Balcony - The pitch formally known as "Haydon's pitch" -> "Long Drop"
Elliott Smith
Sorry for the write-up delay!
After Haydon had headed down the hill, Nathan, Peachey and I took over the 'project'. Haydon
had said he had dropped ~60m to a large ledge, before getting a 6 second drop off it! Of course,
we didn't believe him.
We tidied up the initial traverse, before Peachey went off to get bolting. As Haydon's team (the
lazy, good-for-nothing *!?#*!?'s) hadn't surveyed squat, Nathan and I got on with it. Approx 50m to
the first ledge, which then forms the take off to a >120m pitch! Balcony has some surprises yet...
From the LHW, a short traverse takes you to a pitch head proper. Approx 25m down, working towards
the right, a good sized window gains access to "ICU with a view". Chock stones provide a chossy floor
on which to stick up a bothy.
I found Peachey in the ICU, having a good garden and looking slightly taken aback by the scale of
things! After re-supplying him with kit, he set off down a rift that leaves the ICU from the North.
Masterful bolting from Peachey saw us ~60m further down a lovely section of rebelays. The pitch follows
the RHW (looking from the ICU), pulling you away from the initial, pretty loose rift. The passage is
4-6m wide, but runs N-S from the main shaft, towards the North for ~80m.
Peachey had got cracking on the next drop, but we ran out of hangers and rope.
NB This actually occurred over two days!