Attempted to get network potatohut working, Joel (?) had already done all the wiring (correctly).
Problem seems to be in the acer aspire netbook.
Tried both routers, Netgear and TP-Link, and saw the same problem.
SUCCESS. Internet now working in potato hut. Problems were due to non-working internal wifi on netbook causing config problems even though it was not being used.
In the beginning
The day started with deeply unpleasent rising from our nice warm beds after a long day prior. Despite the lethargy, a resonaby efficient departure from Top Camp was acheived. Heavily laden bags containing metalwork, emergency kit, and rope were dragged by Wassil and I to the enterance of Homecoming. Upon reaching the enterance much faff ensued, during which, we were greeted by the arrival of Harry, Emily, and Charlotte who had a similar aim of rigging and pushing within Homecoming.
The descent
Following behind our companions, we descended the enterance series with relative ease. Descending Radogast was very pleasent and we soon reached Definitely Not the Dachstein. Following normal procedure, everyone had their turn to curse at the awkward traverse and we eventually reached the pitchhead of Wallace via a set of small pitches. This was descended to reach Gromit. Gromit has been described as a "sizzly" pitch. After bottoming Gromit, a fun traverse is found and descending this took us to the divergence of the 3 known A leads within homecoming.
Unknown Territory
Setting off down the phreatic rift, we quickly entered the beginning of The Second Coming, where a truly massive gust can be felt. A brief, pleasent passage, was shortly followed by a number of both protected (traverse line), and unprotected traverses with varying degrees of exposure. A fall on any of these without a safety could be catastrophic. This is crossed to a calcited, blackened ledge at the end of a travese line an feels like an obvious end to the first section. Following this, the ante is uped and the traveses become more techinical, involving some harder climbing and some crossing of loose-ish collapses. Eventually, the end of the rift is reached and a sharp leftward bend is found. A number of sumps, puddles, and a few brilliant white formations can be seen on the journey. Immediately after this bend, a deep cross-rift is found and a swiss-cheese like maze of passage is entered upon crossing the rift (this needs properly surveying and is the end of the currently surveyed passage, we have named this "Swiss Cheese"). Passing through this and trending left (following the draught) leads to a pre-rigged traverse line which continues again in a high-level passage which followed to a Y-hang. Descending this leads to an upward-trending wall traverse which terminates in a 2/3 bolt Y/tri-hang. This hangs over The Lizard King and is descended over something like 50m via a 1-bolt rebelay, a deviation, and two further 2-bolt rebelays, eventually either reaching the floor (we had a good look around here and it didn't appear to be very useful) or a higher level muddy ledge facing away from the rebelay and on the right. This was already bolted and leads to the start of another deep rift.
It begins
Following a new set of bolts placed by myself (the first bolt is at a funky angle and could be replaced but is likely fine), a new traverse line is followed up the roof of the rift along steep-walls. This is easy with a traverse line but is more thought provoking to bolt, rig, and de-rig. Much like the top of The Lizard King, a Y-hang is reached (there is another bolt further used for exploring but was deemed to be useless) and is descended into War of Attrition. A 95m rope was used to righ from the the top of The Salamander Queen 2 (previously named "The Lizard King") to the Y-hang dropping into War of Attrition. A 1-bolt rebelay is reached and a deviation is used on the opposite wall. This is finally descended to a ledge with another 1-bolt rebelay. Here the intention is to continue down to reach a to-be-bolted Y-hang in the right in an attempt to decrease rope-rub. This would be descended about 7m to a vague ledge system and followed further into the large phreatic tube via a traverse line (later called The Salamander Queen).
A crack team of expo's hardest cavers was assembled to take a rope out of balcony that was left there last year.
Harry rigged the entrance handline off two bunda. Then continued rigging the rest of the entrance series. ROute finding was fine and we soon arrived at a very large quantity of rope. Chi, Janis, Emma headed out with the bags. Charlotte derigged.
Chi forgot to bring a bag so over 100m of rope had to be flaked at every ledge.
Tried jumping on big boulder on second pitch of entrance series but it wouldn't budge.
Derigging pair got out about 9.30pm as faff had led to getting into the cave at about 5pm. Charlotte and Harry were both very grumpy walking back with very heavy bags and returned to top camp at 11pm.
After more faff from Chi, we set off about 10AM to carry gear and check out the route to Homecoming. Fishface to Homecoming was well cairned and fairly straightforward to follow.
Gear ledt at Homecoming entrance:
Ropes: 73m, 95m, 80m, 14m, 9m, 26m, 90m, 21m (handline only, old), ~70m, @20m (~500m total!)
83 hangers, most with maillons
17 krabs
1 sling
Then tried the painted track back to car park from Garlic Cave. Track was very easy to find from Homecoming. About an hour and a half from the plateau followed by treacherous cliff traversing - would be very unsafe with a heavy bag/in bad weather. Around halfwat becomes quite pleasant, 3h30m from Homecoming with empty bags. Route very hilly. Heavy carry with bagsfrom car park to Garlic cave likely to be at least 5 hours. Everyone agreed path unsuitable as route to Garlic Cave - takes longer and more dangerous than going via top camp.
