expoweb/years/1992/log.htm
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<a name="1992-182-1">29-6-92 Puffball Mark M, Julian H, Matt, <u>Alistair</u></a>
<p>Caving at last !! The first problem that was presented to us was how to
get in. The winter snow fall had not fully melted and the entrance appeared
snow plug. There was the possibility of gaining entrance down the side of
the snow just to the left of the cave number. So we placed a Hilti and
dropped down a ladder. This provided a way into the main hole. Some digging
provided a route into the passageway into the cave. Since last year it
appears that the roof has fallen in and there is a new hole in the roof
&lt;-- Bollocks ! Look at the survey fellas... The boulder choke is very
loose and should be descended with caution. Once we arrived at Shell Pitch,
Julian and Matt went ahead to start rigging Piezo. Mark and I began to
re-rig Shell Pitch but due to a slight misjudgement we only had one hammer
with us and were unable to dress the rock properly. This will be re-rigged
next time we go down, hopefully. On the traverse to Piezo there is a move
over a deep hole which should be hand lined and possibly explored. Julian
had rigged the first part of Piezo too a long free hang. We descended this
but found that rigging the next pitch would be difficult avoid what could be
a large waterfall and as our side of the cave was not vertical. The other
side is overhanging and should make an excellent place to rig, but
unfortunately it is virtually impossible to reach, let alone to drill a
hole. After some looking we spotted a good ish rigging point, again it was
somewhat difficult to reach as a traverse out was required and then the rope
just pulled you straight back. Matt at this point was feeling very cold and
decided to leave the cave. We then started rigging a descending traverse
from the top of the pitch to reach this point. After 3 bolts we were tired
and decided to come out. We're not far from reaching the good rigging side -
next trip we'll get there.
<p>T.U. Matt - 6 hours<br>
Mark, Julian, Ali - 9 hours
<p><a href="../1991/log.htm#1991-182-13">Previous trip</a> (last year) /
<a href="#1992-182-2">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-2">2-7-92 Puffball Mark M, Julian H, <u>Alistair</u></a>
<p>Re-rigged Shell Pitch, placed a hand line over a large hole before Piezo,
also spit placed for exploration. Carried on pushing to Dark Room
(hopefully) - more epic bolting. Rebelays removed down first pitch of Piezo
so now there is a straight drop to a shelf half way down the pitch. From
there is a upward pitch leading to a hole in the opposite wall. Then a
descent down a pitch the other side of the hole in the wall is currently
halfway through being rigged with two rebelays to reach a free hang for some
distance. This route keeps the caver out of any water. Many bolts were
placed and removed to reach the route. It rained whilst we were down the
cave and we didn't notice at all.
<p>T.U. = 9&frac12; hours.
<p><a href="#1992-182-1">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-3">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-3">3-7-92 Puffball Mark M, Julian H, <u>Alistair</u></a>
<p>Piezo goes through to the Darkroom ! The hole named Crow's Nest led via
4/5 rebelays (2/3 hanging) to a 34m free-hang into the darkroom. This free
hang ends up in a waterfall coming into the Darkroom, therefore we rigged a
second route, a dry route, through an eye hole through the side of the wall
of the free hang. This provides a nearly totally dry route to the Darkroom.
The whole pitch from the Crow's Nest to the Darkroom is about 60/65m. Once
we had reached the Darkroom we had little rope left so surveyed the pitch on
the way out.
<p>T.U. = 11 hours
<p><a href="#1992-182-2">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-4">Brute Force discovery trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-5">Next Darkroom trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-5">4/7/92 Puffball <strike>Glenn</strike> GLEN (for
Christ's sake how many times ?) <u>Mark M</u></a>
<p>Carried about 200m of rope through the Darkroom to the rigging front.
Re-rigged the Chimney on a longer rope and used the excess to rig a traverse
line through the Darkroom and the first section of the rift to Redundant
Natural. We also re-rigged Redundant Natural on one rope rather than two,
and placed a deviation on the second part of the pitch.
<p>T/U 11 hours
<p><a href="#1992-182-3">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-6">Brute Force trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-7">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-4">3/7/92 Puffball Matt, Glen, Julian S</a>
<p>Went down to inspect a hole near the top of Piezo. Found a ~10m pitch -
called Brute Force, and a 35m pitch, called Ignorance. Ignorance is a dead
end, but has a hole about halfway up, which may go.
<p>T/U u hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-2">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-3">Piezo trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-6">Next Brute Force trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-6">4/7/92 Puffball Matt, Julian S</a>
<p>Tried to rig hole &frac12; way up Ignorance. Eventually leads into main
route, probably at top of Dot-to-dot. Left rigged until it can be surveyed.
WARNING - do not prussik up bottom section - freeclimb instead.
<p>T/U 7 hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-4">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-5">Darkroom trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-8">Next Brute Force trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-7">7.7.92 Puffball Mark S, <u>Clive</u></a>
<p>After everybody else jacked for various reasons, we went caving. We
touristed to the top of Natural Redundancy and then left, having admired
Mark M, Julian H &amp; Ali's hanging rebelays. Up &amp; out, and home - we
were tourists &amp; we don't care.
<p>T/U 5 hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-5">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-8">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-8">8/7/92 Puffball Olly, Julian S, Glen</a>
<p>Pottering about trip. If you follow the roof in the entrance rift, you
eventually come out over the top of Shell Pitch. Ignorance comes down by the
question mark in Dot-to-dot, and should be rerigged since the rigging wasn't
designed for people to actually use it. Ho hum. Went and saw the Darkroom.
Came out.
<p>T/U 7&frac12; hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-7">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-5">Last Ignorance trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-9">Push trip</a> (same day)<hr>
<a name="1992-161-1">7th July Kaninchenh&ouml;le <u>Mark M</u></a>
<p>Went down to get as much as possible of the co-ax out. Rigged in as far
as the third pitch, but unfortunately I didn't know where the rebelays etc.
should be so I rigged it completely crapply and had zillions of rubs and
abseiling on single crap bolts. Basically I didn't enjoy it at all, and I
was wearing dry grots and Julian's gear so I got cold and wet and thoroughly
pissed off. Eventually got about 200m of co-ax out and prussik out just
after my 2 hour call out had expired !
<p>T/U 2 hrs<hr>
<p><a href="../1991/log.htm#1991-161-16">Previous trip</a> (1991 derig) /
<a href="#1992-161-2">Next trip</a>
<a name="1992-182-9">8th July Puffball Matt, Julian H, Alistair, <u>Mark M</u></a>
<p>We rigged in to the Navigational Limit and pushed the end. Abseiled past
the last of Dokertee's ladder bolts and via a deviation to avoid water to
the foot of the pitch. Then we walked down a length of rift (10m) to the
head of another pitch. This remains to be rigged with the 200m of rope we
now have at the pushing front.
<p>The problems came on the boulder slope on the way out. There's a big
boulder jammed across the entrance boulderslope, holding back a terrific
weight of piled boulders. This boulder is resting on a pile of other shit
that gets eroded with every person leaving the cave. As I was climbing over
it some loose rock fell out from under it and this big (3' cube) boulder
subsided slightly. This scared me a lot. Julian was behind me, he chimneyed
up beside the boulder without touching it and then climbed up the boulder
slope. As he climbed past me more rocks fell out from under the big boulder
and it subsided by another 2&quot;.
<p>Anyhow we got out okay and considered ourselves lucky. The entrance is
now definitely unsafe and I will not be going down it until it changes. T/U
14 hours.
