107 - 100m rope
Mon 14 Aug 1978
Ben Millingen
At last, decent weather allowed a reasonably early start taking Vic, Rod and Dave for them to add some depth down the shaft with the boulder floor. John and Ben meanwhile rerigged the rift pitch with the 100m rope. Pretty awkward abseil, even worse ladder climb back up. Got to Mike's "desperate loose ledge", pushed a bolt in the wall and laddered the rest of the shaft. Fed the rest of the 100m rope down and John started off down. At -70' he found an enormous mess in the rope and after trying for a long while to undo it, came back up pulling the rope behind him. We undid the knots on the ledge after half an hour, and then both descended 110' pitch. Not bad shaft with big boulder at bottom. Stream continues under rift. Descended 20' in scramble and bolted another 20' pitch. Continued along above stream to pitch c 30-50'. Depth so far this way 570'. Ben. Time 7 hrs.
Ben Millingen
id1978-107-8 14th August
At last, decent weather allowed a reasonably early start taking Vic, Rod and Dave for them to add some depth down the shaft with the boulder floor. John and Ben meanwhile rerigged the rift pitch with the 100m rope. Pretty awkward abseil, even worse ladder climb back up. Got to Mike's "desperate loose ledge", pushed a bolt in the wall and laddered the rest of the shaft. Fed the rest of the 100m rope down and John started off down. At -70' he found an enormous mess in the rope and after trying for a long while to undo it, came back up pulling the rope behind him. We undid the knots on the ledge after half an hour, and then both descended 110' pitch. Not bad shaft with big boulder at bottom. Stream continues under rift. Descended 20' in scramble and bolted another 20' pitch. Continued along above stream to pitch c 30-50'. Depth so far this way 570'. Ben. Time 7 hrs.