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 <h1>Belfry report 1978</h1>
 <font size=-1>Bristol Exploration Club Belfry Bulletin 366 (Oct 1978) pp 4-8</font>
 <h2>Cambridge University versus the Totes Gebirge</h2>
 <p>Online at <a href="https://bec-cave.org.uk/belfry-bulletin-no-366-october-1978/#Cambridge_University_Versus_The_Totes_Gebirge">https://bec-cave.org.uk/belfry-bulletin-no-366-october-1978/#Cambridge_University_Versus_The_Totes_Gebirge</a>
 <p class="MsoNormal">This is the third episode in a potentially<br />
 <st1:street w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:address w:st="on">Coronation Street</st1:address></st1:street><br />
 like saga.&nbsp; In 1978 CUCC, tired of the<br />
 Pyrenees, took<br />
 <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region><br />
 by storm for their summer expedition.&nbsp;Episode Two occurred last year and readers may remember the report I did<br />
 for the B.B.&nbsp; To recap, about a dozen of<br />
 us spent between two and three weeks at at Alt Ausse, a small village about<br />
 80km east of<br />
 <st1:city w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Salzburg</st1:place></st1:city>.&nbsp; Most of our time was spent prospecting on the<br />
 nearby Loser Plateau.&nbsp; Loser is an<br />
 extensive plain undulating between 1600 and 1700m above sea level.&nbsp; The almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau is reached<br />
 bye steeply ascending toll road from Alt Aussee and a brisk hour or so walk<br />
 from the top.&nbsp; Last year we found several<br />
 promising caves: </p>
 <p style="margin-left: 36pt;" class="MsoNormal">97 Schneewindschacht &#8211; too tight<br />
 at minus 265m. <br />
 82 &#8211; Brauninghohle &#8211; sumped (perched) at minus 220m. <br />
 106 &#8211; Eislufthohle &#8211; 150m deep and unfinished. <br />
 Plus various other 100m pots.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">The greatest incentive to return in 1978 was the unfinished<br />
 state of Eislufthohle.&nbsp; Although not our<br />
 deepest find in 1977, the shafts in Eislufthohle were of such a size and the<br />
 draught in the cave so strong, that we felt that the pot ought to yield a few<br />
 more secrets yet, there being 750m of depth potential still left.&nbsp; And with this in mind, we found ourselves<br />
 back on Loser in July/August of this year.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">The expedition members fell into three categories</p>
 <p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">a)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<!--[endif]-->&#8216;Team Eislufthohle&#8217; &#8211; 5 strong team of SRT<br />
 merchants, including Yours Truly. </p>
 <p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">b)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<!--[endif]-->&#8216;Team Ladders&#8217; &#8211; 3 man, 1 woman team spending<br />
 their first year in<br />
 <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
 </p>
 <p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">c)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<!--[endif]-->&#8216;Team Geriatric&#8217; &#8211; 4 cavers plus<br />
 &#8216;hangers-on&#8217;.&nbsp; More interested in<br />
 canoeing and haute cuisine, bless &#8217;em; but as events showed, they can still<br />
 deliver the goods when, needed.&nbsp; Team<br />
 Ladders, and later aided at depth by Team Geriatric, did a very creditable job<br />
 of 107 &#8211; Gemsehohle &#8211; essentially a large draughting rift, choking at about<br />
 minus 280m.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">As for Team Eislufthohle, then I think our fortunes could<br />
 best be described as mixed.&nbsp; A slow rig<br />
 in down last year&#8217;s cave was due to the presence of a greater amount of snow<br />
 and ice.&nbsp; In the end, despite enormous<br />
 ice boulders falling.&nbsp; Plugged Shaft was<br />
 rigged with a 300 foot length of rope with 5 belays and 1 rope protector.&nbsp; This affords, some idea of the technical<br />
 difficulties of rigging this large, spiralling broken, shafts.&nbsp; In defence of SRT on a pitch like this one I<br />
 most point out that we had comparable difficulties rigging and de-rigging the<br />
 thing last year on ladders, and once rigged for ropes, then routine ascents and<br />
 descents are not especially slow. </p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">From the chamber at the bottom, round a corner, leads to<br />
 Saved Shaft.&nbsp; This 13m shaft defeated the<br />
 ropes men and ladders ruled.&nbsp; At the<br />
 bottom is Boulder Chamber (no cave is a cave without one, you know!)&nbsp; A crawl through boulders and a traverse over<br />
 the first pitch of the Keg Series (no draught) leads to a free climb and &amp;<br />
 30m pitch, split by a large ledge.&nbsp; From<br />
 the bottom a narrowish rift leads to a chamber with a heavy drip.&nbsp; This was as far as we got last year and we<br />
 called the chamber The Tap Room (What makes you think we drink beer?)</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">So off we were again at last, pioneering new ground.&nbsp; The slow progress made during the rig is so<br />
 far, and the prospect of a deep cave, now prompted an interesting change in<br />
