Gingling Hole

Gingling Hole 26 Jun 2011 15:24 #4953

Topic Author
alexr
Visitor

It started off well! Someone had left their undersuit behind.

Shock horror it was not me!!

After a drive back to get a spare one from someone else's kit. The owner of the said undersuit said: "You do not want to know what I have being doing with that."

Well anyway after a friendly chat with the farmer, we headed to the cave. The Sink near by, was in full flow:

We opened up the cave but found that, it was actually rigged. As we all wanted rigging practice we rigged over their rigging. We descended at around lunch time.

This pitch was very drippy, but not dangerous. We passed an inlet and headed into canals, which thankfully was not flooded.

Brian rigged the next pitch:

And we all descended with no issues. The third pitch Brian rigged also; Me and Nigel took the oxbow bypassing the more awkward section:

Onwards to the next obstacle, a narrow vertical slot. Nigel found this difficult until I showed him it was easier to walk rather then try to crawl and then sky dive down the narrow slot. After that, we reached and bypassed the 4th pitch by a exposed traverse (thankfully rigged) and entered a beautifully decorated stal chamber.

Traverse into chamber:

Chamber formations:

Some more formations with an added camera case:

Down the slot and underneath through an almost flat out section, easy progress was made though Fools Paradise where Nigel had turned back last time. I being a fool was put in front and I rigged the 5th pitch. I was rewarded at the bottom with yet more formations.

Beyond this an easy constriction and some nice passage led to the 6th pitch, which I rigged. The rigging here is exposed as in order to rig it, it necessitates a climb onto a choke stone overlooking the pitch. You then had to traverse out in order to be in a position to wrap the rope around said choke stone as the initial anchor.

After this pitch, a narrow passage leads to a vertical constriction and after that a traverse over a drop down into "Impossible rift" quickly leads to "Hammered Hole" which well looks impossibly tight. We did not bring rope to rig beyond here as we assumed it would too wet, though it was rigged with some very thick rope. The others did not fancy it concerned mainly about the water levels. They were fine at the moment but we did not know weather was doing above us. Due to the constricted nature I was the only one to get a proper look at Hammered hole, only room for one at a time.

We went back up then and had a quick break along the way out.

Passage above 6th pitch:

Everything was going swimmingly (not literally) until the climb up below the 4th pitch where I must have touched something I should not have (not sure what) and I was bombarded with a river of stone. Nigel said it was like "Nam" at the bottom as rocks bounced past him, his head covered to shield him from the stones. I got the full brunt of it but luckily the rocks where falling from chest height and the only injury I got was a bruised shin. The biggest rock I caught and chucked into a side rift, not wanting to pass it to Brian as he suggested. I did not like the idea of a football sized rock falling on my head, should either of us loose our grip.

Anyway we struggled on up the slot climb between 3rd and 4th well Nigel and Brian struggled. (There are advantages to being small

)

By 6:10pm everyone was out and the heavens opened to welcome us home.

People present: Alex (lionel as I am called), Nigel & Brian