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2004-05-05 19:39:28 +01:00
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2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
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2019-12-30 23:28:31 +00:00
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2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
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<title>1996: Cambridge Underground report</title>
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2024-12-16 22:10:32 +00:00
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2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
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<body>
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2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
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<table width=100% border="0" cellpadding="6" bgcolor="#eeeeee">
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<tr><th width="35%" align="left"><a href="./">Expo 96 index</a></th>
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<th width="30%" align="center"><a href="../../">Expo home</a></th>
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2022-03-12 22:37:28 +00:00
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<tr><td align="left">CU 1999 previous:<br /><a href="http://cucc.survex.com/jnl/1999/cars.htm">Joys of Car Ownership</a></td>
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<td align="center"><a href="http://cucc.survex.com/jnl/1999/">CU 1999 Contents</a></td>
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<td align="right">CU 1999 next:<br /><a href="http://cucc.survex.com/jnl/1999/germangl.htm">Elementary Germanglic</a></td></tr>
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2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
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</table>
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2020-03-05 23:23:41 +00:00
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<hr />
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2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
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<center>
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<font size=-1>Cambridge Underground 1999 pp 75-82</font>
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<h1>Expo '96</h1>
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<h3>by Unknown</h3></center>
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<p><blockquote>"To jack, or not to jack. That is the question. Whether 'tis
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nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and bolts of outrageous rigging..."
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--- Steve B</blockquote>
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<p>Halfway through expo '95, it seemed that expo '96 would struggle to find
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ten members. The feeling that we were banging our heads against a brick wall
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was stronger than ever after an expo spent pushing fairly pointless leads in
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<p><span lang="de">Kaninchenhöhle</span>. Then Wookey, AndyA and JulianH
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went caving and accidentally found Triassic Park, and suddenly everyone who
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had been looking forward to a Summer doing something nicer in 1996 was
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forced to think again.
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<p>A year of relentless expo bullshit followed, meaning that by the time the
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Summer came round again there was a long list of people intending to go to
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Austria, attracted by the stories of train tunnel passageway and over 50 new
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leads with walking access from a new entrance, 161d or <b>Scarface.</b> This
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included some unlikely names who hadn't been seen on expo for some years.
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Almost all of them were going to bring their caving gear, and a clear
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majority had expressed the intention of using it. In the end, forty people
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turned up in Austria at one time or another, the largest ever CUCC Austrian
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expo. The guest list included AndyC and Juliet from Bristol, Rolf and Lumatt
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from York, Phil Underwood from London, and Brian.
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<p>Up until a week before departure, Brian was known only as "Phil
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Underwood's Mate", so we were half expecting a scruffy student who
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barely knew how to wipe his own arse. Up rolled a 43 year old bloke
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who five weeks later had won the TU tally having amassed 121 hours
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underground. This was largely achieved by being the only person who
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was prepared to accompany Nick on repeated trips down Interview
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Bastard, of which more anon.
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<p>Expo wouldn't be expo if everything was organised well in advance, so
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this year we changed the dates two weeks before departure. This was largely
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because nobody wanted to derig, so we waited until everyone had booked their
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holiday and then moved the whole expo forward a week, and turned the planned
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reconnaissance week into a reconnaissance two days. Steve and Anthony spent
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the day before departure buying bits for making temporary cave tags and
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making up the top camp food. This rush helps explain the generally low
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quality of this year's top camp fare, though the absence of any nice
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ingredients may also be significant. In the end most of the things that
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needed to be done got done, and late that evening a Lada and trailer
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combination trundled out of Harvey Court, and expo was underway.
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<h3>Week 1</h3>
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<p><blockquote>"Well, if some of the spits weren't kak, you wouldn't
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appreciate the good ones." -- PhilU</blockquote>
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<p>The trailer proved to be considerably sturdier than it's 1995
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predecessor, despite having ominously been found by Wookey in the same
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place, and was still in one piece on arrival at the Gasthof Staud'nwirt late
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the following evening. Anthony and Steve's run of good fortune continued as
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they managed to get enough pegs in to stop the beer tent being blown away by
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the first thunderstorm of expo, and re-found 161d at the first attempt
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(though it took a long time slogging round the Stogerweg in the rain.) Thus
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by the time Nick, Helen, Gunilla and Matthew arrived we had a base camp, a
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top camp and a cave. Not bad.
