2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
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<head><title>CUCC's Austria expeditions</title></head>
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<h2 align=center>Expedition primer</h2>
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<p><i>The annual CUCC expedition to Austria lasts up to five weeks each
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summer and concentrates mainly on new exploration in the high alpine karst of
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the <span lang="de-at">Loser</span> plateau (about 80km E of
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<span lang="de-at">Salzburg).</span> The current main projects are:
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<dl>
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<dt><span lang="de">Kaninchenhöhle</span>
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<dd>a cave now over 24km long and 534m
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deep, explored by the club since its discovery in 1988;
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<dt><span lang="de">Steinbrückenhöhle</span>
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<dd>explored to 454m in depth and 5.3km in length by the end of Expo 2002;
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<dt><span lang="de-at">Schwarzmooskogelsystem</span>
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<dd>formed from the linkage of several caves into one system, 20km or so
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long, and 972m deep, of which a third of the length and both the deepest
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point and the highest entrance were explored by CUCC in the early eighties.
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</dl>
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2003-01-20 14:42:33 +00:00
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<p><span lang="de">Kaninchenhöhle</span> was connected to the <span
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lang="de-at">Schwarzmooskogelsystem</span> by a group of German cavers in 2002.
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It is expected that <span lang="de">Steinbrückenhöhle</span> will
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eventually be connected to this system. Around ninety shorter caves have also
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been explored and recorded over the twenty year history of expo, and
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prospecting for new entrances is still an important activity.</i>
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<p>So much for the executive summary, but what does that mean for the new
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expo member ? What is actually involved in going on expo ?
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<p>Very few people, whether undergraduate or old lag, can afford the time
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to go on expo for the full period. People come and go, and people pursue
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their own particular interests within the larger context. But there has
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to be some overall strategy and some degree of planning. It is no good
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putting more resources into rigging than we have manpower to use, nor
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concentrating on so few goals that the cave is always crowded. So it is
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important that those doing the organising have a pretty good idea a few
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weeks before expo of who is going, for how long, and how hard they expect
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to cave.
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<p>But don't expect too much from that word "organising" - expedition is not
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a boot camp ! No one will kick you out of your pit and make you go caving
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(except perhaps in an emergency, such as a call-out). Nor is it entirely a
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holiday - once the effort has been put in to rig things, it is important that
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people get in there and do the work exploring, surveying, photographing and
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eventually derigging. The "organisation" is essentially a matter of pre-expo
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behind-the-scenes things like getting grants and sponsorship, buying tackle,
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coordinating transport and the like. On expo itself, it is a matter of
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judging which projects can reasonably be tackled by the number of people
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present, and suggesting the best lines of attack. This avoids rigging things
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which no one has the time or will-power to push, and ensures that there is
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enough gear to tackle the things which folk <u>are</u> keen to explore.
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<p>There are important differences between expedition caving and a typical
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Yorkshire weekend. On a tourist trip in the UK, a party will rig in, bottom
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the cave and rig out (or, at most, there may be a separate rigging in and
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rigging out trip on the same day). In Austria, a project cave will be rigged
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at the start of expo, and then numerous working trips will use that rigging
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until either the cave or the expedition finishes, and derigging takes place.
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This clearly places a lot more wear and tear on the ropes, which also tend to
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get muddier, so quality rigging is essential. Of course, some of this rigging
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is new exploration, not just "follow the P-hangers", so it is an exciting and
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challenging activity. Also, unlike a Yorkshire tourist trip, you must survey
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and describe what you find - logbook write-ups form part of a long-term
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record of what has been done so are rather more important than on weekend
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meets at home. Surveying may be an entirely new activity for first-time expo
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members, but it is also a very important one, and one which it is worth
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making the effort to get right from the start.
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<p>The caves in Austria are as different from Yorkshire and Mendip as
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those two areas are from each other. There are few sporting streamways
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and few formations. The caves are colder (often not much above freezing,
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and sometimes below). They are often much deeper than Yorkshire trips,
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though the entrances we are currently using mean that even the remotest
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places are not at vast depths. However, pitches may be big, and close
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together in deep shafts of up to a couple of hundred metres. Though
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often dry in good weather, run-off is rapid and a damp pitch can rapidly
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become a serious proposition with near-freezing water pouring down it.
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Rigging will sometimes seem unnecessarily gymnastic until you have seen
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the pitch after a thunderstorm ! Set against this is a large amount of
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huge stomping horizontal passage found in the last few years, with many
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leads still to push not needing a lot of vertical work at all.
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<p>In Austria, expo is effectively split into "<a href="bcamps.htm">Base
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Camp</a>" and "<a href="tcamps.htm#topcamp">Top Camp</a>". Base camp is in
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the valley, near the pub, shops, lake and other "R&R" facilities. It is
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here that we have the bulk of the documentation, computers, lamp charging,
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log book and survey book. Top Camp is reached by a toll road (on which we
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have a deal which avoids paying each time) which ascends 900m to a tourist
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car park from where walking takes 30-45 minutes to top camp. Various cave
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entrances are from a few minutes to maybe an hour and a half from here. Top
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camp and Base camp are linked by mobile phone, which are much better for
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coordinating and reporting activities than the radios we used previously.
