[svn r8019] Add 2006 logbook as typed up by jenny

years/2006/logbook/logbook_06.txt

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+15/7/06 Dave travels out, absence-of-courtesy of Ryan Air
+
+Up at 3.30am (ouch), night bus + coach to Stansted, flight to
+Salzburg, train to Bad Aussee, total time about 11 hrs. (3 ½ getting
+to airport + waiting for flight; 2 flight; 1h waiting at Salzburg;
+rest trains + buses.)
+
+Wet quite smoothly modulo getting on the wrong train at Salzburg +
+ending up on an express that didn't stop at Attnang-Puchheim + having
+to get out at Linz + pay E8 for a train back again.
+
+T/U: N/A
+
+
+16/7/06 Carrying lots of Stuff Dave, Mark, Aaron, Tom
+
+Walked up the hill to find lots of snow lying around – snow in 204a,
+snow at the front of the bridge, all over the shop. Tediously
+shovelled snow for ages to clear a way into Traungold.  Found a very
+pretty icestal; less pretty was the rest of the ice freezing half the
+gear down.
+
+On the way down, went slightly further downhill from usual route past
+195, and found a new hole, not yet tagged but in the fullness of time
+it will be <u>2006-01</u>. GPS: 36283 E 83223 N 1773 alt.
+
+
+18/7/06 More carrying lots of stuff Dave, Aaron, Mark + Tom
+
+Walked up again, with u**ber-heavy rucksacks this time, wasn't too bad
+as we went in stages, stopping at <u>157</u> to take a photo of it +
+one of nearby <u>Bogenh*ohle</u>.
+
+Slightly further up, just before the slabs, are two holes that are
+well-known but not documented:
+
+-2006-02, no obvious markings: long rattle on dropping rocks. Photo
+taken. GPS: 36086 82919 1707.
+
+-2006-03, marked “CUCC 2987+”. GPS 36081 82911 1706. Photoed.
+
+18/7/06 Carry to 76 Olly+Jenny
+
+Arrived at basecamp early in the morning after driving out. It was
+really hot, so spent the morning sorting stuff out and walked up in
+the evening. Failed to find the 76 path several times and so took ages
+to get there. The stuff stored in the bivi was fine – had obviously
+been frozen in for most of the year, but was free (mostly) of ice now.
+The camping spot had way less snow than last year, so loads of camping
+space. The 76a entrance was full of snow (like last year) + will need
+clearing, but 76main is draughting lots, therefore hopefully not
+blocked lower down. Walked back much more quickly but it still got
+dark too soon (especially for Olly who was wearing prescription
+sunglasses).
+
+148 was noted to be completely full of snow – if it wasn't for the
+paint, you wouldn't know there was a cave there.
+
+19/7/06 Carrying + first push of expo Dave + Aaron +Tom
+
+Walked up the hill with another tediously heavy load. Arriving at the
+bivvy, Mark opted to do some surface work + the rest of us went to rig
+204e.
+
+While waiting at the base of 204e for Tom+Aaron, I had a ferret in the
+Qms in the chamber there.
+
+<u>QM 01-12C</u> is too tight; higher level rift has sound of water
+but would require capping.
+
+<u>QM 01-13C</u> is also too tight, although it required Aaron to tell
+this – I couldn't get round the first bend, but he did the 2nd and got
+to a point where no normal person could go on.
+
+<u>Also</u> at the base of the pitch is a low passage not marked on
+the survey, on the left from the point you land, This goes by a short
+crawl to a right-hand bend. A short gallery leads to a climb down into
+a winding rift which goes on underneath Boulder Coaster; the limit of
+it is a boulder choke at a high level, or a dodgy QMC climb down
+(probably needing ghastly bolting).
+
+T/U: 4hrs
+
+20/7/06 Random Pitch Series in Great Oak Dave/Mark/Aaron/Tom
+
+Plan was to go to Choc Salty Balls and bolt the pitches there. En
+route we stopped at Great Oak Chamber. Mark descended to the bottom
+(on a very dodgy rig) + announced it didn't go so 00-32C is dead. Mark
+decided to take a look at 00-29D which is <u>not</u> a dig, a rift
+going down a perfectly climbable pitch, a short sequence of cascades +
+a second rather bigger pitch. At the bottom is an awkward S-bend
+leading to a tight pitch head. I bashed in a bolt for half a Y-hang
+while the others surveyed down.
+
+T/U: 8 ½ hours
+
+
+20/7/06 76 carry Jenny+Olly
+
+Decided to drive up the the night before + sleep in the car at the
+Bergresteraunt carpark in order to get an early start before it got to
+hot. Met some very friendly German cavers in the carpark -> their area
+is a 5-6hr walk away past Apelhaus. Swapped email addresses and
+websites.
+
+Walked up to bivi and set lots of things up: water tarp, other tarp,
+tent etc. Took photos of 97 and 148 cos they didn't have any photos
+yet. Waited till it was less hot to walk back. Got distracted by a
+“new” cave -> marked by a cairn, but no evidence of exploration (the
+cairn may just be marking the path). this will be <u>2006-70</u> it is
+a crawling/stooping horizontal entrance that draughts out. After ~10m
+there is a restricted pitch head that appears to open out into a ~5m
+pitch. Currently un-descended, but seems to land on a snow/rocky
+slope. Having been distracted by this cave, we got back to the car too
+late to do another carry back up, so slept in the car again.