After a carrying day on the 2nd, we suspected ff would be snowed in. A faff morning of aquiring shovel. We got to ff with shovels, discovering it did need digging. Jonty got particularly in to this, producing quit the snow trench.
After the complicated operation of handling the solar panels out of the storage cave, the six of us packed kit, rope and a rescue bag and set off for Fishface. It was a hot but pleasant walk and the route was well marked. We arrivced and stashed bags under a nearby overhang then entered through the hole dug through the snow the previous day. Janis and Ash did not go down the cave, instead heading back to top camp, but were a great help hauling rope to the entrance. It was only when we reached the first pitch that we realised that (contrary to what we'd been informed) hangers had not been left in the cave. [Ed. This a lie]. Plus, we hadn't realised it was all bolted with spits so even if we had brought hangers, we wouldn't have had the bolts to rig it.
We decided to sit and sulk for a while. Joel contemplate running all the way back to top camp to get bolts + hangers, but given the weather forecast of rain latert, we didn't want to end up caving too late. After ~20 minutes, we left the cave. Mealy kicked an icicle at Jonty on the way out. We left the rope underground, by the head of the first pitch and left our caving kit under the small overhand near the entrance, then headed back to top camp.
Joel, Lizzie and Philip fettled the tarp (where some water had pooled overnight) whilst I had a go at attaching the big Daren drum (filled with the solar panels and cables) to my rucksack, ready to carry from top camp to Garlic Cave.
After minimal faff, we set off west. We reached Fishface in ~40 minutes and Joel dropped off some metalwork ready for rigging. We continued to Homecoming and Joeal and Lizzie put reflectors down for the route from Fishface to Homecoming.
We reached Homecoming, had a flapjack and water break, then went off in search of the Hunter's track whislt Joel et al. went to reflect the last part of the route and Philip had a siesta.
I found the Hunter's path by heading NE past Homecoming (i.e. skirting past the entrance on a little path to the RHS), through a clearing in the Bunde, turn left, then climb down ~1m onto some limestone slabs. Turn left and follow the limestone along, past a snow plug. You hit the Hunter's path just before a cliff - you'll see cairns and white and green painted stripes.
Having successfully found the Hunter's path, I returned to Homecoming, and we decided we didn't have time to scope out Garlic Cave. I left the solar panel stuff near the entrance and we began scoping out a route across the plateau towards the col.
The route was a mixture of actually quite pleasant slabs to walk across and some grim bits (hopefully can be bypassed as rhe route gets finessed). We found a few holes to return to with gear and rope on a later day, including a particularly promising one (big entrance, goes briefly vertical, but then horizontal (I scrambled down as far as my comfort zone would allow to have a peak around the corner), with a big-looking passage. Excited to return.
Overall, progress was a bit slow - it took ~3 hours to get back to the col, hope we can get it down.
Rest of the walk was atmospheric, with lots of gusts and rolling, ominous clouds. We had just gotten back to the car when it started raining.
We set out to improve the direct route from the start of the plateau to Homecoming. The way down the wall after the second pole was suprisingly nice. This was followed by an easy flat section until the bunde and tiny cliffs obscured all the alternative paths we tried. Most of the way was already cairned, but we did find some nice fresh transitions through the bunde walls separating the easy-to-walk-on slabs. At Homecoming, we met Harry, Christian, Alice, Merryn getting ready to rig the cave. Then we visited Garlic cave - a massive above ground hole that leads to a bridge below which are the entrances to the cave itself. There was loads of snow - just as in every entrance - but there was a nice campable bit , plenty of water dripping. I sensed some garlic smell, remembering the story that this smell gave the name of the cave, but was still mysterious. Then Maddie realised we were surrounded by chives! Mystery solved.
On the way back we met Jono, Evelyn, and Oakem who were on the way to Garlic. At Homecoming, Honorata and Radost told us they had found 3 intriguing holes while prospecting. We found a baloon with a sweet note on it and read it to them.
Just after, we found a loose wellie which now acts as another cairn [reflectoring trip on 11th noticed that this is "size 9", so therefore a UK wellie]. The final pathwe made is quite nice except for one climb over a ravine tha t seems to be unavoidable without drastic changes to the route. It was a nice day. On the way back, we saw the Dachstein for the first time , complemented by all the numerous kinds of mountain flowers.
Jonty's car: Jonty/Nads/Janis up to Garlic and return this evening. Taking new reflectors made this morning.
This was a long day that started at Base Camp with the intent of rigging the entrance series of Homecoming cave. We set off only slightly later than the planned 8:00 [illegible] some faff. Quite surprising since Will was not part of the team.
The walk up to Top Camp took almost 2 hours, just as expected. We were also carrying drills, string, food, and other Top Camp equipment. We followed the reflectors to Fishface. They were white on both sides, which could make it frustrating if you are someone who is lost on their way to Top Camp. Instead, it should be red that leads to Top Camp, while white leads to caves and the car park.
