Balcony - Sloppy Seconds
Nadia Raeburn
The four of us set off with the intention of dropping some pitches in Sloppy Seconds and photographing Galactica. When we got to the junction between the two Brendan and Fleur went down Galactica and Pete and I headed on to Sloppy Seconds. When we got to the pushing front we scouted out the leads and decided to traverse around one of the pitches for a horizontal lead.
Pete was almost finished rigging the traverse when Fleur and Brendan arrived having had a surprisingly efficient photography and derigging trip. The only issue being that Brendan had derigged on his cave lunch.
It was decided that I would drop the pitch we had traversed around while the others surveyed past the traverse. I tied into the traverse bolts and dropped down to do a rebelay. The others carried on and after a few metres found another pitch. After three failed attempts at placing a bolt the battery ran out and the others were done surveying. I swapped over with Brendan and he dropped down to a platform. We surveyed the platform level and found four more pitches to be dropped of varying pleasantness. We also confirmed our suspicion that the nearby holes on the level we had started were connected. We found multiple mud slopes leading to avens.
We left a horizontal lead at the higher level, traversing over the second drop encountered after Pete’s traverse, which a traverse line could be rigged for. There is also still a pitch at the turn slightly higher than the rest on this level that potentially does not connect with the rest of the holes. As well as the obvious lower level pitches which we did not drop.