Maelstrom - Finally Underground
Joe Stell
After the brilliant success of yesterday's failed pushing trip, Frank and I returned to Mahlstromhöhle to actually go underground and push. After the entrance pitch, there is a small hole in the floor, from which several small-ish pitches follow.
The cave begins to follow a canyon, starting with a lovely tight climb up to a ledge at the pitch head, with some other equally fun freeclimbs on which we decided to bolt a handline on the way back.
The canyon appears to have several false floors which we followed, resulting in several very small pitches which would certainly be a freeclimb if there were actually any holds. Bolting and surveying on the way, we kept pushing until we ran out of bolts and found a squeeze followed by a big wet pitch. We turned around and quickly exited the cave, with much SRT faff from me at the small canyon pitchheads and unusually rigged pitches by the German pair.