Plateau - Prospecting north of Tunnocks
Sarah
After scrounging together prospecting gear from Stone Bridge, Nat and I set off north of the Tunnock's col searching for new entrances. Some bunde bashing to a first rocky valley yielded some nice looking holes, but all pinched out after less than 5m. Wandering further along, we found p2013-cucc-pit. Finding no info on this entrance on the website, we assumed it hadn't been dropped yet. Nat rigged a rope on with a sling and 2 hexes, and I abseiled down (approx 8m), past a choked boulder, to the bottom. Unfortunately, it choked with rocks and ice at the bottom. Further along, Nat spotted another hole (2024-ND-01) - I poked my head in, to be hit in the face with a strong draught. Dropping rocks down gave 4-5 seconds of rattle. Nat began gardening the rocks and boulders suspended above the entrance. I came to help, but ended up dropping a boulder into the entrance, blocking it. We then spent the next 2 hours trying to unblock it, with the hammer, and some slings and my pulley. But to no avail. We eventually admitted defeat and decided someone would need to return with a crow bar and lump hammer. We began heading back to Stone Bridge, via the Tunnock's col, feeling hot and grumpy. Part of the plateau disintegrated on me and I twisted my ankle. We slowly continued, and found another good hole (big hole in side of cliff, with horizontal bedding planes - 2024-ND-02), but it was too late in the day and we were too dehydrated to drop. 10m further north, we found another hole (2024-ND-03) and made a note. Made it back to SB, dehydrated, took some vitamin I, and headed down the hill.