161 - Survey (!!) Team 1
Jenny Moss
Friday evening was amazingly fine ie. we could actually see the Burger hut before we almost crashed into it. Because we had decided to survey down, we were to wait until the others had all gone down. This meant we had to wait while the elements got worse + worse getting colder and colder. Nevermind we thought, Sepp Steinberger had said the next day would be lovely so it would be worth it. On arrival at the pitch head both Jeremy's + Mark's lights failed to work so I descended first. By the time Jeremy reached the bottom [illegible] & his hands was completely numb and we were all fairly cold. We managed the grand total of about 6 survey legs. I then went down the 2nd pitch while the other two tried to survey the top. Unfortunately we found out the 2nd law of spirit pens, the first being they don't work when rain is on the pad, the second being that when the tip is pressed with force exerted from the arm of a muddy caver they retreat in fright making the recording of survey data impossible. I fumbled up the 2nd pitch and we went to find Becka in case they had a spare pen. As they hadn't we decided to wimp out and Jenny started to prusick out while Mark explored down the cave a bit. I have omitted to say my light decided to light the cave a bit better, not content to burn carbide it started on its own pipe and lifeline - v. silly. By the time we reached the tent (camp 2) via fog + rain we were extremely cold and things did not improve during the night, until about 6.00 when Chris woke us up and we were evicted to walk and stumble home.
Time Un.gd. 4½ hrs
Jenny
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