161 - Gob (again)
Nick Proctor
Found a thinner mug to accompany me on my last trip for this Expo. Intention was to push, survey & derig as much of the cave as possible. Whizzed down in under 2 hours. Whopped a bolt in at the top of the next pitch. Down we go. Shit, in the water. Go down further - still in the water. Shit. Get to the bottom (20m and a bit of a climb). Follow the water around a rib & find a narrow pitch head. Chuck a rock down. Wait. Bang, wait, wait, BOOM. Hmm, that'll go then. By this time I'm soaked & very cold, so head back up to Dave. Time to get out & get warm. (This pitch can be rigged out of the water, but a traverse is required. Probably a job for the drill). Back to Final Cut. Dave goes first. Skinny cavers win. Then the tackle sack, with Dave hauling. Of course it gets stuck. 'Let it back down again Dave, & I'll come up and have a go' says I. Dave has by this time taken the tackle sack off the rope, so lets go. Gravity rears its ugly head again & the tackle sack ends up at the bottom of the pitch, some 10m below me. How nice, some extra prussiking to warm me up. Through the slot & its my turn at tackle sack hauling. Some brute force & ignorance later we have success & off we go again, derigging merrily. Slog up to the bottom of Poxy, with 3 tacklesacks and no energy. Carry on out with no tacklesacks and no energy (one made it as far as Snot!) No more caving. Hooray!
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