+
+GPS for 2006-70: 
+Also surveyed the bivi cave 2004-01 T/U: ½ hr
+
+21/7/06 Final Carry and 76 caving Jenny+Olly
+
+Carry up the final bag in the morning. Took our time because our bags
+were heavy and Olly was suffering with a cold or hayfever. By the time
+we got to the bivi Olly wasn't feeling well + needed to patch his
+oversuit, so I went down 76 to rig the first 30m rope. Initially more
+snow than before – pretty ice round the walls in the entrance passage.
+Had to clear snow out the way to find the 2nd bolt + worried that
+things would become very tedious... Large snow slope to head of Draft
+Bitter (which is nice cos it holds the loose rocks in place), but
+below this considerably less snow. The top snow plug was only ~1/4
+there and the second not at all. So the rigging spirals round the side
+somewhat unnecessarily this year! Came back out when the rope ran out.
+
+T/U: (Jenny) 1hr 30
+
+
+21/7/06 More Pitches in Great Oak + Cave Tree Mark/Aaron/Tom/Dave
+
+Decided to split into two partied. Tom + I went to the pitch series
+off Great Oak (QM 00-29 D) now christened “Riverdance”, while Mrk +
+Aaron went to Cave Tree Chamber to bolt the pitch there + see if it
+goes anywhere.
+
+In Riverdance, one more bolt gave a Y-hang down a 9m pitch, then
+another Y-hang led to a 6m pitch. Here there is yet another pitch with
+1 ¼ bolts in it at present.
+
+After getting this far we opted to go back up to the last survey
+marker + survey back down, as I couldn't work out how to survey
+awkward pitches upwards. Five legs got us to the pushing front, but
+when I got to a dry point + started to sketch I realised there were
+some rather weird legs. Cursed loudly. While prussiking out we worked
+out between us that the first two compass readings and been read from
+the wrong scale and were effectively reversed. After checking Mark was
+still alive I went back down to make a proper sketch + Tom headed out.
+Got to surface to find it was raining slightly – yay! water to drink!
+
+T/U Dave+Tom 9hrs
+
+
+21/7/06 Go*sser Streamway Mark/Aaron
+
+Mark started bolting+rigging the pitch out of Cave Tree Chamber (QM
+00-39B) on 20/7/06, alone. We (Mark + I) returned in force the next
+day, finding several pitches, a streamway and a particularly nice
+chamber. Yorkshire-style meander. Headed back after many hours leaving
+the next pitch for another time. Area dubbed Go*sser Streamway for
+it's smooth character + tipsy trajectory. Surveyed back to cave Tree
+but failed to locate point in chamber + so linked survey to point at
+end of passage into Cave Tree from Great Oak.
+
+22/7/06 76:Plugged Shaft/Strange Ways Jenny+Olly
+
+After a record length change we finally got underground, with the plan
+for Olly to rig on down Plugged Shaft, with me following with the
+drill in case we wanted to add anything. Got as far as the
+rock-bridge-rebelay, and Olly remembered the leads below this; firstly
+QM 04-09C (on the snow slope, which was incidentally lots snowier this
+year, and Olly spent a while kicking snow+rocks down). Anyway,
+QM04-09C trivially doesn't go, and QM04-08C doesn't actually exist.
+Next, rather than swinging across to the deviation and The ledge, Olly
+went down to the rock bridge below. We briefly visited here in 2004,
+and as it is easier to visit on the rigging or derigging trips, we
+hadn't yet returned. Olly descended the side pitch while I drilled a
+spit for a new deviation higher up. Olly's pitch led to QM04-06C and
+QM 04-07C which turned out to connect at a short pitch down to a snow
+slope which I rigged + descended. “Upstream” at the bottom leads after
+a few meters to vertical oxbows leading back to the canyon above.
+“Downstream” led to a junction, right oxbowed back to the pitch, left
+quickly led out to a pop out in a big pitch, which pretty much has to
+be Plugged Shaft. This is probably QM04-15B. We must have been looking
+down at Yesterday's Terminus, which has way less snow this year.
+Didn't have survey kit, so came out (leaving it rigged for future
+survey trip) and went down the hill.
+
+T/U: 4 ¼ hours
+
+P.S. The new section of cave is called <u>Strange Ways</u> cos the way
+everything connected back was confusing. On the survey trip we will
+consider its merits as the main route in (asaposed to Plugged Shaft).
+
+
+23/7/06 Failed Attempt on Bivi	Dave and Sandeep
+
+Decided to go up to walk even though the weather looked exciting but
+we wanted to try anyway. We got as far as the col. It had started
+raining about 20 mins in but we kept going for another half hour till
+we realised it just wasn't going to get better. Just after we turned
+round it really started to piss down.
+
+Once we got back to the car park we realised the at the car wasn't at
+the car park to pick us up we went into the restaurant to wait and for
+a drink. Eventually they shut and by now we were wondering where the
+cavalry was.
+
+We ended up resorting to hitch-hiking down the hill with a rather
+unconvinced German couple. Many thanks whoever you are.
+
+It turned out we had the number wrong for basecamp and that's why
+no-one came to pick us up.
+
+[in a different handwritting] M U P P E T S LUV THE PHANTOM ARSHOLE
+
+
+24/7/06 Stuff in Near End	Dave+Deep
+
+Much staring at the survey over the last year had left me convinced
+that the right place to look for the connection from the Near End to
+the Colonnade was Kidney Bean.
+
+So me and Deep got up ridiculously early (for expo) + got the 9:25 bus
+up the hill, rig
+
+[Mao break]
+
+going down 204a + wandering thru the Near End. Snow plug was lower
+than I've ever seen it before which is odd as all the surface snow
+plugs are actually higher than usual.
+
+Kidney Bean turns out to be <u>shite</u>. The route to it involves an
+upward crawl over loose boulders, a contortion through a body-sized
+tube, and finally a turn downwards head-first into a muddy puddle.
