Online at https://bec-cave.org.uk/belfry-bulletin-no-366-october-1978/#Cambridge_University_Versus_The_Totes_Gebirge + +
This is the third episode in a potentially
+
+
+like saga. In 1978 CUCC, tired of the
+Pyrenees, took
+
+
+by storm for their summer expedition. Episode Two occurred last year and readers may remember the report I did
+for the B.B. To recap, about a dozen of
+us spent between two and three weeks at at Alt Ausse, a small village about
+80km east of
+
+
+nearby Loser Plateau. Loser is an
+extensive plain undulating between 1600 and 1700m above sea level. The almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau is reached
+bye steeply ascending toll road from Alt Aussee and a brisk hour or so walk
+from the top. Last year we found several
+promising caves:
97 Schneewindschacht – too tight
+at minus 265m.
+82 – Brauninghohle – sumped (perched) at minus 220m.
+106 – Eislufthohle – 150m deep and unfinished.
+Plus various other 100m pots.
The greatest incentive to return in 1978 was the unfinished
+state of Eislufthohle. Although not our
+deepest find in 1977, the shafts in Eislufthohle were of such a size and the
+draught in the cave so strong, that we felt that the pot ought to yield a few
+more secrets yet, there being 750m of depth potential still left. And with this in mind, we found ourselves
+back on Loser in July/August of this year.
The expedition members fell into three categories
+a) ‘Team Eislufthohle’ – 5 strong team of SRT
+merchants, including Yours Truly.
b) ‘Team Ladders’ – 3 man, 1 woman team spending
+their first year in
+
+
c) ‘Team Geriatric’ – 4 cavers plus
+‘hangers-on’. More interested in
+canoeing and haute cuisine, bless ’em; but as events showed, they can still
+deliver the goods when, needed. Team
+Ladders, and later aided at depth by Team Geriatric, did a very creditable job
+of 107 – Gemsehohle – essentially a large draughting rift, choking at about
+minus 280m.
As for Team Eislufthohle, then I think our fortunes could
+best be described as mixed. A slow rig
+in down last year’s cave was due to the presence of a greater amount of snow
+and ice. In the end, despite enormous
+ice boulders falling. Plugged Shaft was
+rigged with a 300 foot length of rope with 5 belays and 1 rope protector. This affords, some idea of the technical
+difficulties of rigging this large, spiralling broken, shafts. In defence of SRT on a pitch like this one I
+most point out that we had comparable difficulties rigging and de-rigging the
+thing last year on ladders, and once rigged for ropes, then routine ascents and
+descents are not especially slow.
From the chamber at the bottom, round a corner, leads to
+Saved Shaft. This 13m shaft defeated the
+ropes men and ladders ruled. At the
+bottom is Boulder Chamber (no cave is a cave without one, you know!) A crawl through boulders and a traverse over
+the first pitch of the Keg Series (no draught) leads to a free climb and &
+30m pitch, split by a large ledge. From
+the bottom a narrowish rift leads to a chamber with a heavy drip. This was as far as we got last year and we
+called the chamber The Tap Room (What makes you think we drink beer?)
So off we were again at last, pioneering new ground. The slow progress made during the rig is so
+far, and the prospect of a deep cave, now prompted an interesting change in
+policy – overnight trips. The lapiaz on
+the plateau is impossible to negotiate after night fall, and so allowing for a
+margin of error, it seemed logical to walk to the cave in late afternoon, cave
+overnight and after 2 minimum trips of 10 hours, emerge into the morning
+light. Good idea, we thought.
Indeed, the first overnight trip did pay dividends. I had the privilege (or misfortune) to be
+half of this two man effort. We timed
+things a little too close for comfort on the walk in. We had to virtually run to the cave in
+failing light and found the entrance about ten minutes before darkness trapped
+us on the plateau.
