76 - the obvious Höhle
Doug Florence
Two descents made today. On the first, Andy finished off putting in the
bolt of the thunderstorm-interrupted trip of yesterday, whilst I sat on the
ice at the bottom of the first pitch in darkness having dropped my helmet at
Andy earlier. We returned to the surface to thaw out and I ate a tin of
sardines. Then after a brief policy discussion we redescended.
Andy zipped
down to Yesterday's Terminus whilst I went down after him, adding another
ladder to the one on the snow plug and then stopping halfway down Plugged
Shaft to put a bolt in while Andy rumbled snow and ice down from Yesterday's
Terminus. After about 3/4 of the hole, my stinky went out, so I descended in
darkness to Yesterday's Terminus. At this point Andy's light went out as
well, so we tried to relight, Andy pouring his waste carbide down his wellie
and myself pouring it into my Hard Man's Handbag. We then decided it must be
fairly late and exitted. Plugged Shaft has some very beautiful but
potentially extremely dangerous. (Sorry, my brain stopped) Ice formations.
Doug. My God, is that ice dangerous enough or what ? Andy.