hoehlenforscher said:
There is a tale of an epic trip to be found in the CUCC anals regarding a pushing trip to the bottom of Schnellzughoehle in Austria. I shall try and dig out a link. It involved a bivouac, a push to -850m, a swim through a duck that ends on a lip at the start of the final 90m pitch, getting back to the surface afterwards, a 3 mile walk back to the car and then falling of the mountain on the drive back down to the valley!
Not quite - I think you're mixing events of two different years.
The accident on the drive back down was in 1978, following a long trip down Eislufth?hle:
[quote author=CUCC 1978 Logbook]
Explored the river by the side of the road below the toll road. Tackle : one Ford Fiesta. Descended 30' pitch into streamway, with a couple of mid-air turns too. time c 5 seconds, tackle written off.
The above trip led to a series of extraneous trips to Bad Aussee and Salzburg hospitals where Simon and Julian were swindling the insurance with their minor injuries (broken neck, broken sternum). It put an end to pushing 106 for the year, and we were naturally reluctant to indulge in any more overnight trips. [/quote]
http://cucc.survex.com/expo/years/1978/log.htm#id1978-76-11
The deep trips with the swimming duck followed by a 90m pitch were in 1982:
[quote author=CUCC 1982 Logbook]
Thursday 5th August 115 Pushing
Chas & Dave
My old man said "Follow the van..." geddit ? Gertcha !
Well . . . . what can I say ? Preparing for a long trip, Dave put on long johns, wetsuit, furry suit, pullover, cagoule and overalls. Unfortunately he could barely move and had to take off a layer or two at the Ramp. Down the Purgatory was as nasty as ever. Then, past the Confluence and "Yeeeeeeeah !" I've never been as near having an orgasm underground as when I saw the smoked "CUCC 82" in the roof. Suitably encouraged by the easy way out, we pressed on. A pleasant series of pitches lead to the Duck. Yeurgh !! Chas did well to survive in just a furry suit. Then - Orgasm Chasm. Jeez what a shaft ! We put in two bolts and a large freehang 150+ dropped to (no not a floor) a ledge. Another bolt but rope too short. Still no floor. Back (bounce) up (bounce) the Interalp (bounce) which stopped bouncing when it caught and I was prussiking up an iron bar ! Shit. We've now been under 9 hours so exit. Large gonk at sump bypass. At confluence we gratefully climbed up into the phreas. The way to 115 is about half a mile of walking and traversing. Towards the end we were stopping every 50m for a rest. In the Big Chamber, we had a really bad gonk for 25 minutes or so - I began to wonder if we'd make it. Once the prussiking had started it wasn't so bad but it was slow hard progress all the way. The Bell Pitch alone took 15 minutes. Then the crawl out to a painful dawn. In silence we changed and walked back to the Loserh?tte. The sight of Mike asleep in his car was very welcome indeed. At long last we could relax, after sixteen and a half hours unbroken struggle with this fierce cave.
16? hours[/quote]
http://cucc.survex.com/expo/years/1982/log.htm
Duncan
