flosiraptor
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Originally posted here: http://floscaves.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/saturday-11th-january-eastwater-unlucky-strike/#more-451.
Group: Wayne, Tim, Trish, Will, me.
Duration: Three hours?
Date: Saturday 11th January 2014
This trip was a WCC Second Saturday, split into two groups. Jude led a group down to Thirteen Pots, while Wayne bravely offered to lead me, along with Trish, Tim and Will, up to Unlucky Strike. This is not necessarily an easy trip ? it all depends on your caving strengths.
We headed in down the choke, which was absolutely pouring with water, past the Woggle Press and on to the dreaded Upper Traverse, which never gets any more pleasant. Then it was time for Hallalujah Hole which is apparently a squeeze. We were advised to go feet first, in case we didn?t fit. And although not massively tight, I did notice some ?wedging? issues due to going feet first (and not the fun, cavey kind of wedging...). If you?re confident you?ll fit, I would go head first just for comfort's sake ? otherwise, feet first! I was just congratulating myself, and wondering what all the fuss was about when Will, who was bringing up the rear, got stuck. Usually when Will gets stuck it?s a temporary glitch. But this required him to go back up the Upper Traverse (lucky him!) and round another route to meet us, gamely accompanied by Tim. So as it turns out, it is a squeeze for some!
Trish, Wayne and I continued down the Lower Traverse (much easier than the other!) and met them by a canyon-y thing (not the official Canyon with a ?C?). Then we crawled on down and to the left, for a short while, into the Second Rift Chamber. This chamber is narrow, with two impressive solid walls and a floor that slopes up towards the back. It?s very tall. All of which is very well until you realise you have to traverse, with one foot on each lovely flat wall, from the back of the chamber to the front. Working your way upwards, while below you the floor quickly falls away. Brilliant...
This is actually not as hard as it looks but if you?re like me and have zero faith in both the grippy properties of welly boots and your own traversing abilities, then it?s daunting. My advice is to bring a nice group of people along, who can stand below you and bellow encouraging things up to you. In particular, Tim was very helpful and reassuring for the whole trip, and managed the impressive feat of not laughing at me once. Anyway, back to the traverse: I am, of course, making it sound much worse than it really is. By the time you reach the end of the traverse, you?re only about 15 ft from the floor. At the end, you pop through a big keyhole thingy. You?re actually still in the traverse, you?re just standing on and among some jammed boulders now. Squeeze forward just a little bit and you?re at the bottom of the 30ft chimney climb that everyone mentions when they talk about Unlucky Strike.
This climb is an absolute bastard. Now I?m sure everyone who is short gets bloody tired of listening to tall people whinge about their legs getting in the way in confined spaces. And I do confess, being tall is generally more useful than being short when caving. I love being able to reach the floor / the far-away foothold when I?m climbing. But short people, hear me out, because this climb is specifically designed for you. Every foothold, or so it seemed, was positioned directly below a horrible sharp rock that stopped my knee just before my foot reached solid rock. Short of teaching my knees to bend backwards, I was buggered. The tube is approximately tearshaped, and is largely smooth with lumps and bumps in the walls, and rocks occasionally jammed in the narrow end (which, if you climb the way I did, is on your right). And in the absence of a second set of knees, or any upper body strength to mention, I fell back on my usual technique. I asked Will to climb up below me when I finally got completely stuck, and I stood on him. I have no freaking idea how he climbed it, since he is an inch taller than me, but I presume he either used his arm muscles (of which I have none to speak) or he levitated.
And so after one (maybe two, but who?s keeping count?) incident of Will playing the role of cave floor, I reached the top. On to the left, following the ropes. I assume these ropes are always there but maybe not, it?s possible Wayne rigged them in the decade or so he had to wait while I completed the climb. I used them to do a kind of rope round your back abseil down the next climb, which is about 15 ft, and then you?re in Unlucky Strike chamber!
You remember that game ?The Floor Is Lava?, that kids play? Well, in Unlucky Strike chamber the floor is actually lethal. It?s like a kind of shifting dune of loose pebbles, with some larger rocks thrown in for good measure. If there hadn?t been people, not to mention an already damaged curtain, down the bottom, I could practically have surfed down the chamber. But, assuming that you don?t want to destroy any formations or fellow cavers, be careful here.
At the bottom of this chamber, past the title formation, you can squeeze and slide (feet first!) down a calcite tube that gets steeper and tighter as you go on. Careful at the end, because below you is a pitch. Wayne rigged this for us and I went down first. It?s a bit like the first ladder in Spider Hole, except the rift is wider and you don?t have to step out as far along the rift to get to the ladder. Simple ladder down to the very last chamber, about 45-50 ft I would estimate. There is another curtain down here, bigger and prettier than Unlucky Strike I would say. And a crystal pool that was unfortunately covered with mud from the high water levels. And the terminal sump, which we got nowhere near because even the bridge above it was well under water.
Then back on largely the exact route we had taken. Everything was so much easier on the way back, except going up the very last roped climb that I had roughly abseiled down. When we finally made it down to the main bit of cave again, we headed past the Crossroads, up the Canyon and out via the Woggle Press. The rift was just ridiculously wet on the way out, as wet as I?ve ever seen it in my (admittedly limited) experience.
