161 - Arrow Chamber
Wookey
All trailed to end, very efficient - taking only an hour to get to the end of Yapate where we took some photos - Andy being impressed by alertness & capability of his team. (Wook checked out Gill/Rachels bit in LH Route on way down - then popped into Arrow Chamber to see Del/DaveH's QM from a couple of years ago - looks extremely promising and draughting with only a 7m pitch to negotiate.) Took a few more photos in Pipeless & then continued climb in SSR. Aggy volunteered (foolishly) to man the drill & put in another bolt before clipped everything to everything & going for it - he got to a precarious position before running out of cows tail tinsel. He had to hang there for a couple of mins while Andy went along the traverse trying not to pull on the rope & thus Aggy off. Thus released he made the final move & floundered onto the shelf gibbering. Throughout this process 'useful' advice had been given by the 3 onlookers, so the climb is called '3 wise men'. Aggy had had enough after putting in the top bolt so Wook went to have a look & Tony & Andy went to get some gear from Mostly Mud & rig tension traverse at start of SSR properly.
Rather than gaining miles of horizontal passage, Aggy had gained a 1m wide shelf between 2 pitches. Wook abbed down & discovered they connected so put in a bolt for mega swing to gain window across this pitch. This was just poss & this led to a chamber with accessible passage out of it, leading to another big (30m) pitch and a draughting passage. Andy & Wook started SSR survey up her silly rigging whilst Aggy & Tony went to rig pitch in Mostly Mud - fused drill due to shagged cable & trailed out.
Andy & Wook got cold & bored after a bit & went exploring - found heaps of cave, including beautiful big phreas with Jet black floor - pity to put footprints in it. Another pitch at end & then narrower passage to more QM's - ridiculous cave. Too tired [?] to survey on return so buggered off out.
See over for diag. T/U 15 hrs (Wook & Andy)
14 hrs (Aggy & Jerry)
FAR TOO FAR 10 QM's !!!
[grade 1 diag]