2019-12-30 23:28:31 +00:00
|
|
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|
|
|
|
<html>
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
<head>
|
2019-12-30 23:28:31 +00:00
|
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
<title>2009: Expedition report</title>
|
|
|
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" />
|
|
|
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
|
|
|
<h2>Expo 2009<br />
|
|
|
|
|
Cambridge University Club<br />
|
|
|
|
|
18<sup>th</sup> July - 15<sup>th</sup> August 2009</h2>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>In the summer of 2009, twenty-two brave, hard and (mainly) good-looking
|
|
|
|
|
<a href="../../folk/index.htm">cavers</a> from CUCC (plus some guests from other clubs) returned to the
|
|
|
|
|
Totes Gebirge mountains in Austria to continue exploring the cave
|
|
|
|
|
systems of the Loser Plateau. The expedition lasted for four weeks.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3>Background</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Over the past three decades, CUCC has explored many different caves
|
|
|
|
|
on the
|
|
|
|
|
Loser plateau. Bit by bit, connections have been found between these
|
|
|
|
|
caves (and also potholes explored by other groups, such as ARGE). This
|
|
|
|
|
has resulted in the formidably-named
|
|
|
|
|
Schwarzmooskogelhöhlensystem, a 55km long and 1km deep goliath.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>For the past ten years, the focus of CUCC's expeditions has turned
|
|
|
|
|
to the exploration of
|
2015-04-08 03:13:14 +01:00
|
|
|
<a href="../../1623/204/204.html">Steinbrückenhöhle</a>. This
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
has slowly been extended over the years and is now a major cave system
|
|
|
|
|
in its own right: 16km long and well over 600m deep. It lies to the
|
|
|
|
|
north of a cave in the Schwarzmooskogelhöhlensystem known as <a
|
2015-04-08 03:13:14 +01:00
|
|
|
href="../../1623/161/top.htm">Kaninchenhöhle</a>. In 2006 <a
|
|
|
|
|
href="../../1623/258/258.html">Tunnockschacht</a> was discovered,
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
and recent expeditions have also been dedicated to its
|
|
|
|
|
exploration. Tunnockschacht lies to the north of Steinbrückenhöhle.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>There were hundreds of promising unexplored leads in
|
|
|
|
|
Kaninchenhöhle (KH),
|
|
|
|
|
Steinbrückenhöhle (204) and Tunnockschacht (258), and this was reason
|
|
|
|
|
enough to continue exploring. In addition, there is now a very
|
|
|
|
|
realistic prospect of finding connections between the three caves,
|
|
|
|
|
thereby extending the Schwarzmooskogelhöhlensystem.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3>Aims of the Expedition</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>For more details see the <a href="mission.html">mission statement.</a></p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Some rather hard exploration in 2007 established that the
|
|
|
|
|
closest point between KH and 204 was at the bottom of a particularly
|
|
|
|
|
miserable rift known as Razordance. So it was decided that a more
|
|
|
|
|
pleasant way of seeking the connection would be to look from the KH
|
|
|
|
|
side, in the Far North, where happily there were also many large
|
|
|
|
|
undescended pitches to look at.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>In addition to returning to KH, plans were afoot to continue
|
|
|
|
|
exploring leads in 204 and in 258. At the end of the 2008 expedition a
|
|
|
|
|
new horizontal level was found, named Pussy Prance (in "honour" of
|
|
|
|
|
Razordance). Meanwhile, Tunnockschacht was still "going like a train",
|
|
|
|
|
and its southern extremities were tantalisingly close to the north of
|
|
|
|
|
204, so this was also an exploration goal for 2009.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>This year's expedition also had a non-caving goal (not just
|
2020-04-02 14:25:58 +01:00
|
|
|
drinking Gösser). Recently [since 2006] members of CUCC have started to
|
|
|
|
|