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<p>What we didn't have was a decent surface route to 161d, which is situated
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in the middle of a cliff on the far side of the Schwarzmooskogel ridge from
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top camp. Just as we were about to set off to try and find one, Hilda's
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phone rang: Helen, who had been in Austria 36 hours, had a job interview the
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following week, having failed to get any interviews at all during the
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preceding months. She and Nick thus had to go to Salzburg to change her
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flight ticket, and in the end she only managed one caving trip before
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returning home. The rest had surprising success in finding an adequate route
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to 161d from the col, and after a further afternoon practising plant
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husbandry with hacksaws and placing a couple of handlines, a passable route
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was created. The London team had now arrived, and everyone was ready to go
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caving. Everyone, that is, except Gunilla, whose failure to wear a sunhat
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caused her first to turn puce and then establish an unassailable lead in the
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chunder tally. So when the caving finally got underway, she was sitting at
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base camp eating baby food.
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<p>We first looked at some of the many good leads at the far end of Triassic
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Park. Under the watchful gaze of PhilU and Matthew, Steve attempted to scale
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Bugger, the star lead left from the end of 1995 comprising a 10m climb,
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beyond which it was hoped Triassic Park would continue in a similar vein.
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After some swearing and falling off, a retreat was called, and so they went
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to look at a horizontal lead near Ring Piece Junction. They found around 300m
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of cave with some moderate leads and went home happy. This later fell victim
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to a Gössered-up naming session, and the <b>Puerile Humour Series</b>
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was born.
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<p>Meanwhile, Brian and Anthony took the brand new length of 9mm to a big
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pitch off Minoan Surprise, with an estimated depth of 80m, whilst Nick and
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Helen went to the fourth way on at Trifurcation. They descended a 30m pitch,
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which led to a further pitch. This became the <b>Interview Blues Series</b>
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as Helen left to return to England the following morning. The other three
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went to carry on where they had left off the previous day. It started raining
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as they approached the col on the way to the cave. When they emerged, it was
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still raining...
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<h3>Week 2</h3>
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<p><blockquote>"We've got that bloody great useless thing." -- Rolf
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"What, Julian? He's coming out later this week." -- PhilB</blockquote>
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<p>It didn't stop raining for most of week two, bringing memories of 1993
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flooding (ho ho) back. When we finally got fed up of festering in the
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potato hut, four heroic individuals slithered up to top camp to find
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five inches of snow, Leck Fell type weather and some funny shaped
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tents, which they excavated before heading back to base camp to
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sulk. We amused ourselves by putting up the base camp radio aerial,
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despite knowing full well that we would be rhinoceroused at for doing
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it wrong.
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<p>When the weather cleared a little, a bit of surveying got done in the
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embryonic Puerile Humour Series and work continued on Brian and
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Anthony's big pitch. Scepticism abounds when people claim to have
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found 80m pitches, and this once more proved valid: The
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<b>Bottomless Pit of Eternal Chaos</b> is a mere 79m deep. As is the
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way with big pitches in KH, the way on is a grotty rift which opens
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out onto a 27m pitch (<b>Redemption</b>). This leads only to more
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grotty rift before becoming choked. The survey shows this lot to be
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some 60m below the 'floor' of Knossos.
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<p>Since it was obvious that a nutter was required to get to the top of
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Bugger, the arrival of AndyA and DaveF towards the end of the week was
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most welcome. DaveF duly thrashed his way to the top, and walked into
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miles of train tunnel passage, eventually popping out of the hill
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somewhere near Bad Ischl. Or not. In fact, <b>Fine Clean Rock</b>
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disappointingly closes down after about 100m, with only a few scrotty
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horizontal leads, but they did find a deep pitch (estimated at 80m)
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with an impressively large rock perched on the edge which wobbled
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alarmingly when smaller rocks were lobbed at it.
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<h3>Week 3</h3>
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<p><blockquote>"Can we go to Stairway to Hell now please?" -- ChrisD.