+
+So Deep + I decided we'd tick off the QM's in ascending order of
+promisingness. Deep climbed down into a scrofulous hole in the floor –
+00-71C – and announced it didn't go. I crawled up 00-70B until I was
+sure it connected to 00-69A. Finally we checked out 00-69A, which went
+– crawling for a while, squeeze under an arch, then a shitty
+boulderous chimney. I shifter boulders until I could poke my head in,
+at which point one about the size of two breeze blocks decided to toll
+over my shoulder. ouch.
+
+Meanwhile Deep was looking around a bit and found a chimney which
+landed just the other side of the boulder pile, in a chamber with a
+waterfall. I was a bit confused, but Deep pointed out that there was a
+tube leading up with a really strong draught. This emerged in big
+trunk passage, and not far beyond I located a boot print. A large
+column established that this was indeed the colonnade.
+
+Returned to Kidney Bean to fetch survey gear, transpired that neither
+of us could really read them, so we fucked off out instead.
+
+T/U: 4 ½ hrs
+
+[THIS SPACE ACCIDENTALLY LEFT BLANK]
+
+
+28/7/06 (Dave, Pete, Chantalle, John
+
+After surveying a random side passage of Treeumphent as a surveying
+lesson under the tutorage of Dave (cleaning up leads 16-22 inc) we
+moved onto looking at Sucker. Pete was in a feretting mood and the
+following was concluded: fereting is not that much fun. Also 01-26C
+goes 6.5m straight ahead to a dig. 01-28X and 01-27X are one and the
+same – 28X was climbed and joins at a higher level. 01-31C and 30C are
+bloody tight and unlikely to proceed far beyond visible range without
+stopping to undress! Pete also crawled down 01-54C and the way is
+semi-blocked by a small rock bridge (i.e. it is probably physically
+possible to get past but you wont find me doing it!)
+
+FRIDAY 28th JULY
+OOPS!
+
+
+24,25,26 July Tunnocks Trips Tom, Mark, Aaron
+
+Three days efforts in the face of loose boulders and inconvenient
+walls – requiring rebelay after rebelay after rebelay landed us at the
+bottom of the very impressive Tunnocks Schact. On the 25th, we reached
+“The Col”, a spot between two large steep boulders/snow slopes where
+one can cower in relative safety from falling rocks. Looking down the
+second slope, I could just barely make out a dark area in the distance
+where the monolithic roof slab meets the end of the second snow slope,
+pronouncing it either a continuation or a “dirty patch of snow”.
+
+On the 26th, we put in the final spit, descended to the end of the
+rope, walked down the remaining few meters, and my “dirty patch of
+snow” resolved itself into a beautiful pool of ice with a 2-3m ice
+column and a horizontal passage. This became a mammoth trip, with Tom
+jotting 10 pages of survey (~160m), the discovery of Three Fried Mice
+chamber, Bauernknoppen passage, and an as of yet unnamed phreatic
+tube. A good deal of photography was also accomplished. Speculation:
+tube probably connects to Hilde's beer cellar.
+
+Our return, though triumphant, met mixed reception; Dave seemed
+slightly miffed by the proximity of our 2344 appearance to our 2400
+callout. 
+
+
+24th/25th July 06 Death and Glory Dave and Deep
+
+There were high hopes of a connection between the near end and the
+colonnade, they were a mere 10m apart and there were several QM's that
+could go.
+
+On Monday (24th) we got to the pushing front via 204a and checked out
+(00-70) “B” and (00-71) “C” grade leads both of which didn't go. We
+backed up a bit and tried out a ”A” lead. It went! Crawling flat out
+on mud and loose stones wasn't pleasant but we were making progress.
+Dave was the first there finding a dodgy looking boulder choke he
+slowly started to pull out rocks, it was almost wide enough but not
+quite, then, one of them, the size of a basketball <i>(it was bigger
+than that - DL)</i> fell on his shoulder. Things weren't going well
+but he seemed OK after about 15 minutes.
+
+I tried the small rift above the dodgy looking boulders, a few metres
+in there was a steep chimney into a chamber bypassing the hanging
+death. We were now in the chamber about the size of a small classroom.
+Dave was puzzled there wasn't meant to be water here in 204.
+<strike>We decided that the previous survey was shite. </strike> We
+thought we were still in new territory, we named it unimaginatively,
+Waterfall.
+
+We tested out all the leads that we could find but no connection. We
+had almost given up and were on our way out when I spied a small 7/8m
+crawl sloping upwards.
+
+Dave went up first and I followed. Half way up I heard screams of
+excitment, we had found the colonnade and the connection!!
+
+We had to return through Death and Glory (Note: Death is the boulder
+choke/hanging death and glory is the chimney into waterfall chamber)
+to retrieve our survey instruments which we had left in Kidney Bean.
+But disaster struck once again, it was here, after we had discovered
+the connection that we found out that neither of us could read the
+compass or clino.
+
+T/U: 4 ½ hours
+
+We returned the next day with a different set of instruments to survey
+the passage in a slightly quicker/less excitign trip.
+
+T/U: 5 ½ hours
+Deep
+
+
+25th/7/06 Surface Wander Dave+Sandeep
+
+After emerging from the Death or Glory survey we still had some light
+left, so we opted for a surface retagging walk. Armed with the marking
+board, a camera, the pile of pre-made tags, a spanner, we set out from
+the bridge towards <u>2003-X14</u>. Did an ent photo + a sketch
+survey.
+
+Then we slogged up the Hinter. View from the top is amazing. Looked at
+<u>2003-X15</u>; looks obviously choked. Stupidly didn't get an
+altitude fix, but got a photo.
