Giants Hole/Boss Aven - Charley Cooley

Tuesday, 22 March, 2016

Present: Charley Cooley, Jess Stirrups, Steve Pearson Adams.


A warm evening saw three of us meet up at the car park, but we were soon joined by a minibus and another car. However, they were not joining us - the minbus team were simply having a recce down to Garlands and back and the four in the car were doing the West Upper Series. Once at the starting point, Steve free-climbed up to prepare a pull-through and Jess and I then followed, pausing along the way to take in the views.


Steve went up into the aven first, struggling a little with the restriction in the steepest part of the passage so I, having been previously, hinted to Jess that going on her back would make it so much easier. Once in the top chamber we all marvelled at how pristine (mostly) the features were and what a wonderful selection of Stalactites they were, particularly the odd few that looked like Carrots hanging from straws- formed I presume by differences in the solution (impurities?).


After taking it all in, we proceeded back down the slope, the in-situ pitch, the free climb and finally the pull-through pitch (thankfully we all chose the correct side to load!). After recovering the rope, we made our way back out into the night which was still and quite warm, and Jess remarked how light it seemed, even though it wasn't particularly clear. As there were only the three of us, it had been a quick trip (in and out in under two hours) so we retired to the Wanted for a small sweet Sherry. A very pleasant evening in good company.