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However they should still be used sparingly to ensure that there is plenty of
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battery power in an emergency. The result of this is that trips are mostly
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organised by the people in top camp, and trying to participate in expo whilst
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spending every night at Base Camp is somewhat frustrating. It also costs more
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:-)
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<p>On the other hand, top camp is in a nature reserve where camping is
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theoretically not allowed at all, so we need to keep it as low-profile
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and undamaging as possible to avoid being banned. Top Camp is essential,
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not only for caving convenience and efficiency, but also for safety. Meeting
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these needs consistent with local politics is something of a balancing act
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which needs everyone's cooperation. It is likely that in 2001 the main top
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camp will be much more of a low-key affair, with additional bivouacs at
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the entrances to two of our caves.
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<p>If we have a spell of truly awful weather, usually everyone will come
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down to Base Camp, and this is a good time for getting surveys drawn up,
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passage descriptions written, log books up to date etc. It's also not
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unknown for a certain amount of beer consumption to occur. This is also
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the case at "expedition dinner" which is usually organised somewhere in
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the middle of expo, when the greatest number of people can attend.
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<h3 align=center>What to read next ?</h3>
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<p>Obviously, those coming on expedition will have a better and more
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productive time if they know more about what goes on, what has been done
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previously and what our particular caves are like. I'd love to think that
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everyone would find time to read everything on the website. In reality,
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however, not everyone wants to effectively memorise the guidebook, and
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devour several books on the history, culture, geography, geology, food,
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weather and other <span lang="la">minutiæ</span> of their holiday area.
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Even if you are that sort of person, it helps to have some idea of where to
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start - there's about three long novels' worth of stuff on the site and much
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of it is of mainly historical interest, concerned with caves whose
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exploration is considered complete.
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<p>We have attempted to condense the "how to do it" material into an
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<a href="handbook/index.htm">Expedition Handbook</a>, which covers topics
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such as Surveying, Prospecting, Rigging and Rescue. There is also a rather
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embryonic section on photography. This is still a fairly big chunk of stuff
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to read, so an effort has been made this year to provide a "primer" page for
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each section, which should be read by <b>everyone</b> new to expo. It is
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particularly important that you understand the aims of each activity, since a
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job done badly is actually worse than a job not done at all. This is
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especially true of cave survey and passage description, or, for prospecting,
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the recording of locations.
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<p>To get a feel for what trips are like, it is perhaps worth dipping into
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one of the <a href="years/2001/log.htm">logbooks for recent
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years</a>. To get an idea of what expo will be trying to achieve, there is a
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"<a href="years/2003/goals.htm">mission statement</a>" for the current year.
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And to see how much potential there is, a glance at the current
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<span lang="de">Steinbrückenhöhle</span>
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<a href="smkridge/204/qm.shtml">Question Mark list</a> is a
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revelation. Leads are numbered by year, with the oldest first. Following
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links from any of these leads will get you into the cave description, which
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gives an idea of the sort of caving.
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For the ambitious there is the
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<a href="smkridge/161/top.htm">complete <span
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lang="de">Kaninchenhöhle</span> description</a>, which runs to c 90 A4
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pages
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when printed, so is rather too much to digest in one go ! We recommend
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looking at the printed survey to get an overall idea of the cave and which
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parts have the most potential. However, as this is too big for a web page,
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there are now useful survey fragments incorporated throughout the main
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descriptions.
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<p>If you want to delve deeper into the site, it's worth a quick look
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at the site <a href="../rdmap.htm">road map</a>. This gives you an idea
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of the structure of the site and where you can expect the graphical links
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to lead. There are also plenty of textual links, as exemplified by the
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expo <a href="infodx.htm">site index</a>.
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<hr>
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<!-- LINKS -->
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<img alt=">" src="../icons/lists/0.png">
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Back to <a href="../index.htm">CUCC Home page</a><br>
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<img alt=">" src="../icons/lists/0.png">
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CUCC <a href="handbook/index.htm">Expedition Handbook</a><br>
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<img alt=">" src="../icons/lists/0.png">
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<b>Main Indices:</b><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="infodx.htm"><b>Index</b> to Expo</a> information pages<br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="areas.htm">Description of CUCC's area</a> and split to subareas<br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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Full <a href="indxal.htm">Index to cave descriptions</a> in area 1623<br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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List of (links to) <a href="pubs.htm">published reports and logbooks</a><br>
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<img alt=">" src="../icons/lists/0.png">
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<b>Pictures:</b><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="gall0.htm">Text only Index</a><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="gallery/0.htm">Index pages (with thumbnails)</a><br>
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<img alt=">" src="../icons/lists/0.png">
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Other info:<br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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Table of <a href="folk/index.htm">members of CUCC expeditions</a> 1976-2000<br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="others/index.htm">Other groups</a> who have worked in the area.<br>
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</body>
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</html>
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