Tommy
Active member
Trip Report - Unsuccessful Giants/Oxlow Connection
Sunday the 22nd of May 2016, 50 years (ish) since the first passage of the connection.
Party Members: Tommy Moore & Molly Smith.
So you?ve read Loony?s (excellent) trip report about her and Leo?s successful outing. We got about as far as Creg did by the sounds of it but still had a good day.
I?d been abroad the week prior and was travelling back on Saturday so couldn?t make the talks, a quick turnaround after the airport involved picking Molly up and chucking wetsuits in the car. We got to the TSG at around 9/10pm and it looked dead inside, odd I thought, why wasn?t the place abuzz with keen-beans revelling in their successes and drinking merrily?
After ringing a couple of the usual suspects I managed to wake Tony up to let us in as I didn?t have the up to date code (and we disturbed him from a restful slumber again later unfortunately ? it?s fine though we bought stuff off him!).
A curry-topped pizza and four beers later neither of us had digested the guidebook sufficiently; navigation proved to be our downfall ? Molly had never been in Giants and I?ve only been to East Canal once about a year and a half ago. It was around this point in the evening that the MUSCitos turned up socially lubricated from the pub and we had a good natter with the Gottzone and [insert forgotten names here - sorry!]. After a few games of knife-pong and beer can squash it was time for bed.
We arrived at the Giants parking area at a leisurely hour the following morning and gosh it was busy! I couldn?t really tell what was what, but there were 3? other groups there. Lots of PVC, no neoprene. So we flew through the entrance passage to the Crabwalk, and not knowing where the climb into the upper series was we went straight past and into the bowels, we leapfrogged the other groups in our exploration and I feel we have a better grasp of the cave now... We completely missed the hand-line above the little cascade though, wouldn?t have found our way without the others (thank you!).
Chunky accompanied us to the tiny scoop in the gravel that marks the beginning of the connection, a tight feet-first start followed by a foetal tuck and turnaround in a bubble led to fast progress to the waterline of the first duck. This was my first encounter with a properly wet bit of cave since an aborted attempt at taking up cave diving a few months prior, and unlike then, I wasn?t absolutely bricking it! I got cosy in the water first and shuffled towards the duck, I could see the inch or so of airspace that went through, but I couldn?t see if the ceiling raised at any point soon. With this though hastily tucked away I dunked my ears and shuffled backward. Then my eyes were under. Then my nostrils were flooding. I kissed the ceiling but I must have been moving too quickly as the water then came over my mouth too. Still surprisingly level-headed I stayed there for a few moments holding the lip of the duck but the temptation to retreat took over and I heaved back out.
At this point I thought I probably wasn?t going to do it on that day, not knowing how far it was through (and already being quite behind schedule for callout with Tony if we did get through then got lost at the other end ? I haven?t been in Oxlow/Maskhill either!). So Molly took a look, and seemed to get to the same point I did; at full reach holding the lip of the duck, sensibly she had a superman arm in front of her to feel the ceiling height. I?d said to her to take it steady and what have you, which was fine, but then she just started thrashing about suddenly! Shit the bed! I knew she wasn?t drowning but I thought she may have panicked and decided to just push through, and I probably wasn?t going to be following her. It turns out she was just pulling herself back through by her heels (quite ineffective) and the fact that I was hauling on her ankles was probably a hindrance to this technique, but anyway.
We sat there for a minute justifying our wimpishness (definitely more me doing that than Molly) and set off back out. My ?halfway to callout? alarm went off here so that was great timing. Getting out now we knew the way was super quick by comparison, and we bumped into one of the groups on the way out coming down the upper series climb. I tried to find something distinctive about the passage to remember for next time and found a patch of worn salmon-coloured paint ? looks much too big to be a survey station compared to the little yellow flecks here and there ? anyone got any ideas or tips here? Maybe just a couple of trips and we?ll remember it.
Molly got a little strung up exiting on the Garlands traverse but we problem solved it together ? good practice for summer exped!
All in all a grand little trip and it leaves plenty to go back to in the drier months or just with someone who can egg us on a bit.
