76 Hall of the Greene King
Jenny Black
Got underground late (3.40pm!) due to moving the tent back out of the bivi cave cos it is wetter there, and much effort at lighting Olly's now broken stove. Down to Spent Ledge where Olly rigged down to last year's end. Rigged the next little pitch on a wide Y-hand to a 1970's spit (in hindsight a new bolt further along will be significantly better). The water drops down lower in the rift, but the way on is up a metre to a traverse along ledges to a wedged in boulder which rocks back and forth if you stand on it ... Dropped down a few metres on a 1970's spit to a ledge. Olly put in a back up bolt and moved over the pitch. Used the 1970's hang bolt as a deviation to get to a ledge a few metres down (this isn't in the best place). Had a nice Y-hang here, and Olly abseiled down for ages.
Pitch wasn't as free hanging as we expected - it got a deviation on a natural, and needs rigging better as currently you need to fend off with your feet near the bottom. Then a rebelay for a few metres down to the Balcony. The Greene King pennant was still there, though a bit damaged with age. Olly put in a bolt and we abbed to the floor. Initially we were a bit overwhelmed by all the big boulders - some in the floor, some wedged above as rock bridges.
The way on is up the boulder pile, under a few rock bridges and back down the other side (Over-hanging Boulder Pitch) which now has 2 bolts, and the rigging starts higher. Followed the passage down over and under boulders and heard water levels rise significantly (apparently a hailstorm on the surface). Decided it was probably an evening storm and so water levels would hopefuly drop after a while. Figured the pitches might well be quite wet, so decided to survey lots at this level so the water could decrease, and pospone surveying the pitch.
Continued down the passage to a four way junction. Left appears to be the 1979 route to the stream cuts down and disappears, but you can traverse on ledges above to reach a 17m pitch (which looks nice but we didn't descend). Straight on must be the 1978 route and is initially dry muddy passage to a junction at a pitch (which again we didn't drop). Right is an inlet from above. Surveyed all this, which took a while, back up to the hang bolt from the Balcony.
Water levels stil high-ish, but nowhere near as bad as I expected, and the worst bit was the Tap Room. Olly [?having?] carried the drill up the bottom half and me the top half of the cave. Wished we had more water bottles with us - had left one in Strangeways and one in Boulder Chamber, could have done with water lower down. Just made it out with 30 mins to spare before our 8am callout!