Eislufthöhle - ice everywhere
Ben Millingen
Eislufthöhle
Underground by 11.15 Andy W descended to a small hole in the ice where 1978
rebelay was wholly buried, descended to 1977 "Snow Platform" which wasn't,
and then back up to place a bolt. This was a pretty nasty job but eventually
was done and next rebelay was the obvious next stage - a brief Mars bar gonk
to inform Ben and Tony and off - next rebelay easy and good freehang but
then... Why does Plugged Shaft insist on comprehensively redesigning itself
every year ? Vast amounts of extra snow, and contact made with the opposite
wall of the shaft. Soon the next rebelay was needed but god knows where
Doug's bolt is hidden - ice everywhere ! At about -30m from the last bolt,
large, freehanging crumbling ice-stals adorn the far wall. These will have
to be shifted somehow as they look lethal - similar formations on the near
wall fall at a touch. A started looking for a good place to put another bolt
but all the right places were covered in ice or looked manky rock or both.
Other possibilities would cause rubbing further down so the explorer slowly
ascended looking for more places to rebelay but found nothing but snow and
ice - some of it descending rapidly. Vocal contact with T & B suggested that
they exit while A bolted - then lighting failure, an inability to find a
good bolt placement, a powerful desire for a crap, a severe pain in the sit
harness, low flying ice from Tony's boot and great demoralisation determined
A to follow out - More Mars bars - Much Discussion - No Progress - Tony
heads for col, Andy W for a grike and Ben to have a look at the underground
scenery.
"Underground scenery" - I'll see nicer scenery when they put me
just 6 feet under in a wooden box ! Went down, took ages passing the first
rebelay, got to the second which was a bit taut since Andy W had left his
tockle bog on the bottom of the rope so I came back out, First impressions
pretty bad.
Summary so far: Progress minimal, motivation negligible. A
even Less Coital Penetration