I blame it on our lack of neoprene hoods...
Tommy
Sunday the 22nd of May 2016, 50 years (ish) since the first passage of the connection.
Party Members: Tommy Moore & Molly Smith.
So you?ve read Loony?s (excellent) trip report about her and Leo?s successful outing. We got about as far as Creg did by the sounds of it but still had a good day.
I?d been abroad the week prior and was travelling back on Saturday so couldn?t make the talks, a quick turnaround after the airport involved picking Molly up and chucking wetsuits in the car. We got to the TSG at around 9/10pm and it looked dead inside, odd I thought, why wasn?t the place abuzz with keen-beans revelling in their successes and drinking merrily?
After ringing a couple of the usual suspects I managed to wake Tony up to let us in as I didn?t have the up to date code (and we disturbed him from a restful slumber again later unfortunately ? it?s fine though we bought stuff off him!).
A curry-topped pizza and four beers later neither of us had digested the guidebook sufficiently; navigation proved to be our downfall ? Molly had never been in Giants and I?ve only been to East Canal once about a year and a half ago. It was around this point in the evening that the MUSCitos turned up socially lubricated from the pub and we had a good natter with the Gottzone and [insert forgotten names here - sorry!]. After a few games of knife-pong and beer can squash it was time for bed.
We arrived at the Giants parking area at a leisurely hour the following morning and gosh it was busy! I couldn?t really tell what was what, but there were 3? other groups there. Lots of PVC, no neoprene. So we flew through the entrance passage to the Crabwalk, and not knowing where the climb into the upper series was we went straight past and into the bowels, we leapfrogged the other groups in our exploration and I feel we have a better grasp of the cave now... We completely missed the hand-line above the little cascade though, wouldn?t have found our way without the others (thank you!).
Chunky accompanied us to the tiny scoop in the gravel that marks the beginning of the connection, a tight feet-first start followed by a foetal tuck and turnaround in a bubble led to fast progress to the waterline of the first duck. This was my first encounter with a properly wet bit of cave since an aborted attempt at taking up cave diving a few months prior, and unlike then, I wasn?t absolutely bricking it! I got cosy in the water first and shuffled towards the duck, I could see the inch or so of airspace that went through, but I couldn?t see if the ceiling raised at any point soon. With this though hastily tucked away I dunked my ears and shuffled backward. Then my eyes were under. Then my nostrils were flooding. I kissed the ceiling but I must have been moving too quickly as the water then came over my mouth too. Still surprisingly level-headed I stayed there for a few moments holding the lip of the duck but the temptation to retreat took over and I heaved back out.
At this point I thought I probably wasn?t going to do it on that day, not knowing how far it was through (and already being quite behind schedule for callout with Tony if we did get through then got lost at the other end ? I haven?t been in Oxlow/Maskhill either!). So Molly took a look, and seemed to get to the same point I did; at full reach holding the lip of the duck, sensibly she had a superman arm in front of her to feel the ceiling height. I?d said to her to take it steady and what have you, which was fine, but then she just started thrashing about suddenly! Shit the bed! I knew she wasn?t drowning but I thought she may have panicked and decided to just push through, and I probably wasn?t going to be following her. It turns out she was just pulling herself back through by her heels (quite ineffective) and the fact that I was hauling on her ankles was probably a hindrance to this technique, but anyway.
We sat there for a minute justifying our wimpishness (definitely more me doing that than Molly) and set off back out. My ?halfway to callout? alarm went off here so that was great timing. Getting out now we knew the way was super quick by comparison, and we bumped into one of the groups on the way out coming down the upper series climb. I tried to find something distinctive about the passage to remember for next time and found a patch of worn salmon-coloured paint ? looks much too big to be a survey station compared to the little yellow flecks here and there ? anyone got any ideas or tips here? Maybe just a couple of trips and we?ll remember it.
Molly got a little strung up exiting on the Garlands traverse but we problem solved it together ? good practice for summer exped!
All in all a grand little trip and it leaves plenty to go back to in the drier months or just with someone who can egg us on a bit.
I blame it on our lack of neoprene hoods...
Tommy