+
+Descended towards <u>214</u>. This had a tag “2000-03” as expected so
+replaced it with a proper tag + took a photo. Cave is a fairly jolly
+bit of tube going ~20m, stooping size, to a second skylight exit
+(probably too tight to be passable).
+
+Then we went in search of <u>222,3+4</u>. Walked to where the GPS said
+223 should be, but no evidence of a tag; same happened at 222 so we
+gave up + walked home. Oddly enough the original survey claims
+unambiguously that the survey points are tag bolts, so either I was
+being useless or my GPS was foxed by the steep hillside.
+
+T/U: maybe 5 minutes in 214
+
+
+26/7 Bolting in Riverdance Dave+Sandeep
+
+Tedious long cold trip. Hand bolting is very slow and all the rock in
+Riverdance is shite. Got to top of 9th pitch – loads bigger than the
+previous few but that's not saying a lot.
+
+T/U: 9 hrs
+
+27/7 Surveying in Riverdance Dave + Sandeep
+
+Surveying went impressively smoothly modulo the usual crap instrument
+problems; took ~3h to get to pushing front! I wanted to do more
+bolting but I wasn't hyper keen + Deep was less keen still so we
+decided to turn round.
+
+At 2nd pitch met Mark's team doing photos – I posed on the pitch, came
+out rather well I think. We were informed that thunder was audible in
+Cave Tree, so rather than go out we went to Choc Salty Balls for a
+look at the dig <u>01-35 D</u>.
+
+Sandeep crawled in first + after rearranging some boulders we squeezed
+out into a little chamber. I climbed up into the ceiling where the
+draught whistles out of a boulderous chimney. I moved more rocks + got
+into a horrendously loose chamber – floor is a critical angle boulder
+slope. Draught comes down from the top but I'm not going up there, it
+looks bloody lethal.
+
+Went back out for survey gear + surveyed in, amid much ranting at the
+extreme crapness of the pencil I was using. Couldn't find a good point
+to link to so the link is a bit of a bodge.
+
+T/U: 9h
+
+
+28/7 Surveying QM's in Treeumphant Dave, Pete, Chantalle, John
+
+Team novice had managed to arrive at the bivvy at exactly the same
+time team old-lag were plannign to leave it, so I stayed up a few more
+hours to show them how to push new cave.
+
+We attacked QM 00-21C, a tube on the left-hand wall of Treeumpant.
+Chantalle climbed in + determined that it went, at which point I
+realised I'd forgotten the survey notebook.
+
+Got back ½ an hour later to find that P+J+C had found a parallel
+horizontal gallery linking together 00-21, 00-22, and 00-17, which
+were duly surveyed.  00-19C doesn't go, and 00-16 and 00-18 join up in
+another parallel gallery on the other side. All now thoroughly ticked
+off and not going anywhere. Unfortunatly we linked the survey to the
+wrong point (my fault – oops).
+
+At this point I buggered off to drink G*osser down the hill + left the
+other to check out Sucker.
+
+(See Pete's writeup).
+T/U: 4 ½ hours (Dave)
+
+
+26/7/06 76:Strangeways Jenny+Olly
+
+Drove up the night before again to sleep in the car at the Bergrestuarant. Worked less well than last time 'cos there was a group of people collecting bugs or moths or something using a really bright light. Olly needed to wait for the Bergrestaurant to open to go to the loo, so I set off to carry my bag to the bivi, then returned to meet Ol at the col. Collected the 150m of rope we left there a week ago and went to the bivi. Caught up on sleep for a couple of hours in the tent, then went caving. Took survey kit to survey Strangeways. Started at the lower end and progressively made our way back out. Due to the small + wiggly nature of the passage + the oxbows we got cold before we had surveyed it all, despite draughting less than Plugged Shaft it was still distinctly cold. Came out to find the bivi had become moth city, lots worse than last year.
+T/U: 3 ½ hours
+
+27/7/06	Surface Stuff (near 76)	Jenny+Olly
+
+Planned to continue down 76, initially Olly wasn't keen, shortly after i had infected him with sufficient keen-ness I felt ill and was sick, decided that whilst being sick on the surface wasn't much fun, it was a dam sight better than being ill underground. So we changed plans.
+Headed towards 2004-08 to tag it, en-route I realised we had everything required except the drill battery (we don't have a hand bolting kit). I returned to the bivi to retrieve it and returned to find an Olly who had located an entrance that seemed to fit the description of 177. Sadly after descending it, it did't match the survey, so it is <u>2006-71</u>. Olly placed a bolt to descend on (we used this for the tag). Apparently it draughted out, was quite tight, but did continue. Olly ascended and we phototed, gps-ed, tagged and Olly surveyed it.
+Moved on to <u>2004-08</u>, Olly descended while I took photos, it is basically a large chamber with most of it's roof missing. Olly abseiled in the largest entrance, used his trekking pole to walk around the snow plug, and climbed out of the other two smaller entrances (both ~5m shafts). Despite being full of promise, the cave barely went further than you could see. Olly surveyed it and we tagged, photoed + GPSed.
+Moved on to tag and photo 2004-07 (which was surveyed in 2004). Also surface surveyed 99 -> 2004-01, to close a loop and improve loop closures in 99.
+T/U: Olly:
+
+28/7/06	76:Strangeways	Jenny+Olly
+
+Went to Strangeways with the aim of finishing the top half of the survey, derigging and rigging down plugged shaft. Got to the top of the 1st pitch head in Strangeways and decided that moving some rocks might well improve it enough to make it the trade route for this year. Surveyed from where we ended before up through the top of Strangeways to the rubble shaft below the Plugged Shaft rock bridge.