<p><a href="#1992-182-7">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-8">Pottering trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-10">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-10">Friday 1992.07.10 Puffball <u>Olly</u></a>
<p>I decided that far too much ill-informed bullshit was flying regarding
the Puffball &quot;Rolling Stone&quot;, so went prospecting with Glen and
Julian S via PB to retrieve my glasses and some gear. Decided a quick look
at the boulder was in order, so I donned my oversuit over my shorts &amp;
T-shirt and with Julian's helmet (he has a laser) I descended and inspected
the boulder and the rift for a while. Gingerly kicking the two rocks
produced no movement, and after a little more contemplation I decided I was
willing to go and retrieve the drill if this would be useful. I carefully
left and found a pair of caving gloves I had dropped down the side of the
snow plug last year ! Then we went prospecting, refound 90/14 (=184) and
Glen fell down thru' a snow plug and dislocated his shoulder.
<p>T/U 15 minutes.
<p><a href="#1992-182-9">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-11">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-161-2">Friday 07/10/92</a> KH Andy, <u>Jerry</u>
<p>Went to rig upto Knossos, we rigged top pitch. Jerry left tackle sack of
rope at top so had to go back, I needed the practice. Went to Big
Sainsbury's then rigged S'not pitch. We could not find the second rebelay.
It was supposed to be a natural. Jerry rigged the last section which made it
go to Knossos.
<p>T/U 8 hrs Jerry
<p><a href="#1992-161-1">Previous trip</a> (initial rig) /
Next trips: <a href="#1992-161-3">Gnome</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-4">Beyond Yapate</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-5">Left Hand Route</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-11">Dungeon</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-11">Friday 1992/07/10 Puffball <u>Dave</u> &amp; Andrew
and everyone else</a>
<p>After Olly's trip saying Puffball was alright &lt;-- &quot;I never said
it was alright - I said I was willing to go and get the drill if it would
help in making it safe, 'cos in my opinion, if it fell, the rift would slow
it enough to get out of the way in time.&quot; I went down to play pulleys
ropes and stuff for fifteen minutes to sure it wasn't. Olly was in fact
wrong &lt;-- &quot;No, 'cos it didn't go down the slope so I was, in fact,
completely right&quot; and after putting a bolt in I reached down to put a
tape round the offending rock, and when I had my arms in the boulder slope
erm, erm well anyway about 2 seconds later I was four foot further down the
cave thinking - 'well that went remarkably well didn't it', 30s later I had
really bad shakes. We then wasted some time trying to pull rocks down from
the surface with pulley and loadsa people &lt;- complete waste of time.
Andrew and I then spent the next few hours kicking shit down the cave. It
was dead dull and knackering, much like prussiking with someone throwing
rocks on your head.
<p>T/U 3 hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-10">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-12">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-12">Saturday 11/7/92 Puffball Julian H, Richard, Aggy</a>
<p>Having sorted out the dodgy boulder slope with Dave and Andy previously,
it was time to go caving again. As we got to the cave cloud rolled in
obscuring all visibility and it started raining. Decided to come out in
daylight in case visibility continued to be crap. Laid cable for some time
until about &frac12; way down Cloud Chamber and then ran out of cable.
Continued to bottom of Cloud Chamber then turned around. Meanwhile surface
weather continued to deteriorate to the point where it became much wetter
underground. Cyclotron was fairly wet at the bottom and Natural Redundancy
less so. However, the wet weather route from Darkroom to Piezo turned out to
be really good, only a bit damp on the lower section above the eyehole.
Arrived on surface in pouring rain, so changed at top camp. Very hard work
finding way across plateau in darkness and poor visibility.
<p>T/U 8&frac12; hours
<p><a href="#1992-182-11">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-13">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-3">14th July 1992</a> Kaninchenh&ouml;hle Tina + MikeTA
<p>After two years wondering about whether it went, we returned to the
boulder choke at the end of Gnome Passage off Dreamtime. In the interim it
had collapsed a bit so we had a quick look and decided that being Austria
and not (say) Mendips, it was (a) too much like hard work and (b) too
dangerous. However, on the way in, we had noticed that the rift in the
middle of the passage at the start of Dreamtime was now accessible, a load
of crap having disappeared. Rigged a rope from a very large boulder and a
thread and descended below a large piece of hanging death. Established that
this is not part of Bullshit Alley, but goes back under the rift sort of
towards Alternative Shopper (but as far as anyone can remember, nothing
breaks into Alt. Shopper). Needs to be explored 'cos we buggered off out.
This bit is called &quot;Deep Sleep&quot; (ask Tina).
<p>T/U 6 hours
<p>PS: Rerigged entrance pitch properly but pitch 2 is a big improvement.
<p><a href="#1992-161-2">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-6">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-14">Tuesday 14th July 1992 Puffball <u>Richie</u> &amp; Jerry</a>
<p>After finding a complete set of borrowed gear for Jerry having spent
several fruitless hours looking for Kaninchenh&ouml;hle &amp; Jerry's gear,
we finally descended the entrance at 15.15 with the intention of finding
Mark M etc. at pushing front. Descent was extremely uneventful reaching
pushing front to find the cave had &quot;sumped out&quot;. Met Olly and
Julian S on way out. Carried battery for drill up Piezo causing massive
distress to wedding tackle.
<p>T/U 9&frac12; hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-12">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-13">Bottoming trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-15">Next trip</a><hr>
Tuesday 14th July 1992<br>
90/13 aka 183 Julian H, Aggy &amp; <u>Matt</u>
<p>Didn't get underground until 4 ! God we were crap. Entrance is a 'tight'
(well, for Julian at any rate) squeeze past a boulder and into a hands &amp;
knees crawl for about 10 ft. Following the fault line, sliding over loose
boulders, after ~30 ft we reached the first pitch, around 10 mins, and while
I faffed on the rebelay, Julian got the first bolt of the next pitch in, but
for some (still) unknown reason, the cone was knocked too far into the spit,
splitting it. The next bolt was also a no-hoper. Next we kicked 12 ton of
shit down the pitch. The rope led down about 2m - almost a free climb -
across a ledge littered with boulders and then to the floor of a rock
covered chamber with a little waterfall, (which probably looks fairly
impressive in the wet). A small slot under one wall led to the third pitch -
still to have a rebelay placed. The way on at the bottom of this is a small
hole leading into largish rift.
<p>I'm crap and can't remember the names - but we do have some (honist) - so
Olly can't get his warped imagination out of here.
<p>To be filled in later.
<p>Cave - Moose Trap<br>
1st pitch - Rocky<br>
2nd pitch - Bullwinkle<br>
3rd pitch - Cliopatra's
<p>T/U 8 hrs (all at less than 50m, what a bunch of light weights)<hr>
<a name="1992-182-13">Puffball Tuesday 14th July 1992
Alistair, Clive, Fran, <u>Mark M</u></a>
<p>A couple of days before 600m of cable for radios had been laid down the
cave. Then Julian carried 200m of rope to the pushing front. Only one thing
could happen next - we found the sump. We rigged two pitches after
Traditional Style, the second of which was disgustingly muddy and ended in a
sump pool the size of a dinner plate. Yuk ! However, this may not be the end
because above the sump pool there is a muddy crawl going off for some
distance. It is below the high water mark of the sump pool and clearly sumps
when it rains, but none-the-less will probably be pushed on the next trip
down there.
