expo/expoweb
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/ synced 2025-12-08 14:54:28 +00:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Online edit of logbookentry 2025-07-12c

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
Jonty
2025-07-19 09:31:30 +01:00
committed by Expo on server
parent f3624216d5
commit 198e6bcb37
1 changed files with 22 additions and 1 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

23
years/2025/logbook.html
View File

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ re-written. This is prevent spurious re-orderings and spurious git commit lines
Sorry about all the crap that surrounds the image tags which has been imported along with the content
when UK Caving blogs have been parsed.
Exported on 2025-07-19 08:07 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
Exported on 2025-07-19 09:07 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
See troggle/code/views/other.py and core.models/logbooks.py writelogbook(year, filename)
-->
<body>
@@ -744,6 +744,27 @@ Upon return to the base of the pitches, it turned out that the Dour one had foll
<div class="timeug">T/U: 5.0 hours</div>
<div class="editentry"><br /><a href="/logbookedit/2025-07-12b">Edit this entry</a><br /></div>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-12c">2025-07-12</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Jonty Pine</u>, Alice K, Ash, Becka L, Buck B, Charlotte P, Chris D, Dan Gorst, Dylan Wase, Ella M, Frank T, Hamish W, Hannah C, Musky Hannah, Harry K, James Hallihan, James Waite, Joel S, Lara B, Mark Shinwell, Ned H, Phil B, Russell W, Thomas B, David Molnar, Tom Philips</div>
<div class="triptitle">Expo - A Series Of One Unfortunate Event</div>
<p>After a good night's sleep at base camp and a near-entire rest day, I received a call from Harry at 19:55. This was a bit strange as their group (Hannah C, Harry K, Russell W and another expo-goer) had left top camp for an underground camp at around midday. He told me that their 4th member had sustained a lower leg injury, potentially a break, in Balkon. They'd heroically extracted themself from the cave all the way from Hangman's pitch, the group presumably not having arrived to camp yet. Harry asked for us to try and get in contact with someone at TC, to come and lend a hand in returning the injured caver there.
<p>
<p>Alice, Hamish, Buck and I all attempted to ring various people at TC to pass on the message, along with trying the signal and mesh (Meshtastic) chats. This went on for about 5 minutes without any success. Eventually, Hamish got hold of Joel, who was at the col on his way up the hill. The connection was a bit choppy but I passed on the information to him, and asked him to pass it on if he made it to camp before we could contact them. A few minutes later though, he messaged back to say he'd managed to hail them on the mesh and was passing the information to Charlotte. It was later explained to me by Phil Balister why this had occurred. The mesh node at the col was working, but wouldn't transmit as far as basecamp. The reason it had achieved this previously is that when Phil was on the plateau with his phone and his personal node, his phone would re-transmit mesh comms over the mobile network. Without him there, there is no connnection between the mesh and basecamp, or anywhere else out of range (around 1-3km).
<p>
<p>One of the TC group was in contact to tell us that an initial party of Charlotte, Lara and Dan were leaving at 20:20 to assist, taking 2 splints and a first aid grab back from top camp supplies. A rear party of Dylan and Becka followed at 20:45. Joel arrived at TC soon after at 21:05, where a note had been left for him with the up-to-date information. He waited there for the time being, until Harry dropped in at 21:35 to collect a stretcher, which he didn't think they'd need but made sense to have available. At 21:45 Joel sighted the group's lights from camp, them having just come over the nearest hill. By 22:15, they had all returned to camp.
<p>
<p>After some consideration, the group decided to stay the night up the hill as it was nearly dark, with the plan of walking down in the morning. Alice, Buck, Hamish, Alice and I drove up the hill at 07:30 (having not heard anything yet), in order to be available should the up-the-hill party want any help. Note, this is the first year of a new toll road policy of not being allowed to drive up the mountain between the hours of 8am and 4pm. This is excepted in an emergency, but would require some communication with the German-speaking toll-road people, and in this case we decided it would be easier to just wake up early. We were up at the Loser Alm by 8am, where we waited around hour, texting with Charlotte. Around the time 9am came around, the top group confirmed they were happy without our help and would be setting off soon (Harry, Hannah C, Russell, Charlotte and the injured caver) so we stood down and drove back to base camp.
<p>
