Wolfhöhle - Surveying
Brian Derby
We should have guessed that something was amiss because there was no thunderstorm at the entrance. We shot down to last year's surveyed limit (the top of the "40m" pitch) relieving the tedium with a smattering of photography. Going down the 200m Edelrid we found that Planc had rerigged some of the rebelays to reduce the acrobatic nature of the passing movements. Surveying proceeded at a reasonable pace and camera gear was dumped before Beezley St. to prevent it getting muddy. Here Wiggy's light started to play up. By the time we had got to the 30m series of pitches at the end of the drainage ditch, the light was kaput (as the locals say). Though we were almost at the end we had to return leaving the last bit unsurveyed. The return was also complicated by Brian's gobbler using up its fuel at the foot of the big pitch and Wiggy's technolight giving out halfway up it. Exit was made from about -400m by technolight held in teeth and from about -150m by one Petzl headlight between two.
In 12.30 Sat 4 Aug }
Out 6.00 Sun 5 Aug } 17½ hours
P.S. God it was hell out there. Not to mention slipping cams and worse.
[ "Woolfhohle - unsurveyed bit - grade I" ]