Maskhill Mine - 20th Jun 2010

Sunday June 20th 2010

Members present: Christopher Jones,  Matthew Chubb,  Mike Rippon,  Toby Buxton

Maskhill is a fantastic trip, requiring a hell of a lot of rope and some pretty challenging rigging for those of us with less reach. Much of it was clearly bolted by an 8-foot giant who believed short people should not be rigging. Enormous Y-hangs are all over the place - the biggest being at the top of the last pitch into Oxlow West Chamber - both arms about two metres long! A lot of banter was had with me loudly complaining about being unable to rig these enormous things and Mike laughing his head off somewhere above me. The West Chamber and Pool chamber definitely made this trip worthwhile: West Chamber is gigantic and pool chamber (though apparently pretty godawful in wet conditions) is a bizarre end to the cave - a small chamber with perfectly turquoise water (until we visited, anyway).