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<title>1978: Nick Thorne's report for Descent 40</title>
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<font size=-1>CTS 79.2025: Descent 40 (Jan/Feb 1979) pp 10-11</font>
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<p>This article first appeared in <i>Descent</i>(40) for Jan/Feb 1979,
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pp10-11 and is reproduced in the password protected part of the website with the
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permission of the author and Wild Places Publishing.
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<h2>Eislufthole still going for CUCC at 1148 ft</h2>
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<p align=right><b>By Nick Thorne</b>
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<p>After last year's quietly successful Cambridge UCC expedition (see
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<a href="../1977/descnt.htm"><i>Descent 38</i></a>), enthusiasm to return to
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the karst regions of Western Austria soared. The main incentive was to carry
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on prospecting on the almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau above
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<span lang="de">Altaussee,</span> and to continue pushing our unfinished find
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of last year, 106 - <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> (good name,
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eh?).
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<p>By way of introduction, <span lang="de">Altaussee</span> is a small
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village about 50 miles east of <span lang="de">Salzburg,</span> and it was
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there that we set up our camp. The Loser Plateau where we carried out most of
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our work is then reached by a steep (in more ways than one) toll road,
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follwed by an hour's brisk walk from the top. Furtunately for us, one of the
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few local cavers, <span lang="de">Karl Gaisberger,</span> who seems to be
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able to arrange anything, managed to secure free passes for us on the toll
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road. Cheers Karl; how about a sedan chair for the walk at the top next year
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?
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<p>So in July and August of this year, we were back on the Loser with a
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fairly hefty team. Expedition members divided logically into three groups:
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Team <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle:</span> Andy Waddington, Simon Farrow,
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Nick Thorne, Doug Florence and Julian Griffiths - the crack ropes team, ready
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for anything. Team Ladders: John Bowers, Ben van Millingen, Mike Shearme and
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Nicola Davies - all spending their first year in Austria. Team Geriatric: Rod
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and Jont Leach, Vic Brown, Dave Fox, plus "hangers on". These acted as the
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emergency reserve powerhouse, to be called into service should things get out
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of hand for the rest of us. (Something like Aladdin's lamp I suppose, but
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this lot looked more like a clapped out carbide).
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<p>And so to caving. Team Ladders didn't take long to find a promising,
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draughting entrance. All well and good so far, but the entrance initially was
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only big enough for a midget and it was only after a couple of days of
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boulder hauling that they got underground. The cave, 107, they called
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<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle.</span> Since I didn't get a trip down it,
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and know Berger all about it, I won't go into too much detail.
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<p>Apparently they descended a series of pitches in a large rift, down to
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about 560ft, when the tackle started to run out, with the cave continuing.
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They chose to get out of this dilemma by rubbing the magic carbide lamp.
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Wham! Team Geriatric hauled their weary bodies out of their canoes (canoes?)
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and went down <span lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> with a brand new reel of
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Marlow. Once underground, the Geriatrics were immediately transformed into an
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efficient well-oiled machine. Within a couple of trips,
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<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> had been pushed to a choke at minus
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918ft.
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<p>Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what of Team
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<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> ? Mixed fortunes really. A slow rig
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in down to last year's terminus (ie. the Tap Room - see survey) was due to
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greater amounts of snow and ice than last year. ("Are you sure this is the
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right cave?") At one point a huge ice boulder was suspended at a pitch
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take-off, and it refused to give way to a well-directed wellie. Farrow and
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Florence then carted a great crowbar into the cave to shift the thing, only
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to find that the boulder had fallen down in the meantime. Ah, well !
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<p>Once we had rigged down to The Tap Room, but before pushing far into new
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ground, we had an interesting policy change - to overnight trips. The lapiaz
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in which the cave entrance is sited is impossible to negotiate in darkness,
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and therefore trips during the daytime are limited to a maximum of eight
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hours underground. Longer trips could be attained by going underground in the
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late afternoon, spending a minimum time underground of about ten hours, and
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then emerging into the morning light.
