204 - Underworld
Richard Mundy
Given previous Rhino Rift and surface prospecting exploits, I allowed
myself to be tempted into a deeper expedition by Nial, despite wise seer
Dave's protestations that I wouldn't find much onward in the
Underworld.
We firstly took a promising lead from Terra Firma. I was 'on notes'
for the first time and had no clue what was going on. It disapointingly
linked quickly to Quiz Rift.
We then moved on to peering down a pitch from Quiz Rift. This
continued over a ledge to a rocky downward, becoming a muddy upward, as
is the way with the Underworld. A sharp rocky crawl led up and back to
the pitch and a downward squeeze, deemed too tight without capping,
seemed to lead downward onto a pitch.
Miserable squirmings led to the bottom of a pitch which Nial climbed
up, making me promise to catch him if he fell. Bastard. He then spied
two hard-to-reach 'C' leads up there and a further pitch close by. Two
tiny holes linked the bottom of our pitch with this further pitch. I
tried digging the lower of these and failed. Thus Nial told Kathryn to
squeeze feet first through the tiny upper one, into a 2m drop. Bastard.
Sure enough, this led nowhere. We labelled this 'Dangerous Dig and the
Gut-Busters'. A rubbish bit of nasty cave.
Sure enough Nial made it worse by then forcing me up an earlier lead.
This had a squeeze which involved removing SRT kit and hammering off
protruberances. The passage grew rifty before becoming too tight.
We surveyed a reasonable bit, but I resolve to charge Nial a 'shit
cave tax' for his transgressions. The upward pitches went on for ever,
Gaffered itself being especially epic with horrid rebelay. Lower
pitches mud on rope requires manual manipulation of jamming cams. We
finally got out for noodles and hot chocolate (mixed with vile spirit
Unicum - not as tasty as ejaculate) after an exhasting 13hr trip.