Rob, Jon, Ben, Fabian
A Friday evening jaunt allowing us to team up with a couple newcomers who fancied a taste of Cussey mixed with a splashing of Awesome. Pre-beers in the miners to get to know one-another and let them know what they were in for - the Vulgarious Bastard dig.
I was disappointed to see the fans were off, as the entrance was much less impressive for them. We took it steady down Cussey, showing them the way and how to handle a few of the trickier bits, but in general they seemed sound. And keen! I was wearing a 20m coil of rope as I figured that was easier than a tackle bag, although it made bits of Loper Lust very tight on the chest. Of course I didn’t let Ben who was behind me see my error and pushed on through. We picked up the spare digging tray from the entrance to Doom to supplement the dig.
To be fair, I didn’t have an exact plan of how we’d haul with 4 of us, but we somehow ended up with a very efficient setup. We had two haul & return lines, with a person (Ben) staged halfway switching the buckets between them. I was at the front digging, although spent the whole session clearing wall collapses that had happened since our push last week. This isn’t an issue as it’s basically digging itself. At the back Jon and Fabian we hauling and stacking the spoil. Everyone was kept busy and after an hour we’d shifted 40 something buckets and all felt pretty content. Fabian was up silly early on Saturday morning so we called it a short trip and started heading out. I hadn’t quite reached the dig face that me and Joe got to last week, and as the others were having a look at the passage more walls were collapsing in, so it’ll be a while before actual forward progress is made, but it’s all good stuff in the right direction.
On the way out me n Jon had a quick look at the mine passage across a traverse over the Waterfall Pitch (which the original explorers had accessed the Wet West from). Indeed many ways on here warrant a further look. With time short we chose to climb up a rectangular rise and got into a corkscrew passage, mined through natural, to reach a single boulder blocking the way on. This might be heading up towards Cussey, so worth a better look sometime. We downclimbed and caught up with the others in Inglorious Bastards and made a nice steady way out, so much easier with no bags.
On the surface the first snowflakes of the impending Storm Arwen were falling and after a quick wash off in the Salt Pan Fabian legged it home. Us three remaining and enjoyed the best post-beers ever inside Ben’s fancy campervan, equipped with heater, comfy chairs and a brew station! He’s definitely welcome again. Turns out Fabian might not have been accustomed to the strenuous nature of Cussey as he describe himself the next day as "Feeling like I've been gangbanged by a herd of elephants". I think we'll take that.