+I went out to get the drill while Olly moved loads of rocks out the way, both to make it safer and bigger. By careful aiming he was able to throw the rocks down the pitch in such a way as to smash off the worst protrusions on the way through. Once I had returned with a drill we put a bolt in the boulder near the pitch head, and with the aid of a stop, a pulley, me prussiking on the rope, and Olly directing the rock, we managed to relocate it along with a few other rocks. Having made the pitch head considerably more passable, we proceeded to rig down to Yesterday's Terminus in a suitable-for-lots-of-use kind of a way, rather than a pushing-only way. Got to Yesterday's Terminus and returned, on the way out I added a bolt for the little  climb in Strangeways and discovered that placing bolts in the ceiling is crap. Attempted to add another bolt near the rock bridge but the drill was flat after only 15 ¼ holes :( so exited the cave.
+T/U: 9 hours
+
+29/07/06	76: Strangeways/Plugged Shaft	Jenny+Olly
+
+Returned to 76, and Ol rigged on down Plugged Shaft. Discovered the rope was too short to reach the bottom, so had to use the rope intended for Boulder Chamber. Therefore Strangeways uses ~10m more rope than Plugged Shaft which is a shame. Rigged to Boulder Chamber, took some photos and surveyed out. Finally tieing in the Strangeways survey at both ends which made me happy. The new route in seems drippy but no worse even after lots of rain which is good.
+T/U: 5 ½ hours
+
+30/07/06	Surface Stuff	Jenny+Olly
+
+It finally stopped raining so we could dry all our gear on the slabs + do some useful surface jobs. I went over to 2006-71 to retrieve the blanking plate for the drill battery. Then we tagged 2005-99 (Coatless), and phototed 2005-9*7 (Fluted). Packed stuff to go down the hill and walked on the old via Top Camp path so that we could tag + survey <u>2004-03</u>. I went in first and found that the cave didn't stop where Olly thought it did in 2004. But we didn't have any caving gear, even lights. The disto provided enough light from the laser to suggest the passage was small, but not impassable, and I could get a ~10m reading through it. tagged the entrance + surveyed what we could – need to return with gear.
+
+Next went to photo 186 (on the col side of the Vord), shortly before 186, and slightly off the path we found a stooping sized horizontal entrance that draughted out. This is marked with a red painted “+” of unknown origin. GPS-ed + photoed the entrance and I surveyed what I could without a light (discovered that the disto is enough to light the compass enough to read it!). It seemed to continue some distance, though presumably is relatively trivial to have a “+”, we will call this <u>2006-72</u> though it is not yet tagged as there was no drill battery left. Continued the short way to 186 and photoed the entrances. Then Olly suggested we might climb the Vord as we were “halfway already”. We were going to leave our bags at 186 and collect on the return, but then Olly took his to be able to carry his camera and GPS. Followed a path for a short while, then lots of scrambling up rocks and fighting through bunde which was rather tedious. We got near what Ol thought was the summit, then Olly caught his foot on when a rock moved and hurt his toe. We decided it was worth carrying on to the summit in the hope of a better path down. Got to what we thought was the top but it wasn't at all. Lots of bunde continuing on into the distance... About half way to the top we hit a path and things improved.
+After signing the book + taking pics we decided to follow the path down, me hoping it would lead to vaguely near 186 so I could retrieve my bag...
+The path was very good, and went down the north-ish side of the Vord, past 199, 156 and 201 which we photoed, then met the highlevel old Top Camp to 161 path. which was surprisingly easy to follow given its limited use in recent years. Got to the col + got my bag back. The 161 path and forking off it the Vord is way better than going via 186. But Olly's foot hurt so I tried not to complain too much :)
+T/U: ¾ hour
+
+
+
+Expo 2007
+2007-07-18		Razordance	Duncan, MarkD, Dour
+
+We got underground at 9:30 and made rapid progress down to God Loves a
+Drunk, Mark pausing en-route to swap his radon detectors. Regrouping
+at GLAD we brewed up a couple of packets of soup and a dehydrated meal
+to fuel us up for the push.
+
+At 1pm we reached the front and started to rig and survey onwards.
+Mark wielded the drill, I weilded the pencil and Dour brought up the
+rear with a shetland attack pony.
+
+Four and a half hours later we had descended five pitches and were
+looking down a sixth, with no hiltis left and precious few hangers, so
+we headed out via another very welcome soup at GLAD.
+
+According to the survey data, 204 now has a vertical range of 599.99m.
+
+T/U: Duncan 12.5, MarkD 12, Dour 14
+
+[rigging diagram]
+
+
+2007-07-22		Razor Dance		Dunks 'n' Dour
+
+The previous trip down Razor Dance had returned with tales of a deep
+pool that they had started traversing around to where they could see
+into a perpendicular rift with running water audible. Could this be
+the bottom? The target for this trip was to continue the traverse into
+the side rift to find out whether the sound of water was a
+continuation or an inlet.
+
+Set off down at 10:30 with Duks in the lead. I was therefore surprised
+(and a little perturbed) to arrive at the pushing front to find no
+sign of him. I soon heard him thrutching through the rift. It turns
+out that he had missed the traverse level below Yeast pitch had had
+thrashed through at stream level to emerge at a ~15-20m pitch with no
+rope on it – presumably where the water drops in at Pepper Pot.
+
+Before continuing the traverse we opted to try oen of the self-heating
+meals provided by Andrew that the Welsh diggers “swear by not at”.
+After following the instructions to the letter and waiting the
+requisite 15 minutes, it was still stone cold, so we scoffed it
+anyway.
