expoweb/years/1980/npcpub.htm

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf8" />
<title>1980: NPC Newsletter (?) report<!-- it's not entirely certain that this has ever been published -->
</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/main2.css" />
</head>
<body>
<h2>AUSTRIA 1980</h2>

<p>Summer 1980 saw Cambridge University Caving Club return to Austria
accompanied by several members of UBSS; several members of the Pennine were
also in the party, namely John Bowers, Andy Waddington, Andy Connolly and
'Budge'. After meeting up in London, we had our final dose of English beer
before departing for Dover in a mega-thunderstorm.

<p>The long drive through Germany led us to Golling, south of Salzburg and at
the foot of the Tennengebirge mountains - Austria's most promising caving
area. Here we met up with the others and proceeded to our first night of
Austrian lager and a near miss with the Vienna-Salzburg express on a level
crossing which was inconveniently situated between the pub and the campsite.
As we still hadn't received official permission to work in the area, we were
only planning a recconnaissance here before the main group moved on to the
traditional CUCC location at Altaussee - if we found anything promising a
small group might stay at Golling. Budge and Andy set off to prospect Die
Schwer, a large hanging valley east of Kuchlberg Alm - the site of
Schneeloch, Austria's deepest cave. Our hangover befuddled brains led us up
the path to Winnerfall - a 50m waterfall resurgence that takes water from
both Schneeloch and the Die Schwer area. This was very pretty, but wasn't on
the right route. The right route, however, proved very steep, and after five
thousand feet of ascent, we found a Frenchman sitting on a rock playing pan
pipes. Behind him were several tents, and more Frenchmen dressed in caving
gear. After a rather complicated conversation, the French revealed that they
had &quot;bagged&quot; the area in 1979 and were just starting to rig into a
pot that they had pushed to -300m last year.(1) The area looked very
promising indeed but was one hell of a slog to reach and the campsite was a
pretty bleak place. Perhaps slightly relieved that the French had beaten us
to it, Andy and Budge returned to Golling and joined the others in Altaussee.

<p>The same day, John Bowers and Andy Connolly had set off on a two day high
level walk into the Wildensee area with Tony Malcolm. The area seemed to
offer quite a lot, though access would be harder than the traditional
stomping ground - the only positive benefit was a hut full of schoolgirls who
invited them to stay the night, so they did ! 

<p>The next three weeks saw the thirteen man group caving, walking, swimming,
sunbathing, eating, drinking and being ill to varying degrees of seriousness.
Four significant pots were explored and pushed to various ends :

<h3>H&ouml;hle No. 87 (2)</h3>

A series of pitches leads to a choke at a depth of 111.5 m. The very strong
draught goes up an inlet opposite the last pitch, but to reach this would
require bolting. The cave was explored in two trips by Ben and Nick, surveyed
in one by Budge and Andy, and derigged within the first week, an efficient
start.

<h3>H&ouml;hle No. 41 Stellerwegh&ouml;hle</h3>

This well-concealed cave has been known since the fifties, and was pushed by
a German group in 1972, supposedly to -276m with a 220m pitch, so we had
avoided it carefully in previous years. On our first trip in, Andy got lost
and found a new way on, which led to a quarter mile of passage and the start
of a new series of pitches which were still going at 330m when we had to pull
out due to lack of time.(3) The German route was investigated, and was
horrible with about 220 feet of pitches before virgin ground was found,
nowhere near -276m, so the route was abandoned.

<h3>H&ouml;hle No. 115 Schnellzugh&ouml;hle</h3>

An obvious railway tunnel-like entrance (hence the name) apparently also
looked at by the Germans, choked almost immediately. The strong draught
encouraged a dig which took a few days of hard collar to reach a pitch, but
the way on proved elusive, and was finally found by the derigging party who
thought it was the obvious way on.

<h3>H&ouml;hle No. 113 Sonnenstrahlh&ouml;hle</h3>

Found by John Bowers, Tony Malcolm and Andy Connolly, the three, known as
'team Sunbeam' rapidly descended the impressive 40m entrance pitch to reach a
large snow plugged chamber left by a passage above a short climb up one wall.
A series of climbs down a large ramp led to Barnsley Methodist Chapel and the
Opera House, followed by a series of pitches on which a small stream was met
at Purple Pit. On only the third trip, the three got to a tight sump at
-230&nbsp;m, but the two Andys later found a bypass to this, leading to more
pitches, this time ending at about -300m. The fact that sudden heavy
thunderstorms produce rapid runoff was highlighted when John, Tony and Andy
Waddington found themselves at the bottom as a flash flood arrived, but
luckily were able to sit it out in a dry chamber, while Andy, in retrieving
Tony's dropped carbide lamp, extended the pot down a small wet streamway
until the way on got rather intimidating.

<p>Mike Burgess &amp; Andy Waddington. 

<p>Expedition members present : J T Griffiths, B A Van Millingen, A P
Malcolm, N Thorne, A S Connolly, A E R Waddington, J A Bowers, C Owen, S R
Perry, T Lyons, K Baker. 