From Fishface, it was only a short walk to Homecoming. Wassil rigged the first few ropes of the cave. . The first rope is a 14m on which we descend the entrance pitch. Then Wassil used a ~70m rope which was used to rig the next few pitches. After the entrance pitch, [illegible] come 2-3 small pitches rigged without rebelays. This makes it easier to climb on the way out. Wassil rigged everything up to Radagast.
Harry rigged 'Definitely not the Dachstein', while Chi di Wallace and Grommit, including an awkward traverse.
In the meantime, Merryn, Alice and Wassil were waiting in the group shelter practicing the fiddle.
An ambitious day which slowly went increasingly\ wrong. The group departed base camp at a stunning 8.20AM, blitzed up the plateau and promtly became mired in several hours of faff which soon descended into more festering. The plan had been to rig the entrance series of Fishface down to the bottom of Blitzen Boulevard (4th pitch), from where we expected everything to be left rigged. However, confusion about rope lengths and metalwork and some impressively long grike trips meant that the two shallow pushing groups planning to explore from Blitzen and Liquid Luck caught us up at Top Camp. Uncle Mike was not amused. We swiftly bombed down to FF in 25 mins and started rigging. Joel was left to do everything as Jonty's light 'broke'.
The entrance pitch/spiral traverse thing was completed on a 40m rope. Tasteful noods (2nd pitch) didn't quite go on a 27m due to rerigging around the top rebelay to avoid rub, so Joel initially reached the bottom on a knot pass and Jonty rerigged to the bottom on a 32m. The traverse at the bottom of Tasteful Noods (2A) and pitch 3 both had rope left from last year but not rigged - some of the knots didn't line up and required rerigging but the lengths were fine. Pendulum pitch needs some more bolts at the bottom, possibly as a traverse, to make getting on and off the pitch less deathy. Uncle Mike rigged Blitzen for us as we got too scared, he insisted the step over the huge rift with no traverse was fine, so we left him to it. There may or may not be a bolt there now
past Blitzen, everything remained rigged in situ from last year. We checked everything to the traverse at the bottom of Liquid Luck (pitch 6) and apart from some loose bolts all ropes were fine and hangers non-corroded. On the way back, we measured pitch lengths using the ULSA disto and Jonty drew up a definitive rigging topo that takes into account the route changes last year. The pitch lengths will be entered into the box below when Jonty reappears at Base Camp.
[Ed. Needs finishing here]
Having decided we'd held eveyone enough, we joyfully skipped back up the Plateau to bed.
Another frustrating day with network. WiFi [illegible] to allow connectionds - rebooted at ~0830. Ok.
Rebooted network for a reason I can't remember - failed to re-establish routing to router. Much faff standing on chairs trying [illegible] as cables all duct taped to the wall with it in [illegible] operating position up by ceiling. Found [illegible], edited into [illegible]. Redocumented everything in Handbook.
After hiking up to plateau to arrive for midday, we discovered the advanced rigging party still above ground... In order to leave them time to start rigging the first 4 pitches of Fishface, an ungodly amount of faff began. We finally arrived at the cave at 3pm, thinking we'd left plenty of time for the riggers, we quickly changed and headed underground. Alas, our hopes were crushed as we came to the bottom of the first pitch to discover the other pushing party sat freezing their tits off at the top of the second pitch as the riggers rigged just below them. Needless to say, it took some time to descent to the bottom of Blitzen Boulevard with Mike taking over the rigging of the 4th pitch after a debate over placing another bolt at the pitch head. Once arrived at Benign Bubble Baby Bypass, we conducted a quick something time to refresh our surveying technique before splitting into 2 groups. Me and Mike went ahead through the tube leading on through the bottom of the climb heading towards the liquid luck ptch head to bolt the small pitch at the end of the traverse whilst the others began surveying from said turn off. As me and Mike arrived at the pitch head, I asked if I could begin my bolting lesson before a big scary hole. I was refused. Instead I was told to tie the rope around a small head sized bolder wedged in the rift, which were currently both stood on. I thought this was a silly idea but obliged. The actual bolting of the pitch went well (I think?), however comments about placing bolts higher were made which was somewhat impossible given my height. The final bolting and rigging became passable so I decended the large (4m...) hole.
As we finished bolting, the survey team emerged behind us. At the bottom of the pitch, 3 leads emerged, a large passage with a traverse sloping down in front of us, a small drafty tube to the right, and a hole heading into the ceiling behind us. With the rigging team and pushing team 2 in the near vicintity of the cave around us, me and Mike were a bit naughty and scooped the large passage in front of us, as we reached the end, we could hear voices in the rift above us, thinking it was the other pushing team we called up. It was not. It was Buck from the rigging team stood near the base of Blitzen Boulevard essentially where we started. Discovering we'd done a large circle , we returned to the base of the pitch where the survey team were. As we arrived, Zac from the team 2 appeared in the hole above us, they had also done an circle.