+
+Duncan then started work on the traverse. Andreas had bolted along a
+ledge on the right-hand wall (opposite the cross-rift). Duncan elected
+to take out his last two bolts and bolt on the left-hand wall instead,
+then he bridged across the (narrower) cross rift. Some time later I
+followed, hating every minute of it (so I took the opportunity to spit
+into a pot).
+
+It turns out that the sound of water in the side rift comes from an
+inlet, and that the deep pool is a sump – so 204 is now 622m deep. A
+bit disappointing that it didn't go deeper, but at least we've
+bottomed the bastard.
+
+The inlet is keyhole passage with ~3m round phreatic part elongate
+along the dip direction, and a trench that is typically 5m deep,
+trending upwards at 25°. We surveyed up this for ~70m before running
+out of time. Our last survey station is by a junction where the main
+route continues for ~40m to a climb which may or may not be climbable,
+and an inlet rift that is passable for some distance. With that we
+headed out with the drill and spare metalwork at a sedate pace (set by
+my), pausing for a food stop at GLAD. Duncan emerged at 04:50, and I
+got out at 06:20.
+
+Duncan had a suspision that the inlet contained water from the
+Midnight in Moscow seriers. Survex reinforced this suspicion: if the
+project the inlet up at its current angle for ~100m along and ~25m up,
+it will hit the bottom of Rasputin in 161 – so hopes are high for a
+connection, which would be a satisfactory 2nd prize after its faliure
+to go very deep.
+
+T/U: Dunks 18:12 hrs, Dour 20hrs
+
+
+24/07/07	Razoedance -> The forbidden City	Andrea, MarkD, George
+
+The trip was originally intended to compose of Andreas, <u>James</u>
+and myself, but unfortunately James was feeling a touch ill, and so
+Mark stepped in to take his place. The weather was looking a little
+overcast, but still dry and we made a late-ish start at 11:00am. All
+went smoothly until we reached the top of Copper pitch where we heard
+an ominous rumble/whistling noise in the distance. Although we all
+heard this noise we stayed quiet until we reached the following pitch
+where-upon it became obvious that the water levels were rising. A
+couple of minutes later the water levels had reached impressive
+heights! After a brief discussion we decided to press on into the
+drier part of the rift.
+
+Although the lower pitches were a bit damp none of them proved too wet
+so we carried on to do some pushing. At the top of the long slippery
+ramp that Dunks and Dour had explored two days previously we took a
+left turn into a steeply ascending dry passage. We followed this up
+10-15 short free climbs, via some quite nice formations. Eventually we
+reached a phreatic tunnel which levelled out, and then started to head
+downhill. Sensing that a connection with KH was imminent we ditched
+the instruments and went for a poke around.
+
+A low sandy crawl emerged 2m up the wall of what was clearly a very
+large passage. unfortunately the climb down was a bit on the suicidal
+side so we tried a lower crawl that emerged a bit closer to the floor.
+Although still a little on the loose and necky side we all reached the
+bottom and set up off the large 6m diameter tunnel. Downslope a stream
+could be heard (Midnight in Moscow?) and upslope gave us some fine
+long survey legs until an impressive echo started to sound. The source
+of the echo was a ~40m diameter chamber which was greeted with much
+whooping. Several leads go off from this and after we did a few survey
+legs across it we headed out.
+
+Again all went smoothly, we stopped for some food at GLAD, until we
+reached Mystery Wind pitch where it became clear that the cave was
+flooding again, only this time rather more so. It was some relief that
+we reached the bottom of Kiwi Suit which was very cool, windy and wet.
+The amount of water now flowing down RD was at least 10 x that of when
+we had entered. I couldn't help thinking that we had got out just in
+the nick of time. After a long and tedious prussik we all eventually
+all reached the surface at 00:30 -> 01:00. An excellent trip!
+
+T/U: 13 ½ hrs
+
+
+28/07/07	Razor Dance -> Gobi Trail	Andrew A, Andrea + George
+
+We had meant to get underground before 9.00am, but unfortunately
+Andreas and myself were feeling rather sleepy in the morning and so we
+managed to get underground shortly after 11:00am. We had a smooth 4
+and a bit hour journey down to the pushing front, slowed down slightly
+by Andrew As enormous camera case (which was later left in “The Silk
+Road”.
+
+We commenced the surveying by re-doing a couple of the legs in “The
+forbidden City” that had gone pear-shaped on the previous visit. We
+had also had a quick look down some sandy crawls at the base of the
+chamber, but they would all seem to offer only long term digging
+prospects. We surveyed up the large loose passage at the top of the
+chamber for approximately 100m. There is a climb there where care
+needs to be taken not to slip! It appeared as though the passage was
+going to crap out, but a low crawl lead to a complex junction. We
+chose the RH passage as it was heading towards KH, but the LH passage
+looked excellent too. A few survey legs with good formations lead us
+to a junction with a passage with a very small trickle of water
+flowing down it, where we decided to call it a day. Our highest point
+is now 118m above the sump level. Another uneventful if tiring,
+journey out had us at the surface at 1.00am is. Lots more question
+marks!
