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<title>1623:204 -- Deep routes via the Ariston Series</title>
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<table id="cavepage">
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<tr><th id="kat_no">204</th><th id="name">Steinbrückenhöhle</th><th
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id="status">4/S x</th></tr>
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</table>
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<h1>Deep routes via the Ariston Series</h1>
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<div>
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<b><a href="ariston-rigging.html">Rigging diagram</a></b> --
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<b><a href="#survey">Survey</a></b> --
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<b><a href="204.html">204 index</a></b></div>
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<hr />
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<h3><a id="ariston">Ariston Series</a></h3>
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<p>The Ariston Series is the route to the current deepest point in the cave.
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The pitch series begins with a short pitch of 5m rigged from a large thread in
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the roof a few metres back, with a single spit for the vertical part, which is
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almost a scramble. This lands on a large ledge formed of boulders wedged across
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a narrow point, with impressive aven above. There are two choices of descent
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here: one to the north, <a href="midlevel.html#veined">You're So Veined</a>
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(15m) which was used in 1999, and one to the south, <b><a
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href="#potulike">Pot-U-Like</a></b> (~35m) which has been the trade route since
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2000.</p>
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<h4>You're So Veined route</h4>
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<p>One rebelay provides a good hang against the wall of You're So Veined to
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reach the foot of the pitch, which is in a spacious shaft, with an impressive
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aven above. From here, there are two ways on.</p>
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<p><i>To the left, facing away from the pitch just descended, is a gully, which
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in 1999 contained a thick layer of ice. Carefully traversing this rather
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slippery section leads to the head of a small pitch of 6m, which was rigged
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with a Y-hang. From here a walking size phreatic passage, <b><a
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id="rainbow">Rainbow</a></b>, leads off, carrying a substantial breeze. The
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passage initially descends, but then develops a narrow floor trench; as the
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trench deepens, the phreatic part of the passage rises, and then ends abruptly
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where the floor trench turns right and leads off as a too-tight rift while
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ahead the phreas pinches out.</i></p>
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<p>To the right leads into a small, very crumbly chamber, from which a short
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section of awkward rift leads to a fine crow's nest in the wall of a large
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rift. A very short pitch (5m) lands on a large ledge in the side of the
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Pot-U-Like shaft. From here a roped traverse along the left-hand wall gains the
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head of the next pitch of 12m, which avoids a large ledge which would have been
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in the way but for the traverse. This pitch currently requires a rope protector
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just below the Y-hang at the top. The landing is on another large ledge, where
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a pool can be used to refill water containers. This is also the landing of
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Pot-U-Like.</p>
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<h4><a id="potulike">Pot-U-Like route</a></h4>
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<p>The pitch is rigged with a traverse line which descends steeply to the nose
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of a sloping rock wedged across the rift, from where an entertaining Y-hang on
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the left-hand wall provides a free-hang to the base of the pitch. A ledge is
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passed a few metres from the bottom.</p>
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<p>At the foot of this pitch is a pool of water, or an ice pan, depending on
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the conditions that year. Crossing this leads to the head of the next pitch of
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14m. A backup bolt is followed by a Y-hang, which utilises one very cratered
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spit only usable with a bollard type hanger. This is followed by a deviation
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from the opposite wall, providing a clear hang to the bottom. The landing is
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on a floor of boulders wedged across the shaft, although it seems sound. A
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backup bolt protects the approach to the Y-hang at the head of the next pitch,
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<b><a id="toecap">Steel Toecap</a></b> (35m). After a ledge 3m down, where a
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deviation optimises the hang, the walls of the shaft bell out dramatically and
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the rope hangs in stimulating isolation. About 5m from the floor a ledge is
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passed, which could be gained by a swing across, where there may possibly be a
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passage leading off [<a href="qm.html#C1999-204-20"
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id="qC1999-204-20">C1999-204-20 B</a>].</p>
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<p>At the foot of the pitch, the way on is a very chossy, sloping descent which
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will require either re-rigging or bypassing (which may be possible by a climb
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up and over) in future. This leads to a further short pitch (10m), which lands
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in an aven chamber of ample proportions. <i>From here drops an 8m pitch,
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landing on a rubble floor. The only way on is a tight rift [<a
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href="qm.html#C2000-204-60" id="qC2000-204-60">C2000-204-60 C</a>], which was
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penetrated for only a short distance. More progress might be possible by
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someone small and imaginative. Not surveyed in 2000.</i> From the aven chamber,
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a crawl leads off, followed by a descending rubble slope. The rubble slope
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curves round to the right, passing a tight rift on the left [<a
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href="qm.html#C1999-204-22" id="qC1999-204-22">C1999-204-22 C</a>], to reach