<p>While I was in the process of typing up the previous paragraph, a further development occurred. A group of 5 or so basecampers had just gone off for a "river race" as the water levels were high from the recent rain. I was sitting in the Tatty Hut when I got a call from Harry (11:46). The casualty relocation party had left top camp 2 hours ago and had only made it 20 minutes worth across the plateau using a method of supported walking. Therefore, they'd decided to fetch the stretcher from top camp and would like some help carrying. While I tried to collect some more information, I asked David, who was sitting across from me, to try and fetch the river group back before they got in. Unfortunately they'd just gone and had rapidly disappeared down-river. After re-tasking David (the only present German speaker), to call up the toll road and ask for emergency access, Big Tom and I hopped in his car and drove down to intercept the river group and give them the news. This resulted in a bit of frantic riverbank scrambling and several cavers trying to haphazardly remove their wetsuits as they ran back along the road. After some kit gathering we left basecamp at 12:20.
<p>
<p>Reaching the toll barrier in second, we saw James Waite reach his hand out of the car in front and the barrier come open after he jabbed the button a few times, after which it remained open for all 3 of our cars to pass through. Come 12:50, 11 of us were at the top car park, finalising bags and sun-creaming ourselves. Mark Shinwell had offered me the option of requesting Austrian help and a helicopter before leaving basecamp, which I'd passed on to Charlotte on the drive up. Obviously none of us were keen to do that, especially unnecessarily, but clearly calling them in the middle of the night after a failed stretcher carry would be much worse. Soon after, Charlotte reported back that progress was good in their small party, having started with the stretcher, and we agreed to make the decision after we'd arrived to render help.
<p>
<p>We made a quick pace up the mountain and intercepted the stretcher party - who had made excellent progress since last contact - quite soon after reaching the plateau. The injured caver was currently out of the stretcher for a more exposed scramble around a hole but soon popped out from behind a bush, where James handed them an alcohol-free Radler that he'd acquired from the beer fridge before leaving basecamp. We put them back in the stretcher and started again across the plateau, this time returning towards the car park, while the initial carry party had a bit of rest. Again we made good time and so declined the second message prompt from Mark for a call for the helicopter. The usual rule of thumb for a cave stretcher carry is 10 hours carry for every 1 of caving. Fortunately this rule did not apply here for 2 apparent reasons: more open and mostly walkable terrain, and the very helpful ability of the stretcher occupant to get out and do some of the more scrambly or difficult terrain themself. They couldn't bear weight on their right leg, but could hop exceptionally well on the left, and performed better in scrambly areas because it allowed more use of hands.
<p>
<p>We made it back to the walking trail at the col at 14:40, by which time 3 more expoers (Phil Balister, Frank Tully, and James Hallihan - who'd just arrived in Austria) had joined. The group became more efficient moving the stretcher as the carry progressed. After initially starting with 4 people carrying at once, we creeped up to 6, until Charlotte pointed out the we were moving more slowly and we firmly reduced to a configuration of 4 at one time (excepting some of the more difficult terrain). Notably on the walk, Chris Densham heroically slapped a highland cow with horns the size of my arms when it was in our way: a move that startled most of us, but our resident vets later assured us wasn't completely out of the ordinary. The injured caver was also informed that if they were a horse they'd be put on box rest until ready to be walked in hand for a short duration every day. James managed to get two renditions of "Thinking out Loud" by Ed Sheeran ("when your legs don't work like they used to before"), off over his speaker, among some other themed songs such as "Jump Around". We made it back down to the car park at 16:40, much more quickly than hoped and with no helicopter necessary. All in all the stretcher carry took around 6 hours, from when the initial party started until we arrived at the car park all together. This is with a 'walking wounded' casualty and would take significantly longer if the stretcher were occupied for all the difficult terrain. The other thing that came to light from this is that the lack of top camp phone made contacting someone there much more difficult and it is my opinion that we should reinstate it. Otherwise, the whole thing took place in good spirits and became a great team-building exercise.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 0.0 hours</div>
<div class="editentry"><br /><a href="/logbookedit/2025-07-12c">Edit this entry</a><br /></div>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-13a">2025-07-13</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Becka</u>, Joel</div>
<div class="triptitle">Gruffalo 2025-js-04 - Descent of Turbine Hall</div>