161 - Traverse over Gizza Job pitch
Becka Lawson
To top of Interview Blues series to do a traverse over the first, Gizza Job pitch. I belayed Dave as he rigged a nice natural then put in 2 bolts & did a bold step or two to get to a rock bridge the far side of the pitch. Dave put in another bolt at the rock bridge. Nick, Helen + Brian headed down the first 4 pitches of Interview Blues. Dave then headed off right into a chamber with a deep rift in the floor. I tootled along the traverse tying knots in it & only wittering a little. Dave is a nutter. To far side of chamber to the head of a beautifully spacious chamber, the antithesis of Nick's scrofulous series. Three incredibly tempting boulders perched at the pitch head, but we'd heard Nick below, so we restrained ourselves. I put in a bolt, Dave put in a _very_ airy pitch head bolt & whizzed down... not very far - in fact to the end of the 23m rope. I went back to the Guillotine to fetch an 88m rope. On the way back, found Craig & Mark McLean so I told them to tag along. Mark slobbered all over the pitch 'cos he'd just rigged down Bugger which was chossy an' 'orrible & didn't go anywhere. Mark was very tempted to rig our pitch but decided he had to go, but we had Sam with us by now, so Sam, Dave + I (Becka) went down. Very free-hanging pitch head rebelay, lovely shaft - 'The meeting room'. Tight rift at bottom. Very squeezy if you headed down, but I then climbed up the other direction & ended up in rift above the lower section which was pretty easy going until... pitch, rift belled out obviously. "Can I throw a rock?" "No" sez Sam. "Yes" sez Dave. "_Please_ can I throw a _little_ rock" "Yes" sez Dave, "Oh, alright then" sez Sam. I throw a little rock. It goes down a satisfyingly long way with lots of bounces. Yelp excitedly. Dave + Sam then take turns throwing rocks. I start heading out, Sam starts to bolt to put a traverse line down the rift - & there are voices. "Who's up at the top?" asks Dave. "No one" I say. Then Helen is spotted above Sam & Dave in rift - & as Sam prussiks up he spots someone else through a window in the shaft. We decide not to derig in case someone wants to survey it (tee-hee!) & exit. Fine sociable caving & we even managed to avoid killing anyone with randomly lobbed boulders.
Interview Blues discovery trip (Gizza Job descent) / Two trips set out to derig: First and Second (both failed to do so)