Puffball
Gill Lindsey
Intention to get to bottom and survey out, checking leads on the way and hopefully finding they don't go. Wooks + Gill much impressed with the new Piezo route and wet route rigging, but those enormous hanging rebelays knackered Gill out. (How about a smaller loop next time?). Much spagetti junction.
Anyway Gill wimped out at Traditional Style and solo-ed out. Julian + Wooks checked out muddy crawl above the sump, which goes to another sump. Then they de-rigged last 2 pitches and brought out x'00's m rope. There is a lead off Delicate Sound of Thunder, passage on left leads to "Honeycomb" (lots of phreatic maze) water coming down a small hole; mud pools; passage to a pitch above a pool. God I hope it doesn't go.
_Geology_ : Many pitches obviously on a fault line between the grey shelly limestone (huge bivalves 6" across) and a sandy coloured rock. The grey one is the one that doesn't bolt easily. Often see offset of beds, eg. a ~horizontal dark shale bed. Some pitches along a wide fault zone, at least 2 faults 4 foot apart. Whole cave is developed along same plane - see Olly's survey rotating.
T/U 8 hours (Gill) 11 hrs (Julian & Wookey)
Took 5 hrs to get baggy bastards out and we went incredibly slowly by the end. Wooks threw up 3 times on return due to de-hydration. It was shit.