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More than once.</blockquote>
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<p>Base camp started to fill up at the start of week three, and the
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ranting level escalated, with the quality of the walk to the cave
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being the favourite subject, followed closely by the somewhat variable
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quality of top camp food. The path can't have been that bad, as a
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couple of Austrian walkers turned up at 161d one morning wondering
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where the line of cairns went next, but the food was pretty awful on a
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bad day. Our leader rhino'd his way across Europe with Gill, Lumatt
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and Sam, and with the arrival of Mike and Tina, seven vehicles had
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made it to Austria without having to call out the breakdown -- a
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remarkable achievement in many cases, and disappointing given how much
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money we'd collectively given to Green Flag. Cometh the hour, cometh
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the man: Julian Todd didn't let us down, and it's a shame that base
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camp was deserted when he and Wookey turned up on the back of a
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breakdown truck after ten hours sitting around in Germany. Other
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arrivals in midweek were Chris and Becka fresh from the Berger, who
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set about trying to instil a bit of Oxford enthusiasm into the languid
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Cambridge expo (it didn't work.) Chris seemed very disappointed that
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everyone was shying away from Stairway to Hell, a boulder choke
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leading to passage heading towards Stellerweg, and billed as the
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nastiest bit of cave in the world by those who had been there the
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previous year, and Becka set about making Nick and Brian look like a
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pair of slack festering slobs by going caving on eight consecutive
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days.
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<p>Luckily the weather cleared up so the cave got rather busy, as did the
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changing area, entertainingly situated on a landslip above a
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precipitous drop. JulianH set about the task of single handedly
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wiping out the question mark list. He and Gill found <b>Teapot Chamber</b>
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from Shortage of Walls, which leads to a couple of pitches into the
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Rich Tea area of France (tick). In a desperate attempt to avoid
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Stairway to Hell, every potential bypass was investigated. A good lead
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off Zombie Slime leads to a pitch which was smaller than MikeTA, so
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they left it alone only to find their rope hanging out of the roof
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back in Zombie Slime (tick) and a loose climb in the corner of
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Staud'nwirt Palace simply keeps going up until it chokes (tick.)
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2015-04-08 03:13:14 +01:00
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<p><a href="../../1623/161/l/dh3-06.htm"><img alt="" width=188 height=125 align="left" hspace=10 vspace=10 src="../../1623/161/t/dh3-06.jpg"></a>
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2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
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<b>Andrew Ketley at Penguin Falls, Puerile Humour Series,
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<span lang="de">Kaninchenhöhle</span>.</b> (Dave Horsley)<br clear="all">
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<p>This QM extermination effort was being comprehensively undone
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elsewhere in the cave, chiefly by Sam in the Puerile Humour Series. He
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and Lummat set off with instructions to complete the survey ("It'll
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only take a couple of legs") and returned with another half dozen
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leads. Sam and Brian made a major breakthrough the day after, finding
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<b>Dead Bats Chamber</b> (which contains two dead bats.) The main way
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on, a 3m round horizontal tube heading north, divides at <b>Gotham City
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Junction</b>. Sam and Brian gave up at a tricky climb in the left hand
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branch, and headed the other way to find a pretty mud river (note that
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this is KH and mud is regarded as pretty) and <b>Five Ways Chamber</b>
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(which has five ways out). Heading north they found <b>Shaft Mine
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Passage</b> (which has a number of undescended shafts), ending at the 6m
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deep <b>Bounce Rift</b> running perpendicular to the passage with a way on
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visible across the top. East from Five Ways they found <b>Completely
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Loopy</b>, a rabbit warren of interconnecting passages littered with
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leads. In one trip they found enough leads to keep a medium sized expo
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happy.
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<p>Later trips surveyed this lot, and Sam and Becka returned to the left
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hand branch from Gotham City Junction and scaled the climb at the
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pushing front to find <b>Where the Wind Blows</b>, a dead straight
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passage which leads into <b>Bloody Hairfire Passage</b> after a carbide
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error on the surveying trip. Leads at the northern end of this passage
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are of particular interest since it is only 100m away from the Far
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End.
