Brewery Shaft at Midnight feat. Dinosaur Pyjamas
Sunday March 8th 2026
Members present: Abbie Heathcote, Viki Smyth, Will Barlow
Report by Abbie Heathcote
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After a delightful day of descending Brewery Shaft, exploring the Coffin Level Mines below, enjoying a lovely Yellow Thai curry, playing on the local park, bruising our hips squeezing through a tyre and imbibing in part 2 of an awesome cheeseboard… the thrill of descending the shaft lured us in once again.
Will and I had been excitedly plotting our fourth descent of the weekend since we had emerged from our third trip earlier that day. As midnight approached, the excitement built and all those in attendance will attest that spirits were pretty high.
As we returned from our excursion to the park to enjoy some more cheese and wholesome hut time, I turned to Viki to ask if they would join us on our midnight excursion to our beloved Brewery Shaft.
“I’m a bit tired… I don’t know if I can be bothered… the hut’s lovely and warm and you want me to go back out there?”
Unacceptable. (In a ‘I absolutely know you’ll enjoy it as soon as you’re there and kinda want to really’ way)
I’ve found the trick to getting Viki to yes to things is getting them over what I call the ‘initial tiredness hurdle’... after which they will inevitably have a brilliant time doing whichever silly thing they’ve been talked into.
A lot of ‘please, please, please’s and ardent debate ensued. Until they conceded that the fact that they had severely underpacked for the weekend was the main obstacle. With no dry undersuit or leggings (and a reasonable desire to not take their nice jeans down the shaft), this could easily have been the end of it all. Until…
“You can borrow my dinosaur pyjamas!” I reasoned.
“I couldn’t possibly take your dinosaur pyjamas.”
“You absolutely could, and should…”
“I could, or I could go to bed…”
“You can sleep in York, you can’t descend a 100m shaft in York, now can you?”
“Really, if presented with the opportunity to descend a 100m shaft in dinosaur pyjamas, you should.” A reasonable voice chimed in.
We’re big pitch enthusiasts, what can I say.
Then poor Roe did her best to argue Viki’s case, feeding them some lines about tiredness and other silly things - as you can see dear reader, they were citing the ‘initial tiredness hurdle’ - which can be overcome if you’re persistent enough.
That’s when I escaped further protests by dashing up the stairs to retrieve said pyjamas and skipped back down with them to present them to Viki (who was at least 50% on board at this point). Beaming, I placed them on the table in front of Viki, who looked down at them, smiled and then looked back at me:
“I don’t have a clean shirt either…”
Was I taking this as an excuse? Absolutely not.
Back up the stairs I went to retrieve my very cool ‘Born to Quest, Forced to Clock In’ t-shirt which has a knight on it. Back downstairs I smugly re-entered the kitchen to launch my reasonably clean shirt at Viki, who caught it, looked at the pile of my clothes in front of them, sighed and looked up.
“Fine, I’ll come!” Casting a weary eye around the room… “I hate all of you, except Roe.”
Will and I celebrated a success! A bit of momentary hatred was a price I was willing to pay for the delight of Viki’s company for a midnight bounce of the incomparable Brewery Shaft.
So the three of us collected our gear (me bouncing from room to room in excitement) and began the lovely, brisk walk to the hut that shelters the shaft.
I did start to feel a little bit guilty at this point for the lengths of my persuasion, after all we’re trying to cut down on the peer pressure in the club… and broke the quiet focus of our walk with a:
“Okay, you don’t actually have to do this if you don’t want to… if I’ve pushed too hard just say.”
To which Viki just laughed… “Oh no, the time for all that has definitely passed. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be… though I will be doing the first bounce and leaving you two to it.”
Good enough for me, so with my guilt assuaged, we entered the hut and prepared to descend.
It was a slightly bizarre scene, the ridiculous contrast between the bottomless pit and Viki wearing my festive dino pjs and silly knight t-shirt… you’d be pretty giggly too if you’d seen it.
As agreed, Viki was the first to descend - issuing strict instructions that there was to be no music playing on their descent, and nothing except ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat’ from Hairspray on the ascent. I did some investigating into why this song seems to be like crack to people from Morpeth this weekend (it’s Will’s favourite too), and turns out that a few years ago every middle school kid in Northumberland (not Chris though rip) was shipped to a place called the Sage (a theatre that looks like a metal slug) to sing this song in a big show. It makes a lot of sense now that the song is ingrained in Will and Viki’s brains.