 policy &#8211; overnight trips.&nbsp; The lapiaz on<br />
 the plateau is impossible to negotiate after night fall, and so allowing for a<br />
 margin of error, it seemed logical to walk to the cave in late afternoon, cave<br />
 overnight and after 2 minimum trips of 10 hours, emerge into the morning<br />
 light.&nbsp; Good idea, we thought.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">Indeed, the first overnight trip did pay dividends.&nbsp; I had the privilege (or misfortune) to be<br />
 half of this two man effort.&nbsp; We timed<br />
 things a little too close for comfort on the walk in.&nbsp; We had to virtually run to the cave in<br />
 failing light and found the entrance about ten minutes before darkness trapped<br />
 us on the plateau. </p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">Once underground things seemed pretty much the norm.&nbsp; We soon reached the Tap Room.&nbsp; We descended a rope assisted climb that had<br />
 been rigged previously and followed an obvious traverse line to a small<br />
 chamber, the water having sunk into the floor at the bottom of the climb.&nbsp; The chamber had a nice big boulder poised in<br />
 the roof and a large enticing slot in the floor.&nbsp; A 10m pitch was rigged off a couple of bolts<br />
 down to a micro-ledge where the rift narrowed. A bolt rebelay was placed and a<br />
 fine, ever enlarging, 35m pitch was descended to a large ledge and a stream,<br />
 inlet.&nbsp; With the shaft being the &#8216;best<br />
 pitch &#8216;O the pot&#8217; so far, spirits were high and we started putting in a couple<br />
 more bolts.&nbsp; These held a traverse line<br />
 that protected a bold step over to a ledge on the opposite wall, and also the<br />
 rope for the &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; next pitch.&nbsp; This was 8m to a pool in a dribbly, dribbly<br />
 streamway.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">The stream trundled on down a trench in the floor and we<br />
 traversed along again in a high rift about three or four feet wide.&nbsp; We soon reached a fine rocking boulder<br />
 perched squarely on the traverse ledges.&nbsp;We quickly realised that we were to break into something big.&nbsp; A bend and upwards above a massive boulder<br />
 jam was an immense blackness, impenetrable to a good NiFe beam.&nbsp; Ahead and downwards lay a second impenetrable<br />
 blackness.&nbsp; We placed another couple of<br />
 bolts.&nbsp; This took some time as the bolter<br />
 had to be life lined and rock anchor teeth kept breaking off, and anchors kept<br />
 getting stuck, and</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">Our sleepy beer starved brains were in need of a<br />
 wake-up.&nbsp; And how!&nbsp; The next pitch turned out to be a magnificent<br />
 60m job.&nbsp; Remember<br />
 <st1:place w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:placename w:st="on">Juniper</st1:placename><br />
 <st1:placetype w:st="on">Gulf</st1:placetype></st1:place>?<br />
 &#8211; forget it!&nbsp; This fine free hang down a<br />
 sculptured corner of a much larger shaft was truly staggering.&nbsp; It landed on a boulder ledge about 4m from<br />
 the shaft floor.&nbsp; We abseiled past this<br />
 to reach the floor proper.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">Downwards, the stream that had slithered down one wall of<br />
 the shaft sank into a too low passage.&nbsp;Upwards led to a balcony, giving a fine view of the &#8216;Hall of the Greene<br />
 King&#8217;.&nbsp; This is circular in plan and<br />
 approximately 20m in diameter.&nbsp; The<br />
 height must be in the order of 100m.&nbsp; At<br />
 this impressive spot, having run out of rope, having made the deepest<br />
 <st1:city w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:place></st1:city> find to date,<br />
 feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, we turned back.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">As we did do, we noted that the water level had risen and<br />
 the big pitch landing was now being liberally showered.&nbsp; This and certain difficulties for your<br />
 humble, narrator when the rope got pulled up on the big pitch and lowered back<br />
 down through the boulder ledge, meant a thorough soaking.&nbsp; Without wetsuits, things were now getting chilly<br />
 and prussiking was the only way to keep warm.&nbsp;This was only hampered by the fact that every time you stopped for a<br />
 rest you fell asleep!&nbsp; We eventually<br />
 surfaced after a twelve hour trip only to dine on plastic ham and biscuits in<br />
 the pouring rain.&nbsp; We then left the<br />
 plateau.&nbsp; It has been a long time since<br />
 I&#8217;d left a cave feeling this cold and tired. </p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">But the trip was a success.&nbsp;In one trip we added 120m of depth and despite the fact that it took a<br />
 couple of days to recover, overnight trips seemed a good idea still.&nbsp; The next day saw two more of Team Ropes<br />
 going underground.&nbsp; They descended the 6m<br />
 balcony pitch to the floor of the hall of the Green King.&nbsp; Next came a very large passage with some<br />
 proportionally huge hanging death, and this they followed to a short<br />
