76 - Sea of holes
Jenny Black
Went into BNW with the drill and rigging gear to start looking at the
pitch leads close to QM 05- because it had been raining hard for hours
and it looked to be the driest option - in fact it was very dry, only a
few slightly drippy bits. Olly traversed across the lip of the Pleasant
But Pointless pitch, because of all the gear he was carrying it became a
bolt traverse this year, not a bold traverse that it was in 2005 when I
first saw the pitch. Olly got through to the pitch having scrambled
through the rocks (this is called Scrabble) and bolted down the
first short drop. This was a little drippy but the water disappeared
through the rocky floor. A ramp comes in from above (?perhaps this
connects with the boulder choke in Loopy?). This continues into a rift
with various holes and rock bridge that all connect, giving it its name,
Sea Of Holes. Olly rigged an excellent Y-hang to a level with
solid ledges and started down the next pitch. We ran out of hangers,
slings and warmth before the pitch ended, so surveyed out. I coped
better with the traverse on the way out.
Sea of Holes has nice, solid rock, isn't too wet, doesn't have much
choss and draughts fairly strongly (given the size) outwards which is
very cool. On the way out we noticed the draught had reversed (around
11pm to midnightish), hopefully this won't affect the radon
detecting.