CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2024

After being pressured to start pulling gear out of various places, we decided to polish off the Futrell Shaft. Over a dozen hangers and 200m+ of rope was left in there. With Michael bolting, and Elaine and I surveying, we were underground by 12:00. Mike's shaft of Tremendous girth really does live up to its nickname! After some 150m of rope work, I swapped positions with Michael on a ledge at the pushing front, some 30+m from the base of the shaft. Michael started drilling and Elaine and I some cold & awkward SRT surveying. The new pitch consists of a 55m rope, from a good-sized, 10m² shelf of solid boulders. A Y-hang from a small gully leads to a re-belay, ~10m below. Another ~15m to another re-belay, single bolt, before 10m to the floor of the shaft.

No obvious leads, except one small < human-sized crawl, no more than a C-lead. Michael had a look and was haued out by his feet. Loose boulder-strewn floor with clean walls gave nothing else away. De-rigging took ~2.30 hours, with the difficult narrow entrance making tackle sack hauling very hard work. Martin & Jacob helped to get gear back to Top Camp, after meeeting them at Balconhöhle.