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the bottom of a short climb up of 3m on the right, which is followed by a
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scramble down on the other side. <i>From here, straight ahead is a climb up
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into the foot of an aven, half-right is a short ascending passage leading to a
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chamber where a traverse around the right hand wall leads to a slope down to
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<b><a href="#fledermaus">Fledermausschacht</a></b>.</i> Full right is a
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stooping/crawling height phreatic passage with a mud floor. This passes on the
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right the other end of the crawl which led off from the foot of the previous
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pitch, which provides a convenient shortcut.</p>
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<p>Some 50m of alternate crawling and stooping over soft crumbly mud, including
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a single point where the roof dips and the crawl is flat-out, leads to a small
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chamber. Here there are two holes in the floor. One leads to <a
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href="#kiwisuit"><b>Kiwi Suit</b></a>; the other drop is much shorter, and is
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split into two sections by ledges on each wall part way down. The first section
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of 8m reaches these small ledges, where a stream enters from the foot of a very
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large aven. The next section of 11m is wet, and lands on a small ledge
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overlooking Kiwi Suit just above the rebelay.</p>
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<h3><a id="kiwisuit">Kiwi Suit</a></h3>
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<p>The first pitch begins with a funnel-shaped opening. The initial approach is
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rigged from a large pillar at the edge of the funnel (the approach to this
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could be further protected by a traverse line tied round an even larger pillar
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a couple of metres back). Suddenly, at the base of the funnel, there is an
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impressive black space. In 2000 the descent was rigged New-Zealand style,
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entirely from naturals, which seemed sound, but worrisome for us bolt-junkies,
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especially given the record of 'Bomb-Proof' naturals in KH visiting the bottoms
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of pitches; the current rig as of 2002 uses a pitch-head deviation, and a
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Y-hang rebelay around halfway down, to keep the descent clear of walls and the
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small trickle of water which falls down the shaft. This looks worryingly like
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it would become a huge deluge after rain, drenching anyone on the rebelay, but
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even during one epic trip in 2004 when water levels throughout the cave were
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extremely high this area was no more than drippy. The floor is reached after 54
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metres of descent. The way on is a short traverse, an 8 metre pitch, another
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short traverse, and then a 20 metre pitch to a ledge. The final pitch from this
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ledge is an impressive rift of 47 metres depth, rigged from a Y-hang backed up
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to the pitch above. This is also slightly drippy at the bottom if the water
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levels are high, but this is not problematic.</p>
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<h3><a id="razor">Razordance</a></h3>
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<p>At the bottom of the 47m pitch, a merry little stream is reached (similar
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volume of water to the Top Camp waterhole in spate). Upstream was not pushed,
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but reportedly leads quickly to the foot of a waterfall [<a
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href="qm.html#C2000-204-63" id="qC2000-204-63">C2000-204-63 B</a>]. Downstream
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quickly narrows to about 50cm wide, and progress is made by constantly changing
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level to stay where the passage is wide enough. After about 40m a small cascade
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of about 4m is reached, which could probably be free-climbed, but has been
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rigged with an SRT line to avoid getting soaked; if the water level rises much
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this is still rather aqueous, and probably needs at least one more bolt. The
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passage is considerably wider for a few metres below the cascade, but soon
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resumes in its previous manner; it is helpful to traverse quite high up in
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this section.</p>
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</p>Suddenly, the head of a pitch, <b><a id="blacklightning">Black
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Lightning</a></b> (13m), is reached. The streamway continues past a 2m climb
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and 2m pitch leading to the 25m pitch of <b><a id="mysterywind">Mystery
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Wind</a></b>; this is descended via a crow's-nest which gives a dry sloping
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descent to the floor, protected by two rebelays. Immediately beyond this is
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<b><a id="davedives">Dave Dives</a></b>, an awkward roof-tube climb to bypass a
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tight spot; this should on no account be descended head-first. A bolt here
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might render the process safer. The streamway continues to the twin pitches of
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<b><a id="easythere">Easy There</a></b> (15m) and <b><a id="steadynow">Steady
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Now</a></b> (4m), the 2002 limit; the head of the latter is difficult and
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tight, but it seems unlikely that the rig could be improved by any alteration
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not involving a large hammer.</p>
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<p>2003 saw further pushing to a short, rather damp down pitch (3m) shortly
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followed by a climb up over boulders into a large chamber, <b><a id="glud">God
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Loves a Drunk</a></b>, where an (apparently impassably tight) inlet enters from
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the right. Immediately beyond this are <b><a id="mashtun">The Mash Tun</a></b>
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(p8) and <b><a id="copper">Copper</a></b> (p17). In high water levels these
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are both very wet, dangerously so given the cold and draughty nature of the
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passage; a deviation around halfway down Copper could potentially help matters.
