CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2024

Headed underground at ~10pm on 30/07, arrived at camp around half 11. Good nights sleep, unlike the following night. Packed rope, bolts etc before facilitating a quick start. Fixed up the rigging on Apis Mediary on the way down, arrived at the first pitch which was left in the canyon by myself, Nathan and Max last year. Much wetter than last time so decided we needed an additional rebelay bolt way out to the left. Next drop rigged then we were into new territory. Scuttled along the top of the traverse after trying to force a lower route & deciding it was too shit. Reached a big pitch, decided the scuttle needed to have rope so began bolting along while Luke and Lea surveyed, Luke returning to the hang to get additional rope in the meantime . Dropped down the pitch towards a ledge, swung out to avoid the sprat of the pitch with a skyhook. PING! It was off, I swung across the shaft, stopping myself from hitting the wall with my hand which was unusable for the rest of the trip.

We then landed on a big ledge in a large fault zone. Massive piles of choss were everywhere & the the water fucked odd down into a small gap between some large boulders. We wandered around the space for a bit deliberating the best way to progress. There was a big aven dropping in again carrying water (over 5 active inlets had been passed now) and the possibility of a big traverse into space between the choss. In the end I decided we should follow the water and I scuttled along some boulders above the noisy streamway and below the hanging death, Placed some traverse bolts feeling quite tired after the adrenaline from the hand had worn off. Used and an ARGE hanger (tick) then dropped down right into the floor of the water. Rigged a deviation while being pissed on then reached the floor of the drop where the inlet from the aven dropped in. Walked across the chamber feeling very cold, saw that there was another ~5m drop down to a flat floored streamway below. Much more noise from water behind us than in front which would imply that things got easier ahead, but I couldn't make the others get that wet (even though Lea was well equipped in her fluorescent jacket, looking like crew at a festival). We deriggedback to camp (apart from the short pitches to get to the new traverse (now named 'Delicate Steve/ I did Naat' as Nadia assumed I had scooped when i would not interpret that i had). Later after inputting data saw we were well on course to connect, <100m horizontal and <10m vertical from Razordance. Another year, hopefully drier.

Called it Dentelle de Caca after Lea said that the flaky calcite precipitates on the wall looked like the lace on a wedding dress.