161 - Surveying - 161d
Becka Lawson
Becka: 8th day caving on the run for me! (ie. only 1 night at Base Camp = vitamin deprivation!)
NB - pitch a princely 30m - see write up of 18/7
I went with Clive + Pete to look at ladder at top of France first. Down Puerile Humour to survey the pitch PhilU + Andy Cook had rigged last week, called Syphilis, just after the first handline up a mud slope from Greenpeace [Ring Piece? AJD] Junction. Anthony + PhilU surveyed, I went down the pitch - pretty, quite large - (_nice_ Y-hang on it, long enough to have to abseil down one arm!). I put a bolt in to keep warm, for the last bit of the pitch. I'd just finished by the time Anthony + Phil got down. General decision that my bolt wasn't quite as good as a really crappy natural nearby, so I rigged off that instead. I went down another 14m. It finished - there was an eyehole which could be a tightish (or hammered) squeeze into a small chamber another 2m or so down, & what looked like a very tight rift heading off from it. Back up again & derigged it + out. It had pissed down on us as we went in - & then it _seriously_ donnered + blitzened for the change & walk out. Got drenched - mood not helped by seeing Steve & Duncan smugly sheltering in a dry overhang. However everyone got piss wet through running down to the car park, so they only prolonged the time miserably spent trying to avoid getting wet.