<p>We found:
<p>[grade 1 elevation]
<p>T/U 13 hours
<p><a href="#1992-182-12">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-14">Tourist trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-15">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-15">14.7.92 Puffball Olly, <u>Julian S</u></a>
<p>Didn't get underground until 22.15 (beat that Matt). Resurveyed entrance
then went into cave proper and surveyed from ladder to just before 1st rope
pitch. Met 6 people who were all coming out. Got yummy illuminated compasses
to do rift section. God, so nice. Other set too shit ! A clino that sticks
90% of the time, a compass with no line on it - Accurate survey city ! Now
to survey properly. You have a rift that's narrow at the bottom and wide at
the top. Very wide in places. Positively capacious in fact. Ol: &quot;I want
to survey along the roof if I can&quot;. Point is that Julian is very crap
at wide traverses. Ol: &quot;It's easy that bit. You just put one foot on
that blank wall there and stretch across to that massive foothold only 6ft
away. It's huge. It's at least an inch across&quot;. Julian S:
&quot;No&quot;. Finish surveying 04.30, Bored now. Go down to see what Brute
Force does. Get to top. Lift up drill battery and massively lose interest.
Olly tries his footjammer out up Shell Pitch. It failed. Get out 7.15. It
was raining. Again. Solidly. Heavily. Aqueously. Pissed down. Pissed Off.
Very Pissed Off. So we pissed off and woke up top camp. Then we pissed off
to BA and sat in the potato hut.
<p>T/U 9 hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-13">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-16">Next trip</a>
<p>PS. What do you call 2 ageing Austrians who are walking across the
crapper in the pissing rain and mist at 8 am carrying umbrellas ?<br>
We didn't know either, but if you can think of something tell us, 'cos when
it happened we were far too knackered to think of it.<hr>
<a name="1992-161-5">Thursday 16/7/92</a> Hen, And, Ton, <u>Dav</u>
<p>Once upon a time in the west four intrepid cavers went a cavering. One by
one they assembled around a hole in some limestone. The 3rd born donned his
suit of armour and clutched his sword before leaping fear(less)/(full)y into
its mouth. After battling with its sore throat he leapt, fought and once
again cried.
<p>Three followed slowly.
<p>They stopped cause they found a small and insignificant reason to go no
further. They were as apathetic as a six shot revolver. They threw rocks and
bolts.
<p>They descended Garden Party fearfully.
<p>Dum dee dum. Niflheim [This is disinformational, Ed.]
<p> Love Dave<br>
T/U 10
<p><a href="#1992-161-2">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-8">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-16">Thursday 16-7-92 Richie, <u>Ali M</u></a>
<p> The intension of our trip was to go down Brute Force + Ignorance -
push the (?) and survey it all. What happens was that we went down Strike 2
- which will go I think, - it's not too tight - there's another pitch
beyond. We started surveying Strike 2 not knowing where we were going
eventually dropped the pencil, got cold + tired so left 100m 9mm at Dot to
Dot to push (?) and came out - sorry
<p>T/U = 5&frac12; hours.
<p><a href="#1992-182-15">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-17">survey/derig trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-18">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-17">Thur 16-7-92 Puffball Julian H, Wookey, <u>Gill</u></a>
<p>Intention to get to bottom and survey out, checking leads on the way and
hopefully finding they don't go. Wooks + Gill much impressed with the new
Piezo route and wet route rigging, but those enormous hanging rebelays
knackered Gill out. (How about a smaller loop next time?). Much spagetti
junction.
<p>Anyway Gill wimped out at Traditional Style and solo-ed out. Julian +
Wooks checked out muddy crawl above the sump, which goes to another sump.
Then they de-rigged last 2 pitches and brought out x'00's m rope. There is a
lead off Delicate Sound of Thunder, passage on left leads to
&quot;Honeycomb&quot; (lots of phreatic maze) water coming down a small
hole; mud pools; passage to a pitch above a pool. God I hope it doesn't go.
<p><u>Geology</u> : Many pitches obviously on a fault line between the grey
shelly limestone (huge bivalves 6&quot; across) and a sandy coloured rock.
The grey one is the one that doesn't bolt easily. Often see offset of beds,
eg. a ~horizontal dark shale bed. Some pitches along a wide fault zone, at
least 2 faults 4 foot apart. Whole cave is developed along same plane - see
Olly's survey rotating.
<p> T/U 8 hours (Gill) 11 hrs (Julian &amp; Wookey)
<p>Took 5 hrs to get baggy bastards out and we went incredibly slowly by the
end. Wooks threw up 3 times on return due to de-hydration. It was shit.
<p><a href="#1992-182-15">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-16">Strike 2 trip</a> (same day)/
<a href="#1992-182-18">Next trip</a><hr>
Thurs 16/7/92 Aggy, Glen, Clive, <u>Matt</u>
<p>Rigged 2 more pitches in Moose Trap, one goes through a tight hole in a
boulder slope.
<p> T/U 7hrs<hr>
Fri 17/7/92 Fran, MarkM, <u>Matt</u>
<p>Surveyed all 5 pitches of Moose Trap
<p> T/U 5&frac12; hrs<hr>
<a name="1992-182-18">Fri 17/7/92 Olly, JulianS</a>
<p>Went down, came out. Joined up surveys of QS&amp;C and below. Also grade
1ed the bit off Del Thunder.
<p> T/U 9hrs
<p><a href="#1992-182-17">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-19">Next trip</a><hr>
Fri 17/7/92 AndA &amp; <u>Wook</u>
<p>Surface survey Puffball (182) to 183 &amp; 184<hr>
14/7/92 Gill &amp; <u>Wook</u>
<p>Surface survey from top camp -&gt; col<hr>
Mon 20 Aggy, Richie
<p> T/U 6hrs
<p>Went up to Moose Trap. Rigged down to rift (can't remember no. of
pitches). Found cut in rope just where we were to rig at top of pitch.
Rigged one other small pitch, which promptly collapsed to a climb. P9. Rift,
tight and horrible.<hr>
<a name="1992-161-6">17th July 1992</a> Mike TA goes solo caving
<p>Nobody else wanted to go down 161 so I was forced to go alone into the
depths of 161, to see if Deep Sleep went anywhere. Well, after 4 bolts it
didn't !! For 161 this is positively amazing and stunning !! On the way out,
has a look at the passage at the bottom of Pitch2,m [might be p21m ? Ed.] it
has a 2 second drop at the end. Came out to loadsa sunshine.
<p>T/U 4 hours
<p><a href="#1992-161-3">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-7">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-7">18th July 1992</a> Mike TA goes caving with Wookey
<p>&quot;Want to go down 161&quot; says Wookey, so &quot;OK&quot; I says.
(a) Went and surveyed Deep Sleep (b) Went and looked at Gnome passage;
Wookey pushed the r/hand branch to a pitch so surveyed most of it (c)
Shifted the co-ax down the squeeze and (d) Buggered off out to daylight
<p>T/U 7&frac12; hours
<p><a href="#1992-161-6">Previous trip</a> /
Next trips: <a href="#1992-161-8">Garden Party</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-9">Beyond Yapate</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-11">Dungeon</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-19">18th July 1992 Julian H, Andy, Tony, <u>Mark M</u> Puffball</a>
<p>Combined photo and derig trip.
<p>We all went in together, took photos at : Puffball rift; Shell pitch; New
Battery Rebelays; Cloud Chamber; NDE. Then Andy and Tony went out and Julian
and I began derigging. First we checked the various holes emanating from the
hole in Delicate Sound of Thunder. Olly had pushed one of these to a pitch,
without his SRT gear on, but we couldn't fit wearing ours and so decided
that it was clearly far too tight and ignored it. We derigged NDE, Cloud
Chamber and Natural Redundancy, plus the Dry Route parallel to The Chimney.