I?m pretty confident I couldn?t have done this trip without the technical knowledge of Wayne and the cheery encouragement of everyone in the group. Thanks guys
Group: Wayne, Tim, Trish, Will, me.
Duration: Three hours?
Date: Saturday 11th January 2014
This trip was a WCC Second Saturday, split into two groups. Jude led a group down to Thirteen Pots, while Wayne bravely offered to lead me, along with Trish, Tim and Will, up to Unlucky Strike. This is not necessarily an easy trip ? it all depends on your caving strengths.
We headed in down the choke, which was absolutely pouring with water, past the Woggle Press and on to the dreaded Upper Traverse, which never gets any more pleasant. Then it was time for Hallalujah Hole which is apparently a squeeze. We were advised to go feet first, in case we didn?t fit. And although not massively tight, I did notice some ?wedging? issues due to going feet first (and not the fun, cavey kind of wedging...). If you?re confident you?ll fit, I would go head first just for comfort's sake ? otherwise, feet first! I was just congratulating myself, and wondering what all the fuss was about when Will, who was bringing up the rear, got stuck. Usually when Will gets stuck it?s a temporary glitch. But this required him to go back up the Upper Traverse (lucky him!) and round another route to meet us, gamely accompanied by Tim. So as it turns out, it is a squeeze for some!
Trish, Wayne and I continued down the Lower Traverse (much easier than the other!) and met them by a canyon-y thing (not the official Canyon with a ?C?). Then we crawled on down and to the left, for a short while, into the Second Rift Chamber. This chamber is narrow, with two impressive solid walls and a floor that slopes up towards the back. It?s very tall. All of which is very well until you realise you have to traverse, with one foot on each lovely flat wall, from the back of the chamber to the front. Working your way upwards, while below you the floor quickly falls away. Brilliant...
This is actually not as hard as it looks but if you?re like me and have zero faith in both the grippy properties of welly boots and your own traversing abilities, then it?s daunting. My advice is to bring a nice group of people along, who can stand below you and bellow encouraging things up to you. In particular, Tim was very helpful and reassuring for the whole trip, and managed the impressive feat of not laughing at me once. Anyway, back to the traverse: I am, of course, making it sound much worse than it really is. By the time you reach the end of the traverse, you?re only about 15 ft from the floor. At the end, you pop through a big keyhole thingy. You?re actually still in the traverse, you?re just standing on and among some jammed boulders now. Squeeze forward just a little bit and you?re at the bottom of the 30ft chimney climb that everyone mentions when they talk about Unlucky Strike.
This climb is an absolute bastard. Now I?m sure everyone who is short gets bloody tired of listening to tall people whinge about their legs getting in the way in confined spaces. And I do confess, being tall is generally more useful than being short when caving. I love being able to reach the floor / the far-away foothold when I?m climbing. But short people, hear me out, because this climb is specifically designed for you. Every foothold, or so it seemed, was positioned directly below a horrible sharp rock that stopped my knee just before my foot reached solid rock. Short of teaching my knees to bend backwards, I was buggered. The tube is approximately tearshaped, and is largely smooth with lumps and bumps in the walls, and rocks occasionally jammed in the narrow end (which, if you climb the way I did, is on your right). And in the absence of a second set of knees, or any upper body strength to mention, I fell back on my usual technique. I asked Will to climb up below me when I finally got completely stuck, and I stood on him. I have no freaking idea how he climbed it, since he is an inch taller than me, but I presume he either used his arm muscles (of which I have none to speak) or he levitated.
And so after one (maybe two, but who?s keeping count?) incident of Will playing the role of cave floor, I reached the top. On to the left, following the ropes. I assume these ropes are always there but maybe not, it?s possible Wayne rigged them in the decade or so he had to wait while I completed the climb. I used them to do a kind of rope round your back abseil down the next climb, which is about 15 ft, and then you?re in Unlucky Strike chamber!
You remember that game ?The Floor Is Lava?, that kids play? Well, in Unlucky Strike chamber the floor is actually lethal. It?s like a kind of shifting dune of loose pebbles, with some larger rocks thrown in for good measure. If there hadn?t been people, not to mention an already damaged curtain, down the bottom, I could practically have surfed down the chamber. But, assuming that you don?t want to destroy any formations or fellow cavers, be careful here.
At the bottom of this chamber, past the title formation, you can squeeze and slide (feet first!) down a calcite tube that gets steeper and tighter as you go on. Careful at the end, because below you is a pitch. Wayne rigged this for us and I went down first. It?s a bit like the first ladder in Spider Hole, except the rift is wider and you don?t have to step out as far along the rift to get to the ladder. Simple ladder down to the very last chamber, about 45-50 ft I would estimate. There is another curtain down here, bigger and prettier than Unlucky Strike I would say. And a crystal pool that was unfortunately covered with mud from the high water levels. And the terminal sump, which we got nowhere near because even the bridge above it was well under water.
Then back on largely the exact route we had taken. Everything was so much easier on the way back, except going up the very last roped climb that I had roughly abseiled down. When we finally made it down to the main bit of cave again, we headed past the Crossroads, up the Canyon and out via the Woggle Press. The rift was just ridiculously wet on the way out, as wet as I?ve ever seen it in my (admittedly limited) experience.
I?m pretty confident I couldn?t have done this trip without the technical knowledge of Wayne and the cheery encouragement of everyone in the group. Thanks guys