rift/canyon at start, concluding that it rally is quite committing & almost certainly is just the floor canyon in what we surveyed (drawing-up should clarify). Overall a nice day out, 180m surveyed & number of QMs increased. This is still going strong.
+ +Camping with the Nat & Becka slow was fun & it was good to have such a strong team. +Campsite rather muddy & the razor-gauntlet to go & have a piss was awkward, but over all a pretty comfy 2 nights.
+The far end of N. Powerhouse leads quite remote, at a solid 8hrs caving (with bag) from the entrance. +We wore Andreas out on the way out (not least due to slipping croll). Nice to get in a satisfying trip for (illegible) go before going home, even if it was ridiculously hard work.
+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.
+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.
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.
+After some time Chris revealed the traverse was ready. We came out of our bothy bag and joined him at the other side of the traverse. We were expecting to need to survey some passages here, as Kristian had assured us there were loads of leads. Instead, we found it was simply a series of dangerous holes into Galactica. Nothing to See is a suspended swiss cheese of mud and is not worth returning to. After ruling out any leads, we returned the way we came and were out of the cave by 11pm.
+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.
+ +We got down to camp around 16:00 and after a quick snack of noodle soup headed off to southern pitstop for some afternoon pushing. It was a first time for all of us down southern putstop and we pushed a good A lead beyond Safe and Comfortable. Charlotte and I surveyed whilst Jono did his 3D scanning. We did around 100m up a fairly steep, muddy passage (this new passage was named Covid Corner) ending with a passage down into a rift and a climb up connecting into the same rift higher up. The lower passage is too tight so the only way on is the higher passage which requires rigging to drop down into the rift. A little cold and hungry we headed back to camp for a glorious dinner of curry and smash, during which we filmed some fantastic media content in the hopes of curry sponsorship for futre expos.
+ +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.
+ +Rigging topo to be scanned and inserted here
+ +I derigged Tartarus and the short pitch below it on the way out, leaving the ropes at the top of the pitch. Attempts to rescue seized crab on northern powerhouse up pitch were unsuccessful so maillon and crab were left on the y-hang - bigger plyers needed in future to get crab off. Next short pitch in northern pitstop was rerigged with rings and rope pulled up to top - deviation tat left in.
+ +Back at camp we made a strong effort to eat as much camp food as possible to reduce the carry out tomorrow - struggles were had with consuming teh vast quantities of smash. After a long day we got ot bed around 2:30am. A reasonably early start was had to pack up camp on Wednesday morning, with another meal of mass smash consumption.
+ +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 & 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.
+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.
+ +Walking over to Fishface in the midday heat was slightly gruelling but we arrived & were underground by ~1400. At the entrance we picked up Christopher who had been on a disappointingly quick trip with Nathan and Rachel. It was my first trip in Fishface & I was exceedingly surprised at how pleasant it was & all the pitches were very manageable (despite a variety of rigging styles, there was very minimal mud & very little to complain about!).
+ +After ~1 hour 15 we were at Becka's noodle bar, which we immidiately put to good use. Becka banged in a few bolts whilst I enjoyed a smashed Mi Goreng. Once sated, I kitted up ∓ Becka & I swapped places. Swift progress was made due to some optimistic rigging (later corrected by Gwen - thank you (!)) until a large window was encountered. This seemed wetter than the drippy clean-washed shaft I was in, so I carried on down our original shaft until I reached a particularly puzzling section. This whole section is clean washed and feels like it will get wet, but I was unable to avoid it entirely; it will be interesting to see what this does on a wetter year. A few more bolts took me to ~30m above a large ledge with a big black hole swallowing lights (& rocks; a ~3 second drop plus rattle @ end). At this point I was down to my last hanger so put a rebelay in with a vague hope of being able to utilise cord & threads to progress further down. With limited mental capacities & a wall of cheese (Becka after I hit a promising looking natural with a hammer: "No thank you!"), I headed back up to offload gear (drill batteries stuffed down my front) to Becka. After ~100m rope of pitch descended we headed back to the noodle bar for a quick snack before ~3 hours saw us out at the surface. On the way up I admonished Becka for dropping little rocks on me to be told "they're only small shooting stars". After a while watching Chris get changed & pack in a spectacularly inefficient way I strobed him with my light to try & inspire a sense of urgency. This had limited success & Becka proceeded to get more exasperated after Chris had offered us figs & I suggested Becka do some mindfulness. We were finally ready & we were back at Stone Bridge for 3:00am.