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<p>Meanwhile, lots of other caving was going on. Gunilla was now back on
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solids, so she, Duncan, and a selection of others headed off to find
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<b>Dr Snuggles</b> from a lead heading west from Triassic Park. This
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passage ends at a booming pitch, leading them to think it was at least
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25m deep. This was pretty much true, the only complication being that
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the pitch is upside-down: A chossy 5m pitch cum climb lands at the
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foot of an enormous aven (35+m). Both ways on end in difficult or
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tight QM's, so they moved on to a lead at Ring Piece Junction. The
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rumoured horizontal passage failed to materialise, so they descended a
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27m pitch instead, named <b>Tapeworm</b> after the tape measure snapped
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whilst surveying it, followed immediately by the 45m <b>Hammeroids</b>
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pitch, so called after the first descent was made by the head of a
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bolting hammer. These pitches drop down the same huge rift,
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potentially 90m deep, so the way on is inevitably a tight rift which
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quickly chokes. Mike and Tina checked out a hole in the wall of
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Triassic Park next to the gear dump, and stumbled across 250m of
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passage (<b>Alternative Universe</b>) which parallels Triassic Park ending
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in a short pitch with a rift exiting, which is too narrow to follow
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but is very close to the larger Tapeworm/Hammeroids rift.
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<p>The cave was still going strong at the Trifurcation end of Triassic
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Park: Someone eventually got round to descending the pitch at the end
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of Minoan Surprise, and the surveyors gave a sigh of relief as it
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dropped into Knossos more or less where expected. The big pitch in
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Fine Clean Rock became <b>Henri's Cat</b> and was indeed found to be
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80m deep, followed by further pitches of 55m, 10m and 65m. This
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prompted DaveF to take the 200m rope to the bottom in anticipation of
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greater depth. It inevitably ended in a pile of rocks, close to the
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bottom of the Flat Battery Series but with no connection, leaving
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JulianT, hater of surveying and excessively deep holes, to survey it.
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<p>Interview Blues was also going strong, much to the surprise of those
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brought up on a diet of similar rift pitch series which always become
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too tight fairly quickly. Four consecutive pitches led to extensive
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horizontal development (well, about 50m anyway) with two possible ways
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on, the main one of which is yet another pitch which took two attempts
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to descend after Anthony grossly underestimated its length. Nick and
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Brian finally made it to the bottom of this fine 55m pitch and happily
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stomped off down a massive clean washed canyon littered with stals and
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flowing with warm tea, until reality kicked in and they found
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themselves in a gloop coated, foot wide rift culminating in yet
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another pitch. Surely it wouldn't go much further.
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<p>To maintain this expo's record of finding big pitches, PhilU returned
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with tales of a four second drop near the start of the Puerile Humour series
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giving an estimated depth of 80m. Alarm bells started ringing when he and
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AndyC descended it and declared that maybe it was only 50m deep after all.
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When we returned with a tape measure, the pitch had shrunk to a more
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manageable 30m.
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<h3>Week 4</h3>
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<p><blockquote>"Which bastard filled this water container right up to the top?" -- Rolf</blockquote>
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<p>As week four approached some people went home, but even more people
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arrived meaning that there were 36 people present for most of the
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week, including most of the festerers. Waddington had turned up
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complete with computer and Imax monitor (the laser printer was deemed
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excessive and thus lived in the shed), and Helen returned still no
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nearer getting a job. All of our early leads were going strong,
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somewhat irritatingly in one case, but nobody had yet had the pleasure
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of visiting Stairway to Hell. This was not to remain the case for
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long.
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<p>JulianH and Chris made the first attempt to survey through Stairway to
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Hell and into the Forbidden Land as the passage beyond had nominally
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been christened, but managed only four legs before fleeing in horror
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at the appalling wall of choss apparently held up by a single perched
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rock, so it was left to Wookey and AndyA to complete the job. They
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found that the 'rift' beyond the choke was really an enormous chamber
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(90m x 30m) -- <b>Hall of the Mounting Choss</b> -- with a pile of
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boulders in the middle passing for a floor beneath which they were
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wandering around. They eventually found a south going strongly
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draughting phreatic tube -- <b>Pump House</b> -- which they followed
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as far as a large cross rift which they couldn't climb into before
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calling it a day. The survey shows this passage to be of similar
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dimensions and orientation to Mississippi in Flat France, but some 40m
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higher up lending credence to the idea that the breakdown at Stairway
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to Hell was produced by a fault. A further trip extended the Forbidden
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Land by 200m to the southwest via passages given the exotic titles of
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<b>Elin Algor</b> and <b>Tirolia Werke</b>, which arise from a total
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lack of inspiration on the part of AndyA when it came to writing names
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on the survey, so he pinched the titles of the fridge and cooker in
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the potato hut. Within four hours of the survey being completed, there
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was a picture of the plateau revolving on Waddington's monitor showing
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that this end of the cave was very close indeed to
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<b>Steinschlagschacht</b> (136), explored by CUCC in 1983 and
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'84. Chris's verdict on the bit of cave he'd been dying to see? "The
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hanging death was the worst I have seen, and the route has nothing to
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recommend it". Most other people who had been there seemed to concur.
