Long Kin West

Sunday March 5th 2023

Members present: Alfie Exall,  Jean-luc Heath,  Rosie Marshall

Two sheep at the bottom of the first pitch series this time, but at least they didn't smell.

We went into the 2018 extensions, up until the first up pitch. The anchors and rope seemed in pretty good condition - we went over on the way out, so rigged a rebelay in the concrete screws (?) just below the tension line and abseiled on our rope rather than the in situ (easier to back up). Worked okay!

The extensions were dry & small & dusty, two down pitches to meet a small streamway. Following upstream it lowers to a crawl, turns sharply right, and then enlarges at a chamber. It continues upstream, awkwardly, into an aven and then another, where the up pitch is.

We would have had a quick recce, but at this point my light freaked out and stopped working (despite being on two bars), only flashing when I tried to turn it on. Fortunately Jean-Luc has a sidelight and reusable cable ties...

We'd taken a bag of 100m rope into the extensions, which led to some interesting manoeuvres. Still I enjoyed the extensions a lot, I guess for the novelty factor and because it felt "off piste". Always peaceful up on Newby Moss.