Half the resulting rope we took out and half we left in an utterly knackered
tacklesack at the head of Piezo. We also got out all 600m of cable and
carried out the drill battery.
<p>ANYONE GOING DOWN TO DE-RIG FURTHER WOULD DO WELL TO TAKE DOWN TWO EMPTY
TACKLESACKS.
<p>The Dark Room has been derigged so the Chimney rope can be pulled up from
above. Have fun on the rebelays !
<p> T/U 11&frac12; hrs (Mark M, Julian H)<br>
8&frac12; hrs (Tony, Andy)
<p><a href="#1992-182-18">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-20">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-161-4">14?/7/92</a> KH pipeless <u>Andrew</u>, Dave
<p>Finished rigging to Repton. Going up other side of HG discovered some
fool (Wookey) had not put the handline on so there was an epic get off. This
ruined our original plan of rigging Exhaustion so we had a look at another
lead. Tried surveying but clino died. So went and found a big chamber,
Satan's Sitting Room. No rope so gave up and came home.
<p> T/U 11&frac12; hrs
<p><a href="#1992-161-2">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-9">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-20">23/7/92 Puffball Julian S</a>
<p>Went to fetch my gear back from Puffball for the great Eishohle
extravaganza. As me Aggy Clive leave top camp Andy shouts &quot;You could
get the rope from Shell if you want to fetch it.&quot; Bugger that thinks I.
As I wander I dither etc, and when I reach Puffball decide OK. I ought to
then. Go back to Top Camp, get carbide etc., go back. &quot;It's somewhere
at the base of Shell&quot; says Andy. Back to cave, get changed, down I go.
Hum ti tum rift bashing god its boring bottom of Shell - No rope. Go to top
of BFI - still no rope. I can't get back up the 8ft climb unaided so can't
go any further. &quot;Oh bugger&quot; says I &quot;I won't be able to take 2
full tacklebags of rope out of that bastard rift. Shucks!&quot; Out I troll.
God Puffball is boring fifth time around. Mind you, my Macsuit is still in
one piece tee-hee-hee
<p>T/U 1&frac12; hrs
<p>PS I tried to help derig honest
<p><a href="#1992-182-19">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-21">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-161c-1">24/7/92 KH-France Tony</a>
<p>Rigged in to bottom of Roll of the Dice, but could not [find] last
rebelay and could not be bothered to put in a new spit so left all the gear
there approx.- 4 hangers, 2 tectors, 1 bolting kit, 2 tapes, 60m of rope.
<u>Warning</u> top of roll of the dice wants another tector or preferably a
rebelay - rope can be obtained by removing the clown well back from the top
of pitch. Also for the first few prussiks up from the freehanging rebelay in
Francophobia (one with tape foot sling) rope rubs, but I have now tightened
the deviation so I don't know if it still will. Caving is <u>ace</u> best
trip I've had in months, ran back to top camp because I was feeling so good
and Gill who saw me thought there must have been an accident.
<p>T/U = 5 hrs
<p><a href="../1991/log.htm#1991-161c-6">Previous trip</a> (1991 derigging) /
<a href="#1992-161c-2">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-8">Wed 1992.07.22</a><br>
Andy, Dave, <u>Wooks</u> (Repton) Garden Party
<p>Boogied on up to KH efficiently early with drill and gear with intent to
finish off Garden Party and way down to Pipeless to sump and push.
<p>Plan failed as Garden Party went huge and we used up baby drill battery
on 80m of rigging down two shafts. Somehow we didn't intersect with
Powerstation - what the hell is going on? Had a good wander round connecting
rift and 2 parallel shafts. Andy was ill and after surveying 1st bit went
out. Dave and I surveyed out all the new stuff - really satisfying. This
cave is ridiculous (again)
<p>TU (Wook/ Dave) 11hrs<br>
(Andy) 7hrs
<p><a href="#1992-161-5">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-10">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-9">Thu 1992.07.23</a> Jerry <u>Wookey</u> Pipeless push/survey
<p>Got up later &amp; then only underground by 2.20. Gave Jerry a good
tourist trip on the way down - he was stunned by the sheer size of KH.
Staggered all the way to Repton [this was originally typed in as Pipeless -
its almost illegible] with a borrowed York rope, to find some more there -
bum, needn't have bothered. Had a look at rock in my question mark and moved
part of it but decided too dodgey to move other half. Then trundled all the
way down Pipeless to Satan's Sitting Room. Rigged down pitch &amp; found a
bit more cave at the bottom, including Silent Fellow, a chamber with a pitch
out of it (but very chossy) prob 30m. Then surveyed out. Pipeless is very
windy &amp; bloody freezing. Trailed back to surface with some hangers and
Mike's rope. Satisfying, efficient trip. Jesus what a lot of cave.
<p>T/U 12.5 hrs
<p><a href="#1992-161-4">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-13">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<p>Sat 1992.07.25 Sonnenleitenschacht (Sun-ladder shaft)<br>
Aggy, Jerry, <u>Wook</u>, (Robert the wonder-caver) T/U 7&frac12;hrs
<p>Up at an unreasonable hour (5.30) to meet Austrians at 06.30. Long, hot,
fast walkin. We were shagged. Fortunately caving was much easier &amp; we
were suitably boggled by fairly mental shaft series down to -368m
(p20,p93,p19,p10,p53,p88,p57). Nasty tight rift halfway down.
<p>At bottom is some horizontal cave with mega-slippery mud. Did a bit of
surveying but bottom pitch was too wet so had a look at rest of cave, ending
at a big shaft (surprise surprise) got a rope to enable Rob to do traverse
round pitch-head to find miles more cave- prob nearly 300m to a big rift
pitch &amp; shaft down to streamway. Fucking brill - and we didn't even have
to survey it.<hr>
Sat 25.7.92 GRUBSTEN WEST-WANDH&Ouml;HLE 1625/351<br>
Olly, JulianS, Richie, Fran, <u>Clive</u>&nbsp;&nbsp;
An Eish&ouml;hle near Bad Mitterndorf<br>
+Hans, H's son(Manfred), another one + G&uuml;nther (Austrians)
<p>Preparation started early for this one : packing rucksacks the afternoon
before!?! What, CUCC getting organised? Fortunately we were able to disprove
this by having a 21st birthday party the evening and before, and various of
us bivvied coz it was nice, despite knowing that the Austrians wanted to
meet us in BM at 6.30am. We made it, with Richie's epic driving, 2 mins
early.
<p>So here we are at the top of the toll road (another one). Olly improves
our organisational record by having no crampons, and the Austrians had no
spare set. They did say they might tho'). Hans sez an ice axe is good gear
though, so off we walk to the cave.
<p>Plan: 1hr walk to cave, 2hrs cave, 2hrs walk back across the plateau then
bier in a caff.
<p>Results: Austrians lots CUCC 1 Where did we lose?
<p>First game: Rucksacks. We had traditional cavers rucksacks with lots of
gear. The Austrians rucksacks looked like they would struggle to hold a
walkman, let alone full caving gear.
<p>2nd game: Hangover (some of us). Imagine going Sunday caving (albeit with
dry gear) at 6am, after a late nite sess at the Hill Inn. You don't, do you?
You go to bernies and fester lots and groan and maybe walk round Yorkshire
a bit. Not walk up a mountain led by hyper-fit Austrians who say 10km is
1hrs walk easily. With caving gear. On nasty scree slopes with goats
throwing rocks at you. &quot;See the hole in the middle of the cliff there?
