CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2024

Julia had asked people to look at Hauchhöhle so Pete and I decided to have a poke. A survey was produced showing the main way on to be to the left at the bottom of the (first) pitch. Pete rigged the pitch and followed my bad advice of rethreading the rope around the natural backup because we only had one sling. Dour had told me a deviation was needed to stop the rope rubbing and he was indeed correct. So I spent the next half hour putting in a spit and getting groin injuries, while Pete scrotted around in every unpromising lead he could find. At one point the digested aroma of shrimp noodles à la Blue Dragon chased him out of such a passage and the Flatulence Series was born.

By the time I had finished bolting, he had unfortunately found a tight rift that appeared to go, culminating in a climb that I had to convince Peter to descend (with the aid of 2 slings lark's-footed around a natural). After that it was all downhill as each unsurveyed bit of passage led to a further junction with two new leads. We pushed all the leads we could for several hours, with Pete pushing a particular oxbow several times (Clifton's Circuit). Then we ran away to the Stone Bridge and recounted tales of our great adventure and miles of cave passage to whoever would listen.