+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.
+As we were getting ready to leave, Emily decided she wanted to join as she wasn't feeling well enough for a caving trip.
+With minimal batteries on our phones we set off to Balcony, where we dropped off our caving gear for the following day. We then walking along a path waymarked by cairns that Dinny had followed on a previous prospecting trip with Wookey to Noel Snape's previous discoveries.
+We then followed the best available path towards Griesskogelschacht. We split up along the way to check out any potential holes. Most were already tagged or were mere alcoves or bridges. We were keeping a keen eye out for any horizontal leads, similar to the Balcony entrance, but found nothing of interest.
+Eventually we found Griesskogelschacht and spent some time exploring this area, not that we were expecting to find anything of interet, as it had clearly been explored by others before. Dinny found a stash of gear in one cave entrance, believed to belong to the Germans. We stopped for lunch after wandering around for an hour or so. While eating lunch we saw two holes at the opposite side of the valley. We decided to visit them on the return journey, but they turned out to be alcoves that went nowhere.
+We took a slightly different route on the return to Balcony, but nothing of note was found. This area appears to have been fairly well explored by CUCC/the German cavers previously.
+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 :)
+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.
+Camp sorted we set off to look at some orphaned caves, wrecking as much of the plateau as we go. Heading to the area of NS caves aiming to look at NS-01, NS-13 and NS-14.
+NS-01 was found amongst a series of shafts on the side of a rubble-filled valley. This entrance is a free climb down to a couple of passages that link the shafts in the area. No clear way on.
+NS-13 was upon a lump above the valley and simply a tube that led through a rocky outcrop. NS-15 was looked at but Wookey and Dinny had already done this. + NS-14 was the last call of the day and appeared on the website as a dummy tag for March of the Penguins. This it was not and it was a rift leading to a small hole. A rock drop revealed that this hole was very deep and a visit was needed with a rope as we saw no sign of a previous drop.
+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. + Tobias, Hannah, Charlotte and Jono left for the surface and I went 2 minutes back to take a bag off of Becka. Back at the water spot I set up a stove for noodles and smash while the others hung the rope in the water in anticipation for the next couple of days of deluge. All set up and fed we left the cave and went back to top camp in sweaty conditions.
+We'd had no peep from the Balkon cavelink so we weren't sure when the campers would have left so we headed off leisurely but no sign of life at the top of Honeycomb so Nathan + I dragged Alex on a trip down memory lane to Lock aven. The ice is in a sorry state with rotten, melting ice lumps melted from the avents 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.
+ +That jaunt flittered away an hour + we headed on down + met the campers exiting at the top of Mongol Rally. They hadn't managed to empty camp so I went down + collected the final 2 bags then I derigged the swing in at the bottom of Pitstop. As I tried to gently swing from the Pitstop ledge to the main pitch I realised I may have screwed up by having 2 heavy bags hanging off me.<.p> + +
Scrabble, flail and I was swinging free in space, hurrah, success. I got ready to prusik + realised in the kerfuffle I'd lost my pantin. "I've dropped my pantin", I wailed up at Nathan...then looked up more carefully - shit, shit, shit, the rope had caught round a sharp flake + I was now swinging in space. Sod the pantin, I'm gonna slice my rope + freefall of 50 meters. I spun + saw a small spike that I managed to grab. I gingerly unloaded the rope, picked it off the flake + swung back on then gently prusiked up to the rebelay, checking the rope - it loked fine, I'd got away with it.<.p> + +
At the rebelay I waited for Nathan to come down so he could continue the derig + glanced down and - there was my pantin! I'd put it on the outside of my left foot -doh!<.p> + +
After that I plodded out whilst Nathan derigged & Alex + he took out the Mongol Rally rope then Nat continued the derig. We got the rope to the water pool at the start of the 2nd traverse. Kristian was noodle-wallah, cooking endless cups whilst we got rope out, stripped the metalwork + undid some very tight knots.<.p> + +
I went back to help Nat with his 2nd bag then us two + Kristian finished sorting the rope out so it could be left to soak. We three were the last out of the cave at 9pm.<.p> +
We set off for NS-14 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 and useless cunts had not linked it.