That's it&quot;. While changing, my oversuit did a tumbling boulder
impression. I didn't really want it to fall all the huge distance down the
scree slope. I like grass: it stops things falling.
<p>3rd game: Odd gear. Hans' furry - unpacks from his tiny rucksack along
with oodles of ham sandwiches, wurst etc (slavering english had no
breakfast) a furry. Imagine camo pattern, 'cept in bright colours. That's
it. Hans' son's undersuit - looked like black bubble-wrap? Ho hum
<p>4th Game: We won (what - FESTERING of course). Various light fettling,
hangovers, generally being slow.
<p>5th Game - Caving (yes now comes the important bit). U go down the
obvious cave, then crawl a tiny bit (austrians are hard, they don't need
kneepads. Fran and Richie do, tho'). Out again a few metres later. A through
trip! Down another cave, amusing fixed ladder with lots of bolts &amp; wires
holding it together. Perhaps a leetle bit over the top. Some rocks, then
crampons on for a toddle down a nice ice slope. Watching Olly fun, as Hans
walks him down (Ol's foot resting on Hans' etc). Squeeze at bottom of ice
would be awful except ice is v. slippy(!). Then some real caving. We
wandered round lots of big bouldery passage, being shown all the leads &amp;
being out caved in a miserably easy cave. G&uuml;nter had a trick of being
behind one minute, then you see him next in front. OK, he did find the cave.
The walls were all light coloured mud, making the big spaces quite bright
for a change (cf puffball any [?]). It's a big cave : 10km, 400m deep &amp;
we only saw the top bit. Beautiful sail like piece of really blue ice
somewhere we saw. Eventually after wandering apparently randomly exeunt
cavers. Out, change. Hans showed us (in the cave) a passage which went up,
and said &quot;We found the hole in the top by surveying it underground,
then walking 350m from the campsite &amp; saying 'Yes it's here'&quot;. Why
can't CUCC surveying be this good? Anyway, we have to climb horribly steep
chossy crap bit of mountain. I scared. At the top, a football pitch sized
bit of grass. Flat! Their campsite - amusing camping - they have to carry
all their shit up, but a helicopter delivers barrel of beer and cakes.
<p>Walk back across plateau - real Totes Gebirge - grey and white, no bunde
for miles but little grey plants feeking [?] around. Shown some big holes
&amp; people drool etc. - one is a big hole near the path with a
cross/memorial on the other side of the path from the hole so people fall
down it on the way to see it.
<p>Vaguely tropical once in the plant level again - clear lake below,
beautiful colours, plants with really bright colours all round.
<p>Then to a Gasthof for a yearned-for drink &amp; home.
<p>Summary: don't go caving at 6am with immensely hard Austrians who are
really good tourist guides (the day was really interesting despite the fact
I felt a complete ouigee) The End
<p>T/U 2&frac12; hrs ?
<p>P.S. Richie and Fran stole Aggy and Jerry's shorts on the way out the A's
thought this was funny. There seemed no point in nicking Wook's shorts tho.
<p>P.P.S. Guess whose light failed despite it being a club FX2 and whose
replacement carbide was shit also?<hr>
<a name="1992-182-21">Mon 1992.07.27</a>
<p><u>Wook</u> &amp; Ol Derig Puffball T/U 6hrs 20 mins
<p>Wook checked out QM's down Chimney : Just extensions of rift. Had a jolly
time de-rigging, especially Crow's Nest which was epic. Ol tried a couple of
bits &amp; ticked off a QM leaving one crap one. Decided to head out with 3
baggies as 6 would be stupid.
<p><a href="#1992-182-20">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-22">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-182-22">Tue 1992.07.<strike>27</strike> 28 ('cos it can't be
the same date as Monday)</a>
<p><u>Wook</u> and Ol carry on derigging Puffball T/U 6hrs 50
<p>Went down BFI. Got very cold surveying it &amp; Ol rigged down to Strike
2 to force 'too tight'. Little pitch and some stuff. Derigged most of it but
had to give up to get back to camp in time for slideshow - only 2 baggies
this time.
<p><a href="#1992-182-21">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-23">Next trip</a><hr>
<a name="1992-161c-3">Tuesday 28th July</a> ie. 28/7/92 (none of these crap reversed dates)
<p>FRAN/JERRY/<u>MIKETA</u> go to France T/U 6 hours
<p>Zippo down to where Tony and Andy jacked out. Fast descent aided by
several french bolts until (with only just enough rope) we dropped into a
huge (well, pretty huge) chamber. Poked around, found several ways on (one
bolted), and left, 'cos Fran/Jerry wanted to go to the slide show.
<p><a href="#1992-161c-2">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161c-4">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-13">Wed 29th July</a> = 29/7/92 Wook + Andy T/U 9 hrs<br>
SAM/MIKETA go somewhere else T/U 11 hours
<p>Went down with Andy and Wookey to HGS where we left them to rig a
tyrolean (inadvertantly stealing the bag of gear they needed). Missed
directions to Exhaustion (?) and ended up in Pipeless, but found ~110m new
passage and another pitch. Surveyed out. I was knacked.
<p>Wook &amp; Andy - discovered Wook's filled-in Q.M. going to Pipeless -
ticked off 2 QM's !
<p><a href="#1992-161-9">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-14">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-11">Mon 27th July</a><br>
Sam, Gill, Rachel, Julian S T/U 5&frac12; hrs
<p>Dungeon
<p>Someone finally rigs Dungeon ! Get down, find Dungeon (not that simple,
once we went down 2nd pitch). Spend such a long time trying to put a spit
in, Gill offers to &quot;nip down S'not and fetch the drill&quot;. Off go
Gill and Rachel. 2 hrs later, JulianS &amp; Sam finish messing about, go
down the pitch, and decide the best way is to rig on through an eyehole. Rig
the eyehole. &quot;Can you hear a whistle Sam ?&quot; &quot;Don't think
so&quot;. About to go down. Hear six whistle blasts. &quot;Oh, SHIT !&quot;
Never prussiked so fast in my life. Sam in front, races down S'not. Horrible
thoughts of stretchers and falling boulders. Major relief when its just that
Gill has been strung up for 1&frac12; hrs. Ends up with Sam undoing the
rebelay so she can get past. After this, nobody feels like much more caving,
so exit all.
<p><a href="#1992-161-1">Previous trip</a> (initial rig) /
<a href="#1992-161-12">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-12">Tue 28th July</a> T/U 6 hrs<br>
Sam Julian S
<p>Go down to survey Dungeon. Descend pitch into second chamber on
yesterday's rigging (note, take a rope 'tector). Survey. Find the way on,
and a Zoom which must have fallen down the entrance.
<p><a href="#1992-161-11">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-16">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161c-4">Thu 1992.07.30</a><br>
<u>Wook</u>, Henri go &amp; survey France T/U 9 hrs
<p>Faffed measuring Puffball ropes &amp; eventualy went once it was too hot.
Nice 1st trip down France, if a bit drippy. Faffed somewhat surveying down
to impressive space at bottom. Also arsed about with rigging in largely vain
attempt to improve it, after dire warnings about ropes too short, spits shit
etc. Had a good poke round in chamber and found some scrotty stream cave
with lots of water in it before boogying out. Took ages to get out, &amp;
then we got lost on the way to 161a &amp; I ended up taking 40 mins &amp;
going via Vd1 to get my bearings - doesn't limestone look like limestone a
lot.
<p>My attempt to go on the ouigee trip largely failed as we were still
eating tea at 2 am.
