CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2024

We were tasked by Antony to rig the entrance series of Balkonhöhle so that he could go and rig Mongol Rally (presumably a more interesting rig).

Obedient as we are, we agreed to the task and decided to make it a rigging learning expereince as well.

As we were the first people going to Balkonhöhle we had to add refelctors to the path, which we found by using the GPX track from essentials.

At the entrance of the cave, I rigged the handline onto the balcony. We then got changed and prepared to go underground. As it was supposed to be learning experience, Sieds and Marie had priority on the rigging, supervised by Lara and me.

As Sieds was geared up first, I took him to rig the first pitch. Midaway down the entrance series, Marie took over. She got to rig the large drippy pitch, which I was a bit jealous of.

Around this time, Lara was getting a bit worried because of the storm that was forecast and the perceived increase in drip. For the sake of expediency, I rigged the last bit. At the bottom, we decided that it would be irresponsible to keep going and rig the traverse we were meant to.

So we slowly made our way out of the cave, which wasn't very far, since we rigged a total a of 139m of rope.

The walk accross the plateau back to top camp was uneventful, except for the storm that was rapidly approaching. Luckily we made it back to camp 5 minutes before it started pouring.