CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Off to rig + survey leads at the end of Hippo Hollows in Subsoil. Nial + Becka surveyed two tubes on the left at the end of Hippo Hollows. First just popped out to look over the rift that the main passage ended on. Further back, the tube went steeply up to a small pitch. Earl put in two bolts for a Y-hang. We put in a comedy traverse over the top of the pitch (not far, but rigged on feeble naturals on the far side, and passing over slippery mud) and continued the survey up the tube the far side to a small pitch with a possible vocal connection to the rift at the end of Hippo Hollows. Pitch a QM B. Then back to the Y-hang and I descended the short pitch. A small crawl at the bottom seemed to immediately open out onto a pitch. I didn't push it (needed to take SRT kit off) but another QM B.

Meanwhile Earl had belayed Julian as he free-climbed down the rift at the end of Hippo Hollows to descend into Fat Worm Blows a Sparky. Becka and Nial surveyed down into FWBAS and started to survey there whilst Earl tried to drill spits for a more sensible rig down to FWBAS (and failed – we were using a rope dangled down the rift with lots of rubs so you have to free climb up and down). Found some weird white formations like plastic in a passage at the end of the survey, which Julian photographed.