CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Whizzed back to the bottom (25 mins) to continue climbing up the same aven as yesterday. Spent some time getting kitted up, climbed up to where we'd finished the day before, did the next move and then tried to put in another Hilti. Oh dear, the drill battery's flat! Not sure why that happened - we'd only done about 10 holes out of that pack. It seems likely that the drill stnadby current (I'd left the battery connected to the drill overnight) is high enough to flatten the battery quite quickly (overnight).

So we prussiked back up to Traverse of the Gods and met Duncan and Mick on their way in. Having nicked a piece of rope, we trundled across the traverse and up to northern end of Elin Algor, with the intention of having a look down the obvious big hole in the floor. Unfortunately I'd forgotten we needed a rope to get down the mud bank above, so that knocked that plan on the head. However, just around the corner to the right of the spit for the mud bank pitch, there's a muddy, loose ramp going up at around 45°. I climbed a long way up this (probably 20-30m), which turned left(ish) soon above the bottom. Right at the top is a small rifty slope, choked mostly with mud and rocks, through which is a pitch of perhaps 20m. Unfortunately its going to be very difficult to fit through the pitch head.

Having exhausted possibilities in Elin Algor, we bumbled off to HOTMC to have a look at some of Wookey's QMs at the bottom of the chamber. We spent some time poking around in the boulder choke and found little except loose rocks and small pseudo-chambers made of unstable rock and shit. I doubt very much that there is anything worth looking at further down here.

After that I went up to the big holes at the top of the lower bit of HOTMC where Duncan and Mik were busy bolting. About 8m up the right hand wall, over the right hand of the two holes in the floor, is a window into what loks very much like a bit of passage. Needs bolting to get up for a look, so went bac home instead.