Homecoming - Back to Brandywine
Adam
I woke up in Garlic to many new faces, these being Chi, Lara, Liam and Harry. Their trip was going to be derigging Watershed, but they would be going down the Welsh Engineering route and then ascending into the Watershed through Rivendell. I was spending much of the morning trying to figure out the logistics of Fiona and I's trip to push and survey our lead, so we needed more rope and a disto/SAP. After seeing that all the rope that was at Garlic was there because it was not to be used, I was a bit despondent. Chi told us however of some rope that had been left in the Junction between the Watershed and Second Coming. We didn't know how to get there, so the other group volunteered to lead us. After some contemplation, I resolved that a proper survey simply wasn't possible. We'd promised the SAP away, it'd have to wait. We also had the added complication of wanting to head down to basecamp that night. We figured with what we planned to do and the
We headed to Homecoming, with Fiona and I walking ahead, veering off to the right, following the cairns and, at times, the spray paint. This was a mistake. We soon realised that we were not at all on the right track and that we were instead following the hunter's path. We saw Chi shouting to us from the actual Homecoming spot and for a bit we tried Bunda Bashing our way to them, but it was apparent that we should just walk back to where we were on track and carry on from there. Indeed, that's what we did. When we arrived at Homecoming my main goal was to figure out logistics, which involved setting up callout and getting the times sorted. I called basecamp and managed to secure an 11pm callout, having a similar time for getting to the Loser Alm for a pick up by Sarah. Isaac was apparently fine with this as well, which he confirmed when he arrived. If he was earlier than us, he'd try to get a ride with Jono. Else, he'd be with us.
I grabbed the relevant gear for the trip, cutting a good length of cord and getting a drill bit from Harry, who felt ill and was staying on the surface. Colin said he was doing a bounce trip and had gone in before anyone else. I took pictures of a Welsh Engineering description from Lara's phone to get a better idea of where to find the rope. After this, Lara and her group went in after Colin. We soon followed, wrapping our drill in my jacket as we didn't have a foam covering. The delay between Lara's group and Fiona and I was too, great, however. They would be going fast so they wouldn't be able to show us the way to the junction.
After Radagast, getting to the phreatic tube, I opened the description on my phone and began to read. I quickly realised it was useless to us for what we wanted. We want a way to get off the Welsh Underground route, whereas this was just a description of that route, plain and simple. Useful for that, but nowt else. I could therefore not tell where the junction would be. It was out of scope.
Fiona and I eventually descended onto a platform with two pitches. Facing the wall, the one on the left led to Welsh Engineering. Right? We went down to see what we'd fine. There was a climb followed by a very narrow squeeze which we quickly realised wasn't the way. As a result, we headed back. It became apparent to me that for our time constraint, we couldn't use the rope.
When we got to Urinal Rock, we started unpacking the bolting gear. It was at this point I realised another mistake: I'd left the drill bit at the top! We'd not be able to bolt a new deviation, though it did mean it was good we bailed on the rope. As such, I found a new natural to rig a deviation on. This time, it was a bridge of rock where I could pass a cord through. I stood at the bottom of the pitch with Fiona adjusting the knot to make the deviation more pronounced. When we were satisfied with how much it pulled the rope we tested it. First with my weight and me ascending, then with both of our weight. It held true! I was very pleased with this, but seeing as we needed to come back for a proper survey anyway, I was also keen to properly bolt it.
Fiona then drew a grade 1 survey of the Brandywine, including where we'd put the bolts. Worry not, this will be properly surveyed! After this, Fiona started to prussik out of the cave and I stayed behind to adjust the bolts of my Y-Hang. After I was satisfied, I followed.
The most frustrating part of the ascent was bashing my shoulder on the exact same spot on the exact same rock as the day before! That, I think, drove my frustration even more than the actual pain did.
But in any case, I got out in 2 hours at 5:30pm, popping out of the cave entrance a bit after Fiona did. We noticed the rainclouds appearing and quickly began packing out things away. As we did, I noticed a small hole in the bottom of my dry bag, not doubt a result of the metal ring breaking off my tackle sack. I made a mental note to contact Petzl about that. I put the drill into the dry bag alongside my caving clothes and put it in a further plastic bag under another waterproof cover, just to be safe. I took the battery back with me and found the drill bit on the ground where I had left it!
10 minutes after leaving, rain started to pour down. Even further into our hike, we saw flashes of light and the distant rumble of thunder, some of it being worryingly close. We knew, however, that it was faster to just walk back to the carpark from where we now were on the plateau. As the rain continued and we got more and more soaked, our spirits got more and more dour. We got a tad lost a few times, but these were trivial compared to our prior mistakes and we got off the plateau in only a few hours. After an hour of stoic walking against the wind and rain, we arrived at the Loser Alm at about the same time as Sarah, being very glad of the sight. The walks across the plateau had pained my knee greatly, the downhill track to the Loser Alm being agony. I was glad to be going down to Basecamp for a couple days rest. Hopefully the next journeys on the plateau would be less agonising and we'd be able to push our lead further! Next time, the callout would be 8am.