+
+T/U: 14 hrs
+
+
+29/7/07		Razordance -> Far East		MarkD, Duncan, JonT, OllieS
+
+Back down Razordance to take another look at the Far East. Uneventful
+journey down. Jon took a look at the tubes at the bottom of the
+Forbidden City. After ½ hour working with a crowbar we decided that it
+was a long-term job to dig through. We also looked downhill at the end
+of the Silk Road. After descending a ~6m drop a shortish passage leads
+to the top of a pitch. This is almost certainly the same pitch which
+can be reached from below “Carry on the Khyber” by following the
+water. After that we continued along the phreatic passage above the
+Forbidden City (the ”Gobi Trail”) to the first major junction. Left
+here was unsurveyed so we surveyed in, clocking up ~100m of new
+passage to a point where a vadose canyon intersected. Right (up) led
+to a 6m aven, reasonably climbable with some gear. Left led, via a
+climb down, to a continuing rift which heads towards the left
+zipper/right zipper area in Razordance. The phreas clearly continues
+over the top of the vadose canyon but would require some effort to
+reach it. Finally we tidied up a few minor leads. Closing a loop which
+led back to the gobi trail at the climb (where we had previously
+rigged a hand line). Then out. A long hard struggle back up Razordance
+and all of us ran out of puff in the Ariston series. Ollie got
+slightly lost at Wolpertinger Way, but it was his first trip in the
+cave. Given that he has only been caving a year this trip was a major
+step up for him and all the rest of us thought he did BLOODY WELL. We
+can expect HARD BASTARD exploits from this chap in the future. Hats
+off!
+
+T/U 18 hrs
+
+31/07/07		Razoedance -> push horizontal leads. Combined push, survey, photo + derig trip. Sigh.	Wookey, Julian, Andrew, Becka
+
+Woken up by Andrew to the news that we were going down Razordance.
+Hmm, really? I was prussiking out of 204E at 10pm last night + fancied
+a bit of a mellow, shallow shufty. Still, now or never as the derig
+loomed + Wookey was keen. Then Julian astounded us all by muttering
+that he'd come along. He went off for a dump whilst we consulted
+Andrew who was going to have to shepherd us down there. Why not? says
+Andrew, so we were underground by 10am feeling a bit old, unfit +
+generally fragile ofr all of this lark. Slowly down the pitched then
+into the rift. And more rift. And more sodding rift, ye gods. Only
+Andrew had been through before (+ then only once) so we got lost a
+couple of times, particularly trying to find the oxbow thing but
+finally we hit the sump + the unfeasible traverse. don't worry, its
+easier this direction says Andrew. Hmm, reassuring. Quick chochy stop
++ off up lots of scramble climbs – not too bad but it felt a long way
+from here by now. What's all this about? asks Wookey. We have to go up
+120m now says Andrew. Bloody hell. Wish we'd looked at the survey a
+bit more carefully before setting off – except that would probably
+have discouraged us from all this nonesense. This is wasting my
+valuable getting-out energy grumbles Julian. Picked up Andrew's camera
+case + did some 4 flash shots in the big chamber then split with
+Andrew + Julian taking photos + Wookey + I continuing Andrew, George +
+Andreas' Gobi Trail survey ~ SW for 130m including plenty of diddly 2m
+legs in mainly crawly / stoopy tubes with sand or pebble floor. A
+reasonable draft heading in with us. It was all quite cosy + friendly
+and we could easily have notched up a few more hours surveying but
+Wookey decided that enough was enough so we took sine cheesy group
+shots + left things at a complex junction wuth 2 QM A's and a QM B
+with sound of water. One to a Razordance-like rift with water, the
+other with a strong draft coming out + heading up steeply. Derigged
+the hand line + I picked up the tacklesack of unrigged rope + back to
+the sump to put on our SRT gear. I failed to palm off the tacklesack
+on anyone + set off to the start of the traverse. I'd heard Dunks
+muttering that cutting the rope for the traverse without leaving a
+tail down to the sump level had been a bit overkeen on scrimping with
+the rope + the muddy slope from the end of the traverse down had been
+a awkward on the way but hey, nobody had actually fallen off it yet.
+Andrew had mentioned it was easier high but with the tacklesack I
+didn't want to slither a long way down so I gingerly teetered forward
+on muddy ledges + eyed up the slot in the sump, wondering if it was
+narrow enough that I couldn't possibly fall down it. Yes I thought +
+promptly my foot slid + I decided to check it out. 'Shit'. Then I've
+got one foot under the water + the other braced on the far wall with
+the tacklesack dangling like a Mafioso's cement sack from my waist +
+some serious knee shake. “Andrew's coming” shouts Wookey. He gets his
+long cows tail into the traverse + I manage to clip my cow's tail into
+his footloops + then do a flailing prussik up him and onto the
+traverse. <u>Still</u> nobody volunteered to take the Fucking
+tacklesack. I hauled myself across the traverse trying to maintain
+enough stress that my 8pm spit sample on the far side was a good 'un.
+Right, that was my low point, literally as well as figuratively.
+Andrew derigged the traverse whilst collecting his spit + gobs as soon
+as he gets over. Were you holding the spit pot whilst you derigged?
+asked Wookey. Er, he's good but even Andrew probably didn't have a
+spare hand there. Tootled up the rift – not as bad as feared,
+route-finding easier than on the way down + it disn't seem any more
+energetic than on the way down, especially as all the pitches are nice
++ bite sized. I didn't let anyone have a cup-of-soup at the camp as we
+didn't deserve it. On + on, I'd forgotten all the pitches by now. I
+managed to do an awkward section right at the bottom whilst everyone
+else wandered around trying to find the way higher up. Then a really
+long pitch, followed by another largish one. I got a bit concerned as
+Julian would be slow on this + I knew Razordance started with an
+awkward section + a couple of short pitches so we must still have
+quite a long way to go in the rift... Andrew came up swearing at his
+dysfunctional jammer. How many more pitches? I asked. 12. OK
+altogether, but how many to go? Well, we've done 1 or 2. No, but the
+first ones in Razordance are short... ah! You mean I'm not in the rift
+any more??? Great news – halfway up Kiwi Suit before I knew it. No
+time out from here. Andrew + I got out + rehydrated, went to bed +
+Julian + Wookey came out a couple of hours later. Julian did an ad hoc
+spit sample just to see what euphoria hormones look like (though how
+he gets his 4am baseline comparison I don't know). A fine trip – once
+in a lifetime, literally, for Julian at least... Combined age of 4
+team members = 152 years, what's the retirement age for this kind of
+nonsense?