Once regrouped, it was approaching 9:30PM so we decided to leave the small drafty tubeand started to make our way out of the cave eventually making it back to top camp just before midnight.
We prospected between Fischgesicht and Heimkehr entrances. We found 5 caves, which I will refer to here using the temporary number and names entered in expo.survex.com. Small drain (2023-hbrw-01) and medium drain (2023-hbrw-02) were surveyed completely and they both strecth for about 20-30m, a small stream passing through each of them.
We also found 3 new caves which seem to continue but we couldn't survey them since they all begin with large pitches:
We pushed 60m at the top of "Clap My Pitch Up". Pushing required bolting ~20m of a traverse. The final few metres of the traverse go above a sizeable pitch (30m?). We names the bolted traverse, "European Federalists". At the end of the traverse, we continued walking for another ~40m until arriving at the top of a massive pitch - further pushing would require bolting. The distance from where we were standing to the furthest point down the pitch measured with the disto was ~40m. We kicked rocks down the pitch and the sound continued for 10s, giving rise to a presumption that the pitch may be very deep. If it connects to "Clap My Pitch Up", it's at least 100m deep. IMPORTANT: the traverse passage and the walkable continuation are muddy and slippery; posing a hazard of falling down the pitch. Ash, Jonty, Mealy and Janis want to push the lead further on Saturday 8th July.
Gave the rigging team ~3hr headstart but we still caught up with them at the bottom of first pitch. Emma and Zac then sat around while Ash and Mealy calibrated the disto. We were waiting so long that Uncle Mike's surveying group caught up. We waited in a a bothy for them to pass us before slowly, one-by-one, following on. We then caught up with them again at the top of Blitzen pitch and had to bothy again (after Mealy led us on too low in the rift).
At the beginning of BBBB (Benign Babble Baby Bypass) we talked with Mike's group pushing the other lead and descending some small pitches to push ours. We faffed around a while trying to find it, but when we did, we found it just looped back around to Mike's group's lead. We surveyed it anyway.
Zac and Mealy surveyed the top of the rift and the pitch (Mealy on notes, Zac on disto) while Ash and Emma bolted and rigged the pitch. Once surveyed and linked to Mike's group's stuff, we packed up and headed out. Ash raced ahead while Mealy and Emma got stuck behind Zac who was very tired and slow and sweary. Eventually, they exited. Trip started at ~15.30 and ended at ~00.30. A very tiresome dark hike to top camp.
Nowt, apparently.
She is arriving at 0941 at the station, would like lift.
Will and Phil went up as part of the 2-car lift to the carpark. Others all going to topcamp. Cardiff contingent (Ely, James, Thomas) arrived the previous day (at last)
Dep. carpark 10:06 we walked to the col but got spread out, 2 Cardiffians particularly heavily loaded so Ash dropped back to accompany them while James headed on with Radost and Honorata.
At the col, Will, Philip and ? followed Philip B's col-to-garlic GPS track. Somebody else was with us (memory hazy, is this true? [correct later editorially]). All OK until we hit the hill in the middle where we followed cairns instead of the GPS track, and got in a bit of a mess leaving the hill and getting to HC. (Found an isolated reflector which seemed to just be confusing.) And getting away from HC towards Garlic, but once on the hunter's track it was easy to follow the green paint all the way to Garlic cave.
At Garlic, Will and I were disturbed to find a complete absence of teabags or instant coffee so we made a pot of instant custard which we shared with great enjoyment while we appreciated the marvellous ambience of the bivvy. Will's ankles were troubling him (he had carried a big pack up to (Garlic) whereas I was still a bit sprightly (but this would change later) having carried nothing at all.
Leaving Will to recover a bit before his return to TopCamp (see another logbook entry for the consequences of this), I returned back to HC, the col and the carpark leaving garlic at ~16:00 and arriving col ~19:00 and carpark ~20:00 where Jana very kindly collected me in her car.
The trip back was meant to be a re-cairning and reflectoring trip, the main purpose of me going up there. But the late start, and general slowness and multiple failures at route-finding meant that time for re-cairning and building intermediate cairns was strictly limited. Following a GPS track is really very difficult, if not impossible. My GPS was OsmAnd running on a Pixel2 and this was totally inadequate: losing signal, stopping track recording, jumping and general uselessness. It seemed fine at base, but the cliffs and uncertain track-following effectively killed it. (Yes we had essentials.gpx too, and a Silva compass).
I put 2 or 3 reflectors on the HC-garlic section on the way back, but lost the way getting to HC itself in the last ~50m or so. Struggled to HC, then reflectored a bit until I lost the track again (following cairns not PB's GPS track) and found what I think is a 4th way across the hill which was not bad at all, parallel to the 3 ways already recorded (seen on PB's GPS ) . I did not put any more reflectors as this whole area needs some better decisions on which of the many routes we want to standardise on - and more to the point - I didn't know whether my route would work until I finished it.