+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.
+Time wasted we set off down the hill to avoid further rain.
+2022-KB-01
+Location = 47.69869 degrees N, 13.82425 degrees E
+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. There was a plan to return to Perseid (formally Big Bastard) to fix some of the rigging and venture further into its depths.
+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 20:00 to find no cavers there. The 21:00 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?
+After the stress of the evening before I was worried I would be too tired for a long trip, but I was committed now. We set off at a reasonable time and were underground around 11:15am. Becka sent me in first, assuring me it was essentially a nylon highway all the way down and then I should be able to follow the reflectors. Despite being keen that I was leading, Backa would occasionally find herself in front of me at a pitch head (she later referred to Dinny and I as slugs). I was surprised by the number of pitches, some of which were practically steps, but others were considerable. When we reached the pitch prior to Perseid, Becka told me to drop my bag in the kitchen before looking at the pitch that I would be bolting. After peering over the edge I wasn't sure I would be able to do it. To calm my nerves I agreed to get water with Becka and Dinny. Becka then went down the pitch to collect some gear. Dinny and I ate some noodles then cooked some for Becka when we heard her getting close. I was then kitted up with the drill and hammer.
+Becka gave me instructions on where to put in the deviation. Thankfully, we had gone through the theory before arriving, but I wasn't confident I would do a good job. My initial task was to put in a second deviation to avoid rub on a nearby flake. This took me some time as I had to balance between the flake and wall whilst drilling - not as easy as it looked! I occasionally could hear muffled noises from above, so I knew Becka and Dinny hadn't died of hypothermia yet. After an eternity, my deviation was complete. I initially told the others I was going to come back up and leave the Y-hang to Becka as my right leg was dead from the weight of the hammer and drill. Once I put my hand jammer on, the blood returned to my leg, and I decided I could continue.
+I descended to the rebelay below and dressed the rock for a Y-hang. Itt took me a long time to work out where to place it, because the rock wasn't good. I eventually went for it, but messed it up by initally dropping the nut. I then tried to screw another nut on, but it wouldn't go. I used my spanner and found to my dismay that the throughbolt hadn't set properly. I lost confidence and called up to Dinny and Becka to say I was coming back up, dejected.
+At the pitch head we had a quick debrief then Becka took the gear to fix my mess (she later agreed it was tricky, so I didn't feel so bad). +After fixing my Y-hang, Becka placed an additional rebelay on the descent then called rope free. I was pleased to find my deviation worked. After leaving the new Y-hang, I was surprised to see how deep the shaft below my feet was. I had been so engrossed by bolting that I hadn't really thought about the depth. I eventually met Becka on a ledge. She suggeted I bolt a Y-hang here to avoid the Y-hang Nat had bolted below the ledge in water. Before getting started, I had to derig Nat's Y-hang. This involved lying on my stomach on the ledge and posting my head and torso vertically down below the ledge to remove the Y-hang. Once this was done I could bolt the new Y-hang higher from the ledge itself. This was much easier than the other one, and having Becka right next to me gave me some confidence. Becka then went ahead of me to descent to the next ledge, where they had previously reached. Here she bolted a new rebelay and Y-hang. Unfortunately there was not enough rope to go further, so we only surveyed two new legs on the way back up. As I reached the tope of Perseid I shouted out to our chef to put on some curries for us. Dinny and I ate our curries together while waiting for Becka to finish surveying. When she returned she announced she needed to do an inventory, so Dinny and I set off on the slow slog out. I think my expo fitness had kicked in by now though, as I found myself flying up the pitches with Dinny hot on my heels. When nearing the entrance we started to wonder if Becka was OK as there was still no sign of her. Had she gone out a secret bottom entrance or got lost? 15-30 minutes later she emerged complaining that we had somehow evolved from slugs into butterflies. Great trip!
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