Once underground things seemed pretty much the norm. We soon reached the Tap Room. We descended a rope assisted climb that had
+been rigged previously and followed an obvious traverse line to a small
+chamber, the water having sunk into the floor at the bottom of the climb. The chamber had a nice big boulder poised in
+the roof and a large enticing slot in the floor. A 10m pitch was rigged off a couple of bolts
+down to a micro-ledge where the rift narrowed. A bolt rebelay was placed and a
+fine, ever enlarging, 35m pitch was descended to a large ledge and a stream,
+inlet. With the shaft being the ‘best
+pitch ‘O the pot’ so far, spirits were high and we started putting in a couple
+more bolts. These held a traverse line
+that protected a bold step over to a ledge on the opposite wall, and also the
+rope for the next pitch. This was 8m to a pool in a dribbly, dribbly
+streamway.
The stream trundled on down a trench in the floor and we
+traversed along again in a high rift about three or four feet wide. We soon reached a fine rocking boulder
+perched squarely on the traverse ledges. We quickly realised that we were to break into something big. A bend and upwards above a massive boulder
+jam was an immense blackness, impenetrable to a good NiFe beam. Ahead and downwards lay a second impenetrable
+blackness. We placed another couple of
+bolts. This took some time as the bolter
+had to be life lined and rock anchor teeth kept breaking off, and anchors kept
+getting stuck, and
Our sleepy beer starved brains were in need of a
+wake-up. And how! The next pitch turned out to be a magnificent
+60m job. Remember
+
+
+
+– forget it! This fine free hang down a
+sculptured corner of a much larger shaft was truly staggering. It landed on a boulder ledge about 4m from
+the shaft floor. We abseiled past this
+to reach the floor proper.
Downwards, the stream that had slithered down one wall of
+the shaft sank into a too low passage. Upwards led to a balcony, giving a fine view of the ‘Hall of the Greene
+King’. This is circular in plan and
+approximately 20m in diameter. The
+height must be in the order of 100m. At
+this impressive spot, having run out of rope, having made the deepest
+
+
+feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, we turned back.
As we did do, we noted that the water level had risen and
+the big pitch landing was now being liberally showered. This and certain difficulties for your
+humble, narrator when the rope got pulled up on the big pitch and lowered back
+down through the boulder ledge, meant a thorough soaking. Without wetsuits, things were now getting chilly
+and prussiking was the only way to keep warm. This was only hampered by the fact that every time you stopped for a
+rest you fell asleep! We eventually
+surfaced after a twelve hour trip only to dine on plastic ham and biscuits in
+the pouring rain. We then left the
+plateau. It has been a long time since
+I’d left a cave feeling this cold and tired.
But the trip was a success. In one trip we added 120m of depth and despite the fact that it took a
+couple of days to recover, overnight trips seemed a good idea still. The next day saw two more of Team Ropes
+going underground. They descended the 6m
+balcony pitch to the floor of the hall of the Green King. Next came a very large passage with some
+proportionally huge hanging death, and this they followed to a short
+pitch. This was descended 5m and several
+inlets and side passages noted. The way
+on seemed less than obvious, but when the draught was detected (despite the
+large cross section of the passage) the way lay on down to a pitch of 25m. All the next part of the cave seemed very old
+and contained a lot of dry powdery mud. Lack of tackle, time, energy etc., did not permit a descent of this
+pitch and so the intrepid heroes returned.
A couple of night later I was back on the scene again, this
+time as part of a three man team. We
+descended the 25m pitch which went round the corner and had to be rebelayed
+twice. It landed in a passage carrying a
+small stream, probably the same one that sank earlier. From here, the stream passed into a very
+narrow vadose canyon and we traversed out. The passage, although very tight at stream level was three or more feet
+wide at traverse level. The total
+passage height was beyond my NiFe beam. The streamway was a classic meandering vadose type, typical of many a
+
After a rather committing free climb (at least at this sort
+of depth!) the traverse continued. Generally all the traversing was done on good, if not very continuous
+ledges. After what seemed like several
+hundred feet we clambered over a big jammed boulder chaos and on to the head of
+another pitch. A rope was belayed to a
+bolt and a chock-stone and a descent was made down 12m of muddy slope. Up until now things had been just comfortably
+muddy with a mainly dry, powdery variety. This pitch however, later named The Fiesta Run, was a very glutinous
+affair. This fact was later thought to
+be associated with a shaft noted entering the roof at this point. The traverse ledges beyond seemed to clear a
+little. We reached more chock-stones
+with a further pitch beyond. Stones
+dropped directly below fell for about fifty feet. Those that were lobbed outwards a little fell
+a great deal further. We were running
+out of steam here and decided to turn back. To be honest, we were a little disappointed the horizontality
+Eisluftohle was adopting. We had envisaged
+pitch followed immediately by pitch, followed by pitch, going down very deep
+and all very easy! Instead, we had a
+steeply sloping streamway occasionally punctuated by short pitches. Tackle carrying on the traverses would not be
+easy and the streamway could go on for miles. However, our depth we estimated, conservatively, at 350m. Well satisfied with this we left the cave
+after another twelve hour trip.
