Balkonhöhle - Balkonhöhle
Rachel
Frank and I returned to continue surveying and kill off a few leads that led off horizontally. There is a huge draught acting [a wide blank - something intended to be added here?], and further exploration is required. Said draught made it too cold to continue after several hours, so we set off to look for the many other groups down Balcony. After dismissing a muddy climb which looked uninviting, we left the search for Julian's group. We followed Turtlehead to warm ourselves up, and ultimately left, considering the small hole Frank had begun digging at the bottom of the entrance series.
A human-sized hole was visible, with a steep tube leading downwards for a few metres. We left our SRT kits and descended, myself somewhat unenthusiastic, making comments like "typical Mendip caver" and "Grrr". However, it soon opened up into a T-junction, with 5m high ceilings, and shattered boulders. We followed the route to the left, a rift leading to a 10m pitch (QM A), with a further QMA climb up a small hole on the left hand wall. It was V. cold down here and seemingly solid boulders were actually fragmented, held together with wishful thinking.
Whilst Frank drew up the survey, I had a gander down the right hand passage, sticking to the right and ignoring further leads off. I followed the sound of running water and finally found the connection with "Room With A View". Frank followed and pointed out a somehwat frisky looking boulder on a left-hand lead that I had passed, a few metres across and held a couple of metres up by two points crumbling away. I obediently stood under said boulder for Frank to take a photo.
Rather giddy, we heard George and David descend down the tube and we were happy to see their enthusiasm too. Quite cold, we left, with a bit of heaving to get back out.