expoweb/years/2024/log_entries/2024-07-19c.json

{
 "date": "2024-07-19",
 "title": "Balkonhoehle - Rigging Mongol Rally",
 "place": "Balkonhoehle",
 "other_people": "",
 "text": "<p>Walked up to top camp in the evening ready for trip down\nBalkonhoehle to get Mongol Raly rigged with Jono. I was somewhat\nperplexed to find no sign of Jono, and still not as it went dark. He\neventually turned up about 10am the next morning. We had our gear to\n  carry over so it wasn't a particularly early start.</p>\n<p>\n<p>I had forgotten a load of the upper passages, but did at least\nremember the obscure left turn for Honeycomb/Mongol Rally. Soon enough\nwe arrived at the end of the rigging part-way down hangmans, complete\nwith a rigging diag, some rope and a drill. Jono did this one,\ncomplaining at the bottom that the bolts didn't match the diagram,\nrigging a 2-bolt rebelay as a rather peculiar deviation. We realised\nthat we were starting part-way down the rigging diagram, not the top,\nso he went back up to put it right whilst I continued to start Mongol\nRally. Dragging the gear through was the usual faff (someone should\njust take a spade and make that crawl bigger).</p>\n<p>\n<p>So now it was my turn and I suited up with Anthony's nice new drill\nand 125m of rope. The 25m didn't quite reach across the traverse with\na big thread round a boulder, so I put a bolt in the roof to improve\nthe rigging (another one just over the hole in the floor would make\nthe traverse line a lot more useful, I later realised). The rock was\nimpressively cheesy, with about 20mm of goo to remove before getting\nto actual rock.</p>\n<p>\n<p>The rigging diagram suggested another bolt near the top so I added\none about 6m down on a nose to the right, only to realise that one had\nprobably already been done some previous year. I also realised at this\npoint that the tape on Anthony's drill bit was set rather too short\nfor reliable bolt-setting so adjusted it to give an extra 10mm of\nhole. I then added another bolt on the left, replacing one in the\nmaximum rub-spot just under a lip (very odd placement). This finally\nremoved all the rubs on this top slope and actually made the\nchangeovers nicer, so I think it's an improvement. </p>\n<p>\n<p>Next dilemma was whether to use the bolt on a nose (with hanger\nleft behind) or the reflectored bolt on the well-used muddy route. The\nnose was harder to get to but gave a nicer hang (and was suggested on\nthe rigging diagram). With a sling to help the changeover it actually\nworked quite well, although maybe the obvious route would also work\nfine - there is no way of knowing without trying both and I had faffed\nenough by now. Continued down for another hour or so rigging\nrebelays. The rigging guide is accurate. Hummed and hawed some more at\nthe odder bits of rigging trying to work out what 'better' might look\nlike. Left one bit (with a nearly horizontal deviation) some extra\nrope to come back to and add a bolt if time allowed but pressed on\nuntil the rope ran out, just on the same ledge that had had a knot\npass in 2022. Looks like that is where 100m gets you to.</p>\n<p>\n<p>We were out of time so called it a day and headed off out, only\nrealising on the way out that the rope bag we had left contained a\nnote 'top of mongol rally' in it so we had used the wrong one (misled\nby the '25m' rope in the top matching the '25m' rope marked on the\ntopo for the traverse. Oh well.</p>\n<p>\n<p>Got out around 11:30, having had a very satisfying trip, Jono had\nfinally got underground and enjoyed himself. It was a chill trip with\nalmost zero stress, and we'd done enough to make a camping trip\nfeasible next time.</p>",
 "slug": "2024-07-19c",
 "time_underground": 10.5,
 "author": {
  "slug": "wookey",
  "nickname": "Wookey",
  "tu": 10.5
 },
 "trippersons": [
  {
   "slug": "wookey",
   "nickname": "Wookey",
   "tu": 10.5
  },
  {
   "slug": "jono-lester",
   "nickname": "Jono",
   "tu": 10.5
  }
 ],
 "expedition": {
  "year": "2024",
  "name": "CUCC expo 2024"
 },
 "cave": {
  "areacode": "1623",
  "kataster_number": "264",
  "unofficial_number": "2005-05"
 }
}