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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
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"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
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<title>1978: Nick Thorne's report for Descent 40</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../css/main2.css" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=
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"../../../css/main2.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<font size=-1>CTS 79.2025: Descent 40 (Jan/Feb 1979) pp 10-11</font>
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<p style="font-size: 80%">CTS 79.2025: Descent 40 (Jan/Feb 1979) pp
|
||||
10-11</p>
|
||||
<p>This article first appeared in <i>Descent</i>(40) for Jan/Feb
|
||||
1979, pp10-11 and is reproduced in the password protected part of
|
||||
the website with the permission of the author and Wild Places
|
||||
Publishing.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>This article first appeared in <i>Descent</i>(40) for Jan/Feb 1979,
|
||||
pp10-11 and is reproduced in the password protected part of the website with the
|
||||
permission of the author and Wild Places Publishing.
|
||||
|
||||
<h2>Eislufthole still going for CUCC at 1148 ft</h2>
|
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<p align=right><b>By Nick Thorne</b>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>After last year's quietly successful Cambridge UCC expedition (see
|
||||
<a href="../1977/descnt.htm"><i>Descent 38</i></a>), enthusiasm to return to
|
||||
the karst regions of Western Austria soared. The main incentive was to carry
|
||||
on prospecting on the almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau above
|
||||
<span lang="de">Altaussee,</span> and to continue pushing our unfinished find
|
||||
of last year, 106 - <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> (good name,
|
||||
eh?).
|
||||
|
||||
<p>By way of introduction, <span lang="de">Altaussee</span> is a small
|
||||
village about 50 miles east of <span lang="de">Salzburg,</span> and it was
|
||||
there that we set up our camp. The Loser Plateau where we carried out most of
|
||||
our work is then reached by a steep (in more ways than one) toll road,
|
||||
follwed by an hour's brisk walk from the top. Furtunately for us, one of the
|
||||
few local cavers, <span lang="de">Karl Gaisberger,</span> who seems to be
|
||||
able to arrange anything, managed to secure free passes for us on the toll
|
||||
road. Cheers Karl; how about a sedan chair for the walk at the top next year
|
||||
?
|
||||
|
||||
<p>So in July and August of this year, we were back on the Loser with a
|
||||
fairly hefty team. Expedition members divided logically into three groups:
|
||||
Team <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle:</span> Andy Waddington, Simon Farrow,
|
||||
Nick Thorne, Doug Florence and Julian Griffiths - the crack ropes team, ready
|
||||
for anything. Team Ladders: John Bowers, Ben van Millingen, Mike Shearme and
|
||||
Nicola Davies - all spending their first year in Austria. Team Geriatric: Rod
|
||||
and Jont Leach, Vic Brown, Dave Fox, plus "hangers on". These acted as the
|
||||
emergency reserve powerhouse, to be called into service should things get out
|
||||
of hand for the rest of us. (Something like Aladdin's lamp I suppose, but
|
||||
this lot looked more like a clapped out carbide).
|
||||
|
||||
<p>And so to caving. Team Ladders didn't take long to find a promising,
|
||||
draughting entrance. All well and good so far, but the entrance initially was
|
||||
only big enough for a midget and it was only after a couple of days of
|
||||
boulder hauling that they got underground. The cave, 107, they called
|
||||
<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle.</span> Since I didn't get a trip down it,
|
||||
and know Berger all about it, I won't go into too much detail.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Apparently they descended a series of pitches in a large rift, down to
|
||||
about 560ft, when the tackle started to run out, with the cave continuing.
|
||||
They chose to get out of this dilemma by rubbing the magic carbide lamp.
|
||||
Wham! Team Geriatric hauled their weary bodies out of their canoes (canoes?)
|
||||
and went down <span lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> with a brand new reel of
|
||||
Marlow. Once underground, the Geriatrics were immediately transformed into an
|
||||
efficient well-oiled machine. Within a couple of trips,
|
||||
<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> had been pushed to a choke at minus
|
||||
918ft.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what of Team
|
||||
<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> ? Mixed fortunes really. A slow rig
|
||||
in down to last year's terminus (ie. the Tap Room - see survey) was due to
|
||||
greater amounts of snow and ice than last year. ("Are you sure this is the
|
||||
right cave?") At one point a huge ice boulder was suspended at a pitch
|
||||
take-off, and it refused to give way to a well-directed wellie. Farrow and
|
||||
Florence then carted a great crowbar into the cave to shift the thing, only
|
||||
to find that the boulder had fallen down in the meantime. Ah, well !