I was a bit hasty on the climb up the cliff (not the same place as the route to topcamp) and faffed a bit there. Coming off the plateau towards that climb could do with a couple more cairns, esp. if there is low visibility. Knee a bit stiff but otherwise fine after 10 hours of walking.
We went canyoning on a rest day. The "Strubklamm" canyon is located near Saltzburg, approximately 1h of driving from Bad Aussee. The canyon is graded V1A3 (vertical 1, aquatic 3). It's very aquatic, with many small jumps available and a 300m swimming passage. There are 2 bigger jumps: approx. 8m and 10m, both can be abseiled (topo can be found online).
The canyon is very easy to do without ropes if jumps up to 10m are acceptable. We did not use ropes and generally seemed over-prepared. There was another group in the canyon: a family of 5 (mom, dad, and 3 children aged below 10). They didn't have any equipment other than wetsuits and helmets, which seemed unreasonable in case the small children didn't want to do the big jumps.
The canyon had pre-rigged pitches and handlines, all of which were quite dodgy (e.g. rope close to breaking at the knot). The entire trip took us 3 hours with a 15 min snack break in the middle. We did half of the trip on an inflatable unicorn (taking turns).
The weather was good, sunny and hot. The canyon seemed quite dry, as though there was usually more water there (e.g. some slides were only drippy as opposed to full with water). The canyon has at least 2 escape routes.
I managed to steal Oakem away from Harry, Charlotte and Becka just as they were preparing to depart from Top Camp. After a quick breakfast comprised of the previous day's couscous curry, Oakem's watery müsli and promising to take Becka caving sometime we were on our way to the cave.
In return for taking her caving, Becka had promised to teach me how to calibrate Wookey's DistoX. Unfortunately, the Disto was unwilling to connect to the phone and allow itself to be calibrated. Not wanting to be discouraged by this small defeat, Oakem and I followed the the other group into the cave. They were waiting at the top of of Radagast, since the ope had gotten stuck under the boulder at the bottom of the pitch and Charlotte was in the process of getting it unstuck.
The entrance series took us about an hour and fifteen, with about as much more to Swiss Cheese (PT10). From there we traversed for about 50 metres before dropping into Salamander Queen II. A small stash of rigging equipment and food (for a possible future camping trip) had been left there by the previous team. Following the rope took us into a respectably sized traverse (German Engineering), the first pitch into War of Attrition, which is where Chi and me had stopped bolting on Friday.
I rigged another 5m pitch and a traverse that reaches a section about 10 metres long with solid floor that can be comfortably stood on. Here Oakem took over the rigging to give him a chance to practice, as we weren't sure how long we wanted to stay. While placing his first bolt, I was passing the time by throwing rocks down the rift. Noise from the falling and rolling could be heard for about 15 seconds, meaning that whatever is down there must be incredibly deep, possibly large. Oakem's second bolt was a natural anchor, a sling placed around a piece of rock.
This is where Oakem discovered Salamander Queen. As I couldn't immediately get to him, he demonstrated the size of the chamber by throwing down a rock. The expected sound did not arrive for an uncomfortably long time. Not daring to bolt it himself, I had the honours. I placed one bolt just before the drop, to serve as a backup to the natural and the first bolt. Then, leaning over the drop, I placed two more bolts, meant for a Y-hang, a section of wall hanging over the pitch. The large pitch was rigged on a 10mm rope labelled 80m.
I abseiled down, but as I was about 3 metres away from the floor, I ran out of rope (thank you end-of-the-rope knot). The wall facing me was not good enough for a re-belay, so we went for a mid-rope knot bypass. Not having had the foresight to bring extra rope (we did not expect the pitch to be longer than 80m), Oakem clipped a short 11m onto the rope I was hanging from and let it slide down. The impact on my elbow was pretty painful.
When Oakem arrived at the bottom, we wandered around Salamander Queen to see what we had found. A small stream runs from on end to the other, mostly under the bounders that had accumulated on the chamber floor over the ages. We were unable to explore the downstream end of the chamber as there was a climb too large for either of us to attempt. Content with what we had found, we decided to turn around and head for the surface.
We left Salamander Queen at 16:50, about 10 minutes before we originally had wanted to be at the surface. When you are about to discover a chamber of this size, staying in for some extra time seems to be worth it. We reached Gromit at 18:53 and the surface at 20:00, just in time for the sunset. At the surface, Will was waiting for us. The poor man had been lost on the plateau all day. This story shall be told in his own logbook entry.
The Amphitheater Hoehle is named after its entrance which resembles an amphitheather. There are a couple of meters of an easy climb from the very top to the boulder where we started rigging. Rigging starts with an approx. 5-6m down climb, where we put a handline. It's followed by a traverse (10m ?) above the entrance to the first pitch. We rigged a Y-hang at the end of the traverse.
The first pitch is at least 20m deep and ends on a wide ledge filled with snow. The pitch goes a bit across, resulting in us putting 2 deviations on the way down. Beyond the ledge, there is a short (5m ?) traverse which leads to the second pitch.
