161 - Driller Killer
Mike Richardson
In a fit of enthusiasm following a plateau washout returned in the morning from base camp & got underground at 2.30 pm. Very fast (1 hr or so) down to Gnome II with 140m of rope and geraldine. Then spent 50 mins moving same & some SRT gear & other garbage to get the next 10m or so. Wot a bar-steward. Rerigged the knot pass and thence down to where Sean & co. got to. Scrotted about in the rift to get to the pitch only to find that Geraldine didn't want to play, hence "Driller Killer". Andy put in a bolt by hand while I drilled 5mm, then I put in two bolts while Andy did 5mm - so abandoned her. Down 35-40m pitch (actually 27m !! :-) and broke into bedding plane with loadsa passages. Most promising lead led eventually to 3 sec. drop into mega rift. Survey out doing 50 legs - what heroes. and dragged Geraldine, now less the power cable, out. Wot a bar-steward II. Out at 0400 am. Walked back in gathering dawn, really nice, makes the plateau all worthwhile.