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Once we had rigged down to The Tap Room, but before pushing far into new
|
||||
ground, we had an interesting policy change - to overnight trips. The lapiaz
|
||||
in which the cave entrance is sited is impossible to negotiate in darkness,
|
||||
and therefore trips during the daytime are limited to a maximum of eight
|
||||
hours underground. Longer trips could be attained by going underground in the
|
||||
late afternoon, spending a minimum time underground of about ten hours, and
|
||||
then emerging into the morning light.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Good idea, we thought, and indeed the first of these trips did add 394ft
|
||||
to the depth of <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle,</span> including the
|
||||
magnificent 197ft abseil into The Hall of the Greene King. Subsequent
|
||||
overnight trips pushed on down some more pitches, and a very muddy 'Fiesta
|
||||
Run' to give a total depth of 1,148ft, the cave still continuing. This bottom
|
||||
part of the cave is a very tall vadose stream canyon. The passage is very
|
||||
tight at stream level and traversing was necessary.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>It was whilst driving back from the last of these overnight trips, at
|
||||
about 7 o'clock in the morning, when we had a slight mishap. The driver of
|
||||
the car carrying three of Team <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> back
|
||||
down the toll road, fell asleep at the wheel. With that Great Karst Area in
|
||||
the Sky Looming ever nearer, the car missed a telegraph pole and a tree by
|
||||
inches, went through a fence cum crash barrier, and gracefully launched
|
||||
itself over the void.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Well, it could have been a drop of a couple of hundred feet had it
|
||||
happened further up the road, but as it was, any spectators stupid enough to
|
||||
be awake at that ungodly hour would have seen a fine piece of 'S' registered,
|
||||
British engineering fall, roll, and tumble down a near vertical 30ft bank, to
|
||||
land wheels down in the river at the bottom. (all film rights reserved.)
|
||||
|
||||
<p>The driver had a broken sternum, cuts to face and hands, and concussion.
|
||||
The front seat passenger had a bad gash in the head, and was suspected of
|
||||
having a lightly fractured neck, and as the passenger in the back (I'm almost
|
||||
ashamed to say it!) I escaped uninjured. The car was a write-off. Both
|
||||
injured parties are now out of hospital, and well on the way to recovery.
|
||||
(Rats, I wanted his watch!)
|
||||
|
||||
<p>One consequence of the crash was to leave Team
|
||||
<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> a little short of manpower. Efforts
|
||||
were shifted from surveying and photographing to derigging. As the expedition
|
||||
neared its close, we even started fondling insurance policies as we
|
||||
contemplated having to abandon some tackle down the cave. With most of the
|
||||
cave still to derig, things looked bleak. Then we remembered the magic
|
||||
carbide lamp . . . Wham! In came Team Geriatric, fresh from
|
||||
<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle,</span> and in one magnificent combined
|
||||
effort, we cleared the cave with one day to spare.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>On the return journey we were waved through Belgian customs by the
|
||||
cleaning lady, and just reached an English telly five minutes before Sid's
|
||||
Pippikin film started.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>In conclusion then, the expedition was a great success, even if the
|
||||
exploration of <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> was halted a little
|
||||
early. As for <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> itself, it is now one
|
||||
of Austria's most significant caves. From our end point this year, we could
|
||||
lob stones down a considerable distance below, with the stream canyon
|
||||
continuing. No sump appears imminent as there is no fresh mud on the walls.
|
||||
(The mud of the Fiesta Run is probably associated with a shaft overhead, and
|
||||
is quite old stuff.)
|
||||
|
||||
<p>To get 1300ft out of the place should be a mere formality, and after that,
|
||||
there's still 1640ft of depth potential left. Now we must try and muster a
|
||||
really crack team for next year. And crack team it must be, as
|
||||
<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> is no longer the easy series of
|
||||
shafts it was, but a long and serious undertaking.
|
||||
|
||||
<p><i>References: Cambridge Underground
|
||||
<a href="../../../years/1976/report.htm">1977</a>, <a href="../../../years/1977/report.htm">1978</a>
|
||||
and <a href="../../../years/1978/report.htm">1979</a> [to be published] containing surveys of all
|
||||
underground discoveries made by CUCC inrecent years, plus surface survey
|
||||
giving accurate entrance locations and altitudes.</i> <font size=-1>[This is
|
||||
a slight exagerration, WebEd.]</font>
|
||||
<h1>Eislufthole still going for CUCC at 1148 ft</h1>
|
||||
<p style="text-align: right"><b>By Nick Thorne</b></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>After last year's quietly successful Cambridge UCC expedition
|
||||
(see <a href="../1977/descnt.htm"><i>Descent 38</i></a>),
|
||||
enthusiasm to return to the karst regions of Western Austria
|
||||
soared. The main incentive was to carry on prospecting on the
|
||||
almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau above <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Altaussee,</span> and to continue pushing our unfinished find
|
||||
of last year, 106 - <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Eislufthöhle</span> (good name, eh?).</p>
|
||||
<p>By way of introduction, <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Altaussee</span> is a small village about 50 miles east of
|
||||
<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Salzburg,</span> and it was there
|
||||
that we set up our camp. The Loser Plateau where we carried out
|
||||
most of our work is then reached by a steep (in more ways than one)
|
||||
toll road, follwed by an hour's brisk walk from the top.
