CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Went back to the pitch carrying on below Forward to the Past. Olly rigged down to the rock bridge down to to a ledge where a passage doubled back and dropped a small pitch which was choked at the bottom. The main pitch continued down the same fault plane (N.B. Fault has ~1m offset and dips slightly to the E; strike ~ 230°). This pitch led to another short one before things got smaller, we got cold and time was running out. We started surveying out from here leaving a pitch with a couple of seconds' drop (though the rock bounced once). Derigged back up to BNW whilst surveying and then traversed over the pitch to see if the main BNW passage continued; it did, initially quite big and rift-like with a trench in the floor (Olly named this the Boiling Tube). After a bit a passage left on the left followed by an aven, shortly later another passage (this time mud-choked) left on the right and the main one got smaller, so we surveyed back from here.

Again we had too much gear to carry out so I went back for the 3rd tacklesack whilst Olly abbed down to the ledge below The Ledge to derig. After this we both heroically carried out lots of gear + I derigged. I hadn't realised how much harder swinging around to derig would be with 2 heavy tacklesacks. By the top of Draught Bitter I gave up on taking both bags together and shuttled them up. By the end of derigging I only had enough strength to carry 1 bag out of the cave + stumble back to the bivvy where Olly had kindly cooked me food. He then went back to retrieve the bag.