meanderthal
Member
A cheeky extract from the 2015 Treviso expedition log in the hope of winning some nice shiney SpanSet for 2016 :
An incredible effort of faffing was displayed by Greg and Dave on the previous day (23rd July) which resulted in two fully packed bags but no caving trip. As the next day was the last day of the expedition, Dave and I convinced ourselves it was a sensible idea to use these two bags for a no-faff day of caving and return to the surface in time for the traditional expedition meal (and beers) in Sotres. This would require an early start!
4am, alarm goes off; 5am leave Tresviso; 5.40am entered the cave, 6am Dave vomits in the entrance series, 6.02am realise we haven?t packed any water.
With his vomiting over, Dave announced ?this shall be a good day?*, so we continued and arrived at Consort Hall ~9am. Our lead for the day the continuation of the passage into Consort Hall. Instead of bolting the steepest part of the climb, we reached a ledge with an Indiana Jones style pendulum (and a lot of bruises) over the top of the passage. From here an exposed but easy free climb lead some 20m to the window. We stepped into a large (4x4m) phreatic passage, Dave rigged a short pitch and reached the end of the passage after only 30m. Bollocks, we had been aiming for 110m to push the exped over 2km. We surveyed back over Consort Hall to tie the legs in, with Dave performing a Red Cross drop of digestive biscuits, soreen and 10 bolts into camp for the 2016 trip as we pendulumed back into the passage above. It was 11.00am and we were going to make the exped meal!
Firing the disto up to get passage dimensions gave an unexpected read out of ~30m. It looked climbable. Seeing as we had plenty of time we had a crack, three pitches were free climbed using slings and etriers as protection and Dave did an excellent job belaying under the popcorn hailstorm. From the amount of stal present on the climb, it was obvious we were going someplace pretty, but the chamber we popped into ?I Love Horses? was another level with formations ranging from 10m columns to delicate straws and helictites. Two short calcite ramps lead up through more formations to a tight squeeze ?Morning Sickness? which required hammering to allow me through. Beyond this was a small muddy chamber and a 3rd calcite ramp which remains unclimbed - we had run out of rope and I was now on my own. After several attempts stuck Morning Sickness I finally re-joined Dave and we surveyed back down to the rift passage, leaving 60m of dubious dynamic in place for 2016 :doubt:.
5.40pm, we headed for the surface and didn?t stop until we reached Sotres at 9.30pm starving and dehydrated, where we meet the rest of the expedition as they were leaving the meal and handed over 3 bags of tortilla and some cabrales. With over 100m of new cave, an open lead and 60m of free climbing a long, but memorable day of exploration.
*Dave?s ?good day? involved throwing up in a cave, not eating or drinking, getting hit on the knee by rockfall, hitting his thumb with a hammer and finally crawling back over his own sick.
An incredible effort of faffing was displayed by Greg and Dave on the previous day (23rd July) which resulted in two fully packed bags but no caving trip. As the next day was the last day of the expedition, Dave and I convinced ourselves it was a sensible idea to use these two bags for a no-faff day of caving and return to the surface in time for the traditional expedition meal (and beers) in Sotres. This would require an early start!
4am, alarm goes off; 5am leave Tresviso; 5.40am entered the cave, 6am Dave vomits in the entrance series, 6.02am realise we haven?t packed any water.
With his vomiting over, Dave announced ?this shall be a good day?*, so we continued and arrived at Consort Hall ~9am. Our lead for the day the continuation of the passage into Consort Hall. Instead of bolting the steepest part of the climb, we reached a ledge with an Indiana Jones style pendulum (and a lot of bruises) over the top of the passage. From here an exposed but easy free climb lead some 20m to the window. We stepped into a large (4x4m) phreatic passage, Dave rigged a short pitch and reached the end of the passage after only 30m. Bollocks, we had been aiming for 110m to push the exped over 2km. We surveyed back over Consort Hall to tie the legs in, with Dave performing a Red Cross drop of digestive biscuits, soreen and 10 bolts into camp for the 2016 trip as we pendulumed back into the passage above. It was 11.00am and we were going to make the exped meal!
Firing the disto up to get passage dimensions gave an unexpected read out of ~30m. It looked climbable. Seeing as we had plenty of time we had a crack, three pitches were free climbed using slings and etriers as protection and Dave did an excellent job belaying under the popcorn hailstorm. From the amount of stal present on the climb, it was obvious we were going someplace pretty, but the chamber we popped into ?I Love Horses? was another level with formations ranging from 10m columns to delicate straws and helictites. Two short calcite ramps lead up through more formations to a tight squeeze ?Morning Sickness? which required hammering to allow me through. Beyond this was a small muddy chamber and a 3rd calcite ramp which remains unclimbed - we had run out of rope and I was now on my own. After several attempts stuck Morning Sickness I finally re-joined Dave and we surveyed back down to the rift passage, leaving 60m of dubious dynamic in place for 2016 :doubt:.
5.40pm, we headed for the surface and didn?t stop until we reached Sotres at 9.30pm starving and dehydrated, where we meet the rest of the expedition as they were leaving the meal and handed over 3 bags of tortilla and some cabrales. With over 100m of new cave, an open lead and 60m of free climbing a long, but memorable day of exploration.
*Dave?s ?good day? involved throwing up in a cave, not eating or drinking, getting hit on the knee by rockfall, hitting his thumb with a hammer and finally crawling back over his own sick.