106 - Team Bluewater (minus Nick)
Sat 29 Jul 1978
Andy Waddington
Mega panic because of huge volumes of snow, noted 96 choked with snow and lots of patches of snow between the snakes on the plateau. Navigation eventually got us to 106 where a draught was still evident in 106 and 106A but not in 106B. Simon went down and put bolts in - last year's anchors were well preserved - but had to smash off ice-formations to get into 106A. The Bluewater was fed in and belayed and Andy went down to the top of the snow plug, which had a tiny gap round it.
Tried a new hole which led down c6m to a small chamber with a side aven whose walls were coated with a thick ( 6cm ) layer of hexagonal ice-crystals which were very loose, so the explorer exitted to the top of the snow and started to DIG out the original route past the plug. Hacking away with the hammer soon enlarged the 15cm slot to 1m and got down to 5m deep where it got bigger and loose snow could be kicked down. Here ice formations smashed off for safety and Andy could see down to the 'snow platform' which was just a step in the steep n évé. However, he did not descend to it because of a nasty rub above. Andy exitted and Simon descended to put a bolt in at the snow plug level, which took slightly longer than expected. The pitch is obviously going to be a right bastard to rig on SRT, even more than ladders - probably 3 more bolts needed. Andy.
Previous trip/ Next trip
Andy Waddington
id1978-76-1
Mega panic because of huge volumes of snow, noted 96 choked with snow and lots of patches of snow between the snakes on the plateau. Navigation eventually got us to 106 where a draught was still evident in 106 and 106A but not in 106B. Simon went down and put bolts in - last year's anchors were well preserved - but had to smash off ice-formations to get into 106A. The Bluewater was fed in and belayed and Andy went down to the top of the snow plug, which had a tiny gap round it.
Tried a new hole which led down c6m to a small chamber with a side aven whose walls were coated with a thick ( 6cm ) layer of hexagonal ice-crystals which were very loose, so the explorer exitted to the top of the snow and started to DIG out the original route past the plug. Hacking away with the hammer soon enlarged the 15cm slot to 1m and got down to 5m deep where it got bigger and loose snow could be kicked down. Here ice formations smashed off for safety and Andy could see down to the 'snow platform' which was just a step in the steep n évé. However, he did not descend to it because of a nasty rub above. Andy exitted and Simon descended to put a bolt in at the snow plug level, which took slightly longer than expected. The pitch is obviously going to be a right bastard to rig on SRT, even more than ladders - probably 3 more bolts needed. Andy.
Previous trip/ Next trip