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<p>Interview Blues refused to die, and efforts in week four concentrated
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on the nice bit (relatively speaking) -- the alternative lead at the
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top of the fifth pitch. This proceeds via a south trending rift to a
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short pitch, then a larger chossy pitch with aven above which could be
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traversed around to reach yet another pitch. Whilst bolting this, they
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heard a voice. It was Sam, who was standing at the top of an
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undescended pitch in Minoan Surprise adjacent to the Bottomless
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Pit. Another QM bites the dust. Nick and Brian were fairly sure that
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the larger pitch did not lead to the Bottomless Pit. It did of course,
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so <b>Spatial Awareness</b> got its name and another QM was crossed
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off. Meanwhile, other people were admiring the breezy but impossible
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looking traverse over the head of the 25m first pitch of Interview
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Blues. Fortunately Dave 'Walking On Air' Fearon was on hand to leap
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across the void and find yet another big pitch. This eventually links
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up with the main route down IB, and would be a superior route were it
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not for the fact that it becomes a raging waterfall at the first sign
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of any rain. There's also another breezy traverse across the top of
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it.
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2015-04-08 03:13:14 +01:00
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<p><a href="../../1623/161/l/fearon.htm"><img alt="" width=160 height=117
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align="right" hspace=10 vspace=10 src="../../1623/161/t/fearon.jpg"></a>
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2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
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<b>Wookey on the Fear-On traverse over the start of Interview Blues.</b>
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(Andy Waddington)<br clear="all">
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<p>Being fed up with big pitches and Interview Blues respectively, JulianT
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and Helen took some time out to go hangliding. Julian provided expo's most
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impressive exhibition of projectile vomiting by chundering over most of the
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Grundlsee from a great height, and Helen's unconventional choice of landing
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site led to expo's only rescue. The Austrian fire brigade were called out to
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extricate her from the upper reaches of a tree, and she even got a free lift
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back to base camp with a nice policeman.
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<p>Watery fun was also on the agenda as JulianT took several people
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diving, and Waddington's canoes provided ample entertainment as
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JulianH went white water rafting in the Grundlseer Traun. He was also
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responsible for capsizing Knowledgeable Dave in the lake, but then
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came a cropper himself when he went to Halstatt for the annual trip to
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play on the pedaloes wearing sandals and removed most of his big toe
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nail.
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<p>The QMs were still coming faster than we could tick them off in the
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Puerile Humour series. After giving Interview Blues one of its most
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uncomplimentary reviews the day before, Becka and Anthony begged Sam
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for a nice lead and he came up with Bounce Rift. Becka scaled the far
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side, and they bumbled off down the passage beyond to emerge in a
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large hading rift chamber. Having established that none of the shitty
|
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unimpressive leads went anywhere, it was time to stomp down the
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draughting 4m round phreatic tube, which ended after 80m in a
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draughting choke. There seemed to be a small chamber beyond, so ten
|
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|
minutes of digging followed before Becka broke through into it and saw
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|
daylight. Admittedly there was only three inches of daylight at that
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|
point, so it took another 40 minutes of digging before Becka slid out
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of the new 161e entrance with grace, style and effortless ease. Your
|
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lardy scribe had obviously been over indulging in soya chunks however,
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and didn't fit through until a few more rocks had been removed, and so
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<b>Yorkshire Pudding</b> earned its name.
