[Xandar]

Note if you want it in a bit better English my second draft is on UKcaving.

[Xandar]

You can take Don with you as he really wants to do that trip.

[Xandar]

So heres my log entry… (Some will effectively duplicate Chris’s)

Monday 10th of April – Renada – Alex, Sharman & JP

With a dodgy weather forecast, we thought we could get this one out of the way first as it sumps in wet weather. We pushed through the dig that stopped most of us last time. John free climbed down the pit that stopped me two years ago. Though we did anchor a rope to a stall to make sure he/we could out again. We then demolished the mud wall on the other-side to allow us to continue. The cave got rather large after this point and we thought we were on a winner but it soon closed down again. However there is one lead still to look at in there that I need to push, its rather tight and is going up steeply. It could hit high level passage. Need to go back.

Found and surveyed about 80m of passage

Tuesday 11th of April – Washing machine – Alex, Sharman & JP

Spent a while digging it out, it must have taken 4 hours but it is now once again open. However, after doing this we lacked the energy to explore the rest of the cave.

Wednesday 12th of April – Risco – Alex, Sharman & JP

Risco, was meant to be a quick tourist through trip, however we got very lost having tried to navigate using a 5km survey squeezed onto one page! We did eventually make it out the top entrance after a dodgy climb up a very steep and loose mud slope! We spent about 5 hrs underground on a 2 hour trip.

Thursday 13th of April – Spot holing – Alex, Sharman

Spot holing. Dropped down a few pots nothing that promising though the ladder did not reach the bottom of one. However one cave drafted quite well, which was found due to Chris dropping my crab down the hole. Chris also dropped himself down the hillside, did a nice series of cartwheels, however thankfully he was unhurt.

Friday 14th of April – Yoyo – Alex, Sharman
See chris’s log book
Found about 100m of passage

Saturday 15th of April – Fresnado 2 – Alex, Sharman, James

Horrible place, but lots of potential. We explored all over the place. Found about 70m of passage in the process, until we eventually got to where we meant to an impossible 3m climb up a waterfall, that needed a scaling pole

Sunday 16th of April – No where- Alex, Sharman, JP

Spent the day helping the dingles with their roof. Moved about a ton of wood and a further ton of tile, before I took to the actual demolition. Chris then did a via-ferrata while me and John went for a swim in the river.

Monday 17th of April – Washing machine – Alex, Sharman

Went bolting to get into a passage I spotted off of the big pitch, last time I was there. It did not go far, it was about 15m long. We did not try the bottom of the cave as I needed another small person for that. I exited to be shocked that John had actually spent longer underground than I did.

Found about 15m of passage

Tuesday 18th of April – Fresnado 2 – Alex, Scaif, James

I wanted Chris to come with me help me explore the bottom of WM, but James persuaded us to go down Fresnado. Good thing too as we found 180m of passage. See Chris’s log entry. Still lots to explore in there if you don’t mind the horribleness of getting there not to mention the 2 to 4 hour (gear changes time) trip time in 1 direction.

Found about 180m of passage

Wednesday 19th of April – Hiking – Alex, Sharman and JP
Hiking about 20 miles south of the area, some great scenery around their probably about 800m of ascent.

Thursday 20th of April – Digging Los Siento pot – Alex, Big Steve, James, Sharman

We went back to the drafting hole and got though. At first entering a chamber I thought we were on a winner but it soon closed down to small proportions. It’s still going but is a proper digging trip.

Found about 10m of passage

Friday 21st of April – 0394 – Alex, Sharman

We tried to find 0394. Failed, as it was hidden deep in brambles. Instead we found a new cave and made that a new entrance to 0394. So success? Was about 2 hours digging, 50m of new passage and a much easier way into 0394 not just because of brambles. Yes a success.

Found about 50m of passage

[Xandar]

Oh yes I remember him saying that but this is Tom, he likely won’t get round to it for several months.

[Xandar]

Did we put the Yoyo survey on the computer?

[Xandar]

Nope you will have to change your privacy settings to everyone I guess? Though I thought I was a friend of yours on Facebook and I still can’t see it.

[Xandar]

yep :)

[Xandar]

Wow sounds like fun. I too was down a mine Sunday but was no where near as exciting.

[Xandar]

We knew from a previous trip report by Rob and Dunc that this was the way on, but had hoped there would be another way. Alex went through first. I reminded him about Rob’s advice to face the left hand wall, but Alex being Alex decided to face the right hand wall instead. The next five minutes consisted of a lot of swearing and kicking from Alex

I thought we agreed facing the right-hand wall was actually easier in the end and it was possibly because you faced the left was why you could not get up. Remember I could get my legs to the ledges at floor level to push off of facing right. On the way back I followed your advice and ended up not being able to get back through until I faced the right-hand wall.

There was no swearing from me on this trip. All the swearing was from you ;) As I recall, you swore at the bag then at that rock hit you in the face after you propped up against the wall, you swore at that tree in the gully and you made a strange beep beep noise (no idea what that was) when that rock landed on your finger hehe.

[Xandar]

I always wondered about trying to free-climb that pitch but thought better of it.

[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.

[Xandar]

The Thrutch really isn’t difficult as long as you climb at a 45 degree angle and then go completely horizontal through the tightest bit.

That was exactly what I did but you need quite a bit of strength to push yourself along with only one narrow hold to push of off once horizonal.

[Xandar]

It looks like Sharman you were not the only person to have trouble. This young team also had issues and they had not even made it to the bottom. Chris you still got it mate!

http://www.yucpc.org.uk/trips/report.php?id=1369

Its funny most trips I have found on-line did not make it to the bottom and a few of them had “Alex Ritchie” as a member lol.

[Xandar]

Well here’s my trip report. Hopefully its English enough.

