simon.moorhouse
New member
Tatty Wife on the 11 Dec 09
Naomi, my wife, and I arranged to meet our friend Bruce at Inglesport cafe for a
before going underground, for a change! Dave managed to persuade the less eager of the party that the cave would be warm... and that the duck would be f-f-fine even with the heavy frost the previous night... 8)
After slogging up the hill we followed the Northeast side of the grass spine across the plateau - following the GPS - and landed effortlessly at the shake hole - if only the return journey was that simple... Down in the shake hole there was a bit of water running from boulders into the entrance and we made our way in, stashing the safety bag at the entrance. We dropped down through the boulders, and followed the passage into Ogden Chamber... now this is no Titan but still an impressive chamber that provokes the imagination to wonder of what is below...
Following the winding passage, we reached the short climb. We popped a hand line from a single convenient P bolt to avoid any difficulties on return and followed the meandering stream passage to the first pitch. I grabbed the pack and cranked up the juice on my lamp... Having a rope a few metres short (42m) I skipped the seemingly unnecessary first P bolt, but would have had plenty as the measurements in the guide are generous...unlike Rowten... Anyway, the top of the first pitch was out of the water - and a deviation would have given a dry descent - but could any of the three of us find it?! :-\ After getting suitably moistened I threw a rope around the satisfyingly substantial pillar and popped a double bowline on the perfect Y hang, there was a P bolt a could of meters down for a deviation and we splashed into the pool at the bottom.
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs092.snc3/15952_367617205313_642225313_10071263_2338026_n.jpg
The following passage follows a wonderful hading fault, giving an interesting beer-goggles perspective... This has a couple of sections warranting stooping and hands & knees crawling - but nothing tight. The passage bears away from the fault and takes on more classic dimensions accordingly.
The third pitch is soon reached, and is rigged with three P hangers out over a beautiful waterfall. The guide talks of a convenient drilled thread for a deviation... Bruce rigged this pitch and was unable to locate said deviation - he found a bulge on the wall away from the water, which gave a dry descent - but was not secure enough to stay in situ when the rope is pulled around threading and removing a stop. This meant that each person would have to rig the deviation, after it had fallen off, and Naomi was not at all keen or hopeful of being able to make the awkward stretch out to the bulge... I went down second and then climbed back up, then thumbed down again a little at a time - and was still unable to find the drilled hole... :-\ There are one or two obvious places, where a hole could be drilled through around 5cm or solid looking rock to provide a deviation, but my attempts to find the one that did not require me having a drill were futile... I found a small but solid spike which was well within reach, and provided a rub-free hang; even if it was a knife edge and meant getting drenched! We continued down the ramp, getting even more thoroughly soaked... I decided it may be fun to go down on my bum - but ended up getting water rushing straight down the back of my suit! Of course, I was f-f-f-fine... :yucky:
We pottered along hading rift passage with Naomi leading, followed by Bruce and then myself. I was trying to think of ways to persuade Naomi to go for the duck... I decided that I should just dive through and prove that it was not an issue - therefore dispersing any of her anxiety... I heard the words "we're here..." echo down the passage, and realised it was my time to step forward and be a man, but as I entered the small chamber leading into the duck, I realised that Bruce was alone - and Naomi had disappeared through long before!! No need for my manly-ness this time We sploshed through with several hysterical laughs and some pausing for photos...
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs112.snc3/15952_367618135313_642225313_10071278_7093164_n.jpg
Naomi decided to stay at the chamber reached half way to the final pitch, and promised to do star-jumps to avoid getting cold, as Bruce and myself continued down the simple final pitch. The following passage gets smaller and wetter and develops into the canal - leading to the sump... As we had left Naomi, we thought we should head back - and were disappointed at not being able to go for a swim...not!
If you know a Haynes manual - then Refitting is reverse of removal... and we emerged into the darkness of a crystal clear sky...
I powered up the GPS and we headed back across the plateau to the cars... However there were members of the party who decided that the GPS was wrong, and that we needed to travel further North-Eastish... :read: My arguments of "we walked in a straight line up, we should walk in a straight line down" and "this thing is accurate to within 3 meters" were futile - and I decided that rather than being right on my own - I would follow the others and persuade them to come back... There we hit a hurdle - as we were all soaked head to toe, very tired, and it was very very cold. By the time I managed to make myself be heard I had lost the ability to extract any logical information from the GPS, and my decision was to walk further Northeast... even though I had just spent half an hour convincing the others to follow me back Southwest... Anyway, much arguing, name calling, slipping and scrambling later we met tarmac The only problem being that we were so cold that we could not decide which way the cars would be (obviously now, Southeast) . We split into two and each walked in opposite directions along the road. After walking for a fair while, Naomi and I flagged down a car - who believed that they may have seen the cars... you've got it... a fair way back - Southwest After turning back to head to the cars we heard the roar of Bruce's excited - urban style - driving and were ferried back to our car... I immediately called our emergency contact - 10 minutes before the callout time... phew...
Couple more photos on "Sardines On Tour" page on Facebook... Why not become a member? There's nothing fishy going on....