develop a piece of software called <a href="../../handbook/troggle/trogintro.html">Troggle</a>, which aims to facilitate
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
keeping track of logbook entries, typing up surveys, caves etc, and save time in a lot of the
|
|
|
|
|
work that goes on behind the scenes when expo is over. This year was
|
|
|
|
|
the first time Troggle would be tested "in th field" (well, spud hut).</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3>The Expedition</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>And so it was that on the 18th July 2009, various cars from Cambridge,
|
|
|
|
|
Sheffield, Bristol, Southampton, Norway and France converged on the
|
|
|
|
|
campsite at the Gasthof Staud'n'wirt, Bad Aussee. In keeping with expo
|
|
|
|
|
tradition not all the vehicles quite made it unscathed, Julian and
|
|
|
|
|
Becka experiencing a rather exciting "bonnet-on-the-windscreen" moment
|
|
|
|
|
on the autobahn.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The first few days were spent carrying equipment and supplies from
|
|
|
|
|
the top of the Toll Road to the bivy near the 204 entrance, and
|
|
|
|
|
setting up the bivy (tarps, water collection, mouse-proof food storage
|
|
|
|
|
etc). Then the caving began.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h4>Discoveries in Kaninchenhöhle</h4>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Initialy, things progressed rather slowly in KH. The first few
|
|
|
|
|
trips were spent cairning a route from the bivy to G entrance and then
|
|
|
|
|
bit-by-bit navigating our way to the <a
|
2015-04-08 03:13:14 +01:00
|
|
|
href="../../1623/161/farnth.htm">far north</a>, replacing some of
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
the very old fixed ropes and frighteningly rusty maillons as we
|
|
|
|
|
went. Finally we were ready to start looking down some of the big
|
|
|
|
|
undescended pitches in the area.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>The pitch near Satan's Sitting Room, dubbed 'Satan's Sitter' was
|
|
|
|
|
the first to be explored, dropping for 50m before ending in an
|
|
|
|
|
inpenetrable rift. A similar story was met near Silent Fellow, where a
|
|
|
|
|
30m pitch 'Solid Rock' led to a promising looking series of clean washed
|
|
|
|
|
drops. Unfortunately, once again a narrow rift was met and the lead
|
|
|
|
|
was finished.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>As is often the way, things started to look particularly good
|
|
|
|
|
towards the end of expo. By now the route all the way to East Anglia
|
|
|
|
|
had been rigged. A very promising pitch series, '6 Mile Bottom', was dropped
|
|
|
|
|
until the rope ran out. It is still a going lead. Various other big black spaces were also found. Further back in
|
|
|
|
|
Repton, an exciting-sounding bit of climbing led to a large, straight
|
|
|
|
|
walking sized passage, which, again, is still a going lead as time ran
|
|
|
|
|
out.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Altogether, 776m was surveyed in KH and more A-grade leads were
|
|
|
|
|
found than were ticked off, so if nothing else, we showed that there
|
|
|
|
|
is still plenty more to find at the far end, and that a connection to
|
|
|
|
|
204 is still a realistic possibilty one day! KH is now 22.3 km long.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h4>Discoveries in Steinbrückenhöhle</h4>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Meanwhile, in 204 the expo Women's Institue (dubbed Team Zeus, for
|
|
|
|
|
reasons long since lost to Gösser) were exploring the pitch
|
|
|
|
|
series, Pussy Prance, that was discovered at the end of last year's
|
|
|
|
|
expo. At the bottom (a bit over 200m down) they found an exciting new phreatic
|
|
|
|
|
horizontal level with various feline-themed names: Puss in Bolts (a
|
|
|
|
|
traverse), Cat Flap, Cat Walk, Snow Leopard and er... Painted Lady.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>On one particular trip there was a little confusion when a pitch,
|
|
|
|
|
Snow Leopard, was dropped for the first time, only to find foot
|
|
|
|
|
