update 2017 logbook with final blog entry

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<html><head><title>Stuff bought 2016</title></head><body>
<h1>UK Caving Blogs 2016</h1>
<h2>CHECC Grand Prize entry for Cambridge: camping in Tunnocksschacht, Austria</h2>
<h4>Nov 25, 2016</h4>
<p>by CavingPig (presumably Elaine)
<p>[to be added in to the logbook where appropriate.]
<p>
It was decided that this year, the CUCC expo would establish an underground camp in Kraken Chamber,
Tunnocksschacht, as pushing trips to the lower leads were getting to be around 18 hours, which was bordering on
the unsafe in terms of fatigue in combination with navigating the nylon highway required to get in and out.
<p>
Having arrived late at expo, I was to be on the last pushing trip of the season, after which we'd start to
derig. The plan had been to spend two nights underground, but heavy rain and flooding pitches meant we postponed
our start and would only spend one night down there. This would be by far the deepest I had ever been - my
previous record was a mere -280m, while the campsite here was at -600m, with the pushing front a further -300m
below that. I am also not a huge fan of massive pitches, so after spending the morning trying to think of ways I
could get out of the trip entirely, I made somewhat slow progress down the cave as I tried not to cry or have a
panic attack. Very much type 2 fun at this point. I really felt like I had reached the edge of my comfort zone
at -500m, but of course there were many more metres to go... at least I had avoided getting strung up on the
knot passes. Some noodles upon reaching the campsite briefly restored spirits before we descended further into
the bowels of the earth.
<p>
I became significantly happier upon reaching Song of the Earth, a massive steeply ramping railway tunnel of a
borehole discovered only a week or two previously. This was mainly because I was not dangling precariously on a
small bit of string. At this point we split into two teams: Katey and myself were to go on down and look at what
we thought was the deepest part of the cave so far, while Peachey wanted to do a bit of bolt climbing, so Fleur
agreed to belay him. Katie and I slithered for what seemed like miles across the muddy boulders and eventually
reached the previous limit of exploration, just on the far side of a sandy dig called "Don't Stop Me Now". We'd
been informed by the previous team that this had carried "a howling gale" - the gentle breeze wasn't quite what
we expected, but it was blowing nonetheless - maybe the lower water levels had something to do with it. We
whipped out the survey book and instruments and off we set, getting in two really great legs... before turning a
corner... to find a climb of around 6m with no footholds and carrying a small stream. Katey volunteered to have
a look up there and reported back that it was very muddy and slippery. We decided that we would really need to
bolt this to make it safe - a small slip at this depth could have very serious consequences, but sadly, we'd not
been expecting to need bolting kit and the expedition was running out of rope anyway, so we shot a final survey
leg before reluctantly turning around.
<p>
We went to find Fleur and Peachey, who were on the far side of what Fleur described as "proper fucking horrible
bouldery death". There was a mysteriously fresh dead bat. Got a bit chilly waiting around, then headed back up
to camp for dinner and the newly invented camp cocktail, custard tea, before a nip of Kraken rum restored
feeling to my toes and I jumped into the welcoming embrace of the world's largest sleeping bag.
<p>
The next morning we broke camp, but decided to leave a lot of kit there as there were still some very plausible
leads for next year. I headed out first with a couple of tackle bags, including the giant sleeping bag (it had
done a sterling job of keeping me alive in the 0C cave...) while the others derigged a lot of the rope with the
PAELLA technique (Pulling An Extremely Long Length Alltogether, I think) ready for removal by hauling teams the
next day. Katey and Peachey stayed back to do even more derigging while Fleur caught me up, then we headed back
to the Top Camp bivi for some curry, which was the best meal of my life up to that point.
<p>
This trip (with many words of encouragement from Fleur in particular) showed me that I am actually capable of a
lot more than I think I am, and though I'm a long way from being as fluid and quick as the others on ropes, I
think I've moved past some mental barriers there. Right now I don't feel like I want to rush straight back to
the camp, but give it time - I'm sure that by next summer I'll be ready to break my Bottom Inspector record once
again.</body></html>

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<li><a href="../2015/stuffleftattopcamp.html">Things left at top camp 2015</a></li>
<li><a href="stuffbought.html">Things bought 2016</a></li>
<li><a href="sponsors.html">Sponsors 2016 </a></li>
<li><a href="camping_in_tunnocksschacht.html">Elaine's 2016 Rope Competition Entry</a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Post-Expo Documentation</span></p>
<ul>

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@ -1722,9 +1722,6 @@ shortly after Alex. Hiltis greased and reflected appropriately.
P.S. I did the womens work of cleaning the tent floor with
disinfectant and then washing up and tidying up whilst Rob and Alex
did the proper work.</p>
<div class="timeug">15 hrs</div>
<hr />
<p>
STUFF LEFT AT CAMP 14/8/17:</p>
<ul>
@ -1750,5 +1747,21 @@ STUFF LEFT AT CAMP 14/8/17:</p>
<li>2016 camp first aid kit</li>
<li>Small amount whisky</li>
</ul>
<div class="timeug">15 hrs</div>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="t2017-09-29a">2017-09-29</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Elaine</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">Basecamp - aftermath</div>
<p>[from UK Caving blog by CavingPig https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/rope-sponsor-entry-cucc-austria.22020/page-2 ]
<p>So, the van-loads of rope and metalwork are back in the UK; the Cambridge tackle store once again resembles a tackle store, and survey legs and log book write-ups are gradually being transformed into cohesive reports. Sleeping indoors in an actual bed still feels a little strange after more than a month of bivvying, and despite never wanting to look at another morsel not all that long ago, I'm already feeling nostalgic about the flapjack (although definitely not about the thunderstorms!)
Fancy hearing a bit more about what we all got down to out in Austria this summer? Join us for a cup of tea at Hidden Earth this weekend! We're on at 1 p.m. on the Saturday. We promise it'll be cosier than in this photo...
<p>
<figure> <img src="gmh-break.jpg" alt="Thom, Haydon, Elliott and Elaine take a break from surveying in Guten Morgen H&ouml;hle. (C) Haydon Saunders"> <br>
<figcaption>Thom, Haydon, Elliott and Elaine take a break from surveying in Guten Morgen H&ouml;hle. (C) Haydon Saunders
</figcaption> </figure>
<hr />
</body>
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