Expo - Food and prep. and Traungold Stash
Tue 11 Jul 2017
Elaine
Blog Author: CavingPig
Elaine
Drills batteries and computers have been fettled, Cambridge Sainsbury's has been bought out of couscous, milk powder and packet soups (apart from the mushroom flavour, yuk), and the CUCC expedition vanguard is now crossing the Alps. Unlike Hannibal, we are not furnished with elephants, although rumours abound of (inflatable) orcas and flamingos that may also have seen active service on a certain Irish caving expedition this year.
Really, everything but the mushroom.
Somewhere in between the flurry of emails about exactly which type of custard we should or should not buy, the training weekend and briefing session took place alongside the BCA party weekend up in Castleton. We discovered that drilling holes too close together does indeed result in bits of rock shearing off, prusiking when you lose or break a jammer is very hard work, and that the event bar was an excellent source of sustenance while waiting for "the rescuer" to figure out which ropes should go where! Main takeaway: try not to need rescuing... Many thanks to Andrew Atkinson for his survey training, bolting and rescue workshops - and an incredibly welcome strawberry cake!
Teaching teenagers to use power tools
Prusiking with only a chest jammer and no tape: hard work. Even harder work: getting back down again.
A short lull in hauling proceedings
The UKCaving rope will be picked up from Badlad and Pegasus this week, and will be in Austria by the weekend where it will join the stocks we already have out there for a good soaking session in the weir by our base camp. With newly discovered shafts each year close to and even exceeding 200m (Purple Lupin in 2015 was over 180m top to bottom; Long Drop last year could not be fully measured due to a lack of resources but certainly surpassed 300m), this 300m length of rope will certainly be in high demand! Perhaps this year we will be able to keep the free-hanging knot passes to a minimum... Stay tuned to hear how our campaign unfolds as the first wave set up top camp and begin rigging!
The top camp gear stash appears to survived the winter
Soon this mere rock bridge will be transformed into a veritable palace of bivouacking delight (for certain values of "palace" and "delight")
Really, everything but the mushroom.
Somewhere in between the flurry of emails about exactly which type of custard we should or should not buy, the training weekend and briefing session took place alongside the BCA party weekend up in Castleton. We discovered that drilling holes too close together does indeed result in bits of rock shearing off, prusiking when you lose or break a jammer is very hard work, and that the event bar was an excellent source of sustenance while waiting for "the rescuer" to figure out which ropes should go where! Main takeaway: try not to need rescuing... Many thanks to Andrew Atkinson for his survey training, bolting and rescue workshops - and an incredibly welcome strawberry cake!
Teaching teenagers to use power tools
Prusiking with only a chest jammer and no tape: hard work. Even harder work: getting back down again.
A short lull in hauling proceedings
The UKCaving rope will be picked up from Badlad and Pegasus this week, and will be in Austria by the weekend where it will join the stocks we already have out there for a good soaking session in the weir by our base camp. With newly discovered shafts each year close to and even exceeding 200m (Purple Lupin in 2015 was over 180m top to bottom; Long Drop last year could not be fully measured due to a lack of resources but certainly surpassed 300m), this 300m length of rope will certainly be in high demand! Perhaps this year we will be able to keep the free-hanging knot passes to a minimum... Stay tuned to hear how our campaign unfolds as the first wave set up top camp and begin rigging!
The top camp gear stash appears to survived the winter
Soon this mere rock bridge will be transformed into a veritable palace of bivouacking delight (for certain values of "palace" and "delight")