2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
|
|
|
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
|
|
|
<html lang="en">
|
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
|
|
|
<title>1980: NPC Newsletter (?) report<!-- it's not entirely certain that this has ever been published -->
|
|
|
|
|
</title>
|
2004-04-21 10:35:34 +01:00
|
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" />
|
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>
|
2004-04-29 15:03:38 +01:00
|
|
|
<br>Proc. UBSS <!-- a href="../../others/ubss/811309.htm" -->Vol. 16 No. 1 pp 11-20
|
2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
|
|
|
<br>Cambridge Underground <a href="../1981/report.htm">1982 pp 5-20</a>
|
2004-04-29 15:03:38 +01:00
|
|
|
<br>Proc. UBSS <!-- a href="../../others/ubss/831621.htm" -->Vol. 16 No. 2 pp 77-83
|
2004-04-29 16:24:54 +01:00
|
|
|
<hr />
|
2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
|
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
2004-04-29 16:24:54 +01:00
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
|
|
|
<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>
|
2004-04-30 22:56:57 +01:00
|
|
|
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
|
2004-04-29 16:24:54 +01:00
|
|
|
</ul>
|
2001-08-15 19:29:27 +01:00
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
|
</html>
|
