CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

Enthusiastically we set out to do justice to the Keanu Breeze pitch. With drill, hammer, and spanner we made our way to the bottom of Fishface and layered up in preparation for the cold bolting job As this was my first pitch bolting job Harry came to help me while Luke and Joel split off for some survey work. After finding a nice natural for the leading line, the first Y hang was easy to install. We had a good discussion about game plan during which Harry kettle's love of deviations became apparent. I descended a short distnce and found a nice ledge witha potential clean hang to the bottom. The obvious place to place the bolt happened to be in a very large boulder that looked like it didn't want to be part of the wall. Harry did not seem concerned about this until we swapped places and he got a look at it himself, at which point we agreed to bolt next to the boulder instead on into it. As we did not have a skyhook this involved a sustained heel hook, during which I nearly lost a welly, as I drilled the first hole. After some time and some strange noises from the bothy I completed the rebelay. We then proceeded proceeded to descend the pitch and Luke soon appeared at the top shouting something about us having left the survey kit behind. As he descended the pitch he made some faces and muttered something about 'nasty water'. Joel and I had faith however and postulated that we may even have discovered the Loser master cave. Being the rigorous caving team that we are, we took our measurements and, having got slightly wet, left hastily despite Harry reckoning he could push the wet passage. The Keanu Breeze pendlum to a nice looking phreatic passage remains to be attemped by a bold caver who still has the energy to go to the bottom of Fishface.