<p>Nice bit of cave though, and having possibly reached the phreatic level
it should go like a train.
<p>[grade I sketch of chamber]
<p><a href="#1992-161c-3">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161c-5">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-16">Fri 31 July</a> Tony, <u>Gill</u>, Rachel, Sam, Tina, Mike TA T/U 5 hrs
<p>Photo trip/pottering. Some photos of 2nd pitch from Big Sainsbury's,
showing eyehole from entrance and boulder slope down to S'not. Sponsorship
photos on a high slab in Big Sains - having a brew not 20m from the bottom
of the 2nd pitch. Trangia works really well underground; brew good
moraliser. Then split 3 parties: Mike + Tina more B.S. photos, Sam + Tony
down to Dungeon to inspect leads, Gill + Rachel down S'not to explore ?'s
and go touristing. Explored uphill from bottom of S'not -&gt; 2 leads (which
AndyA and IainM have also been down) choke up, but possible small uphill
crawl. Draughts.
<p>Explored holes down right hand fork to Arrow Chamber, without actually
getting into the chamber (I think). Rachel scurried down lots stoopy
passage/crawls/holes down, some which go quite a way. Worth another look,
ie. go towards Arrow Chamber and duck down beneath huge boulder blocking
high rift.
<p>Tony + Sam + Mike + Tina proved that Dungeon connects to S'not via a
window under a big boulder. 7m pitch at bottom too tight at bottom and
choked.
<p><a href="#1992-161-12">Previous Dungeon trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-10">Previous LHR trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-19">Next trip</a> (final derig)
<hr>
<pre>
/~TU 1hr~\ /~ TU &frac12;hr ~\
Fri 31 July Aggy, Fran, Jerry, Clive</pre>
<p>Quote &quot;Small depression near 164&quot; in logbook.
<p>Found this cave when prospecting, &amp; found it to be a cavern full of
pretty ice. This time brought cameras. Looped tapes over a couple of lumps
of rock &amp; Aggy went down. (All were wearing shorts &amp; tee-shirts).
Removed SRT gear &amp; passed up to Jerry. Fran descended, then, eventually,
Clive. Bloody Cold. Then Jerry. Landing area is sunk in under level of snow,
so large kick from side is needed to land on snow. Took loads of pics. Still
bloody cold. Came out to heat shock. Best part is it is 10 mins from Top
Camp.
<p>No. is 189, name GLITTERSTOMPF.<hr>
Prospecting (sometime in the middle)<br>
Aggy, Julian S, Fran &amp; Jerry<br>
&frac12; HR
<p>Found lots of holes - generally wandered in the direction of the huge
piece of limestone on the far side of the Hinter Schwarzmooskogel (?).
Including Glitterstompf, 164, 107 an old path. As suspected, most holes
blocked w/ snow but the limestone has lots of biggies - but only had a 26m
rope w/ us so didn't go down all. Worth going back to the limestone w/ lots
of rope - couple of very large drops. Didn't bother doing more than + the
ones that we actually bottomed - headed back to 161 path. Came across a
large hole on the hillside - can be seen from the large piece of limestone
on the Wook path. Went over snowfield to the top - looked down - saw no
bolts although so&lt;?&gt; sany[?] it may be Tantalschacht - needs going
down - huge chamber below - very close to path - found an S [???].<hr>
<a name="1992-161-14">Thurs 30 July.</a>
<u>Aggy</u>, Jerry, Andy, Sep, Robert
<p>Jerry &amp; Austrians arrived @ Top Camp 8:15. After waking up, got down
cave by 10:00. Went down to Repton, Pipeless &amp; to top of Satan's Sitting
Room. Robert strung a type of traverse over a big hole (6' long) &amp;
Jerry, trusting Robert, went first. Drilled 2 holes above new pitch, while
Jerry went to Repton for rope. Sep/Robert wanted to see daylight, so we left
for the surface. Robert &amp; Jerry went ahead (Jerry behind !). They were
far enough ahead to suspect they had got lost. Fran on surface, with already
changed Robert &amp; Jerry.
<p>TU Hard cavers Rob, Jerry 6hrs<br>
Humans Aggy, Andrew, Sep 7&frac12;hrs
<p><a href="#1992-161-13">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-17">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161c-2">27 July France <u>Andrew</u>, Tony</a>
<p>Tony (the hard caver) had been down a few days before to rig this, the
most superior of pushing fronts. Sat in the entrance waiting until our
bodies had cooled to a temperature that would allow the brains' thought
channels to open. At this point Tony's brain (not unexpectedly) told him
caving was shit (a true fact) but we continued. Beautiful wizzy pitch. Then
at the bottom of Roll of the Dice 'BELOW' I tensed and waited for the clack
to come. Nothing happened. Began to relax. Wack, Oh no I am falling should
not have let go of the rope. Why is my stop not working. Ah let go of the
handle. 'STOP' thats better, bollocks, who put that wall there. Ouch ! Zip.
Next thing I know I am at the top of the next pitch been ill again. Never
mind lets continue. At last, the pushing front. Wander up and down, traverse
across, Tony has a go. Time to rig the Crash, Oh no no again I'm falling.
Where has that 6ft by 1ft shelf I was standing on gone. Went down Toothless,
put one bolt in using 3 spits, got psyched so left.
<p>TU 5&frac12;
<p><a href="#1992-161c-1">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161c-3">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-10">24</a>
<p>Garden Party Finish &amp; Survey &amp; derig Andrew, <u>Dave</u>
<p>I can't remember what happened, so I shall make something up. The battery
was heavy. It was heavy on the way to the cave. It was heavy in conjunction
with a light tackle sack. It was fucking heavy in the full tackle sack and a
drill.
<p>So, I went dangling with gear, strewn with expensive dead weight across
dubious traverses down dubious climbs and across f'ing unlikely chocked
boulder floor things. Thus, standing at the edge of Cat Litter, I clipped in
and descended, slammed a bolt in the wall - I thought about using my hand
driver but thought that I ought to use Mark Mileing [??] battery. Descended
loads, Andy followed and said Hey up gus [??] its some gear tape. And thus
realised we were in known cave. We then found some rope. After toffee eating
we lugged heaved hauled and surveyed. Laugh.
<p>T/U 9
<p><a href="#1992-161-8">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-16">Next LHR trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-19">Final derig</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-15"><u>Bladerunner</u></a> Hole below pitch below squeeze. <u>Dave</u>
<p>Our lonely intrepid explorer made his way to the cave. He entered
thinking of the absence of annoying friends. He came upon a drop with badly
buried rope. He fearlessly pounded upon the rock eventually it gave
way. The rope was claimed. I rigged the first three belays on tape - such
delight - never before had I had so many tapes - oooh the benefit of being a
facist thieving bastard. Bolt, bolt, bolt, bolt yawn loadsa pitch.
<p>Bollock Bollocks, it stops. I don't fit. Aahh but no. It goes so
squeezesque* lovely. Then rift, then maze, then pitch. Yawn bolts.
<p>* Millenium Falcan -&gt; squeeze bit<br>
* Yoda -&gt; mazey bit<br>
* Androids -&gt; pitch
<p>T/U 8hrs
<p><a href="#1992-161-2">Previous trip</a> (initial RHR rig) /
<a href="#1992-161-19">Final derig</a> and Bladerunner survey trip.
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-23">Thu 30 July 183, Puffball, Clive (has no friends, sob)</a>
<p>Joined the ever increasing gang of solo cavers to look at crawly bit at
bottom of 183. Yes, it goes, but it's shit ! Very Mendip crawly (eastwater
?) follow stream, small climbs occ. all in an angled rift (or fault ?). A
bit mazy so if one way doesn't go another will. Scared after trying to
descend climb head first with crap hand holds, so got out.
