CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

An opportunity presented itself to visit the "other" new cave and - despite feeling a bit broken - I opted to give it a go. This proved to be a good decision.: Fischgesicht is one of the more pleasant caves I hve been to in Austria. The rig is mostly excellent: high bolts and tight traverse lines prevail. I would have beemn inclined to stick in an extra bolt at the heat of the Blitner Boulevard pitch to protect the step over the massive void, but that is a merequibble.

Headed in to a running commentary from Lydia about what everything was called that went in one ear and out the other. Eventually made it to Ulysses and left Michael bolting his way across the void under Luke's supervision. Our job was to clear some fo the surveying backlog. It would be unfair to identify the perpetrator of this unfortunate state of affairs so he will henceforce be referred to as Bik Mutcher.

Having said that Fischgesicht is a nice cave, the bit we eventually got to survey falls some way short of this standard.. There was a strong draght, but mostly emerging from the sort of boulder choke you don't want your head to be anywhere near. After connecting the survey in, we elected to head out to give ourselves the option of walking down the hill. This meant we didn't get to survey to the alleged active stalagtite seen in photos the previous day, which means that I remain convinced that that it is actually an inflatable formation procured from Blackpool Pleasure Beach,or some suitable Photoshop wizardry.