With just over a week of the expedition left a couple more
+pushing trips could be had and even greater depth attained. Just then however disaster struck. We were driving down the toll road after the
+above described trip when one of the disadvantages of overnight trips was
+hammered home rather brutally. With the
+front passenger asleep and me in the back still wide awake the driver decided
+to nod off at the wheel. To his credit
+he could have chosen a section of road adjacent to a drop of several hundred
+feet, but instead settled for one of a mere thirty. Without the slightest hint of last minute
+braking or swerving, we missed a telegraph pole and a tree by inches, went
+through a fence cum crash barrier and launched ourselves over the near vertical
+drop. The next few seconds consisted of
+one of lifes great eternal moments. With broken glass flying and twisted, blood bespattered, metal all
+about, the car seemed to roll over and over before finally coming to rest,
+wheels down, in a river at the bottom of the drop. The driver suffered cuts to face and hands,
+slight concussion and a fractured sternum. The front seat passenger suffered a bad gash in the head and was
+suspected of having a lightly fractured neck. The car was a write-off and your seemly invincible narrator, I’m almost
+ashamed to say it, had not a scratch (well, only one small one!)
You’ll be pleased to know that both the injured people,
+after spending a week in hospital, and with one getting flown home, both made
+full recoveries.
Whilst being fortunate inasmuch as three of has had been
+spared the greater karts area in the sky, we (that is Team Eislufthohle) were
+now a little short of manpower. Over the
+next week we realised de-rigging with so few people as were left could prove
+awkward. We even started fondling
+insurance policies, wondering whether we could avoid de-rigging
+altogether! We abandoned the grade 4
+survey that had been started, half finished! Photographic trips were scrapped left, right and centre and now having
+given up overnight trips, one alpine start allowed the bottom couple of pitches
+to be de-rigged. And then just what we
+didnt need, the weather closed in. With
+low cloud and rain, we couldnt even see the plateau for several agonising
+days, let alone navigate across it. We
+were forced to kick our heels at the camp site in Alt Ausee until, two days
+before departure, back came the sunshine. With a magnificent effort form Team Geriatric, bless em again, and in
+the company of your long suffering narrator, the rest of the cave was
+cleared. Phew!
And so back to good old British beer. The return journey was noted only for a
+delightfully comfortable night spent on a bench in a lay-by of a German
+autobahn; also for being waved through
+
+
+lady! As for Eislufthohle, then I
+think, judging by the large passage size at the bottom, and the drop test’s
+performed there, not to mention the draught (or The War!) then to squeeze 400m
+out of the place would be a mere formality. Beyond that, who knows? The local
+expert, Karl Gaisberger, to whom many thanks, inspected the mud on our gear
+from the Fiesta Run area and confirmed that is was quite old stuff, totally
+unlike that deposited a sump backing up. Therefore with a sump not being, imminent and with the passage seeming
+to enlarge all the time, Eislufthohle, already one of Losers most significant
+caves, should become one of
+
+
+deepest. It has to be said however, that
+the cave is no longer the easy series of shafts it was. It is now quite a serious, undertaking. Consequently for
+
+
+keenness of some of us, would be pointless unless we could put up a good crack
+team, numbering at least ten. Dont miss
+next years exciting episode; same time, same channel!
Many thanks to the Ian Dear Memorial Fund, without whose
+financial backing, I may have missed the magnificent abseil; into the Hall of
+the Greene King an experience to make life really worth living
..at least until
+the drive back!
+