Post date: Jan 29, 2012 10:03:35 PM
Cavers: Muh, Penguin
Trip time: about 2 hours
Fickle weather changed for the worse during the week, and we decided fairly early on Sunday to can our planned MAC climbing trip. Deciding where to go for a plan B took a lot of discussion, a fried breakfast for Muh, and a bit more discussion before we finally settled on the hole in the cliff above Pollasumera, as good a wet day project as any. Shauna, wisely, decided to sit it out. I realised i'd forgotten my footloop.
After a bit of a wander around sizing up the various routes down into the hole, i deferred the rigging to Muh and let him slide off the edge attached to a couple of fence posts. Two concrete screws made a second wide Y-hang of sorts, the upper bolt in reasonable rock just below the top, the second in a chossy buttress a little lower, with a nice sharp edge between them for the rope to gently brush. The third Y-hang was even more adventurous, formed from another concrete screw and a mid-sized tree that seemed to be holding up most of the cliff.
Muh disappeared and i gingerly worked my way around the third Y-hang, trying not to stand on several loose shelves. I gardened a few large rocks into the torrent going into Pollasumera below. Without a footloop, the maneuver was complicated by the tight rigging, and involved a few cowstail switches, my Croll and several pull-ups before i managed to get on the lower rope without bringing a ton of rock and a tree with me. Descending once more i found Muh standing at the back of not much more than a large muddy alcove.
All the screws were removed.
Penguin