Balcony - Ferrying for the Balcony derig
Adam
Only Fiona is listed in the "Other names" field as the others involved in this derig had very different experiences to us, with different hours underground. They were Chris, Becka, Rob, James, Colin, Nat and Sarah.
James, Chris, Fiona and I were planning to leave at 1pm, though about ten minutes beforehand I spotted rain clouds moving in. I gathered the clothes that had been drying outside of topcamp and alerted the others to do the same, awaking them from their pre-cave slumber. After we got everything in, the rain came down. It wasn't nearly as bad as the day before, which had seen the plateau disappear entirely as the rain bouncing off the stone shrouded the world from view. We decided not to leave until after the rain had passed and realized that for a second time running the Welsh Engineering derig team must have been flood pulsed. We left after the rain abated at around 2pm, delayed somewhat by Chris having another pack of noodles. We arrived at Balcony about half an hour later. The climb down at the end was a tad terrifying at first, but after lowering oneself down it's very straightforward, no issue. It certainly looks far worse than it is. We got into the cave after a further half hour of getting ready, at which point I realized I'd left my cowstails at Homecoming and my baselayer at Stonebridge. For the former, I used a sling and my hand jammer.
We arrived at the first entrance series pitches, which were fine in their situation and length but the rope was unpleasantly muddy. Not covered in layers of thick mud, but almost covered with a thin film that made grip next to impossible. The final pitch in this section was next to a small splattering waterfall beyond a ledge. A short walk down led us to some instant noodles in a bag, perhaps filled with other gear but we didn't check.
The walk down from here was a bit of a blur. Near the pitch there was a climb around a boulder and then later on there was a smooth path downhill, so smooth in fact that it had a handline! We ignored this and just slid down on our butts! Very fun, unless you hit your tailbone, like I did. We got to a wide stooping passage that led to the washing station. There were three notable parts to this chamber. The first on which was the actual washing station. A small contained section of the chamber with two levels, water trickling heavily from the top into both. Beyond this section was a massive drop down. To the right of this was our path onwards. It was very muddy, with my wellies threatening to get stuck once or twice. Due to the mud there was a traverse line in place.
From here, there were some pieces of navigation James told us we needed to remember. We arrived at a four way junction where we were to turn immediately left. This got us to another junction where the way on was, again, left. I remembered this on my journeys back, but in my rush with bags I sometimes just soldiered on and didn't even clock that I was in the junction, so I missed them! At some points we quickly ducked down into low, tight crawls on soft ground, at others we were stooping over many small, sharp, white stones that had broken from the walls. There was a climb up large rocks of the same form which James warned us wasn't the most stable, so we kept to where the mud had accumulated from the boots of other cavers. At a few points there were minuscule bat skeletons, marked off by tape. There was also a single pitch leading a short way down.
We came to the chamber preceding the pitch where we'd be collecting bags: Honeycomb. So named for the fact that by the pitch head there were yellow crystalline forms. We looked at the pitch and then went back to the main chamber, picking up some dry bags that had been left there for us. James and Chris went down the pitches to assist the derig, whereas Fiona and I picked up the dry bags and carried them back to the washing station. It was a difficult carry due to the lack of straps, but we made do. For the most part I carried mine in my hand over my shoulder, though later I just used my sling. My pantin was clogged with mud so I soon found that using the pantin was a useless affair and I went froggy method.
On our way back from the washing station, down the pitch to the waiting chamber, we encountered Becka. She was leaving early as she was feeling nauseous. We let her pass and continued. In the chamber we found a single tackle sack. Fiona and I sat down and waited for an additional bag, with me telling her the plot of All Tomorrows. We reached the end but still no extra bag, so Fiona picked up the tackle sack and left. Soon after, Sarah came through the tight fit from Honeycomb and handed me a green tackle sack. Large and very heavy, I picked it up and carried it back.
During the ferrying, I was playing one thing in my mind and it wasn’t by choice, it was just automatic for some reason. I had to have something playing and this was, it seemed, it. It was in the US Office when Toby was explaining how he viewed fictional salesman Lloyd Gross. I don’t know why that was playing, I’ve never seen the Office. At some point in the ferrying there and back, we encountered people before we got to the waiting chamber. I recall just after I descended the pitch, I met Sarah and Nat who asked if I would like a big bag. I said yes and they gave me a massive red one! Very bulky, though not too heavy. On the way back it got stuck in some crawls.
When Sarah and Nat left the cave, we met back up with James and Chris, who had begun soaking the ropes in the water, a green rope already nearly clean just by that! We expected to only get two more bags from the waiting area, to be left by Rob and Colin. After climbing the muddy white rocks, I heard voices and saw lights. The pair appeared and were surprised to see me, expecting everyone else in the cave to have buggered off. I took one of their bags and told them Fiona was coming up behind me, so she took another. We carried them back to the washing station and emptied them out. Rob and Colin soon left the four of us to wash the ropes. James stood in the water, with Chris pulling the ropes through the brush. I passed the rope around the corner to Fiona, who flaked the rope out and daisy chained them. I made the mistake of wearing my gloves, so my hands got particularly cold. The others had done the reasonable thing and taken theirs off. By the end of it, they put on their nice dry gloves whilst I just flexed my fingers to keep them warm. Getting increasingly cold, I packed my bag and stuff my coat into the top, not caring that it was getting muddy. It was, indeed, my last cave of the expedition. After making sure all that needed to be done had been done, I started moving back to the entrance pitches. My hurry was in part due to the cold and that I wanted to be not-cold, but was also in part that I really needed to go to the toilet.
After I came to the bottom of the entrance pitches and to the ledge overlooking with the waterfall, I managed to take care of both of these issues. I gave Fiona my personal tackle sack and I took one of the heavy ones that had been lying waiting for us at the bottom of the pitches. After some waiting, I started to ascend the pitches. The muddy slick rope was one problem, the other being that my chest jammer never seemed to want to lock. I’d prussik up and on attempting to sit back down, it would just slide as if I was pressing on the top. Something that was also weighing on me was the prospect of getting back to basecamp late and not being able to have any sort of downtime. This, combined with the muddy rope and my dodgy jammer, made me quite ratty and frustrated. I’m glad I didn’t take this out on my fellow cavers, though I did take it out verbally on the cave and physically on my jammer, which I’m sure I hit quite a few times out of pure frustration. It didn’t help anything, who knew? After I got to the top of the pitches, I said that if there was a way to punch a cave without hurting me hand, I would. The others were surprised, thinking the cave was nice in comparison to others. Indeed, if my jammer wasn’t playing up and my other issues were not present I would have probably thought the same.
The excess of mud made things difficult to pack away nicely and I just got used to the idea of my bag getting muddy, though I made the decision to just walk back in my undersuit as I really couldn’t be bothered to get undressed further. We had all got out of the cave at about quarter to midnight, leaving half an hour later. As I was changing my wellies to my boots, I saw two bats fly into the cave.
An interesting caving journey to end expo on.