Another OHA Trip - Sat, 14th August

I was made up to hear of Marc's recent success at getting through to the far end of OHA with some guys from NWCC. And they've left it all rigged :-)

After getting through to Sump 1 a few weeks ago, I was gutted because i was working and couldn't do the last trip.

Does anyone fancy a trip through with me on Sat, 14st August? Bear in mind that it'll be a true epic - expect a full day (and more!).

Early start i.e. 6 or 7am at Cilcain bridge. - The earlier the better really.

I have got a feeling that I will be at the green man festival on that weekend, ticket cost me 140 quid. .

doug wrote:

I have got a feeling that I will be at the green man festival on that weekend, ticket cost me 140 quid. .

Doug - i'd fooked up my dates anyway - pantmwyn show is the sat 21st which i'm tied up with. So 14th is a better day for me if you can make that instead? (I've edited original post to say 14th).

oh go on then i'll more than likelycome along for the ride

thats three - any more??

Dont all clamour at once.

That date is fine for me. I'll come

I am otherwise entertained in another hole.

Earth Worm Jim wrote:

I am otherwise entertained in another hole.

I bet ours will be tighter, wetter and dirtier.

Tim Watts wrote:

Earth Worm Jim wrote:

I am otherwise entertained in another hole.

I bet ours will be tighter, wetter and dirtier.

Mmm maybe maybe not, I am going to need some sort of rubber protection for my hole snarf snarf.

Update following tonight dash to the sumps.

Mike and I made a speedy dash to Sump 1 tonight - found the siphon still working (2" of air space) made the duck/swim through and moved on to Sump 2 which (as expected) needs a bit taking out of it. There was little point setting the siphon going here coz Mike Klim from NWCC told me that it'll just fill again by the time we get back to it - and in any event, it only takes 30mins to drop the level so this will make a good food/drink stop (approx 2 hours in). We turned back at this point.

4 hours round trip. (took us an amazingly short 57mins to get to sump 1 from the entry ladder!! - i've got to tell you, I was in need of oxygen trying to keep up with mike! That mans not human)!

No chest jammer, just fig8's and hand jammer without a foot loop. Free Climbing all the pitchs, Fast and Light! Well i've got to be honest - i wasn't too fast on some of it - i reckon mike could have made it in 3 hours or less there and back on his own.

Based on this we reckon a 9am start on Saturday will be early enough. I'm intending kitting up with full srt (dont know if pitchs after sump 2 can be free climbed or not) at the car park, keeping pack size to a bare minimum. Possibly food and drink in some kind of bum bag - ohh err! I've now drunk the water running down near the bottom of the main multipitch TWICE and not died yet so i'll be refilling my filter bottle here in an attempt to reduce bulk. Got to offset the bulk of my belly somehow!

Once through Sump 1 i'll take a few hand held shots and video clips as to my knowledge nothing much has been taken past the sumps - but i'll try not to slow things down too much. Bank on the round trip being in the order of 12 hours based on what Mike Klim said.

Happy days!

Did you make it or are you still down there?

can we afford another cave rescue?

hi john yes we did make it (and back) must be one of the most physically demanding trips ive done . can't wait for douge's trip frport it shouly be bl00dy funny to say the least

I'm just settling down to start putting together a bit of a video from the clips i took. The look on Dougs face as he's coming up from the sumps is awesome!

Fantastic trip and even better than i imagined. That cave just gets better and better! :-)

After the high speed training run on Thursday to check on the sumps (when mike almost killed me!) the full trip almost seemed easy..well maybe thats going a bit far.

Tim Watts wrote:

I'm just settling down to start putting together a bit of a video from the clips i took. The look on Dougs face as he's coming up from the sumps is awesome!

Fantastic trip and even better than i imagined. That cave just gets better and better! :-)

After the high speed training run on Thursday to check on the sumps (when mike almost killed me!) the full trip almost seemed easy..well maybe thats going a bit far.

can't wait for the vid you got some realy good footage while we were in there

Mike Leahy wrote:

hi john yes we did make it (and back) must be one of the most physically demanding trips ive done

Sounds like you're getting soft in your old age...

Really glad you had a great trip, well done!

[quote="marc"]

Mike Leahy wrote:

Really glad you had a great trip, well done!

ive always been soft especially in the head

The videos now online - in the video section of the forum.

Next step is to take some gear down and cache it as far in as possible in order to do an extended multiday trip - dig through the far end etc and try to get up to and rig some of the out of reach passages we spotted.

I guess something like this would need to rely on someone on the "outside" nipping in and out to ensure that the sumps were kept open - although with a handline i'm sure they could be free dived in an emergency.