pushing trip down Puffball.
Julian Haines
Perfect weather, bright blue sky, no chance of flooding. Original plan was to push the end of Puffball as far as possible, and do as much surveying as possible, ie. a long trip. However, shortly after entering the cave, we discovered that we had about ½ a carbide stinker between us (mine was completely knackered and Mark's needed flicking). We decided not to go to the bottom (as lighting my light from Mark's would be very tedious and there was the possibility of complete failure of both), so we pushed the lead through the rift above 'Q8' pitch. After a short rift section, this opened into wide shafts, all clean washed. These we rigged as far as possible on naturals (since the bolting kits were at the bottom of the cave!), but after around 30m (?) the naturals ran out. We surveyed back to 'Q8' pitch and then came out. This lead looks very promising. It is longer than any other route before the 'Dark Room' and may well provide an alternative into the lower levels of the cave.