CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Tue 31 Jul 1979
Tony Malcolm

Eislufthöhle

I got the short straw and ended up in the caving team. (Andy W asked me to mention that he carried the Bluewater up to the cave.) I'm writing this in Bar Fischer, looking across at this bird wearing tight white jeans ... phew ! God, I must concentrate. Got underground, rigged the snow slope with a ladder, and belayed the B/W at the top of Plugged Shaft, using last year's bolts. Then unfortunately, the rest of the shaft had totally altered from last year. Despite less snow than ever seen before, it was arranged very differently. The snow platform had disappeared. At least the first two rebelays of last year are buried in about 4' of snow. More rebolting will be needed, and we had no driver or anchors, hence lack of complete penetration (LCP).



Walked off the plateau after a

trip. Whilst walking off, Tony noticed the huge phreatic entrance passed on the walk in. Small passage led off from back of above, possible draught, but semi-blocked by boulder - should yield to a hammer and needs looking at.



Nick