CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Went underground to the ritual thunderclap. Carrying ~120m of rope which we later discovered to be a mistake. The descent was enlivened by occasional shrieks from Mike as he suicide-rigged his Baker-converted Petzl bobbin. Put another bolt in the small pitch with the v-shaped notch at the top, this made it much easier on the return. At Beezley Street we found the rope Brian had dropped and carried on to their limit. We went down the free climb and soon arrived at another drop. This was rigged with a traverse on muddy ledges to a 9m drop, rebelay, 10m and then 8m. This landed in a muddy rift which looked to narrow at about 4m. There was another similar small sump, and then a climb up a muddy slope (we had to use a rope). This ended at a hole. Mike managed to squeeze through, but I had to dig out some of the mud before it was possible. Through the hole led to a maze of phreatic tubes filled with layered mud. All of these ended in dried out sumps. There is possibly 150m of passage down here. An aven drops in, but didn't look climbable. So, happy that it had finished, we started out, carrying most of the rope we had foolishly brought with us. The whole of the cave below Beezley Street is very muddy and toothbrushes were much appreciated. Excellent soup at the dump, and a fairly slow exit.