136 - Footlights cont.
Chris Densham
Brian & I trolled around Forbidden Land derigging various bits & pieces to generate enough rope to drop the pitch at the end of Footlights. Having decided this would become a through route, I tarted up the traverse on the way over to make it more comfortable, ie.
[rigging sketch]
rather than the precarious rebelays that were used to rig it. Jon & I surveyed in, Brian arrived with rope & went off down the first pitch. 30m later he touched the floor: "It's big". Oh good. "There's a rope here". Oh bother. Been Hainesed again - his climb up from the Orchestra Pit finished here. Brian & I checked out the rift chamber pretty carefully - the draft appears to drop in somewhere at the southern end, then heads up the pitch we'd dropped. One drippy chamber could be seen through a tiny window - almost certainly the same as the Orchestra Pit. Otherwise - the entire S end chokes.
At least it gave us a chance to start the derigging early. Out at 4 am, back to camp just before dawn, in time for some carries down the hill.