Balkon - Trip to Myopia to drop a small pitch

Tue 16 Jul 2019
Sarah Parker



After a slightly delayed start in the morning we set off to Balkon. The trip down to Myopia went smoothly, and we rerigged a nicer rope onto the little pitch (p10) after Leeds Bypass, as the rope there was very glazed and muddy making it an excitingly rapid descent. At the head of Hangman's we rescued my bac up light (I dropped it down a hole a few days earlier…). Arriving at Myopia, Aileen began bolting to drop the small pitch (around 8m). Ruairidh derigged Andrew Atkinson/ Aileen's/ Nat Dalton's wet traverse that was aiming to reach some passage beyond a big hole, Ruairidh and I began surveying the passage, which last year was surveyed up to the start of the traverse.

In the meantime, Aileen had dropped the pitch to find it went nowhere, and derigged it. I identified the big hole, and wet traverse around to a passage as ‘B' leads in my survey, as they looed promising, but are wet!

We headed out, derigging the traverse and Myopia pitch, having some rope out of Balkon, reaching the surface just as the sun was beginning to set.

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Survex files on this date:
    caves-1623/264/lower_balkon/myopia2
Wallets on this date:
    2019#07 Myopia2e ['plan', 'notes2', 'notes1', 'elevation']
Logbook trips on this date:
    Homecoming - additional rigging on the entrance series
    CUCC-PS-01 - B lead at best
    Balkon - Trip to Myopia to drop a small pitch
    plateau - Prospecting near Garlic Cave
    Homecoming - Rigging in Homecoming
    plateau - walk back