Titan & Moosetrap Series
Saturday, 4 November 2006
Another superb Titan – Peak throughtrip, with a trip down the Moosetrap series in White River on the way.
Reached the entrance around 10, and quickly set about opening up the ‘well-sealed’ entrance and rigging the entrance pitch. Soon down this, and then titan itself….again, an awesome abseil!!
From the bottom of Titan, good progress was made to the bottom of J.H. and then into the Speedwell streamway to Block Hall and the ~80m prussik up to white river. The white river series was just as impressive as ever, and soon the top of Moosetrap was reached. Just before this, you can drop into the streamway, and follow it down to the bottom of the open hole. This bypasses the first pitch.
The 2nd pitch quickly followed after a couple of easy cascades, and then the 3rd pitch after a short section of clean-washed streamway. The 3rd pitch is the largest, and most impressive, being a classic, clean-washed waterfall pitch. A deviation part way down keeps one fairly dry. The 4th (2 fixed hangers at top) and 5th quickly follow, with a long sling needed for a re-belay at the top of the 5th, which is a bit damp!
More streamway follows to an easy climb down to the last pitch (single, fixed hanger at top), again damp, which drops straight into the sump (i.e. one person up and down at a time). Then back up with Tom de-rigging.
Back in the Kingdom, a slight misunderstanding caused the only delay of the trip……but we were all soon re-united! Yet more fantastic formations, including the superb white flows of calcite in the floor (hence, white river) were ‘ooohed and ‘aaahed at before reaching the top of the ventilator, a series of pitches which we rigged and left in for a group going to the white river series on the Sunday.
A couple of short ladders leads down to the trenches, a muddy crawl that soon arrives at treasury chamber. What follows is mostly large stomping passage to the entrance of Peak, which we reached around 5pm……which was good, as we had to be out by 5. Then, back to the TSG hut for food, and beer!!!!
Excellent trip! Cheers guys.