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<p>Ten minutes later, voices were heard, and Sam, Lummat and Craig
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|
|
appeared having just emerged from the second new entrance of the
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|
day. They had been surveying near Completely Loopy, and had similarly
|
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followed the main draught until they popped out of the hill. After
|
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|
sitting around grinning like a lot of little kids for a while and
|
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|
|
trying to guess where they were, they all went back underground to
|
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|
measure it and find out for sure. The answer is that 161e and 161f are
|
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|
|
about 500m north of 161d, some 40m higher up the hill, and suffer from
|
|
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|
|
the same surface accessibility problems as 161d meaning that neither
|
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|
|
will be very much use for access to leads other than those in the
|
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|
|
immediate vicinity of these entrances.
|
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<p>This was Craig's introduction to expo caving, so just to bring him
|
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|
back down to earth and show him what it's really like, his second trip
|
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|
was to an appallingly loose pitch below Bugger bolted by MarkM and
|
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|
|
Juliette the previous day, and appropriately called <b>Choss
|
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|
|
Pot</b>. Expo's senior citizens were also in action this week, as Jeremy,
|
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|
|
ChrisD, Tony and DaveH went to a lead near Moth Chamber and bounded
|
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|
|
back to top camp with mile wide grins like a bunch of novices who'd
|
|
|
|
|
found their first ever bit of cave. <b>Wheelchair Access</b> is around 50m
|
|
|
|
|
long and sounds faintly squalid, but there is an interesting
|
|
|
|
|
draughting hole which will require enlargement. Duncan and Steve were
|
|
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|
|
already applying the 'Make Your Own' technique by hammering out a four
|
|
|
|
|
inch round hole in the wall in Dr Snuggles until they fitted
|
|
|
|
|
through. 60m of crawling appeared to have yielded a result as they
|
|
|
|
|
emerged into a large space containing pristine mud, until they spotted
|
|
|
|
|
the red and white flagging tape marking the route through Triassic
|
|
|
|
|
Park and realised they were at the start of Alternative
|
|
|
|
|
Universe. These exploits took place on the day of the annual photo
|
|
|
|
|
trip, something of a misnomer as it turned out. All the fancy gear
|
|
|
|
|
which was working perfectly at top camp consistently failed to work
|
|
|
|
|
for five hours once taken underground. AndyA was not pleased. (There
|
|
|
|
|
were repercussions at conference time, when the CUCC talk was
|
|
|
|
|
accompanied by exactly five underground slides, but that's another
|
|
|
|
|
rant...).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Happy with our week's work, everyone retreated to base camp to get drunk
|
|
|
|
|
at the expo dinner, this year in the presence of the deputy mayor of
|
|
|
|
|
<span lang="de-at">Bad Aussee</span> and the head of tourism who bizarrely
|
|
|
|
|
seem quite pleased that we keep returning to their otherwise lovely town.
|
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|
This could have been a disaster, but passed off quite peacefully as they were
|
|
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|
|
both sound blokes. Even so, we refrained from raucous singing and throwing
|
|
|
|
|
people in the river until after they had left.
|
|
|
|
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|
|
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|
|
<h3>Week 5</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
<p><blockquote>"... As my lumps of mud which passed for gear turned to slime,
|
|
|
|
|
my glasses clouded over, the tacklesack became five times heavier and my
|
|
|
|
|
jammers completely refused to down-prussik, it could be said I was not
|
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|
|
|
having fun". -- Nick on the joy that is Interview Blues.</blockquote>
|
|
|
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|
|
|
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|
<p>With the prospect of imminent derigging upon us, base camp started to
|
|
|
|
|
empty at the beginning of week five. For those that remained, there was still
|
|
|
|
|
lots to do in Interview Blues and the Puerile Humour Series, and we had
|
|
|
|
|
relocated 136 so there was some excitement at the possibility of redescending
|
|
|
|
|
it and trying to connect to the Forbidden Land thus bypassing Stairway to
|
|
|
|
|
Hell. This excitement lasted as long as a cursory inspection of the 1983 log
|
|
|
|
|
book. Most of the work in this cave was done by Chas Butcher and Mike Thomas
|
|
|
|
|
in 1983, and their logbook accounts don't so much hint that it might be a bit
|
|
|
|
|
crap as scream it in six foot high neon letters. Although Wookey and Anthony
|
|
|
|
|
made plans to descend 136, and even went as far as collecting together enough
|
|
|
|
|
gear, it was obvious that any excuse would do to force an abandonment, and
|
|
|
|
|
the weather duly obliged, so 136 will have to wait until next year.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Nick and Brian were rapidly running out of volunteers to accompany them
|
|
|
|
|
down Interview Blues, which boasted eight pitches at the start of the week
|
|
|
|
|
and ten pitches by the end of the week. However these last two pitches proved
|
|
|
|
|
to be the nicest bit of caving in the whole series -- indeed Brian declared
|
|
|
|
|
that the ninth pitch was one of the nicest he'd ever descended, but then
|
|
|
|
|
maybe his standards had slipped after four weeks down Interview Blues.