<p>Then go to Puffball to retrieve bags of rope JulianS went to get, but
Olly &amp; Wooks had got before. Found this out descending 8ft &amp; 10ft
pitches at beginning of Piezo &quot;but I'm sure there's a rope here
normally&quot;. Climb out just, exit, fester a while in sun &amp; met
callout 3 hrs early coming to rescue me.
<p>T/U 5 hrs PS solo is good - none of the nasty cavers around but a bit
scary sometimes.
<p><a href="#1992-182-22">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-182-24">Next trip</a> (the final one)<hr>
Mon 3rd Aug. <a name="trissel">Trisselwand</a>. Christine, Jeremy, Jane,
Mark
<p>Got up ridiculously early (7 AM !) to beautiful blue skies, sunshine etc.
Drove to Sattel &amp; immediately set off on the wrong path. Having realised
our error, we turned back and tried again (the correct path is the left one
which is signposted Trisselwand - as opposed to the one on the right
signposted Trisselwand !) We then walked along the 233 for a short distance
&amp; turned left at the first thing that could just about pass for a path -
this again was wrong of course (stay on the 233 until a reasonably sized
path on the left - probably the second turning). After about an hour of
walking through forests, christmas trees, etc. we turned right into the
bunde (again wrong - you should keep on the path which goes down).
Eventually, we arrived at the base of the lower left of the two large
gulleys in the face - below an obvious pine tree (Wookey). Started climbing
at ~11 am by which time the sun was just getting into the gulley. Start at
obvious ring around corner from tree - many of these throughout the climb
are next to brown/orange splodges of paint. 1st 2 pitches were easy &amp;
scrambly but with few places for protection - following the easiest line up.
3rd pitch - walk across to left wall &amp; climb the crack - it would
probably be a good idea to belay at the bottom of this (piton) instead of
from the top of the second. Protection for this consists of pitons of
varying quality. 4th &amp; 5th &amp; 6th straightforward but can't really
remember (NB 50m rope recommended/needed for several of thse pitches). Some
sections can be done moving together. Eventually arrived below a huge
headwall with a large section of loose scree/boulders etc. to the left.
Spent a long time faffing around here by going too high - it looks as if you
can avoid the scree by doing this but a sheer gulley stops you halfway
across. Correct way is to go across to the left &amp; slightly upwards
across the scree. This is quite exposed but otherwise not too bad. The point
to aim for is a downward sloping slab on the corner of the left wall. There
are pitons towards the left wall, honest !
<p>At this point (5pm) Jeremy decided he was suffereing from sunstroke &amp;
he wanted to go down. NB there is almost no shade or breeze on the climb so
take lots (2 lt per person) of water. Abseiled down as far as second pitch
without any problem. I abseiled down to the 2nd and spent ages looking for
the belay (someone had moved it around a corner on the right) which
Christine then had a minor epic trying to reach. The stance at the top of
this is quite small. It was starting to get dark &amp; the first drops of
rain from an obvious thunderstorm were starting to fall - all these together
resulted in the rope getting horrendously tangled halfway down the pitch.
After spending ~5 min attempting to untangle this - hanging at the base of a
small gulley - the storm broke. The nice gulley was quickly transformed into
a cascade of water, rocks were hitting me on the head. At this point I
wasn't very happy. After resigning myself to the fact that I was obviously
going to die, managed to move out of the worst of the shit on to a face
&amp; spent the next half hour untangling rope and cowering.
<p>Back at the top, everyone else was having a similarly shit time getting
pelted with ice and rocks - Christine ending up with a really pretty bruised
shoulder. Eventually we all reached the bottom in various states of
coldness, wetness, sanity etc. Walked back (right way this time) only to
meet the Austrian Mountain Rescue on their way to us - someone had seen
lights on the face in a thunderstorm and called them out. They didn't seem
too pissed off but they were amazed that we had managed to spend 9 hrs on
the face. Arrived back at Hilde's ~ 00.30 to meet the CUCC rescuers (thanks
to all involved) who's been driving arpund looking for us before going to
call out the rescue.
<p>Good trip - definitely worth doing (quickly though).
<p>Mark T/E (Time epic) 9hrs<hr>
<a name="1992-161-17">1992.08.02</a> <u>Wook</u>, Andy, Jerry, Aggy Push the end
<p>All trailed to end, very efficient - taking only an hour to get to the
end of Yapate where we took some photos - Andy being impressed by alertness
&amp; capability of his team. (Wook checked out Gill/Rachels bit in LH Route
on way down - then popped into Arrow Chamber to see Del/DaveH's QM from a
couple of years ago - looks extremely promising and draughting with only a
7m pitch to negotiate.) Took a few more photos in Pipeless &amp; then
continued climb in SSR. Aggy volunteered (foolishly) to man the drill &amp;
put in another bolt before clipped everything to everything &amp; going for
it - he got to a precarious position before running out of cows tail tinsel.
He had to hang there for a couple of mins while Andy went along the traverse
trying not to pull on the rope &amp; thus Aggy off. Thus released he made
the final move &amp; floundered onto the shelf gibbering. Throughout this
process 'useful' advice had been given by the 3 onlookers, so the climb is
called '3 wise men'. Aggy had had enough after putting in the top bolt so
Wook went to have a look &amp; Tony &amp; Andy went to get some gear from
Mostly Mud &amp; rig tension traverse at start of SSR properly.
<p>Rather than gaining miles of horizontal passage, Aggy had gained a 1m
wide shelf between 2 pitches. Wook abbed down &amp; discovered they
connected so put in a bolt for mega swing to gain window across this pitch.
This was just poss &amp; this led to a chamber with accessible passage out
of it, leading to another big (30m) pitch and a draughting passage. Andy
&amp; Wook started SSR survey up her silly rigging whilst Aggy &amp; Tony
went to rig pitch in Mostly Mud - fused drill due to shagged cable &amp;
trailed out.
<p>Andy &amp; Wook got cold &amp; bored after a bit &amp; went exploring -
found heaps of cave, including beautiful big phreas with Jet black floor -
pity to put footprints in it. Another pitch at end &amp; then narrower
passage to more QM's - ridiculous cave. Too tired [?] to survey on return so
buggered off out.
<p>See over for diag. T/U 15 hrs (Wook &amp; Andy)<br>
14 hrs (Aggy &amp; Jerry)
<p>FAR TOO FAR 10 QM's !!!
<p>[grade 1 diag]
<p><a href="#1992-161-14">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-18">Next trip</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-18">Wook &amp; Andy: 1992.08.04</a>
<p>Having failed to find a new entrance on previous day (and narrowly
avoided the thunderstorm mentioned elsewhere), we had to go in the usual way
to finish the survey &amp; derig. Did this, finding another 2 QM's &amp;
ignoring these as we had plenty to do then started mega derig with 2&frac12;
tacklebags, the drill, battery and ladder between us. Despite leaving the
battery in Knossus for photos, it took 6hrs to get out - we were fucked.
<p>TU: 15&frac12; hrs
<p>Also changed Strange Upfall rope for a long enough rope (45m) &amp;
staircase 36 one as it has been used for 3 years.
<p>Left 41m rope rigged on 3 Wise Men.
<p><a href="#1992-161-17">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-19">Final derig</a>
<hr>
<a name="1992-161-19">More De-rigging:</a> DaveH, DaveF, <u>Wook</u>, Andy,
Henri &amp; Clive 1992.08.05
<p>Uncle Tom Cobbly &amp; all go to fish all the gear out of KH.
