Logbook edited 2024-08-01f

years/2024/logbook.html

@@ -2245,6 +2245,27 @@ Cue a rather exciting plateau walk with sound of thunder encouraging quite a bri
 
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+<div class="tripdate" id="2024-08-01f">2024-08-01</div>
+<div class="trippeople"><u>colin</u>,liam,chi,Lara,</div>
+<div class="triptitle">Homecoming - Alpine Torrent</div>
+Originally I was meant to be doing a shallow lead to rescue Isaac's descender. Hence I walked up in the morning from base with Todd Aila and Isaac. At the entrance the watershed de-rigging team were down a harry who was feeling very sorry for himself due to not being very well. So I asked to come with the de-rigging team wanting to be beasted at least once and see what all the fuss of a homecoming bounce trip was like. 
+<p>
+Chi only let me join on the condition that I could cave quickly turns out that was not required mearly efficient caving. I gave the others a guided tour of Welsh Engineering to see if it could be used as a new entrance series. Lara had a singsong while awaiting the others was very atmospheric. At the bottom Chi declared it unsuitable due to the amount of water which was a fair assessment(this was proved to be correct in the future days). 
+<p>
+Lara then gave me the guided tour down to watershed where I had an eventful trip kneeing a rock and flicking mud into my eye, very annoying. Lara told me to run through the gauntlet where I brushed of her concerns as it was barely a drip how wrong I was going to be on the way out. The rift along watershed is incredibly physical and hard work followed by some tight descending down flowstone canyon these would be very thrutchy endeavours on the way up but fun challenges. Going down alpine showers which was a bit drippy on the way down and needs a deviation. Soon after Lara and I reached the Surveying front 3.5hrs after entering the cave where Lara admitted I was quite fast actually and apologised for thinking I was slow. Apparently the tales of me descending mongol rally "slowly" had circulated which was annoying. 
+<p>
+Once we reached the surveying front we ate food and layered up to survey Chi's and Harry's scope. Lara was book I was instruments and soon after we started Chi and Liam turned up to help. At the first pitch I was admiring Chi's beautiful rigging it was a work of art, it went downhill from there. We surveyed all the way to the duck and managed to get a small loop closure as well so very successful. 
+<p>
+On the way out Chi volunteered to de-rigg what he bolted as it was in his words very scary and badly done. Lara waited at the bottom of alpine showers to de-rigg that pitch so I set of up to wait at the top to then either de-rigg the next bit or become a Sherpa. To conserve energy I had a nap with my head torch turned off I thought the water was getting louder but it always does in the dark so thought nothing of it. It started really getting loud so turned my torch on to calm my nerves where I convinced myself it looked the same so continued napping. When I woke up I heard a roar of water this is definitely louder and some concerned shouting. I descended down the first hang to see Liam stood at the bottom of a torrent asking what to do I shouted "i would not get on that rope if I was you" and then left to the top and safety. I had a decision to make I was expecting the others to descend and wait out the pulse in the group shelter while I got in my survival bag, or left the cave. I watched the water and decided I wasn't in immediate danger and decided to continue to stay and headed back down the first hang as that was still dry expecting to see the others descending. To my surprise Liam was prussiking up the wet pitch with Chi holding him mainly out of the water, he got wet legs but avoided to much of a soaking. I helped him off the ropes and I set of to find a good ledge for a group shelter so he could stay warm in a group shelter. I found one and took him there then went back to help Chi and Lara. I met chi on the way back looking very wet who was telling me we were going to blast it out of the cave without stopping and stop de-rigging I agreed informed him of where Liam was and went to help Lara of the ropes I arrived at the top to a very wet Lara. I thought she said "you don't have to wait for me" so I responded "I'm completely dry" so she wouldn't worry. Apparently she said "ha-ha look at me aren't I wet" so it sounded like I was mocking her, sorry Lara. 
+<p>
+I clipped the tackle bags we were abandoning in favour of speed to the pitch head so they wouldn't be lost for ever if the waters rose and then blasted it out of the cave following the others rapid pace. Getting up flowstone canyon was good fun but stressful and that made me cook trying to keep up with the others who were trying to warm up. After the sound of water pitch I tried to take my under-suit off where I was told not to even though I was on the way to heat exhaustion which was ironic when there were 3 other nearly hypothermic cavers. I did say "I'm to hot" a few too many times although I did offer to trade under-suits which was rejected. In one of the many crawls I couldn't actually see anything other than a mist in front of my face as the others were drying out and I was seating and panting reducing visibility to a couple of meters which would have been really cool in a different circumstance. 
+<p>
+Following Liam up watershed who did a lot of angry swearing to get up some of the climbs I was exhausted and hot. My shoulders were starting to build up lactate from all of the pressing I was doing along this rift. Lara went up strained by gravity first as she was the coldest I followed up quickly so that she could take some of my excess body heat. I topped out to a very cold Lara asking if I could sit very close to her to warm her up which she seemed really guilty about which was ironic as she was doing me a favour of stopping me getting heat exhaustion. Once the others were up we caved individually out of the cave being chased by Chi's d&b, very cool experience that. The gauntlet had become much wetter on our way out actually requiring a run to avoid a soaking. We exited for 2am and walked to garlic to find a very relieved Harry where we could tell stories of daring doo and near death.
+<div class="timeug">T/U: 13.0 hours</div>
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 <div class="tripdate" id="2024-08-02a">2024-08-02</div>
 <div class="trippeople"><u>Lara</u>,Colin,Chi,Liam,</div>
 <div class="triptitle">Homecoming - The First Rule of Alpine Caving</div>