CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2024

Set off from the Stone Bridge at 8am, planning to spend 2 nights at Camp Kraken in order to follow leads in Snake Charmer. Underground at 9am. Route finding was simple enough, no major mistakes, and arrived at camp at 12:40. Dumped camping gear and picked up rope and drilling kit, headed down Octopussy, took two of three drill batteries to the pushing front.

On the way Rachel put in another bolt to the lowest rebelay on Snake Charmer, and a handline on the climb down shortly after. Arrived at the window looking over the lead, Rachel and I sat in the bothy and put on extra layers while Becka bolted the main pitch [named Snake Pit] down to the water.



The water came from a large ~15m aven just upstream of the pitch. The majority of the water went down a low passage, along ~50m of vadose rift with frequent pools and free climbs with flaky sharp limestone. The main route comes up and left of the water into a rift canyon with pools and a short 2m climb. Eventually a pitch head (P6) comes up marking the start of a series of three short pitches.



Ended at the second pitch, uneventful back to camp. Up early on the 1^st, headed back to the front with the remaining drill batteries. Third pitch becomes tighter and leads to a fourth pitch.



Unfortunately, here we ran out of drill battery so had to turn back, both to camp and then out to the surface. A brief lunch of noodles fuelled Rachel and I while Becka powered on out. Return journey also uneventful, exited the cave at 10:30pm.