<p>Initially:
<p>Team A: Dave &amp; Dave: Tourist to end &amp; then derig Strange Downfall
&amp; RH.<br>
Team B: Wook &amp; Henri: Survey &amp; derig Bladerunner.<br>
Team C: Andy &amp; Clive: Photo Knossos &amp; fish out battery ('Small Paul')
<p>Started off to plan although team photo had probs &amp; dropped a slave
down pitch in Knossos.
<p>Much swearing took place below squeeze as Wook-the-ill &amp; throwing [?]
resigned &amp; became team derig whilst DaveF went to finish survey &amp;
derig.
<p>Team 1 became DaveH &amp; Clive with baggies,<br>
Team 2 Wook &amp; Andy ([can't read this]) &amp;<br>
Team 3 Dave &amp; Henri who didn't finish survey &amp; still didn't get out
till 3.30 am.
<p>Bloody hard work all round (esp. DaveH who did the entrance twice &amp;
shifted 3 baggies &amp; the battery !)
<pre>
T/U: Dave H: 1-10.30: 9&frac12;
Dave F: 1-3.30: 14&frac12;
Henri : 1.30-3.30: 14 or something
Wook : 1.30-11.00: 9&frac12; like that.
Andy : 2.00-11.00: 9
Clive : 2.00-10.30: 8&frac12;
</pre>
<p>Then came the carrying !........
<p>Previous trips: <a href="#1992-161-18">Far End</a> /
<a href="#1992-161-15">Bladerunner</a> /
<a href="../1993/log.htm#1993-161-1">Next trip</a> - 1993 rigging in
<hr>
<a name="1992-182-24">1992.08.01-02 Puffball - solo - survey - push - derig
- overnight - mega-hero-trip <u>Olly</u></a>
<p>Arrived at Top Camp just as everyone left (I can take a hint) so after
sitting in a tent making pancakes in a thunderstorm for the first night I
got bored and went caving. Pushed up inlet in entrance slope 'til it got too
awful for words (really quite awful, believe me.....), then solo surveyed
over top of fisrt pitch to top of Shell. <u>Don't</u> try solo-surveying. If
you do, you won't get cold 'cos you'll spend &frac34; of the time putting
rocks on the end of the tape and walking gently back down the passage
praying that it'll stay on. Also a candle makes a good sighting point (lit
of course) unless you're in a pitch series. Got bored two legs from end so
checked out a daft area and looked at the crawl over the top of Shell. In a
maelstrom of ennui I took a bearing along it and went to derig. Derig up to
Shell (greasing the bolts !) and finished survey. Entrance rift is paradise
with only one baggy. Broke end off tape and dropped ladder spreader and had
to go back down for it. That's about it. Oh - exit coincided perfectly with
dawn as intended.
<p>T/U 8&frac12; hours
<p><a href="#1992-182-23">Previous trip</a>
<hr>
1992.08.01 Various holes: Prospecting, (re)numbering and mobile festering
<u>Olly</u><br>
-&gt; 1992.08.05
<p>Found various caves which were already numbered, renumbered 90/1 =
1623/171. Found &amp; numbered 171b (entrance approx 50m away which connects
non-trivially). Numbered 189 (&quot;Glitterstompf&quot;) with a
&quot;-&quot; because although marked with a &quot;+&quot; on the other
side, I don't believe you can say it doesn't go when its so full of snow.
(Also renumbered 90/13, 90/14 and 90/15 as 183, 184, 185, (183 and 184 on
92.07.17)) Bottomed 4 blind shafts on walk to 182 (Puffball) <u>&amp;</u>
marked with &quot;+&quot;'s. Also found 2 going caves. One is next to 189
&amp; is numbered 190, the other marked &quot;CUCC -&quot; 'cos we've run
out of numbers. This one is where the 2 Puffball route variants merge/split.
A map:
<p>[grade 1 sketch]
<p>This one has a 2 second drop with a rattle for a bit. Worth a look. I'll
draw another map when I find the call-out book (it's sketched on the back).
<p>At long last, here's the picture from the call-out book:
<p>[better grade 1 sketch]<hr>
1992.08.02 Elchfalle attempted survey &amp; derig Clive &amp; <u>Olly</u>
<p>After waiting for Clive to appear so I could go surveying with someone to
hold the other end of the tape, we finally got down 183 late in the evening.
We reached the bottom, I tried the rift downstream &amp; hated it so came
back.
<p>NO-ONE SEEMS TO HAVE TRIED GOING <u>UP</u>STREAM !!!
<p>Probably fruitless, but maybe worth a look.
<p>Surveyed to bottom of fifth ie. end of last survey, when as Clive was
pulling up the pitch I heard water. &quot;Clive, be quiet a mo.&quot; Jangle
- jangle. &quot;Clive ...&quot; Gurgh, gurgh, <u> splosh </u> a torrent
suddenly appears &quot;Oh fuck !&quot; Clive attemts to cut the rope which
had just caught under a rock, as I prussik up the 5th pitch. At the top,
paranoia convinces me the water is increasing, so I tell Clive to get up the
rope. We exit quickly, astounded that the entire cave is rigged out of the
water. Nice one folks ! I only wish Clive would appear before I start
worrying where he's got to, but he's sensibly taking it slowly. Ho hum.
<p>T/U: 4 hours<hr>
<a name="1992-161c-5">1992.08.03</a> France push - survey - derig. Dave H,
Julian S, <u>Olly</u>
<p>Foregoing the chance of the long walk to Repton and beyond, Dave
&quot;I'll carry that tacklesack&quot; Howes, Julian &quot;I'm shit at
caving, y'know&quot; Shilton and myself opt for France - -300m with 30 ft of
walking. We descend, marvelling at the re-belays which have been breeding in
dark corners since last year. Just as I begin to wonder if the universe
outside of an endless piece of rope with bolts every six feet is a figment
of my fudge-fevered brain, we reach Algeria, DaveH: &quot;Would you like to
rig while we survey ?&quot; Of course I would. Try to rig a 50m hang on 9mm
rope from two I.R.T. placed bolts in two ?tectors. The hang bolt - just to
add to my confidence - is in a boulder larger than a house jammed in the
rift. Reach the floor thinking that surveying has its attractions. Rig 2
more poxy rebelays to a smaller chamber where the French spits run out.
There's an obvious aqueous way on or a &quot;Driller-killer&quot; traverse
over the top of the end wall. Both have big drops (2 sec+??). Dave &amp;
Julian come down the 50 &amp; Julian gibbers at the rub. He has a point, but
I'd rather he told me at the top. Dave looks at the next chamber and we
derig. God it was fun. Dave &amp; I emerge to find JulianS has fallen off a
(surface) cliff and badly bruised his back. Ho hum.
<p>T/U: 8 hours
<p>Nomenclature: Favourites are: &quot;Orient Express&quot; for 50m &amp;
&quot;Titfield Thunderbolt&quot; for [this bit off edge of photocopy]
<p><a href="#1992-161c-4">Previous trip</a> /
<a href="../1993/log.htm#1993-161c-1">Next trip</a> (1993 rigging in)
<hr>
4/8/92 Elchfalle derig. Clive
<p>derigged it. Carbide <u>does</u> burn thro' rope quickly: 1 minute !
<p>T/U a couple of hours - God knows: this is a year later !
<p>1st trip was aborted due to rain, so Clive went back. God this pen is
crap. Olly
<hr>
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