<p>Notes:<br>(1) This cave was pushed by the French to -650m in 1980 and to
about -1100m in 1981, ie. about the same depth as Schneeloch. 

<br>(2) All caves in Austria have a Kataster-nummer, which is their number in
a national catalogue. In Loser the numbers are 1623/xxx and we have only
named the biggest of our caves. 

<br>(3) In 1981, CUCC &amp; UBSS pushed Stellerwegh&ouml;hle to a connection
with the lower reaches of Schnellzugh&ouml;hle, and then via
Schnellzugh&ouml;hle to a total depth of 680m still going. The 1982
expedition again has a Pennine contingent so watch this space for news ! 

<p>References :

<p>Cambridge Underground <a href="report.htm">1981 pp 9-21</a>
<br>Proc. UBSS <!-- a href="../../others/ubss/811309.htm" -->Vol. 16 No. 1 pp 11-20 
<br>Cambridge Underground <a href="../1981/report.htm">1982 pp 5-20</a>
<br>Proc. UBSS <!-- a href="../../others/ubss/831621.htm" -->Vol. 16 No. 2 pp 77-83
<hr />
<!-- LINKS -->
<ul id="links">
<li><b>1980 Expedition info</b>:
<ul>
<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
<li><a href="report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1981</a><br>
<!-- <li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves &amp; Caving Report</a><br> -->
<li>Stellerwegh&ouml;hle - <a href="descnt.htm">from Descent 49</a></li>
<li><a href="song.htm">Another Kick in the Balls</a> (expedition song)</li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1980">Index</a> to all publications</li>
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
[svn r3779] Added HTML files. 2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00			`<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">`
[svn r5937] Oh, sod this, I'll check in the lot. All miscellaneous fiddlings for XHTML validity reasons. 2004-05-05 19:39:28 +01:00			`<html>`
[svn r3779] Added HTML files. 2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00			`<head>`
Having checked for latin1 characters, redefine meta content type from latin 1 to utf8 2022-06-22 22:59:33 +01:00			`<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf8" />`
[svn r3779] Added HTML files. 2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00			`<title>1980: NPC Newsletter (?) report<!-- it's not entirely certain that this has ever been published -->`
			`</title>`
../../css -> /css 2024-12-16 22:10:32 +00:00			`<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/main2.css" />`
[svn r3779] Added HTML files. 2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00			`</head>`
			`<body>`
			`<h2>AUSTRIA 1980</h2>`

			`<p>Summer 1980 saw Cambridge University Caving Club return to Austria`
			`accompanied by several members of UBSS; several members of the Pennine were`
			`also in the party, namely John Bowers, Andy Waddington, Andy Connolly and`
			`'Budge'. After meeting up in London, we had our final dose of English beer`
			`before departing for Dover in a mega-thunderstorm.`

			`<p>The long drive through Germany led us to Golling, south of Salzburg and at`
			`the foot of the Tennengebirge mountains - Austria's most promising caving`
			`area. Here we met up with the others and proceeded to our first night of`
			`Austrian lager and a near miss with the Vienna-Salzburg express on a level`
			`crossing which was inconveniently situated between the pub and the campsite.`
			`As we still hadn't received official permission to work in the area, we were`
			`only planning a recconnaissance here before the main group moved on to the`
			`traditional CUCC location at Altaussee - if we found anything promising a`
			`small group might stay at Golling. Budge and Andy set off to prospect Die`
			`Schwer, a large hanging valley east of Kuchlberg Alm - the site of`
			`Schneeloch, Austria's deepest cave. Our hangover befuddled brains led us up`
			`the path to Winnerfall - a 50m waterfall resurgence that takes water from`
			`both Schneeloch and the Die Schwer area. This was very pretty, but wasn't on`
			`the right route. The right route, however, proved very steep, and after five`
			`thousand feet of ascent, we found a Frenchman sitting on a rock playing pan`
			`pipes. Behind him were several tents, and more Frenchmen dressed in caving`
			`gear. After a rather complicated conversation, the French revealed that they`
			`had "bagged" the area in 1979 and were just starting to rig into a`
			`pot that they had pushed to -300m last year.(1) The area looked very`
			`promising indeed but was one hell of a slog to reach and the campsite was a`
			`pretty bleak place. Perhaps slightly relieved that the French had beaten us`
			`to it, Andy and Budge returned to Golling and joined the others in Altaussee.`

			`<p>The same day, John Bowers and Andy Connolly had set off on a two day high`
			`level walk into the Wildensee area with Tony Malcolm. The area seemed to`
			`offer quite a lot, though access would be harder than the traditional`
			`stomping ground - the only positive benefit was a hut full of schoolgirls who`
			`invited them to stay the night, so they did !`

			`<p>The next three weeks saw the thirteen man group caving, walking, swimming,`
			`sunbathing, eating, drinking and being ill to varying degrees of seriousness.`
			`Four significant pots were explored and pushed to various ends :`

			`<h3>Höhle No. 87 (2)</h3>`

			`A series of pitches leads to a choke at a depth of 111.5 m. The very strong`
			`draught goes up an inlet opposite the last pitch, but to reach this would`
			`require bolting. The cave was explored in two trips by Ben and Nick, surveyed`
			`in one by Budge and Andy, and derigged within the first week, an efficient`
			`start.`

