CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2024

Go there - a 200m freehang, the Austrians said. Slog uphill, rig off hill, debate about rubs, rebelays (subsequently dealt with by tying a tacklesack to the rope). Eventually Wooks goes down with spare rope cos it thinks it is 20m too short. Bottoms years later. Jumps onto van (pitch free doesn't work !) Julian next - lot of gibbering. Then me. Probably fairly typical reaction "Fuck me I'm a long way up & scared". Then tackle sack 'tector falls down rope. Watch it land 200m later, oops. Carry on. Abseil slowly, stop getting very hot. How to uncrab a stop mid descent - use chest jammer to hold rope (from "stop"go'to'stop") and 2 hands to take crab out of stop. More descent. More heat. More bounce. Why does it still look like I'm only half way down. More. I'm scared. Think about rope melting. Still abseiling slowly. Think about rubs. Abseil non bouncily (or try to). Wave at Germans. SWEAR loudly. God I'm scared. Abseil some more. "How far to the bottom" Still feels like halfway up. Hands knackered from gripping rope. Stop hot. Ledge - take some weight off rope - mistake - feed several metres of rope through stop without moving then fell. Please don't bounce this much. Scared. Abseil and this is the last bit isn't it. Abseil. Land. GROUND ! I'm safe. Legs numb, forgot how to walk on scree slope. Say hello to ground party - walk around a while. Tell tourists a rope will soon fall on their heads. Have a random conversation with them coz their English is about as good as my German. Rope falls. Whish noisy - very impressive fall. Tanglepack. Home. The others say they were scared too. The end love Clive.