prints, a pencil and a hanger at the bottom! This turned out to be the
|
2022-03-13 22:57:33 +00:00
|
|
|
bottom of <a href="../../1623/204/nopain.html">Brian's Phat
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
Shaft</a>. In fact, this was a very useful discovery as it offers an
|
|
|
|
|
alternative, much easier route into the level than the route via Merry
|
|
|
|
|
Fucking Christmas.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>In total 553m of cave was surveyed in 204. Survex shows that the
|
|
|
|
|
new level is perched vertically above
|
|
|
|
|
Razordance and not too far from <a
|
2015-04-08 03:13:14 +01:00
|
|
|
href="../../1623/234/234.html">Hauchhöhle</a>. There are vertical leads in Hauchhöhle, and
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
plenty of vertical leads in this new level of 204, so cleary there is
|
|
|
|
|
some exciting caving to be done here in the future. 204 is now 16.5km long.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h4>Discoveries in Tunnockschacht</h4>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>In previous years, most of the horizontal leads in Tunnockschacht had
|
|
|
|
|
been ticked off. Attention had turned to dropping some of the
|
|
|
|
|
frighteningly airy pitches, in the hope of finding a lower horizontal
|
2015-04-08 03:13:14 +01:00
|
|
|
level which might offer hope of a connection with the <a href="../../1623/204/subsoil.html#earthenware">Wares</a> in 204.</p>
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Frustratingly, the pitches all seemed to 'crap out'. However, this
|
|
|
|
|
year, another 100m deep monster, 'Usual Suspects', was dropped and a new
|
|
|
|
|
phreatic level found at the bottom, with many ongoing leads. It turned
|
|
|
|
|
out, however, that this pitch has a tendency to take a little water
|
|
|
|
|
when it rains, as Becka, Julian and Steve found during initial
|
|
|
|
|
exploration of the horizontal phreas. As an almighty thunderstorm
|
|
|
|
|
raged on the surface (basecamp claimed to find hailstones the size of
|
|
|
|
|
golf balls) they were sat at the bottom of the Usual Suspects for
|
|
|
|
|
several hours cowering in a 'tent' made of survival bags. The
|
|
|
|
|
thunderstorm passed, but their call out time also came and went and so
|
|
|
|
|
the well oiled CUCC rescue machine swung into action once
|
|
|
|
|
more. Eventually the water levels dropped and everybody returned to the
|
|
|
|
|
surface unscathed - see Julian's logbook write up for a far better
|
|
|
|
|
account than the one here!</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Plenty more was found higher up in Tunnockschacht. Stone Money was
|
|
|
|
|
extended further and the explorers were convinced that it should by
|
|
|
|
|
now have reached the surface. Several new caves were found by Frank
|
|
|
|
|
and Martin J in an effort to connect Stone Monkey to the surface, but
|
|
|
|
|
as yet Tunnockschacht only has the one entrance (although to be fair
|
|
|
|
|
it does function quite nicely). Altogether 1462m of cave was surveyed
|
|
|
|
|
in Tunnockschacht; it is now over 6km long and 290m deep.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<h3>Some Post-Expedition Remarks</h3>
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Expo 2009 is now over, but writing cave descriptions, typing up
|
|
|
|
|
logbooks and drawing up surveys continues. We found just under 3km
|
|
|
|
|
this year. The overriding feeling is that there is plenty more cave still to be found in all three
|
|
|
|
|
of the major caves we looked at, which bodes well for future expos. In
|
|
|
|
|
addition Troggle looks like it will soon come into its own on expo and
|
|
|
|
|
streamline all the basecamp computer-shenanigans.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>Thanks go to all the expedition members and in particular everybody
|
|
|
|
|
who helped get stuff organised both before and after expo. Thanks also
|
|
|
|
|
to our <a href="sponsors.html">sponsors</a> for their help this year.</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
2022-06-24 21:13:57 +01:00
|
|
|
<hr /></body>
|
2009-09-03 18:47:22 +01:00
|
|
|
</html>
|