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There may be a continuation at high level via a loony bolt traverse across the
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head of Copper [<a href="qm.html#C2003-204-48" id="qC2003-204-48">C2003-204-48
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B</a>].</p>
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<p>Beyond this the rift becomes tighter and more awkward again, leading to the
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head of yet another pitch, <b><a id="yeast">Yeast</a></b> (p10). Shortly beyond
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this the bottom of the rift becomes rather tight and an ascending traverse can
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be followed, as far as a local widening, the 2003 limit; dropping back to
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stream level rapidly becomes tight again, but a traverse line across, <b><a
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id="nordic">Nordic Traverse</a></b>, gives access to a dry fossil passage to
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the head of <b><a id="thirteenyear">Thirteen Year Pitch</a></b> (7m), which
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drops into a spacious dry chamber. Here a tight and scrofulous-looking rift
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leads off to the right
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[<a href="qm.html#C2004-204-03" id="qC2004-204-03">C2004-204-03 C</a>]
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, while the chosen way on is to descend
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<b><a id="pepper">Pepper Pot</a></b> (20m) back to stream level. Here the
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passage returns to familiar rifty crappiness for a few metres; it is helpful to
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take a relatively high level for a while until the passage widens again, at
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which point a 6m pitch, <b><a id="paster">Paster of Muppets</a></b>, regains
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the stream level. Shortly afterwards, the stream can be followed down to the top
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of a short wet drop
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[<a href="qm.html#C2004-204-02" id="qC2004-204-02">C2004-204-02 B</a>]
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or a phreatic widening can be followed upwards. This leads to some key hole
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passage, which imediately has a large circular pit in the floor, this canbe
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descended and the other side can be climbed, preferably with lines. The
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phreatic part of the passage then takes advantage of a sloping weakness, which
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goes up and to the left. This can be followed to a right hand bend where the
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floor drops down with the weakness to <i>yet another</i> pitch
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[<a href="qm.html#C2004-204-01" id="qC2004-204-01">C2004-204-01 B</a>]
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; it is
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noticeable on the survey that from the bottom of Paster the passage swings
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southwards away from the consistent NE-SW alignment of most of Razordance.</p>
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<h3><a id="fledermaus">Fledermausschacht</a></h3>
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<p>The traverse round to the pitch head is protected by a thread belay at the
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start of the traverse. A substantial thread (requiring 2 slings due to its
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girth) at the pitch head enables the first, sloping section of the pitch to be
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descended. Soon the pitch becomes vertical, and a rebelay on the far wall (at
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-5m) allows the next few metres to be descended. Unfortunately the shaft still
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hades slightly, and a further two rebelays (at -15m and -28m) are required
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before the magnitude of this 112m shaft starts to become apparent. A 40m
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free-hanging section leads to a sloping ledge, where the shaft dog-legs again
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and a scrappy descent down a gully, and a further two rebelays (at -68m and
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-80m), reaches a sloping ledge overlooking the final section of the pitch. A
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chossy traverse across the left hand wall appears to head into a parallel shaft
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[<a href="qm.html#C2000-204-61" id="qC2000-204-61">C2000-204-61 C</a>]. A bolt
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round the corner to the right allows a descent of the final 22m to the floor to
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be made, where a boulder choke is met, with no way on. The whole pitch,
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particularly the far wall, is rather loose and due care must be taken. A large
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chockstone near the second rebelay could not be shifted, but should be treated
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with suspicion.</p>
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<p>Nature Note: A bat was observed flitting around in here on two
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occasions.</p>
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<p>At the start of the traverse to the head of Fledermausschacht is a small
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crawl leading off to the right. This is initially flat-out over crumbly mud,
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but enlarges after a short distance to enter a series of small mud-filled
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chambers. There is no obvious way on, other than to start excavations in the
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mud banks [<a href="qm.html#C2000-204-62" id="qC2000-204-62">C2000-204-62
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Dig</a>]. Not surveyed in 2000.</p>
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<div class="centre">
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<h3><a id="survey">Survey</a></h3>
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<img style="padding: 2pt; border: 2px solid #000" src="ariston.png" alt="Survey" /></div>
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<hr />
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<li><a href="../../areas.htm">Other Areas</a></li>
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