We surveyed the cave to the end of that traverse with a few splays directed at the pitch below. Ash bolted the second pitch halfway down while Radost and I were surveying. The second pitch is slabby, drippy, and has ice patches on the sides. A stoney bridge lies underneath the traverse that leads to the second pitch. In total, we surveyed 70m of Amphitheather Hoehle on that trip.
We went on a via ferrata located close to the Loseralm parking lot. The via ferrata route is graded D. Car is best parked on the side of the toll road, below the parking lot, next to a big pile of rocks. Getting to the start of the via ferrata requires a short (200m ?) hike up on steep terrain with many small loose boulders, which make the hike anoying.
The via ferrata route goes up the mountain (it's vertical) and it is very exposed. It requires using the upper body quite a lot and does not have many aids besides the metal wire. The route ends next to a metal cross at the peak of the mountain. One hikes down to get to the car. The description says that the via ferrata takes between 1 and 2 hours but it took us 50 minutes, with a 5 min photo break in the middle.
after a heavy afternoon at the tatty hut, Harry asked if i fancied coming to help push his lead with him. an offer i couldn't refuse. so i yomped up to top camp (with a ludicrous amount of curry) and then the next morning we headed to homecoming to meetup with jono who was coming from garlic cave. he was late so harry and charlotte decided to go down in front to do the rerigging of grommit (after they had cored it the last time). eventually jono arrived and myself becka and him went down into homecoming. the snow plugs were easiy traversed and eventually i was down radegast and into the crawl to the up pitch. soon i was down in the awkward traverses that led to wallace. we dropped down and wallace and becka gave me a very long description of whyi shouldn't glaze the brand new rope. i ended up down grommit and then headed along the traverse and then swapped from a down rope to an up rope which led up to propane nightmares. there is an odd section of chalky limestone in propane nightmares before the pitch down which could do with ssome geological investigation.
eventually we made it through prpane nightmares and i was show the correct was round the sump pool we ended up dropping down strained by gravity and entering watershed. at the this point i was in front with becka and we tried to find the correct route through the traverses here. up at the start and along and then follow down to streamway level. then at a 90 degree right hand bend you go up halfway and then at eh 90 degree left hand bend you go to proper roof level. this traversing was slightly sketch and eventualy led to two small climbs downa nd the stashed drill. i was soon taught to bolt by becka and we ahd installed two handlines down the climbs. after this we went further down to the t junction andwent left to nthe sandy changing room. warm layers installed , we set off down the flowstone canyon . this section of cave feels slighlty too much like mendip. with some squeezes that are challenging for the larger gentlemen. after being fat shamed/ pelvis shamed by the final squeeze we entered the pitches down towards the streamway.
the bottom pitches led to a streamway which was the bottom A leads. we divided up and charlotte harry and i went downstream. jono and becka went upstream and it ended at a waterfall. we set of dwonstream and i was taught the basics if paper surveing and swiftly stopped surveying by getting stuck in a tight section . is easier as a crawl if a larger gentleman. soon the surveying was going quickly and the rift was getting much bigger. sadly we hit a pitch . harry/charlotte went back to retrieve the drill and soon i was bolting my first pitch. this was a small 5/6M that could be freeclimbed if there wasnt and water flowing (unlikely). dropping down the pitch i turned a corner and found another pitch down into a big chamber. harry bolted this pitch and it dropped into the wet chamber. (deviation needs adding/a bolted traverse before dropping) this chamber then led off round a corner onto another pitch that we didn't have enough rope to drop sadly, althouhg the traverse line is rigged. the lef hand wall at the back of the pitch head is an execllent spot to garden and yieled plenty of large loose rocks. the lead at the bottom of this pitch is a big rift chamber 10M wide and 40M high that soon goes round a left hand bend.
at this point we realised that the survey notebook had started rubbing itself out. we resurveyed some of the legs and eventually started going back upwards out of the cave. the rest of the trip out was quite strenuous and was an introduction and a half to Alpine SRT. i kept going and eventualy got out of strained by grvaity just as harry and charlotte caught up with me. cahrlotte told me to put the cooker on for the noodles. for some reason i set up the gas burner upside down and proceded to light the cave fllor and my hand hair on fire. after the food i set off ahead of the others as i needed to make progress so i had a tme buffer for the srt. eventually i arrived at the bottom of greommit and met uncle Mike and his group. we set off in the middle of them and evetually i was up the big pitches and struggling along the traversy rifts. at thsi point i was running on fumes and arrived to the chamber before going dwon the up pitch after radegast. here i found a pack of happy bears in my drybag . harry arrived and looked very much like a happy bear upon eating a few.
i then started out of the last few pitches , and after soem struggles with pitchheads i arrived onto the platau to find that my guide back to garlic camp had been sent back and that i was waiting for a new guide who was in the cave. so i stripped off and got into my sleeping bag and had a few hours of uncomfortable platau sleep.