|
||||
Furtunately for us, one of the few local cavers, <span lang="de"
|
||||
xml:lang="de">Karl Gaisberger,</span> who seems to be able to
|
||||
arrange anything, managed to secure free passes for us on the toll
|
||||
road. Cheers Karl; how about a sedan chair for the walk at the top
|
||||
next year?</p>
|
||||
<p>So in July and August of this year, we were back on the Loser
|
||||
with a fairly hefty team. Expedition members divided logically into
|
||||
three groups: Team <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Eislufthöhle:</span> Andy Waddington, Simon Farrow, Nick
|
||||
Thorne, Doug Florence and Julian Griffiths - the crack ropes team,
|
||||
ready for anything. Team Ladders: John Bowers, Ben van Millingen,
|
||||
Mike Shearme and Nicola Davies - all spending their first year in
|
||||
Austria. Team Geriatric: Rod and Jont Leach, Vic Brown, Dave Fox,
|
||||
plus "hangers on". These acted as the emergency reserve powerhouse,
|
||||
to be called into service should things get out of hand for the
|
||||
rest of us. (Something like Aladdin's lamp I suppose, but this lot
|
||||
looked more like a clapped out carbide).</p>
|
||||
<p>And so to caving. Team Ladders didn't take long to find a
|
||||
promising, draughting entrance. All well and good so far, but the
|
||||
entrance initially was only big enough for a midget and it was only
|
||||
after a couple of days of boulder hauling that they got
|
||||
underground. The cave, 107, they called <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Gemsehöhle.</span> Since I didn't get a trip down it, and know
|
||||
Berger all about it, I won't go into too much detail.</p>
|
||||
<p>Apparently they descended a series of pitches in a large rift,
|
||||
down to about 560ft, when the tackle started to run out, with the
|
||||
cave continuing. They chose to get out of this dilemma by rubbing
|
||||
the magic carbide lamp. Wham! Team Geriatric hauled their weary
|
||||
bodies out of their canoes (canoes?) and went down <span lang="de"
|
||||
xml:lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> with a brand new reel of Marlow.
|
||||
Once underground, the Geriatrics were immediately transformed into
|
||||
an efficient well-oiled machine. Within a couple of trips,
|
||||
<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> had been pushed to
|
||||
a choke at minus 918ft.</p>
|
||||
<p>Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what of Team <span lang="de"
|
||||
xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span>? Mixed fortunes really. A slow
|
||||
rig in down to last year's terminus (ie. the Tap Room - see survey)
|
||||
was due to greater amounts of snow and ice than last year. ("Are
|
||||
you sure this is the right cave?") At one point a huge ice boulder
|
||||
was suspended at a pitch take-off, and it refused to give way to a
|
||||
well-directed wellie. Farrow and Florence then carted a great
|
||||
crowbar into the cave to shift the thing, only to find that the
|
||||
boulder had fallen down in the meantime. Ah, well !</p>
|
||||
<p>Once we had rigged down to The Tap Room, but before pushing far
|
||||
into new ground, we had an interesting policy change - to overnight
|
||||
trips. The lapiaz in which the cave entrance is sited is impossible
|
||||
to negotiate in darkness, and therefore trips during the daytime
|
||||
are limited to a maximum of eight hours underground. Longer trips
|
||||
could be attained by going underground in the late afternoon,
|
||||
spending a minimum time underground of about ten hours, and then
|
||||
emerging into the morning light.</p>
|
||||
<p>Good idea, we thought, and indeed the first of these trips did
|
||||
add 394ft to the depth of <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Eislufthöhle,</span> including the magnificent 197ft abseil
|
||||
into The Hall of the Greene King. Subsequent overnight trips pushed
|
||||
on down some more pitches, and a very muddy 'Fiesta Run' to give a
|
||||
total depth of 1,148ft, the cave still continuing. This bottom part
|
||||
of the cave is a very tall vadose stream canyon. The passage is
|
||||
very tight at stream level and traversing was necessary.</p>
|
||||
<p>It was whilst driving back from the last of these overnight
|
||||
trips, at about 7 o'clock in the morning, when we had a slight
|
||||
mishap. The driver of the car carrying three of Team <span lang=
|
||||
"de" xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> back down the toll road,
|
||||
fell asleep at the wheel. With that Great Karst Area in the Sky
|
||||
Looming ever nearer, the car missed a telegraph pole and a tree by
|
||||
inches, went through a fence cum crash barrier, and gracefully
|
||||
launched itself over the void.</p>
|
||||
<p>Well, it could have been a drop of a couple of hundred feet had
|
||||
it happened further up the road, but as it was, any spectators
|
||||
stupid enough to be awake at that ungodly hour would have seen a
|
||||
fine piece of 'S' registered, British engineering fall, roll, and
|
||||
tumble down a near vertical 30ft bank, to land wheels down in the
|
||||
river at the bottom. (all film rights reserved.)</p>
|
||||
<p>The driver had a broken sternum, cuts to face and hands, and
|
||||
concussion. The front seat passenger had a bad gash in the head,
|
||||
and was suspected of having a lightly fractured neck, and as the
|
||||
passenger in the back (I'm almost ashamed to say it!) I escaped
|
||||
uninjured. The car was a write-off. Both injured parties are now
|
||||
out of hospital, and well on the way to recovery. (Rats, I wanted
|
||||
his watch!)</p>
|
||||
<p>One consequence of the crash was to leave Team <span lang="de"
|
||||
xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> a little short of manpower.
