expoweb/smkridge/113.htm

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1623:113
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<center><table border=0 width=100%>
<tr><th align=left><font size=+2>113</font></th>
<th align=center><font size=+2>Sonnenstrahlh&ouml;hle</font></th>
<th align=right><font size=+2>4/S/T +</font></th></tr>
</table></center>
<p><b>Altitude:</b> 1642m, depth 330m approx.<br>
<b>Position:</b> E 36250.6, N (52)81340.4, H 1642.0 (entrance bolt)<br>
<b>Marking:</b> Orange painted number on north-facing wall above shaft
<p><b>Location:</b> Follow St&ouml;gerweg (path 201) well past turn off for
<a href="41.htm">Stellerwegh&ouml;hle</a>. This involves a steep descent,
then a long horizontal stretch, crossing the dry valley containing Kat.
<a href="87.htm">87a</a>. After quite a way, there is an orange paint flash
on the left, more easily seen when coming the other way. This is just a few
metres before you turn left and start hacking up the hillside. Further orange
paint marks the route, which goes up a dry valley and over the entrance
<a href="109.htm">109</a>. Eventually, a scrub-free area is reached, go right
and then scramble up rock towards a tree. Don<6F>t rush beyond the tree or
you'll fall a long way.
<p><center><a href="others/l/113ac.htm"><img src="others/t/113ac.jpg"
alt="(photo (67k jpeg))" width=124 height=184></a> Andy Connolly on
entrance, 1980 <a href="others/l/113ent.htm"><img src="others/t/113ent.jpg"
alt="(photo (53k jpeg))" width=131 height=165></a></center>
<p>Entrance is <b>huge</b>. A sizeable dry valley develops into a canyon
which is full of snow. The canyon ends downstream in a solid wall, where the
rigging point for the entrance pitch starts by the aforementioned tree. A
short drop leads to a ledge where a stretch to the left (facing the rock)
reaches a rebelay in a fine position on the impending wall. From here, drop
21m onto a large snow slope, then 10m further to the flat snow floor of a
large chamber lit from above by the shaft.
<p><center><a href="others/l/113day.htm"><img src="others/t/113day.jpg"
alt="(photo (23k jpeg))" width=130 height=200></a></center>
<p>The way on is up a climb of 3m to a horizontal passage. There is an area
of hading rifts, not fully explored. The first hole descends a ramp over
treacherous ice and rubble for 30m to the head of a pitch, <b>Ibbeth Perilous
Pot</b>. A second parallel ramp connects to the same point. Both these ramps
suffer from loose rock and are best tackled with a handline. The main pitch
drops for 20m in a series of steps, best rigged. A final 13m drop then lands
on a rock/ice blockage <b>Marathon Ledge</b>, which at one time contained the
original explorer's helmet and lights, dropped from the head of the pitch. A
hammered route past the blockage leads to two short drops, then a 6m pitch
into the Opera House (see below).
<p>A descent of the second major hole from the entrance is the normal route
and leads to a ramp down, traverse across and the head of <b>Point Five
Gully</b>. The gully is decorated with ice formations early in the season,
as are all the useful hand- and footholds on the following ramp, so a rope
is recommended to descend <b>Fox's Glacier</b>. At the foot, about 60m
below the entrance chamber, is a low bouldery chamber, and a low arch leads
to a larger chamber, <b>Barnsley Methodist Chapel</b>, which is 20m high
and 30m long.
<p>The Chapel is floored with large boulders at one end, but an obvious low
sandy passage to the left leads to the head of a 14m dry rift pitch with a
bouldery takeoff. The pitch is free-hanging after the first two metres, to a
gravel-floored chamber opening off the rift. Water entering high on the
right takes a floor trench 10m deep which may be traversed above to gain the
<b>Balcony</b> of the <b>Opera House</b>, an impressive 20m diameter,
roughly circular chamber. A 12.5m pitch (awkward takeoff as rigged in 1980)
gains the bouldery, sloping floor. A scramble down boulders and a further 7m
pitch over a very large boulder leads into a rift, where an awkward 10m
pitch with natural belays and joke bolts leads to a flat mud floor at a
larger section at the head of a pitch. At this point the draught changes
direction, the cave becomes clean, and a stream is met falling from an
inaccessible (and out of sight) passage, apparently at the same level as the
pitch head.
<p>Down the pitch, a rebelay (which is a very long stretch to rig unless
you're very tall) avoids the worst of the water on <b>Purple Pit</b>. Quite
possibly this could be rigged as a deviation (we didn't do these in 1980).
There is a long section to a large ledge, from where the pitch leaves the
fault it has been following and heads down a series of short steps with
rebelays a few metres apart. At the bottom of this section, 60m below the
start, a further fault is met at right angles, with twin holes in the floor.
The first one is wet and nasty, while the second is tolerable. Both unite and
go off to the left in a diminutive streamway. To the right above the holes is
the entry point from <a href="152.htm">Bananeh&ouml;hle</a>(152), explored in
1985.
<p><center><a name="ppitbot" href="others/l/purple.htm">
<img src="others/t/purple.jpg" alt="(B/W photo (58k jpeg))" width=134
height=200 align=left></a>
Simon Kellet at the top of the short dry pitch below Purple Pit
<br clear=all></center>
<p>The diminutive streamway ends shortly in a tight sump, but before this, a
climb up leads unobviously to a traverse and then a crawl trending back over
the entry point, <b>M&uuml;sli Crawl</b>. A number of acute bends are
disorientating, then a short drop leads to a final rift and a pitch head.
This is a thrutch to start, then drops 10m to where the water reenters. A
series of drops, <b>Sprucy Wind</b>, follows, and some of the bolts (1980
vintage, greased in 1982) are easily missed, which makes the pitches wetter.
There is a branch shaft at one point which is unexplored, but appears to
reunite somewhat lower down. The pitches of 8, 26, 12, 10, 10, 20, 5 and 9m
drop to a final rift chamber where an inlet from up on the left doubles the
size of the stream on a rocky floor. This inlet responds to floods about an
hour faster than the main water. The combined waters fall down a 6m drop and
sink in a gravel-choked pool.
<p>Climbing up opposite the inlet, a dry rift is a little tight but pops out
into a series of dry passages, apparently quite unrelated to the rift
pitches. This area, <b>The Crematorium</b>, is a good place to wait when the
pitches flood. There is a large horizontal passage ending in a chamber with
various bedding crawl extensions. Avens in the roof are hard to reach (one
bolt used for aid) and don't seem to go anywhere. A narrow rift in the floor
contains the stream, and a climb down can be made at one point where it is
just wide enough. Thrutching forward in a traverse cum crawl a short way
above the water, a couple more diminutive drops reach a place where to
continue would be just plain stupid, since it is small and wet. The cave was
rigged in 1982 just to go and push the end. It didn't go.
<p>There is potential for further extension by traversing over down-ramps in
the entrance area, and by gaining access to the source of the water (and
route of the draught) at the top of Purple Pit. Apparently the Point Five
Gully and Fox's Glacier Ramp was traversed over in 1987, and another ramp
descended, but this seems to have rejoined the main route somewhere near
Barnsley Methodist Chapel. This route was not surveyed.
<p><b>Exploration:</b> CUCC 1980 (Team Sunbeam) to bottom; 1982 to push
bottom, but no new passage found. Entered from 152 in 1985, Ibbeth Perilous
Pot route connected 1987
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