CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Went to the end. Wadders seems to have got it mostly right, (Todd too ie. Strange Acrossfall is airy, SSR is MENTAL (Hooray for Aggy)). After leaving Wux at Beehive to play camping, we went and crawled up muddy hole which Wux found earlier (prev. trip) crawled out, met him, set off surveying it. Got bored, exit to Black Velvet for water, food, piss. Carry on scive. Oh, found vocal connection to bit W & MTS were rigging. More survey. Others find us near end. Then all out. Together as far as Knossos. HGS still airy - Lummat preferred to go up & down (he also didn't like the boulder step). (Oh, we did some rigging down a pitch too. It went down & stopped in mud. A traverse may gain continuation of passage far side. Wux found rope later, descended, said 'Why did you leave it ?' as a 9m plumb !) Anyway, there we were watching people going up Knossos. Make it up eventually - q knackered, lots of resting. Then Shit Alley (Todd is right !) Climb following obvious path. Get to top but I carry on up mud path due to lack of eyesight (glassed fogged). Up, airy traverse (Wux did it with rope ! I on sandy cliff. Must be wrong - descend to bottom of mud path. Where am I ? (Completely disorientated, now a bit psyched, cliff) Go down somewhere, see 2 obvious bolts, Oh must be a pitch, go up again, wander a bit more. Where am I ! STOP. Next few hours sitting down hallucinating (heartbeat becomes footsteps, waterfall shifting rocks in distance becomes people on ropes sending loose shit down). Don't go to sleep or I will die. Sit shivering lots, occasionally moving (wait a few hours). Eventually recovered, awake sufficiently to sort myself out. So dam obvious pile of shit rocks. 2 obvious bolts are in fact carbide marks. Until see Knossos rope. Found myself ! Climb out (sigh, its hard work) go past overnight bits. Follow obvious path now, past cairn and see where I went wrong. Get to Poxy. "Hooray I'm on my way again". Start prussiking to hear cavers "Hooray the rescue". Lovely to see them. Talk a bit at top of Poxy, then set on out. Oh - overnight the lid came off my FX5, so I was caving with the battery in dangly bag. After some fudge, Ali held Bungalow rope so prussik faster than normal. Going out, find traverse (Wook's climb) to slit up - anyway, the wire on my FX eventually broke, so in dark. "Julian can you light me" Thank them - they brought a club Oldham. Quick lamp swap. Out some more. Cavers everywhere on S'not (like HGS. One on traverse, 2 on down/up, one at waiting - cavers dotted randomly round cave) Rebelays are good gear. Slowly up 2nd (probably climb up rocks wrong way coz a bit airy again) Stop at bottom of entrance to rest, eat fudge so I can get out. Out in waterfall (slow again) meet Hugh "tea or coffee" to which the answer is milk. Oh well, they tried jolly hard. Wux & Nick also there being helpful. Wot nice people team surface are too. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain it went. Soaked gear - at least my gear will change from "short glob of mud, long glob of mud, mud with loop of mud on the end, glob of mud with red muddy handle, etc." Change. Walk down (Rain above can be interspersed randomly from here on) slowing down - oops tired then. Put pit in bin bag -> car park. Very tired then - had to stop on the easy bit of the path ! Drive down slowly behind bus - still quite awake - in shreddies. There aren't any bus overtaking places on the way down. Campsite. Jump in river -> clean. Eat ice lolly. Go to bed. Have supper there (Julian, Dave G sorted that out). SLEEP (@ 730 or so !) Wake up to rain. Exit heap at noon when can stand it no more. The expo carries on. My feet hurt. Jack out.

Camping works with 2 furrys & hat but have to shiver to keep warm. Ta for rescue (Julian S, Julian H, Ali) surface (Hugh, Nick, Wux)