A mountain of rubbish bags lay in White Passage following the complete clear out of the long disused Western Flyover camp and a thorough clean-up at the Hard Rock Café camp – all that was needed now was to get them out of the cave.
Rubbish bags from the Western Flyover and the Hard Rock Café camp had already been transported as far as White Passage at the foot of the rope climbs, but the epic challenge of transporting them through the next section of obstacles was definitely going to require a bigger team. Luckily help was at hand and a merry band of 22 cavers assembled at Whitewalls on a chilly Saturday morning in January to undertake the task.
The mission was to relocate the large pile of 40+ bags and drums from its current position in White Passage to Big Chamber Nowhere Near the Entrance, where items could then be collected and taken out by anyone passing by on a through trip or similar. This was successfully accomplished due to the fantastic teamwork by all involved. Bags were passed by means of a chain-gang from person to person for much of the distance, while dumpy bags were used on the rope climbs and ladder to minimise the risk of dropping items on those below. Participants entered and exited the cave by whichever entrance they preferred and each took a tackle bag of rubbish out with them, so a large amount of the pile is now completely out of the cave. Then it was back to Whitewalls for a well-deserved communal feast of chilli, pasta and cake. Thank you to everyone who took part and helped make it a really fun day as well as a productive one!
The caving continued on Sunday with two trips into Agen Allwedd, one venturing to the further reaches to undertake a circuit of the Inner/Outer Circles, while another party showed new members the delights of Main Passage on a journey to North Wing with detours along the way.
Photos from the Clean-up
-
Pulling a skip through the Higher Things crawl
-
Passing bags through Higher Things
-
The Higher Things traverse
-
Chain gang across the traverse
-
Passing bags towards the Higher Things pitch
-
The top of the 20m ladder pitch
-
Filling dumpy ready for lowering
-
Lowering rubbish down the pitch
-
Bag pile at the climb up from Preliminary Passage
-
Chain gang in Valentine's Chamber
-
Rubbish pile before the Valentine's Chamber crawl
-
Moving bags upslope in Valentine's Chamber
-
One last chain gang to go, Big Chamber Nowhere Near the Entrance
-
Filling tackle sacks by the logbook before heading out