The narrative continues ...

Andy W

years/2015/logbook.html

@@ -199,6 +199,52 @@
 <p>94a was pushed for about 10m where it turns a corner at a rocky slope. We left this as a walking lead.</p>
 <div class="timeug">T/U: [not mentioned]</div>
 <hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-21a">2015-07-21</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>David</u> & Mark</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks</div>
+<p>After an early start we got underground at 7:45 and continued to make good progress down to Number of the Beast. Mark added some deviations to the pitch below No. of the B. which is now much better. This pitch now called Widow Twanky's Knicker Elastic. A few other sections were also improved by additional bolts. Upon reaaching the tensioned traverse around the large boulder, set up camp and selfishl let me oush the next pitch. Below the traverse there are two pitches. The draft is coming from the left one so I put two Y-hangs in and dropped down ~20m to another chamber.</p>
+<p>The passage continues down another pitch in a popcorn heavy rift. I was less happy with my rigging here and another Y-hang rebelay should be added. After this ~10m pitch another chamber is reached. Again another pitch ~20m must be dropped. I started putting some bolts in before running out of drill battery. This is quite the lead - the dust from the drill was being blown upwards !</p>
+<p>The prussik out was unrelenting but fast which meant we exitted at 5:15 pm with just enough energy to amble down to the car park, and eat some veggie slop kindly prepared by Julian.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 9½ hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-16c">2015-07-16</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Rachel</u>, Luke & Mark</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balkonhöhle</div>
+<p>After some unexpeced surface prospecting (read: getting lost) at the left hand valley between Tunnocks and Balcony, we made it into the entrance about 12. Since the Dark Arts had pretty much been killed off, we set our sights on a cluster of A/B leads (85, 86, 87) in the Far Side. Luke rigged the traverse by 60C since he mud here was particularly thick and persistent. It seems like someone blocked all the bolts along here with small stones to prevent them being used again ? (Not mentioned in last year's log book as far as we can see). Unperturbed, Luke set about bolting and soon we reached a second traverse rigged by Mark. There seems to be a minor flaw on the survey where stomping passage leads to a sandy chamber, which is actually a fuck-off 63m pitch. Closer inspection of the survey shows the detail hidden under the sand, and perhaps this could be amended to prevent Luke making any more surprised squeaks & giggles</p>
+<p>We turned around and took the long route round to the cluster of leads we were after, following the survey since none of us had been in this direction before. I rigged the P10m and we quickly found the F.O. hole from the other (Far Farside?) side. At 85, 86 it was really loose rock and Luke "scampered" up the climb at 87, finding it was a connection without rigging to 85,86.</p>
+<p>Here, Mark's nerves were sruched with all the loose slatey rock that followed with every step Luke made over the pitch 20, so we retreated and tied in the two B leads at 35,36. As the Pre-'15 survey suggests, they do connect, and lead on to a sizeable chamber, which was quite wet and led to two (small) pitches and not a lot else.</p>
+<p>Cold, we left</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: ~7 hrs</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-17c">2015-07-17</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Rachel</u>, Luke & Frank</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balkonhöhle</div>
+<p>Keen and inspired, we took some slings back to Luke's risky climb and followed it up to a chimney climb. Frank followed him up and suddenly backed off exclaiming "fuck me". Luke's opinion on what is free-climbable apparently needs some tuning. Bolts were placed and a path around the pitch to 86A was surveyed. Tis led to two leads, a right-hand routewhich finally led to a boulder choke.</p>
+<p>Deciding the left hand passage was much more inspiring, we returned the next day.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 8 hours</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-18c">2015-07-18</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Rachel</u>, Frank & Rob</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balkonhöhle</div>
+<p>After showing Rob the sights in Balcony, we continued on the left hand side. It continued much further than we expected, leading to a ~25m chamber containing a 15m pitch and two leads on the fafr wall.</p>
+<p>The lead on the left connected round to 85A, while the right led on up a loose, steep rift. Here a couple of small pitches were found and what seems to be a moraine left by an ice flow. From here, it would get a bit wet and bolting was required, so we upped and left.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 7 hours</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-19c">2015-07-19</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Rachel</u> & Frank</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balkonhöhle</div>
+<p>Frank and I returned to continue surveying and kill off a few leads that led off horizontally. There is a huge draught acting [a wide blank - something intended to be added here?], and further exploration is required. Said draught made it too cold to continue after several hours, so we set off to look for the many other groups down Balcony. After dismissing a muddy climb which looked uninviting, we left the search for Julian's group. We followed urtlehead to warm ourselves up, and ultimately left, considering the small hole Frank had begun digging at the bottom of the entrance series.</p>
+<p>A human-sized hole was visible, with a steep tube leading downwards for a few metres. We left our SRT kits and descended, myself somewhat unenthusiastic, making comments like "typical Mendip caver" and "Grrr". However, it soon opened up into a T-junction, with 5m high ceilings, and shattered boulders. We followed the route to the left, a rift leading to a 10m pitch (QM A), with a further QMA climb up a small hole on the left hand wall. It was V. cold down here and seemingly solid boulders were actually fragmented, held together with wishful thinking.</p>
+<p>Whilst Frank drew up the survey, I had a gander down the right hand passage, sticking to the right and ignoring further leads off. I followed the sound of running water and finally found the connection with "Room With A View". Frank followed and pointed out a somehwat frisky looking boulder on a left-hand lead that I had passed, a few metres across and held a couple of metres up by two points crumbling away. I obediently stood under said boulder for Frank to take a photo.</p>
+<p>Rather giddy, we heard George and David descend down the tube and we were happy to see their enthusiasm too. Quite cold, we left, with a bit of heaving to get back out.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 9 hours</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-18d">2015-07-18</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>Luke</u>, Anthony, Dan</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Balcony Höhle</div>
+<p>The aim was to rig rift 59b with the hope of entering the large sandy "massive hole". The rift initially started out in the right direction and after some handy points from Anthony I started on the process of dropping multiple Y hangs (rigging guide with survey). Well Anthony and Dan set off to retrieve more rope from further in the cave and take many photos. They conveniently returned when the drill battery ran out after "6 holes" so returned to collect the rope and extra battery after explaining to Dan and Anthony I was close to the bottom and would only be 30 mins. I dropped the last pitch which was longer than expected. Upon reaching the bottom, the rift decided to change direction away from the massive hole I was aiming to enter. It unfortunately continued in the other direction so a return trip would be needed to survey and derig. I returned an hour later to find a cold Dan and Anthony and headed out.</p>
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 7</div>
+<hr>
 
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