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CLUB LOG DETAIL
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6th October 2012 - Kieran Rooney - SK10798179
In Attendance: Kieran Rooney, Tom Howard, Lauren Griffin, Olly King, Pete WhethamThey abandoned me! We were all supposed to meet at the P8 lay-by at 10.30 at 10.45 I got a sheepish phone call from Tom asking if I had left my house yet I said yes of course I was here at 10.20 and all kited up are ready to go, then I asked where are you? ƒÆ’‚ƒÂ€š‚¬ƒâ€š‚¦. Couple of seconds of silenceƒÆ’‚ƒÂ€š‚¬ƒâ€š‚¦Tom, Olly, Lauren and Pete all had bugged off to the cafƒÆ’†â€™ƒâ€š‚© near Hitch N Hike without telling me and had just sat down and ordered breakfast. I thought I lot of very nasty things at this point about all of them considered going home, considered going and doing another cave without them, considered going ahead and rigging P8 for them but I decided id at least wait awhile before doing anything to rash so I checked and repacked my ropes and double checked my rigging guide. An hour late I was just about to set off for to start rigging when they all turned up I let them know the extent of my displeasure with a few well chosen words mainly aimed at Tom as he was the main instigator. Tom may have been feeling a bit guilty as this point as he asked me to wait so he could carry my bag. I promptly agreed to this as an acceptable apology. We wondered over to the entrance discussing how to avoid keeping our gear clean on the walk back. Pre trip photo taken we descended. ƒÆ’€šƒÂ‚¬‹Å“Insert girly scream' from most as the water went down the back of the neck. We descended down to idiot's leap where I think Lauren was the first to get a face full of water, continuing down I got hit in the face with a tackle bag floating at head height! It turned out that said tackle bag was attached to a caver going up the rift before the first pitch to take the high-level route down the first pitch, this seemed a bit silly to me but each to his own down we went. Arriving at the first pitch I had a complete mental block on how to rig it or how I'd done it on previous occasions, some trial an error later I managed it and the swing in to the traverse to take the higher level route to the old fixed ladder second pitch. There was some kafuffle getting everyone down the pitch but nothing was impossible I had rigged the rope well out of the water just in case it rained, this turned out to be a pointless exercise as for once the weather report was right and it was a glorious day up top. Taking the high level route we ditched our bags at the bold step and went for a wonder up stalagmite passage. On returning to the bags we found the couple who had taken the high level route on the first pitch were now below us at the bold step doing the true second pitch. We continued on down the second pitch where everyone bar Tom, because he's a show off, took there SRT kit off to go past the sick bowl. Down through mud hall and into the main stream passage canal. ƒÆ’€šƒÂ‚¬‹Å“Insert girly scream' as cold water was at chest height, and I may have forgotten to mention that you could traverse this bit without getting so wet, oops, and all the way down to a very foamy Sump 1. then back up the stream passage to Sump B Lauren and Olly went to look at someone's dig and I decided against doing the overflow series as I should have already been back on surface. Went back up without incident just a bit of a log jam at the head of the second pitch with the other couple of cavers that were down there. Olly, Pete and Lauren left me and to de-rig and I expected them to wait at the top of idiots leap but we exited without coming across them so concerned that they had missed the entrance and continued up to the old entrance we sat around and waited for ten minutes before deciding to check the cars. Turns out they'd gone back to the cars and everyone bar me went to the wanted I had to go home to pacify a slightly pissed off girlfriend who I told I would have been back on surface by 13.30 it was now 15.30, oops!
Type of entry: Caving