|
||||
Efforts were shifted from surveying and photographing to derigging.
|
||||
As the expedition neared its close, we even started fondling
|
||||
insurance policies as we contemplated having to abandon some tackle
|
||||
down the cave. With most of the cave still to derig, things looked
|
||||
bleak. Then we remembered the magic carbide lamp . . . Wham! In
|
||||
came Team Geriatric, fresh from <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Gemsehöhle,</span> and in one magnificent combined effort, we
|
||||
cleared the cave with one day to spare.</p>
|
||||
<p>On the return journey we were waved through Belgian customs by
|
||||
the cleaning lady, and just reached an English telly five minutes
|
||||
before Sid's Pippikin film started.</p>
|
||||
<p>In conclusion then, the expedition was a great success, even if
|
||||
the exploration of <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Eislufthöhle</span> was halted a little early. As for
|
||||
<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> itself, it is now
|
||||
one of Austria's most significant caves. From our end point this
|
||||
year, we could lob stones down a considerable distance below, with
|
||||
the stream canyon continuing. No sump appears imminent as there is
|
||||
no fresh mud on the walls. (The mud of the Fiesta Run is probably
|
||||
associated with a shaft overhead, and is quite old stuff.)</p>
|
||||
<p>To get 1300ft out of the place should be a mere formality, and
|
||||
after that, there's still 1640ft of depth potential left. Now we
|
||||
must try and muster a really crack team for next year. And crack
|
||||
team it must be, as <span lang="de" xml:lang=
|
||||
"de">Eislufthöhle</span> is no longer the easy series of shafts it
|
||||
was, but a long and serious undertaking.</p>
|
||||
<p><i>References: Cambridge Underground <a href=
|
||||
"../../../years/1976/report.htm">1977</a>, <a href=
|
||||
"../../../years/1977/report.htm">1978</a> and <a href=
|
||||
"../../../years/1978/report.htm">1979</a> [to be published]
|
||||
containing surveys of all underground discoveries made by CUCC
|
||||
in recent years, plus surface survey giving accurate entrance
|
||||
locations and altitudes.</i> <span style="font-size: 80%">[This is a slight
|
||||
exagerration, WebEd.]</span></p>
|
||||
<hr />
|
||||
<!-- LINKS -->
|
||||
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
||||
1978 Expedition info:<br>
|
||||
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
||||
<a href="../../../years/1978/log.htm">Logbook</a><br>
|
||||
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
||||
<a href="../../../years/1978/report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1979</a><br>
|
||||
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
||||
<a href="../../../years/1978/bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a><br>
|
||||
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
||||
Nick Thorne's write-up in <a href="../../../years/1978/782034.htm">Belfry Bulletin 366</a><br>
|
||||
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
||||
1977/78 report from <a href="../../../years/1978/npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a><br>
|
||||
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
||||
<a href="../../../years/1978/sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a><br>
|
||||
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
||||
<a href="../../../pubs.htm#pubs1978">Index</a> to all publications<br>
|
||||
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
||||
<a href="../../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a><br>
|
||||
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
||||
<a href="../../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
|
||||
|
||||
<ul id="links">
|
||||
<li>1978 Expedition info:
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
|
||||
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1979</a></li>
|
||||
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a></li>
|
||||
<li>Nick Thorne's write-up in <a href= "../../../years/1978/782034.htm">Belfry Bulletin 366</a></li>
|
||||
<li>1977/78 report from <a href="../../../years/1978/npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a></li>
|
||||
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li>
|
||||
</ul></li>
|
||||
<li><a href= "../../../pubs.htm#pubs1978">Index</a> to all publications</li>
|
||||
<li><a href= "../../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
|
||||
<li><a href= "../../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user