FGH - pushing the big pitch
Aidan Marks
Radost and I dropped a pitch bolted the day before by Rob after he ran out of rope. The pitch was some 50m down a small icy pitch series to the right of the entrance. The pitch we dropped passed through the icy layer of the cave to one somewhat warmer. Whilst the top of the pitch was promising, the bottom was less so - one crawl, which choked after 10m; one tight, inaccessible rift and on the opposite side of the base of the chamber there was a rift that could be squeezed through for 15m or so until it became too tight to navigate. We both tried again without SRT kits, as the rift was drafty, but little more progress was made. Eventually, we sacked it off and derigged the pitch hang; Radost thought he saw some leads halfway up the pitch on the way out, which may be worth another look.