CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Went into BNW with the drill and rigging gear to start looking at the pitch leads close to QM 05- because it had been raining hard for hours and it looked to be the driest option - in fact it was very dry, only a few slightly drippy bits. Olly traversed across the lip of the Pleasant But Pointless pitch, because of all the gear he was carrying it became a bolt traverse this year, not a bold traverse that it was in 2005 when I first saw the pitch. Olly got through to the pitch having scrambled through the rocks (this is called Scrabble) and bolted down the first short drop. This was a little drippy but the water disappeared through the rocky floor. A ramp comes in from above (?perhaps this connects with the boulder choke in Loopy?). This continues into a rift with various holes and rock bridge that all connect, giving it its name, Sea Of Holes. Olly rigged an excellent Y-hang to a level with solid ledges and started down the next pitch. We ran out of hangers, slings and warmth before the pitch ended, so surveyed out. I coped better with the traverse on the way out.

Sea of Holes has nice, solid rock, isn't too wet, doesn't have much choss and draughts fairly strongly (given the size) outwards which is very cool. On the way out we noticed the draught had reversed (around 11pm to midnightish), hopefully this won't affect the radon detecting.