Tatham Wife Hole: 21/01/2017

[Dazofcaving]

Tatham Wife Hole: 21/01/2017

Attending: Darren (Me), Don, Alex, Chris S, Chris Sc, Tom B (MUSC)

After some of us had previous exciting trips down Tatham including Don’s collapsing boulder chock and several failed trips for me it was time to go again.

I met up with the others at the cave around 11.00, we quickly got kitted up and headed underground, we found the first pitch already rigged going well so far… the second pitch was when things got more interesting.

Me and the two Chris’s were at the pitch head while the rest of waited above, the large bang and lots of yelling above us caused us to quickly scramble back up to find Tom and Alex holding onto a large boulder which had just shifted, after a collected breath and making sure everyone was out the way they moved. Luckily there was no further movement (care required in the area).

Only down the top of the third it was time to get of the beaten track and head down the alternative route, here the first problem was shaky P-bolts at the top (care again…), Alex took over the rigging and rigged into the alternative passage which is a swing around to the left following the rift. The route starts as a roof level crawl, leading into a tight slide down. This was annoying for me and took a while to find the right angle to squeeze down, the next part is a short flat out crawl to a thrutchy climb back up leading to alternative pitch, this 30M is excellent and well worth the effort to get there.

The pitch drops in just after the duck, it was here we split up and some went to the bottom while others went up the inlet to look at the previously collapsed bolder choke (Its still collapsed and loose apparently), we also got to the very bottom.

So it was now time to make our way out, I wanted to look at the Ramp pitch having never had the chance before so I went that way while the others heading back up the alternative route. The ramp is an easy free climb from the bottom leading the bottom of the 3rd, I could see the rope above leading to the alternative pitch route. Looking from the bottom it looked free climbable so I thought I would give it a go and managed to get back up to the top and scaring Alex on his return

Once we were all united we had an easy exit with me de-rigging.

The day was finished in the Wheatsheaf with Carol and beer

So the curse of Tatham Wife seems to be broken and it was an excellent 6 hour trip

Daz_of_Tathamwife

[Don]

I still don’t understand how it took us 5+ hours to get to the bottom of Tatham Wife and back out. It didn’t seem like we were in there that long.

[Dazofcaving]

I was surprised it was dark on the return to the surface, thought it was about 3, it was actually about 5.

I guess the long walk throws of any sense of time….

Daz

[Xandar]

I was the opposite, I thought we were moving slowly and with 2 visits to North branch I assumed we would be out late. I was suprised there was still some light.

[Author]

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