There was of course a photoshoot of the fit before the descent… I hope you enjoy these. Especially the particularly goofy shot of Viki hanging from the top of the shaft, looking up at me with a face that’s somewhere between excitement and complete resentment.
With a sigh, they took their locks off and Will and I waved goodbye. Will filmed these moments, including the part where just a few meters below the hatch, Viki muttered “this is stupid behaviour” in the lightest and i-kinda-mean-this-but-also-am-having-an-excellent-time voice. Will and I collapsed into giggles as Viki disappeared into the darkness of the shaft.
We enjoyed the quiet of the hut for a few minutes, staring fondly down at the shaft and the distant gleam of Viki’s headtorch. Eventually they yelled up that they were at the bottom, and that was our cue to start blasting YCSTB through the speaker that Will had very thoughtfully brought with him.
Turns out it takes Viki exactly 3 loops of YCSTB to ascend 100m, rather impressive.
At the top of the shaft once again, Viki had to concede that they had had a delightful time bouncing the shaft, and that reaaaaally they were quite happy that I’d talked them into joining us… for the vibes if nothing else. Also, it turns out that my pyjamas are the ideal outfit for a 100m prussick… very comfortable and of course incredibly stylish - Viki went on to wear them for their next 3 bounces on Sunday. (If you’re reading this Viki, then here’s your reminder that I’d like them back at some point).
It was then that I presented them with a ‘You did it! ????’ sticker - graciously received and passed between Viki, the shaft itself, Will and eventually me throughout the weekend.
My turn next! As I excitedly headed out over the grate, clipped my cowstails in and began to rig my descender I looked over at the other two, totally unable to hold my grin back - unbelievably happy that these two wonderful humans were sharing this very special midnight adventure with me. Not to get sappy, but I felt pretty lucky to be there with them.
I lowered myself into the shaft, tested my rack and readied to descend.
“Off I go,” I called.
“Have fun!” Replied Viki, “And goodnight, because I won’t be here when you come back, I meant it, I’m going to bed and leaving you to it.”
I figured I’d give a little pleading one more try. The first time I’ve tried pleading over a 100m free-hanging pitch… unsuccessful. But that didn’t matter.
“But Viki what if I die in the shaft…”
“Nope, not going to work… this time, I’m actually going to bed now.”
“Okay,” I concede, turning my focus to my rack once more. “Sweet dreams!”
So with girlpop tunes blaring from the speaker, I bid Viki goodnight and waved a quick see-ya-later to Will before beginning my descent. I was a few meters away from the Rampgill Balcony when I heard the dreaded low battery beeps coming from the speaker.
A collective gasp and groan from all three of us.
Then Will called down that he was going to run back to the hut to fetch a powerbank to keep the Taylor Swift playing. I paused on the rope to talk to him.
“Are you both going?” (As much as I love Brewery Shaft, I didn’t really want to be down there alone, with no one above in case something did go wrong).
“I’ve been guilt tripped into staying!” Called Viki, sounding like they weren’t totally upset at this.
I was pretty thankful, and continued my descent knowing I was in safe hands. And what a brilliant descent it is, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it. There’s so much to see - huge pipes, pretty formations, old equipment, random bits of carpet, the cool lights and of course the faraway sight of the grate 100m above you.
As I touched the bottom, and began my fourth ascent I ruminated on what an excellent time I was having. Having the girlpop blasting at the top is a fabulous prussicking incentive too, the faster you go the closer you get to whichever Taylor Swift, Britney Spears or Rhianna song is playing at the time. Being close enough to the surface that you can join in with the lyrics is a brilliant feeling.
Reaching the surface once more I proclaimed to a now returned Will that I had once again had an excellent bounce.
With Viki now back at the hut tucked up in bed, it was just Will and I remaining. He prepared for his own descent, and we kept the good vibes going.
Will returned to the top of the shaft, and after wrestling with the lock on the hatch we bid the shaft goodnight. Rather thoughtfully, Viki had stayed awake until we were both back safe at the hut.
Once back, Will and I enjoyed Cheeseboard part 3 (my brie and golden syrup combo changed lives this weekend) and a mug of hot chocolate before heading to bed (with the hopefully minimal clanging of taking off our SRT kits).
An incredible night, excellent vibes, big thanks to Will and Viki for indulging me in some midnight escapades and some remarkably excellent, stupid behaviour.
