Homecoming - shallow level
Anthony Day
Having elected not to camp in Tunnocks the night before,Luke and I had a bonus extra day's caving.
I wasnotin the moodfor anything too epic after emerging at 2am;
a trip to a shallow level in Homecoming sounded like just the job.
Ladened with all out gear we set off following Frank who confidently asserted
that he had followed a cairned path back from the cave via Fischgesicht the day before.
It rapidly became apparent that these caves were a figment of Frank's imagination,
so the stetch beyond Fischgesicht wasnavigated by GPS and involved much bunde bashing.
The cave itself looks like the real deal,and we quickly found ourway to the lead in a pleasant,
small phreatic passage.
Equipment-wide the trip was a mixture ofancient and modern: Frank and Luke went off
surveying in full paperless mode with a DistoX and PDA,
whilst I had to hand-bolt a pitch.
I even used a clown out of choice rather than necessity.
By the time Luke and Frank had finished surveying, I had descended to a ledge
with a couple of ways on - later to become 'Snagged & Shagged'
when revisited by Nadia and Adam.
Out nice and early, suckered Frank into walking back
to Top Camp via the bivi cave on the flank of the Kleine Wildkogel. At a mere
50 mins longer in time than our route to the cave, this would go down
as a less-than-successful short-cut.