we stopped to document and tape a bat skeleton and some spelotherms . care required when going through this section of cave. we then kept going and arrived at the death sump. i bolted a traverse over the sump which was good fun. blowing the dust out of the holes showed a nice draft blowing from the lead into us. we kep going after this and arrived at the base of the bolt climb. jono climbed this with various thrutchy moves and an inverted skyhook. and placed a bolt at the start of the awkward uphill tube. this up pitch was named the heifer. jono then bolteda traverse at the top into a nice phreatic passage which led down a nice pitch. we dropped down this with the final bolt and found another static sump at the bottom in a nice quiet chamber, called the trough. it went but we decided that we needed to get more bolts to upgrade the rigging on the heifer. we collected some more from the bottom of grommit and then headed back to the heifer.
on arriving back to the heifer we climbed baack up and realized that thye rigging needed some drastic changes. we bolts a better alternative route with a nicer hang. then we started surveying up the pitch. on the down pitch i installed a deviation. once at the bottom of the pitch i could hear a large sound of flowing water. at this point jono felt large gusts of air at the top of the pitch. we traversed over the sump at the bottom and installed a traverse line at the end for a bold step (needs replacing next trip, 3 meters of rope required). once across we found a small stream running towards our sump. we kept surveying and eventually the water kept rising and we got to a low arch that was impassable with the water levels but a large 12ft high contiuation could be seen beyond survey point 9. a bolt climb into a higher rift could be seen to right opposite survey point 8. we also found two unstratified long bones from a small mammal. these were sampled. we then thoughbt it would be a good idea to turn around as it was getting rather late and the water was rising still. we crossed back over the sump and jono scanned the cave.
we regrouped at the base of the heifer after adding a bolt to make the pitch head easier and started the long trudge out. the route to watershed sounded apocolypticly wet as we passed by. i arrived at the base of grommit and the drums of khazard-dum started to sound. the water coming down beyond the pitch was carrying some loud rocks with it which was a fun accomaniment for the prussic. the pitches stayed nice and dry and eventually i got to the cheese press. my bag and i had a falling out and many expletives and death threats were made on the horizontal traverse i had to tighten a few of the spit bolts (entertaining due to large bag and being horizontal). finally we made it back to the rock at the end of the traverses. i stopped and had a flapjack here and waited for jono. i heard his displeasure at the cave appear and we shared a bag of happy bears which boosted the mood. radagst was rather dripping but we eventually made it back onto the surface at 3AM. we arrived back at garlic cave and ate some grim noodles and went to sleep. good trip well do
Turned around and headed back out after 2 hours or so as felt we had done enough SRT practice
Cave starts with a short, loose downwards slope, continuing on for about a metre before being ending, filled with frost-shatter. To the left, a short, again loose, upwards slope leads to a vertically upwards shaft of about 4 or 5 metres in height, and around 1.5m in diameter. The lower 3m or so of the shaft was easily free-climbable, but potentially loose rocks made climbing the rest of the shaft difficult. However, from the highest point reached, it looks to be very narrow carrying on, so was considered dead.
Upon leaving this lead, Kai looked to the left of this lead to find another tight lead, floored with frost shattered, starting with hand and knee crawling, but progressing to belly crawling. A small branch off to the right, looking quite tight, was found, followed by a standing chamber filled with soil, again to the right, before daylight was seen ahead, up a muddy slope. Upon some minor digging by Kai, he was able to reach daylight, finding himself at the bottom of a snow filled hole unable to reach the surface. Joe was not entirely excited at the idea of returning through the belly crawling on sharp frost shatter but had to.
This second lead to the left was not surveyed nor fully explored and needs returning to.
Nowt, apparently. Again. On a Sunday, again.
Following an impromptu pre-expo-dinner dinner the night before, we all arose with a tinge of hangover. Rapidly consuming breakfast and packing kit, we set off at 8:30am, only 30 minutes after we said we would which in all fairness is very good going for us. After a smooth ferry to the Loser car park by our wonderful chauffer Alice, we set off up the mountain. Almost immediately after we left the car park a navigational faux pas was made and we found ourselves on the wrong path, and with a small section of off-roading, we headed up to top camp with no other further obstructions.
Upon reaching top camp we were greeted by our fellow plateau dwellers and began the ceremonial scrannage of noodles. Spirits lifted and full of noodles I repaired some of the drill batteries, apparently broken from over-excited handling; followed by a brief faff session and subsequent departure from Stoney Bridge. En-route, I found that bringing my 35-litre rucksack was a mistake. The 100 litres I normally brought was a far more suitable size and the choice to go light for this trip would not be repeated. The resulting journey was incredibly tedious and required a camera in one hand and a sleeping bag in the other. This would become a recurring theme.
Plateau stomping completed, we arrived at the entrance of Homecoming with Ash and Ely closely in tow. Proceeding another bout of faffing and packing, Merren disappeared over the lip of Homecoming and began our quest into the cooler climate we so desperately needed.