			`<h3>Höhle No. 41 Stellerweghöhle</h3>`

			`This well-concealed cave has been known since the fifties, and was pushed by`
			`a German group in 1972, supposedly to -276m with a 220m pitch, so we had`
			`avoided it carefully in previous years. On our first trip in, Andy got lost`
			`and found a new way on, which led to a quarter mile of passage and the start`
			`of a new series of pitches which were still going at 330m when we had to pull`
			`out due to lack of time.(3) The German route was investigated, and was`
			`horrible with about 220 feet of pitches before virgin ground was found,`
			`nowhere near -276m, so the route was abandoned.`

			`<h3>Höhle No. 115 Schnellzughöhle</h3>`

			`An obvious railway tunnel-like entrance (hence the name) apparently also`
			`looked at by the Germans, choked almost immediately. The strong draught`
			`encouraged a dig which took a few days of hard collar to reach a pitch, but`
			`the way on proved elusive, and was finally found by the derigging party who`
			`thought it was the obvious way on.`

			`<h3>Höhle No. 113 Sonnenstrahlhöhle</h3>`

			`Found by John Bowers, Tony Malcolm and Andy Connolly, the three, known as`
			`'team Sunbeam' rapidly descended the impressive 40m entrance pitch to reach a`
			`large snow plugged chamber left by a passage above a short climb up one wall.`
			`A series of climbs down a large ramp led to Barnsley Methodist Chapel and the`
			`Opera House, followed by a series of pitches on which a small stream was met`
			`at Purple Pit. On only the third trip, the three got to a tight sump at`
			`-230 m, but the two Andys later found a bypass to this, leading to more`
			`pitches, this time ending at about -300m. The fact that sudden heavy`
			`thunderstorms produce rapid runoff was highlighted when John, Tony and Andy`
			`Waddington found themselves at the bottom as a flash flood arrived, but`
			`luckily were able to sit it out in a dry chamber, while Andy, in retrieving`
			`Tony's dropped carbide lamp, extended the pot down a small wet streamway`
			`until the way on got rather intimidating.`

			`<p>Mike Burgess & Andy Waddington.`

			`<p>Expedition members present : J T Griffiths, B A Van Millingen, A P`
			`Malcolm, N Thorne, A S Connolly, A E R Waddington, J A Bowers, C Owen, S R`
			`Perry, T Lyons, K Baker.`

			`<p>Notes:<br>(1) This cave was pushed by the French to -650m in 1980 and to`
			`about -1100m in 1981, ie. about the same depth as Schneeloch.`

			`<br>(2) All caves in Austria have a Kataster-nummer, which is their number in`
			`a national catalogue. In Loser the numbers are 1623/xxx and we have only`
			`named the biggest of our caves.`

			`<br>(3) In 1981, CUCC & UBSS pushed Stellerweghöhle to a connection`
			`with the lower reaches of Schnellzughöhle, and then via`
			`Schnellzughöhle to a total depth of 680m still going. The 1982`
			`expedition again has a Pennine contingent so watch this space for news !`

			`<p>References :`

			`<p>Cambridge Underground <a href="report.htm">1981 pp 9-21</a>`
[svn r5891] Much link-fixing. 2004-04-29 15:03:38 +01:00			`<br>Proc. UBSS <!-- a href="../../others/ubss/811309.htm" -->Vol. 16 No. 1 pp 11-20`
[svn r3779] Added HTML files. 2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00			`<br>Cambridge Underground <a href="../1981/report.htm">1982 pp 5-20</a>`
[svn r5891] Much link-fixing. 2004-04-29 15:03:38 +01:00			`<br>Proc. UBSS <!-- a href="../../others/ubss/831621.htm" -->Vol. 16 No. 2 pp 77-83`
[svn r5896] Removed all those disgusting lollipop things in the links sections. 2004-04-29 16:24:54 +01:00			`<hr />`
[svn r3779] Added HTML files. 2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00			`<!-- LINKS -->`
Added id="links" to pages that missed it. Part II 2011-06-01 09:55:49 +01:00			`<ul id="links">`
[svn r5896] Removed all those disgusting lollipop things in the links sections. 2004-04-29 16:24:54 +01:00			`<li><b>1980 Expedition info</b>:`
			`<ul>`
			`<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>`
			`<li><a href="report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1981</a><br>`
			`<!-- <li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a><br> -->`
			`<li>Stellerweghöhle - <a href="descnt.htm">from Descent 49</a></li>`
			`<li><a href="song.htm">Another Kick in the Balls</a> (expedition song)</li>`
			`</ul></li>`
			`<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1980">Index</a> to all publications</li>`
			`<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>`
[svn r5909] Corrected a bug in my earlier script that left out a </li> at the end of link lists. 2004-04-30 22:56:57 +01:00			`<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>`
[svn r5896] Removed all those disgusting lollipop things in the links sections. 2004-04-29 16:24:54 +01:00			`</ul>`
[svn r3779] Added HTML files. 2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00			`</body>`
			`</html>`