Naomi, my wife, and I arranged to meet our friend Bruce at Inglesport cafe for a
before going underground, for a change! Dave managed to persuade the less eager of the party that the cave would be warm... and that the duck would be f-f-fine even with the heavy frost the previous night... 8)After slogging up the hill we followed the Northeast side of the grass spine across the plateau - following the GPS - and landed effortlessly at the shake hole - if only the return journey was that simple... Down in the shake hole there was a bit of water running from boulders into the entrance and we made our way in, stashing the safety bag at the entrance. We dropped down through the boulders, and followed the passage into Ogden Chamber... now this is no Titan but still an impressive chamber that provokes the imagination to wonder of what is below...
Following the winding passage, we reached the short climb. We popped a hand line from a single convenient P bolt to avoid any difficulties on return and followed the meandering stream passage to the first pitch. I grabbed the pack and cranked up the juice on my lamp... Having a rope a few metres short (42m) I skipped the seemingly unnecessary first P bolt, but would have had plenty as the measurements in the guide are generous...unlike Rowten... Anyway, the top of the first pitch was out of the water - and a deviation would have given a dry descent - but could any of the three of us find it?! :-\ After getting suitably moistened I threw a rope around the satisfyingly substantial pillar and popped a double bowline on the perfect Y hang, there was a P bolt a could of meters down for a deviation and we splashed into the pool at the bottom.
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs092.snc3/15952_367617205313_642225313_10071263_2338026_n.jpg
The following passage follows a wonderful hading fault, giving an interesting beer-goggles perspective...
This has a couple of sections warranting stooping and hands & knees crawling - but nothing tight. The passage bears away from the fault and takes on more classic dimensions accordingly. The third pitch is soon reached, and is rigged with three P hangers out over a beautiful waterfall. The guide talks of a convenient drilled thread for a deviation... Bruce rigged this pitch and was unable to locate said deviation - he found a bulge on the wall away from the water, which gave a dry descent - but was not secure enough to stay in situ when the rope is pulled around threading and removing a stop. This meant that each person would have to rig the deviation, after it had fallen off, and Naomi was not at all keen or hopeful of being able to make the awkward stretch out to the bulge... I went down second and then climbed back up, then thumbed down again a little at a time - and was still unable to find the drilled hole... :-\ There are one or two obvious places, where a hole could be drilled through around 5cm or solid looking rock to provide a deviation, but my attempts to find the one that did not require me having a drill were futile... I found a small but solid spike which was well within reach, and provided a rub-free hang; even if it was a knife edge and meant getting drenched! We continued down the ramp, getting even more thoroughly soaked... I decided it may be fun to go down on my bum - but ended up getting water rushing straight down the back of my suit! Of course, I was f-f-f-fine... :yucky:
We pottered along hading rift passage with Naomi leading, followed by Bruce and then myself. I was trying to think of ways to persuade Naomi to go for the duck... I decided that I should just dive through and prove that it was not an issue - therefore dispersing any of her anxiety... I heard the words "we're here..." echo down the passage, and realised it was my time to step forward and be a man, but as I entered the small chamber leading into the duck, I realised that Bruce was alone - and Naomi had disappeared through long before!! No need for my manly-ness this time
We sploshed through with several hysterical laughs and some pausing for photos... http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs112.snc3/15952_367618135313_642225313_10071278_7093164_n.jpg
Naomi decided to stay at the chamber reached half way to the final pitch, and promised to do star-jumps to avoid getting cold, as Bruce and myself continued down the simple final pitch. The following passage gets smaller and wetter and develops into the canal - leading to the sump... As we had left Naomi, we thought we should head back - and were disappointed at not being able to go for a swim...not!
If you know a Haynes manual - then Refitting is reverse of removal... and we emerged into the darkness of a crystal clear sky...
I powered up the GPS and we headed back across the plateau to the cars... However there were members of the party who decided that the GPS was wrong, and that we needed to travel further North-Eastish... :read: My arguments of "we walked in a straight line up, we should walk in a straight line down" and "this thing is accurate to within 3 meters" were futile - and I decided that rather than being right on my own - I would follow the others and persuade them to come back... There we hit a hurdle - as we were all soaked head to toe, very tired, and it was very very cold. By the time I managed to make myself be heard I had lost the ability to extract any logical information from the GPS, and my decision was to walk further Northeast... even though I had just spent half an hour convincing the others to follow me back Southwest... Anyway, much arguing, name calling, slipping and scrambling later we met tarmac
The only problem being that we were so cold that we could not decide which way the cars would be (obviously now, Southeast) . We split into two and each walked in opposite directions along the road. After walking for a fair while, Naomi and I flagged down a car - who believed that they may have seen the cars... you've got it... a fair way back - Southwest After turning back to head to the cars we heard the roar of Bruce's excited - urban style - driving and were ferried back to our car... I immediately called our emergency contact - 10 minutes before the callout time... phew... Couple more photos on "Sardines On Tour" page on Facebook... Why not become a member? There's nothing fishy going on....
