CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Blog Author: h_collings [Blog post dated 30th August]
Unfortunately, my hopes for more camping were thwarted by some untimely catching of covid putting me out of action. On the tail end of my covid recovery I was desperate to get back underground and managed to argue my way onto the final camp trip of expo, insisting I was well enough for the trip.

After what felt like a very long week at base camp, I was very excited to be going caving. Jono, Charlotte and I packed our bags and headed off for Balkon. It was Charlotte’s first camp trip and her first time down to this area of Balkon, so I pointed out the sights along the way. We got down to camp in reasonable time so dumped kit and headed on to Southern Pitstop for a few hours of pushing before dinner. None of us had been there before so it was something new to the group. We surveyed around 100m of easy horizontal passage, naming it Covid Corner after my recent affliction. Charlotte and I surveyed the traditional way whilst Jono 3D scanned the passage, with the aim of later comparing the two results. At the end of the passage, we reached a drop down into a rift which required rope and as we had left rigging gear at camp to travel light, decided this was a good time to return for dinner and bed.