|
|
|
|
|
Arriving at the foot of the tenth pitch, they were presented by a bewildering
|
|
|
|
|
array of leads, but obviously checked out the scrottiest one first (it didn't
|
|
|
|
|
go anywhere). The bottom of Interview Blues is 449m below 161a -- the third
|
|
|
|
|
deepest point in the cave -- and with a number of fairly promising leads
|
|
|
|
|
giving the prospect of more depth, so a return is likely despite its
|
|
|
|
|
reputation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The last caving action of the expo was to the north of the Puerile Humour
|
|
|
|
|
Series, where a party went in the 161e entrance hoping that the good lead
|
|
|
|
|
around there would close down after ten yards so we could all go home, and
|
|
|
|
|
being initially irritated when it didn't. However, it proved to be a
|
|
|
|
|
worthwhile find as the area contains a number of ice formations, which are
|
|
|
|
|
genuinely pretty in anyone's terms, and overwhelmingly so by the standards of
|
|
|
|
|
KH. <b>Iceland</b> was a nice little find to round off expo.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Of course there was still the small matter of disassembling top camp, and
|
|
|
|
|
the rope wasn't going to wash itself, so there was another two days of tedium
|
|
|
|
|
in scorching heat. The weather stayed fine until somebody mentioned the magic
|
|
|
|
|
word 'barbecue' and the heavens opened. Thankfully it cleared up long enough
|
|
|
|
|
for DaveH to show us all how it should be done, and for once we managed a
|
|
|
|
|
barbecue where all the food was cooked but not charcoaled -- possibly the
|
|
|
|
|
most remarkable occurrence of a remarkable expo. After some last minute
|
|
|
|
|
morning packing in the pouring rain, we said our goodbyes to Hilda and Karin
|
|
|
|
|
and that was that...
|
2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
|
|
|
<p>...Almost. We still had to get some ailing vehicles some intimidating
|
|
|
|
|
distances. Brian's car made it to France without incident, and the Angular
|
|
|
|
|
Vehicle did sterling service towing the trailer, so its passengers were
|
|
|
|
|
somewhat surprised to find Duncan propping up a wall when they pulled into a
|
|
|
|
|
service station in Luxembourg. Paul's Peugeot 205 diesel -- universally
|
|
|
|
|
agreed to be the poshest vehicle remaining on expo -- had given up the ghost.
|
|
|
|
|
They eventually got given a hire car, complete with free porn mag, to drive
|
|
|
|
|
to Calais, whilst the car was taken on the back of a breakdown truck, which
|
|
|
|
|
promptly broke down itself. Despite this complication they arrived back in
|
|
|
|
|
Britain the following morning, at about the same time that a Lada and trailer
|
|
|
|
|
combination spluttered into Girton and expo was over.
|
2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
|
|
|
|
2020-03-05 23:23:41 +00:00
|
|
|
<hr />
|
2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
|
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
|
|
|
<table width=100% border="0" cellpadding="6" bgcolor="#eeeeee">
|
|
|
|
|
<tr><th width="35%" align="left"><a href="./">Expo 96 index</a></th>
|
|
|
|
|
<th width="30%" aling="center"><a href="../../">Expo home</a></th>
|
2004-04-22 10:44:44 +01:00
|
|
|
<tr><th align="left"><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1996">Expo publications index</a></th>
|
2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
|
|
|
<th align="center"><a href="log.htm">1996 logbook</a></th>
|
|
|
|
|
<th align="right"><a href="sponsr.htm">1996 sponsors</a></th></tr>
|
2022-03-12 22:37:28 +00:00
|
|
|
<tr><td align="left">CU 1999 previous:<br /><a href="http://cucc.survex.com/jnl/1999/cars.htm">Joys of Car Ownership</a></td>
|
|
|
|
|
<td align="center"><a href="http://cucc.survex.com/jnl/1999/">CU 1999 Contents</a></td>
|
|
|
|
|
<td align="right">CU 1999 next:<br /><a href="http://cucc.survex.com/jnl/1999/germangl.htm">Elementary Germanglic</a></td></tr>
|
2003-07-04 10:11:07 +01:00
|
|
|
</table>
|
2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
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</body>
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</html>
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