Upon entering the entrance series, we began to realise that Homecoming, topologically, is not well suited for dragging camping equipment in. The bags became the bane of our collective existence, constantly getting caught in rifts, getting tangled in ropes, and just being generally annoying. With no small amount of effort, the bags were dragged into Swiss Cheese after surviving the toils of Wilfully Endangering Lives. Leaving our kit behind, free of (some) of our burden, we headed off towards Lizard Queen and beyond in an effort to survey some passage we were unable to survey before and begin some more bolting adventures.
As we bottomed Salamander Queen II I fired up the noodle factory awaiting Merren and Wassil’s arrival. As usual, the flavour sachets were incredibly awkward to operate without becoming caked in grease, so we settled for dry flavouring alone. Better than nothing.
Again full of noodles, we entered German Engineering, more aware of how much two of the bolts needed replacing than before, we carefully traversed the exposed rift. Dropping the next pitch into War of Attrition and traversing the associated rift, we approached the end of what had been seen before. Upon reaching Salamander Queen, I was welcomed by a two-bolt y-hang in slightly chossy rock backed up by a good bolt with the only issue being it had enormous amounts of rub. This needed to be fixed. After descending the pitch, I collected the drill and bolts and began my way back up. Reaching the top I was met by the dulcet tones Wassil and Merren surveying War of Attrition and I began adding more bolts. The back-up bolt was turned into another y-hang and the original y-hang appeared to be in good rock but maybe 20cm below this, the rock crapped out and needed gardening. After pulling up the old rope, Wassil gave in to his gardening addiction and began yeeting large quantities or kitchen appliances down the pitch. After breaking half of the cave, I re-rigged the y-hang on a rope that, this time, did not require a knot pass, and did not rub a scarily large amount. En-route to the floor, a re-belay was added to reduce the chance of being chossed and to enable faster ascending.
As Merren and Wassil surveyed the previous sections, I began to explore and try to locate the most promising lead. At one end of the chamber was a small stream flowing out of the wall. This did not go (but did provide good noodle water). On the other side, I bolted a small, maybe 7m, pith aiming to enter a large clean-washed aven. At the end of this is sharp clean-washed traverse over what seemed like a 30m rift. Reaching the end of this I began bolting a new traverse over a now, much larger, chamber which looked like it was about 20m wide, very long and about 50m deep. Continuing over the top of this in a keyhole rift, we were greeted by a phreatic tube. To our surprise, this was an lovely stomping passage with some squidgy silt on the floor and a set of small dry waterfalls. This continued for about 100m and ended about a huge chamber where water can be heard from a good instance away. Here the strong inward draught returned, and our hopes were revitalised. Wassil and Merren caught up here and I was strongly encouraged to drop the pitch as Wassil who was incredibly excited. After bolting the Y-hang and dropping our rope (we think about 40-50m) it did not reach the bottom and we headed back to Swiss Cheese with our tails between our legs. Returning to Swiss Cheese we noticed that some traverses were a little vegan for our liking and required a couple more bolts to be deemed reasonable as a route for more people to use. This was a job for tomorrow (or rather later today).
Reaching the underground camp at about 4am, we devoured a collection of noodles and freeze-dried curry before settling down for the night. This night was miserable, little sleep was had and escaping our beds was truly a battle. After some freeze-dried “porridge with strawberries”, which turned taout to be amazing, we trekked back to Lizard Queen, this time exhausted. Merryn waited in Lizard Queen II and Wassil and I made our way to Lizard Queen. Upon reaching the top, Wassil awaited my return, and I ventured down to retrieve all of the pushing equipment from the bottom. I was not happy about this.
Reaching the top of the pitch again, I handed the bolting equipment to Wassil and made my way to Merryn with a large quantity of metalwork and rope. With Wassil only having bolting kit I felt very overburdened and a little hard done by on my journey. Despite this noodle provided a fine remedy upon reaching Swiss Cheese with Merryn. Wassil later joined us and we all finished off the noodles. This marked the strat oif our arduous escape from the Second Coming and Homecoming in general. Laden with camping kit, most of the metalwork, lots of rope, and the bolting kit I was far slower than normal and at some points found the normally airy traverses thought provoking. Here Wassil left Merryn and I in pursuit of a faster exit with the guise of carrying the “heavy group kit” (this group kit was lighter than Merryn and I’s group kit and mostly consisted of his own shit). The escape was awful and became briefely less awful upon leaving the bolting kit at the split of Hobnob Hallway, The Second Coming, and Watershed. Here we found a beautiful note left by Becka’s group requesting some bolting supplies to which we left a not by our supplies. In my dehydrated, exhausted mind, I misread a request for a shelter being left at the bottom of Gromit as a request for it to be left at the top. In hindsight this made no sense and was pretty stupid. No shelter for the I guess.
The entrance series proved to be the worst section, despite having left the bolting bag. Additionally, near the end of our exit, the rope I’d carried most of the way-out abandoned ship and was later found by Becka’s group later.
TLDR: Overall, a great trip with over ~294m surveyed and more promising leads found. Couldn’t recommend camping in the second coming more!