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<p>Good idea, we thought, and indeed the first of these trips did add 394ft
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to the depth of <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle,</span> including the
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magnificent 197ft abseil into The Hall of the Greene King. Subsequent
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overnight trips pushed on down some more pitches, and a very muddy 'Fiesta
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Run' to give a total depth of 1,148ft, the cave still continuing. This bottom
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part of the cave is a very tall vadose stream canyon. The passage is very
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tight at stream level and traversing was necessary.
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<p>It was whilst driving back from the last of these overnight trips, at
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about 7 o'clock in the morning, when we had a slight mishap. The driver of
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the car carrying three of Team <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> back
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down the toll road, fell asleep at the wheel. With that Great Karst Area in
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the Sky Looming ever nearer, the car missed a telegraph pole and a tree by
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inches, went through a fence cum crash barrier, and gracefully launched
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itself over the void.
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<p>Well, it could have been a drop of a couple of hundred feet had it
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happened further up the road, but as it was, any spectators stupid enough to
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be awake at that ungodly hour would have seen a fine piece of 'S' registered,
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British engineering fall, roll, and tumble down a near vertical 30ft bank, to
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land wheels down in the river at the bottom. (all film rights reserved.)
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<p>The driver had a broken sternum, cuts to face and hands, and concussion.
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The front seat passenger had a bad gash in the head, and was suspected of
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having a lightly fractured neck, and as the passenger in the back (I'm almost
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ashamed to say it!) I escaped uninjured. The car was a write-off. Both
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injured parties are now out of hospital, and well on the way to recovery.
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(Rats, I wanted his watch!)
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<p>One consequence of the crash was to leave Team
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<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> a little short of manpower. Efforts
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were shifted from surveying and photographing to derigging. As the expedition
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neared its close, we even started fondling insurance policies as we
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contemplated having to abandon some tackle down the cave. With most of the
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cave still to derig, things looked bleak. Then we remembered the magic
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carbide lamp . . . Wham! In came Team Geriatric, fresh from
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<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle,</span> and in one magnificent combined
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effort, we cleared the cave with one day to spare.
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<p>On the return journey we were waved through Belgian customs by the
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cleaning lady, and just reached an English telly five minutes before Sid's
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Pippikin film started.
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<p>In conclusion then, the expedition was a great success, even if the
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exploration of <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> was halted a little
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early. As for <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> itself, it is now one
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of Austria's most significant caves. From our end point this year, we could
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lob stones down a considerable distance below, with the stream canyon
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continuing. No sump appears imminent as there is no fresh mud on the walls.
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(The mud of the Fiesta Run is probably associated with a shaft overhead, and
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is quite old stuff.)
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<p>To get 1300ft out of the place should be a mere formality, and after that,
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there's still 1640ft of depth potential left. Now we must try and muster a
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really crack team for next year. And crack team it must be, as
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<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> is no longer the easy series of
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shafts it was, but a long and serious undertaking.
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<p><i>References: Cambridge Underground
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<a href="../../../years/1976/report.htm">1977</a>, <a href="../../../years/1977/report.htm">1978</a>
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and <a href="../../../years/1978/report.htm">1979</a> [to be published] containing surveys of all
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underground discoveries made by CUCC inrecent years, plus surface survey
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giving accurate entrance locations and altitudes.</i> <font size=-1>[This is
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a slight exagerration, WebEd.]</font>
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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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1978 Expedition info:<br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="../../../years/1978/log.htm">Logbook</a><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="../../../years/1978/report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1979</a><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="../../../years/1978/bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
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Nick Thorne's write-up in <a href="../../../years/1978/782034.htm">Belfry Bulletin 366</a><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
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1977/78 report from <a href="../../../years/1978/npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a><br>
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<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
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<a href="../../../years/1978/sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a><br>
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<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
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<a href="../../../pubs.htm#1978">Index</a> to all publications<br>
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<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
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<a href="../../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a><br>
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<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
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<a href="../../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a>
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</body>
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</html>
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