<h2><center>CUCC Austria 1999 - Mission statement</center></h2>
<p>1999 will see the twenty third annual summer expedition to Austria
by the Cambridge University Caving Club. A number of major goals are
set out for this year's expedition, along with a great deal of other
work both on new projects and continuing documentation of previous
exploration.
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<p>For eleven successive summer expeditions, C.U.C.C., and its post-graduate
sister club ex-Cambridge Speleologists, have been exploring the
<ahref="../../smkridge/161/top.htm">Kaninchenhöhle</a> cave system in
the Totes Gebirge of Austria (about 80 km east of Salzburg). A major goal of
the 1997 trip was to link the cave with a deep shaft system,
<ahref="../../smkridge/161/136.htm">Steinschlagschacht</a>, first explored
by the club in 1983. This was successfully achieved by
means of some rather spectacular traversing of a ledge system 40m above the
floor of a large chamber, giving an increased depth of 507m for the combined system. After the 1998 trip, a new deep point was reached, making the cave
534m deep and 22.4 km long, ranking as one of the major caves of Europe.
<p>To the south of Kaninchenhöhle lies another major cave,
the southern Schwarzmooskogel system. Parts of this were explored as
long ago as 1938, but the major central part of the cave,
<ahref="../../smkridge/41/41.htm">Stellerweghöhle</a>, was explored by
CUCC in 1980-85, to a depth of 973m and a length of some 7km. Other parts of
the cave have been explored by both French and German groups, and the total
length of this cave was over 20km before some new exploration in 1998 by
ArGe.
<p>After 1997, the gap between these two systems is about 130m, in passages
at much the same level. The 1998 expedition eliminated some of the more
obvious leads working from the Stellerweg end, using the nearest entrance,
which leads into a spectacular ice-decorated chamber. Various climbs down and
up were pushed, finding some new passage, but no convincing way on towards
Steinschlagschacht.
<p>A major goal of the 1999 expedition will be to search for new passages in
the area of this gap, via the Steinschlagschacht entrance. Linking the two
systems would involve us not only in exciting new exploration, but also in a
great deal of tie-up surveying to establish definitive figures for the length
and depth of the combined system. Current survey information suggests that
the linked cave would be well over 42 km long and 1056m deep, making it the
third or fourth longest cave in Austria. This would also put it among both
the fifty or so deepest caves in the world <b>and</b> the fifty or so
longest. Few caves make it so far up both the long <u>and</u> deep lists -
truly a cave of world significance.
<p>Our German friends from Stuttgart, <blang=de>Arbeitsgemeinschaft
Höhle und Karst Grabenstetten e.V.</b> (ArGe) have explored 7km (up
to the end of 1997 - more this year, too) in one of the linked caves in the
southern system and are still working in cooperation with us in the area. We
are also in contact with the French <blang=fr>Groupe Spéléo de
Clerval - Baume les Dames</b> (GSCB) who explored part of this system in the
1980's. Liaison with these groups, as well as with the local Austrian cavers
<blang=de-at>Vereines für Höhlenkunde in OberSteier</b> (VfHO) is
an important part of the work both on the expedition and during the
year-round documentation effort that goes on at home in the UK.
<p>Other areas of Kaninchenhöhle also merit attention, with over 230
unfinished ways on <ahref="../../smkridge/161/qmtodo.htm">documented</a>
in the cave. Some of these were quite remote when first found,
but have been made much more accessible since the discovery
of the lower-level <ahref="../../smkridge/161/sftotp.htm#161d">Scarface</a>
entrance in 1995.
<p>The <ahref="../../smkridge/161/farnth.htm">Far North</a> of the cave has
not been revisited for some time, but is now rendered rather easier of
access. If enough people attend the expedition, this area is also one of
potential interest, as are any of a number of other areas. Any of the 230-odd
going leads could gain access to significant new extensions.
For example, a rather unpromising lead in a 1996 find gave access to the
<ahref="../../smkridge/161/offtri.htm#lworld">Lost World</a> in 1997. This
was a rather unexpected, but very impressive series of horizontal passages
developed at a level lower than any of the other major horizontal development
in the system.
<p>The production of an accurate survey of all the cave newly explored
by each expedition has been a goal we have increasingly met in recent years.
This has been aided on the surface by computer technology, of course, but
in the cave, still requires the investment of considerable effort and
manpower.
<p>Away from Kaninchenhöhle itself, CUCC have explored several
dozen other caves during the two decades we have been visiting the area.
A number of high-quality survey points established by laser-rangefinder
and theodolite are now available, and these combined with GPS units, are
enabling us to relocate many of these and provide a much higher standard of
documentation than was regarded as acceptable in the earlier years of
our exploration. Although something of a "background" task, this work is
important, and will undoubtedly lead to the discovery of more new caves
as the surface is covered more systematically than previously.
<p>As always, publication of a report, with photographs, maps and surveys, is
an essential part of the expedition's activities. In recent years, the aim
has been to provide a printed report in the autumn following the expedition,
for circulation to our sponsors and others. The main publication is a full
report in the CUCC journal "Cambridge Underground", whilst briefer
resumé articles appear in the British Cave Research Association
Bulletin "Caves and Caving" and in the popular magazine "Descent". Surveys
and photographs of new finds are presented in a lecture at the annual BCRA
conference, despite this being within only three or four weeks of the
expedition's return each year.
<p>However, the main avenue of publication for the great mass of detail
which each expedition generates is now via our club website. This contains
annually revised descriptions of all the explored cave, as well as a wealth
of archive material which we could not contemplate publishing on paper.
As well as our own material, there are links and summaries of the work of
others in the area. Links are also provided to other caving clubs' sites
(many CUCC cavers go on to join regionally-based clubs when they graduate,
whilst still continuing to cave on the expedition) and of course to the
