Perseid Showers, Fischgesicht
Gwenllian Tawy
Nat had convinced me it was a good idea to go on one pushing trip before the end of Expo seeing as all my other trips had been shit according to him. Then there was a plan to return to Perseid Showers to fix some of the rigging and venture further into its depth. I took a day off on the previous day to conserve my energy for the trip. I almost ended up using that energy on a rescue mission that evening when Dinny and I arrived at camp at 8 pm to find no cavers there. The 9 pm callouts arrived with no sign of anyone. Just as we were preparing to leave we saw lights on the horizon. For future reference please can we add columns to the callout form to say when a party left camp and how long they expect the trip to take! After the stress of the evening before I was worried I would be too tired for a long trip but I was committed now. We set off at a reasonable hour and were underground at 11.15am. Becka sent me in first, assuring me it was essentially a nylon highway all the way down and then I should be able to follow the reflectors. Despite being keen that I was leading, Becka would occasionally find herself in front of me at a pitch head (she later referred to Dinny and I as slugs).I was surprised by the number of pitches, some of which were practically steps but others that were considerable. When we reached the pitch prior to Perseid, Becka told me to drop my bag in the kitchen before looking at the pitch that I would be bolting. After peering over the edge, I wasn't sure I would be able to do it. To calm my nerves I agreed to get water with Becka and Dinny. Becka then went down the pitch to collect some gear. Dinny and I ate some noodles and we cooked some for Becka when we heard her getting close. I was then kitted up with the drill and hammer. Becka gave me instructions on where to put in the deviation. Thankfully we had gone through the theory before arriving but I wasn't confident I would do a good job. My initial task was to put in a 2nd deviation to avoid rub on a nearby flake. This took me some time as I had to balance between the flake and wall whilst drilling, not as easy as it looked. I occasionally could hear muffled noises from above so I knew Becka and Dinny hadn't died of hypothermia yet. After an eternity my deviation was complete. I initially told the others I was going to come back up and leave the Y hang to Becka as my right leg was dead from the weight of the hammer and drill. Once I put the hand jammer the blood returned to my leg and I decided I could continue. I descended to the rebelay below and dressed the rocks for a Y hang. It took me a long time to work out where to place it because the rock wasn't good. I eventually went for it but messed it up by initially dropping the nut. I then tried to screw another nut on but it wouldn't go. I used my spanner and found, to my dismay, that the thru bolt hadn't set properly. I lost confidence and called up to Dinny and Becka to say that I was coming back up, dejected. At the pitch head we had a quick debrief then Becka took the gear to fix my mess (she later agreed it was tricky so I didn't feel so bad). After fixing my Y hang Becka placed an additional Y hang on the descent then called rope free. I was pleased to find my deviation worked. After leaving the new Y hang I was surprised to see how deep the shaft beneath my feet was. I had been so engrossed by bolting that I hadn't really thought about the depth. I eventually met Becka on a ledge. She suggested I bolt a Y hang here to avoid the Y hang Nat had bolted beneath the ledge in water. Before getting started I had to derig Nat's Y hang. This involved lying on my stomach on the ledge and posting my head and torso vertically below the ledge to remove the Y hang. Once this was done I could bolt the new Y hang hight from the ledge itself. This was much easier than the other two and having Becka right next to me gave me some confidence. Becka then went ahead of me to descend to the next ledge where they previously had reached. There she bolted a new rebelay and Y hang and unfortunately there was not enough rope to go further so we only surveyed two new legs on they way back up. As I reached the top of Perseid I shouted to our chef to put on some curry for us. Dinny and I ate our curries together whilst waiting for Becka to finish surveying. When she returned she announced she needed to do an inventory so Dinny and I set off on the slow slog out. I think my Expo fitness had increased by now though as I found myself flying up the pitches with Dinny hot on my heels. When nearing the entrance we started to wonder if Becka was OK as there was still no sign of her. Had she gone out a secret bottom entrance or had she got lost? 15-30 minutes later she emerged complaining that we had somehow evolved from slugs to butterflies. Great trip!