Team: Luke Cafferty, Rob Eavis

Luke was my Guide for this trip, taking me to his first ever find up Watershed Aven in Peak. At the top of the first pitch it looks like they made easy and efficient progress through a filthy boulder collapse using an upwards scaffold shaft reminiscent but tidier than my efforts in Absolution 10(!) years ago. A small and pretty antechamber leads through to a short crawl to Boom itself, and wow it is bigger than I thought! With Scurions on full we could just about see two blind avens right up in the roof. Down in front of us was a short pitch down to boulders which looks like it might once have been a phreatic rising that created this vast aven series.

Our lead was a bolt climb right by the entrance up to nice looking roof tube about 12m up. This was about 6m more than Luke had remembered, but luckily I’d packed twice as many bolt as he had suggested. Balancing on Luke’s head I managed to reach a large natural to start us off well, and 7 bolts later I’d reached the top. The Uneo performed well, getting all but one bolt out of one battery in tough conditions.

Happy Drill

Unfortunately the tube ended after only 2m, with the development looking like it headed down a small crack and back into the chamber. A bit strange but an answer nonetheless, and it was looking good for the pub so we got out of there sharpish and mulled it all over with a pint of Belgian Blue.

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