We met up in Inglesport and I was promptly told without any prior warning that Chris Kelly who was a lift for Mike had to leave early, due to working on the weekend. Why would anyone want to work on a weekend, I thought? I would not do it no matter how much you paid me!

I was a little angered to be honest, at least two of our crew had time limits which would likely make it the 5th occasion of not bottoming the place.

However, we soon worked out that we could split the gear for all 11 pitches into just 3 bags, though this did not leave much room for anything else such as food etc.

We set off and carefully drove our way up a slippery, snow and ice covered track to the parking spot. Don deposited the donation for parking. Once parked, we took a little time to organise the rigging gear, but despite the snow, it felt pretty warm so no one was rushing.

We eventually got going, it was quite a bright and glorious day, in contrast to our recent weather. It was almost a shame to be going underground. I was wearing Neo-fleece as it had built-in knee pads to protect my injured leg. I had fallen over a few days earlier, running in the dark and had lost some skin from my shin. So this meant on the walk over I was overheating quite badly.

We arrived and Don began the rigging whilst being pelted by snow balls, very mature behaviour by some! At the bottom the passage was all too familiar to me. A large boulder slope led to a slot which then drops into a crawly wet passage that then developed into a rift.

Soon after the second pitch was reached (freshly p-bolted, like all the pitches) and we dropped down the narrow gap before yet more narrow, although decorated passage led to a climb down and then the third pitch. The pitch was, yep you guessed it more narrow passage. On the traverse to it my shin throbbed every so often, so this meant I was moving a bit slower and placing my leg awkwardly to try and avoid whacking it too hard. I don’t know how but in trying to avoid the injured part I slipped and almost fell onto my cow’s tails, this shook me up a little and may explain why I was not liking the traverse over the 4th pitch.

The 4th pitch dropped us into the roof of the original terminal chamber of the cave, a place where an accident formed CRO many years ago.

The way on was at the bottom of the chamber between the precariously stacked rocks. After a brief crawl the passage improved and we were soon gallivanting our way along a very well decorated “Fools paradise”. The 5th drop followed and soon after a bit more rift the 6th drop. At this point our time limited companions Chris K and Mike departed, while the rest of the intrepid group entered the part of the passage where the cave begins to show its teeth or at least it’s sharp stals!

A rifty passage (yes again) led over a drop before a narrow traverse passed over the ‘ammered hole leading to the big pitch and sump. We chose not this route, it was too easy, so instead we headed straight on. We squeezed past some stal, and dropped down several short and narrow drops before reaching the “Thurtch”. This was as far as I had been before. Last time I was not brave enough as no one dared follow me and it looked rather difficult to say the least, the crux of the cave. Nevertheless I took up the lead here and slithered down before crawling underneath to recover my dropped SRT gear, oops. It was easy enough to get through but would it be so easy on the return?

After this it was rather wet going in what was initially clear water. We then crossed a layer of calcite just in the water which hung their like an ancient ice flow, thin ice at that. Avoiding it was impossible but we lied flat out to avoid damaging it and drowning us. After some more water we entered some nice walking passage and the first of the big rift pitches.

Yes, this rift was big, however after the next pitch on-wards things got quite a bit smaller and the following pitch after that the cave really shrunk down. This 9th pitch required quite a bit of a struggle to get down. Below that the rift narrowed even further so Don and Chris sensibly took their kits off, SRT kits that is. It was difficult going for me still geared but I kept it on knowing there was another pitch ahead. I was right, there was. We however rigged it as a hand-line and Don and Chris slithered down. I However, being kitted up attempted to abseil it. This failed I got about half way down before giving up. So I manoeuvred myself onto a ledge and detached. I slithered down the rest of the way. The last “pitch” was a muddy affair, where no one actually touched the sump pool as we had not packed a rope for this and no one fancied the idea of drowning in the sump pool. Happy we were as near to the bottom as we were going to get without drowning we headed back out.

We made it back up with some effort but nothing too taxing and we were soon washing off in the canal leading the “Thrutch”.

I went first. The lower section was easy but I quickly ran out of ledges, both for my feet and my arms. The only way was to “Thrutch” forwards. Each time I moved I felt ready to slip down, but after a bit of a struggle I made it through, with pure force of will if nothing else.

The next twenty minutes was Shaman’s turn, he could get into the “Thrutch” but he kept slipping back down. A combined effort was called for. Don acted as a mobile platform below while I acted as a flesh and blood belay above. With the effort of all three of us, Shaman made it through.
Don after a brief rest followed and made it look easy, I guess going to the gym really does pay off. If only it was not so boring!

After this fun we had all spent quite a bit of energy and due to lack of space only had one chocolate bar each. We then had a more combined effort to ferry all the tackle namely: 1 full rope bag, 1 bag of 2 SRT kits and 1 loose SRT kit through all the narrowness of the rift. I then had to don my harness for the last section above ‘ammered hole, to prevent loosing anything down the rift.

It was all rather slow going due to our tired arms sore bodies from all the rifts, bags, prussicing, and de-rigging.

Eventually we struggled out of the entrance where Don and not me for a change got annoyed with the rope as it snagged his neck and shoulders. I think the cave had taken a bit out of all of us. Nevertheless victory was ours, we had for all intents and purposes bottomed Gingling hole and the -3c air temp did not dampen our spirits, in-fact Don and Chris almost ran back to the cars, but that was probably due to them not wearing neoprene like me.

Full time bottomer’s: Alex, Chris Sharman, Don Miller
Part time fools: Chris Kelly, Mike Skyrmy

[Xandar]

I can’t do until I get home, I will also have to convert it into semi-english. Pete what were you doing wearing SRT kit in the thrutch? Are you mad?

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