+
+T/U: 16-17 hrs
+
+
+2-3/08/07		Razor Dance derigging teip	John Billings, Aaron Curtis, Jon Telling (+ Duncan, MarkD, Richard + George)
+
+Left basecamp for an “early start” at (maybe) 10am. (Duncan + Mark had
+been talking about a R.D. trip the day before...) Got to Stone Bridge
+early afternoon. JonT was itching for a RD derigging trip. - already
+up there for a few days, wanted a “decent” trip. Aaron + I pulled on
+our gear quickly, & then the three of us set off down 204A... Duncan &
+Mark to follow after a few hours.
+
+My second trip in Austria, first one was with Aaron to do some science
+stuff in a shallow cave. This RD trip turned out to be quite vertical.
+Not much horizontal caving, at least to start with. Stopped briefly
+for my 2pm spit sample. We carried on downwards (later learnt that
+this was the Kiwi series).
+
+After a couple of hours we hit Razor Dance. Much more horizontal &
+quite tight. Had a few problems finding the correct level – it's quite
+a deep vertical rift in a few/most places. Lots of grunting. JonT:
+“flow with the rock, not against it”.
+
+Got to final pitch before sump at bottom. Jon + Aaron already down.
+Just as I was half-way down, Jon shouts for me to start going back up.
+What the fuck? Shouts that it's getting very wet. Bloody hell, he's
+got a point, this little RD stream <u>has</u> got a lot wetter. Better
+had get out. Oops, not chest jammer on central MR (in dangly bag) –
+have to go right down. Thunderstorm?
+
+Put chest jammer on. Jon volunteers to derig – yes please! Start
+heading out, followed by Aaron then Jon. Bottom pitches very wet – get
+quite soaked. After a while, bump into Duncan& Mark. Good to see them.
+Say they've re-rigged Paster of Muppets pitch 'cause it's a bit damp.
+Follow Duncan up to top of Pepper Pot. Duncan, Mark & I wait there for
+an hour (<u>damm</u> cold!) until Aaron & Jon turn up. Given heavy
+tacklesack full of wet rope, carry on pushing up through RD. Duncan
+goes on ahead.
+
+Turns out that it's quite a mission to push a tackle sack through
+tight, vertical rift. Almost leave it a couple of times. Arms tired.
+Actually, there <u>is</u> a technique to it. Push it ahead and wedge
+it, then follow.
+
+Got to basic 'camp' (stove + food) called “God Loves a Drunk” - passed
+straight through on way down. Hot food, courtey of Duncan. Richard &
+George also there! Set off again after a bit, following Jon. Hear him
+now & then at top of pitches.
+
+Leave tacklesack at bottom of Kiwi Suit next to Jon's Start up, bloody
+hard work. See Duncan following at the bottom of pitches. Should have
+brought more chocolate bars. Find my discarded water bottle on way up
+– very thirsty, quite welcome! Also a flap-jack cache :)
+
+Eventually got to the surface at 2am. “Job's a good 'un”. Food then
+sleep. Won't do that again in a hurry. Appears there <u>was</u> a ~7pm
+thunderstorm.
+
+Finis.
+
+T/U: John+Jon+Aaron 12hrs
+Duncan + MarkD: 11hrs
+Richard + George: 8 ½ hrs
+
+
+3/08/07 Razordance – Finish derigging Wookey, Andrew + Becka (plus
+OllieS for last third)
+
+Down 10am. Wookey + I fetched the tacklesack of rope from Mystery Wind
++ derigged the two pitches. By the time we were back at the bottom of
+Kiwi Suit Andrew had unbagged all the rope and done paella number one
+(& two) up the first pitch by himslef... at which point we were
+committed... to 9 more paella stacks until the last one emerged onto
+the slaps outside of Top Camp. Ollie came along to help when we were
+on the big pitch below Wolpertinger Way, which made life easier (down
+to only one tackle bag each) + on the final pull we had an excellent
+surface support party of Aaron, Richard, John + Jon to do all the hard
+work. Rope dried overnight, coiled the next day so all the RD deriged
+in 2.5 trips – not bad.
+
+T/U: Wookey, Andrew + Becka: 11 hrs
+Ollie S: 5hrs
+
+
+19/07/07		Razor Dance	Dave, Andrea, James
+
+Our hopes of an early start were sabotaged by the realisation that the
+drill battery was (a) flat and (b) broken. Several hours of charging
+and some gaffer later, we got underground around noon.
+
+At the pushing front, James + I cowered damply while Andreas rigged
+the pitch with a Y-hang + rebelay 2m further down. This landed in an
+elongated rift chamber, with a fairly narrow but ruler-straight slot
+leading off. Andreas went ahead with the bolting gear while we started
+surveying.
+
+The slot widened out somewhat + a scramble up onto a ledge led to a
+keyhole – type phreatic tunnel + slot in the floor. Andreas rigged a
+traverse were the slot began to widen + reached a stance overlooking a
+deep, dark pool of water.
+
+Andreas attempted to answer the question “is this a sump?” by
+traversing out along the ledge to see round a corner, but ran out of
+battery. So we headed out, leaving the depth certainly over 600m.
+
+T/U: 15hrs