Post date: Dec 13, 2010 4:46:46 PM

Cavers: Sophie, Adam, Al

A trip to a) finish the rigging on the third pitch and check the terminal sump and b) take a couple of QUBCC freshers on their first SRT trip (for Sophie her first cave trip). After a few navigational errors we eventually found the parking spot at the start of the forestry track and kitted up. In addition to the extra rope for the third pitch i took half a dozen self-tapping bolts which i thought might work better than spits for the deviations in the grottiness of the third pitch. We also took a hammer and chisel to tidy up some rub points.

After all the snow melt there was more water flowing into the cave and no icicles at the entrance. Climbing down to the false floor before the second Y-hang on the first pitch i set to work to remove the front edge of the boulder where it rubbed the rope – and swiftly desisted as the vibrations travelled through the entire floor. I left the boulder, and floor, intact and sent Sophie and Adam down the pitch, pushing the rope from the rub point with my welly. It’s not too bad a rub, so long as you don’t swing or bounce much; a rope protector or spare tackle bag would be handy here. Neither had any problems so i sent them both down the second pitch into the tight rift. Following them with the rope bag, drill, bolt bag, and a bag with hammer and chisel – plus the rope bag and rope left in place on the traverse line – presented an interesting change-over sequence to reach the head of the third pitch.

After rigging the new rope in the Y-hang i dropped down a little to where Les had attempted to place the first spit for the deviation on the left wall which was needed to pull the Y-hang away from several rub points. After banging around with the hammer i chose a decent sounding spot i could angle the drill into. It was like drilling biscuit, and the drill bit sank to the marking tape in a few seconds before the rock around the hole crumbled away. After some chin-scratching i selected another spot, and although it drilled equally quickly the hole didn’t collapse. After a bit more thought and looking for a better spot (haha) i decided to try a screw in it. The screw held, and i set the deviation and adjusted it, expecting it to pop out when i weighted the rope below it. Amazingly it held and i was able to continue, however the deviation had had to be rigged so short to protect the Y-hang that the rope now touched a bulge in the left wall. Probably with a sledge hammer the whole bulge could have been demolished, but there was nice piece of solid limestone visible through the chert on the right-hand wall, so after clearing it i put another screw in place. This was enough to allow a drop to the bottom, the rift widening slightly as it got deeper.

After a bit of scrambling along the rift i reached the waterfall, which could be heard clearly throughout the cave, and ducked quickly through it to reach the sump. This was fairly manky looking, and appeared to be quite constricted, however i think the gravel floor could be dug and it doesn’t *look* too deep or too long. With ever-present loose rock and unstable chert walls i decided not to bring Sophie and Adam down the third pitch and climbed back up to them. After another change-over to let me climb the second pitch first i guided them both up to the entrance passage, before returning to the third pitch to complete the de-rigging and bring out all the bags. It was a very pleasant and good fun trip – by all accounts!

Al

(Both the deviations on the third pitch have been left in-situ minus karabiners – the rock probably won’t last too long if the screws are removed and refitted.)