Maskhill Mine / Oxlow Cavern - 13 Dec 2008

Saturday December 13th 2008

Members present: Adrian Turner,  Alexander Stelfox,  Christian Benton,  Mark Sims,  Matthijs Bouwman,  Thomas Blakey

What can i say, it was a great trip really enjoyed coming down oxlow was simple and easy. however at one stage i thought we lost Ade lol.
The main cave opening where Maskhill Mine meets Oxlow Cavern was wet, raining on the inside. Once the Maskhill team made it down to us they went on their way out Oxlow which was far the easier way out. I wana say thank you to Ade for allowing me to help him and getting involved in derigging when we went up Maskhill it really helped me get more involved. However the huge tackle sack between my legs on the way up was a real ball ache. The why up started out fantastic until i hit the sloped travers withthe tension line above it. It really had me thinking but with a little encouragement from Ade really helped me. After that it was waterfall after waterfall which was cold but really refreshing from all the climbing and prusking. Once we made it to the final rope which involved mainly vertical ropework it became really sticky with mud. on the final ascent alex almost destroyed me and Ade with a huge fallig rock which left ME SPEECHLESS, go figure lol once we made it out we went back to the car and got de-kitted and then mark (with his key fetish) proceeded to leave with our car keys leaving us waiting in Ade's car. Great Trip overall and I'd like to thank everyone that went on the trip and especially Ade and Mark. Thanks Guys