From 5233984b2bedc2061cf3f0f0f0e169e4ac359324 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Expo on server Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:06:47 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] copied from BB - online edit of years/1978/782034.htm [PosixPath('/home/expo/expoweb/years/1978/782034.htm')] --- years/1978/782034.htm | 245 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 236 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/years/1978/782034.htm b/years/1978/782034.htm index b4e31d3d8..8dd99adbf 100644 --- a/years/1978/782034.htm +++ b/years/1978/782034.htm @@ -3,18 +3,248 @@ - -1978: Nick Thorne's Belfry Bulletin report - +1978: Nick Thorne's Belfry Bulletin report +

Belfry report 1978

Bristol Exploration Club Belfry Bulletin 366 (Oct 1978) pp 4-8

Cambridge University versus the Totes Gebirge

+ +

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
+
+Coronation Street
+like saga.  In 1978 CUCC, tired of the
+Pyrenees, took
+
+Austria
+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
+
+Salzburg.  Most of our time was spent prospecting on the
+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
+
+Austria. +

+

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
+
+Juniper
+Gulf?
+– 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
+
+Cambridge find to date,
+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
+Yorkshire pot.

+

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 life’s 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
+didn’t need, the weather closed in.  With
+low cloud and rain, we couldn’t 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
+
+Belgium customs by the cleaning
+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 Loser’s most significant
+caves, should become one of
+
+Austria’s
+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
+
+Cambridge to return there, despite the
+keenness of some of us, would be pointless unless we could put up a good crack
+team, numbering at least ten.  Don’t miss
+next year’s 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!

+
-