 pitch.&nbsp; This was descended 5m and several<br />
 inlets and side passages noted.&nbsp; The way<br />
 on seemed less than obvious, but when the draught was detected (despite the<br />
 large cross section of the passage) the way lay on down to a pitch of 25m.&nbsp; All the next part of the cave seemed very old<br />
 and contained a lot of dry powdery mud.&nbsp;Lack of tackle, time, energy etc., did not permit a descent of this<br />
 pitch and so the intrepid heroes returned.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">A couple of night later I was back on the scene again, this<br />
 time as part of a three man team.&nbsp; We<br />
 descended the 25m pitch which went round the corner and had to be rebelayed<br />
 twice.&nbsp; It landed in a passage carrying a<br />
 small stream, probably the same one that sank earlier.&nbsp; From here, the stream passed into a very<br />
 narrow vadose canyon and we traversed out.&nbsp;The passage, although very tight at stream level was three or more feet<br />
 wide at traverse level.&nbsp; The total<br />
 passage height was beyond my NiFe beam.&nbsp;The streamway was a classic meandering vadose type, typical of many a<br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place> pot.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">After a rather committing free climb (at least at this sort<br />
 of depth!) the traverse continued.&nbsp;Generally all the traversing was done on good, if not very continuous<br />
 ledges.&nbsp; After what seemed like several<br />
 hundred feet we clambered over a big jammed boulder chaos and on to the head of<br />
 another pitch.&nbsp; A rope was belayed to a<br />
 bolt and a chock-stone and a descent was made down 12m of muddy slope.&nbsp; Up until now things had been just comfortably<br />
 muddy with a mainly dry, powdery variety.&nbsp;This pitch however, later named The Fiesta Run, was a very glutinous<br />
 affair.&nbsp; This fact was later thought to<br />
 be associated with a shaft noted entering the roof at this point.&nbsp; The traverse ledges beyond seemed to clear a<br />
 little.&nbsp; We reached more chock-stones<br />
 with a further pitch beyond.&nbsp; Stones<br />
 dropped directly below fell for about fifty feet.&nbsp; Those that were lobbed outwards a little fell<br />
 a great deal further.&nbsp; We were running<br />
 out of steam here and decided to turn back.&nbsp;To be honest, we were a little disappointed the horizontality<br />
 Eisluftohle was adopting.&nbsp; We had envisaged<br />
 pitch followed immediately by pitch, followed by pitch, going down very deep<br />
 and all very easy!&nbsp; Instead, we had a<br />
 steeply sloping streamway occasionally punctuated by short pitches.&nbsp; Tackle carrying on the traverses would not be<br />
 easy and the streamway could go on for miles.&nbsp;However, our depth we estimated, conservatively, at 350m.&nbsp; Well satisfied with this we left the cave<br />
 after another twelve hour trip.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">With just over a week of the expedition left a couple more<br />
 pushing trips could be had and even greater depth attained.&nbsp; Just then however disaster struck.&nbsp; We were driving down the toll road after the<br />
 above described trip when one of the disadvantages of overnight trips was<br />
 hammered home rather brutally.&nbsp; With the<br />
 front passenger asleep and me in the back still wide awake the driver decided<br />
 to nod off at the wheel.&nbsp; To his credit<br />
 he could have chosen a section of road adjacent to a drop of several hundred<br />
 feet, but instead settled for one of a mere thirty.&nbsp; Without the slightest hint of last minute<br />
 braking or swerving, we missed a telegraph pole and a tree by inches, went<br />
 through a fence cum crash barrier and launched ourselves over the near vertical<br />
 drop.&nbsp; The next few seconds consisted of<br />
 one of lifes great eternal moments.&nbsp;With broken glass flying and twisted, blood bespattered, metal all<br />
 about, the car seemed to roll over and over before finally coming to rest,<br />
 wheels down, in a river at the bottom of the drop.&nbsp; The driver suffered cuts to face and hands,<br />
 slight concussion and a fractured sternum.&nbsp;The front seat passenger suffered a bad gash in the head and was<br />
 suspected of having a lightly fractured neck.&nbsp;The car was a write-off and your seemly invincible narrator, I&#8217;m almost<br />
 ashamed to say it, had not a scratch (well, only one small one!)</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">You&#8217;ll be pleased to know that both the injured people,<br />
 after spending a week in hospital, and with one getting flown home, both made<br />
 full recoveries.</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">Whilst being fortunate inasmuch as three of has had been<br />
 spared the greater karts area in the sky, we (that is Team Eislufthohle) were<br />
 now a little short of manpower.&nbsp; Over the<br />
 next week we realised de-rigging with so few people as were left could prove<br />
 awkward.&nbsp; We even started fondling<br />
 insurance policies, wondering whether we could avoid de-rigging<br />
 altogether!&nbsp; We abandoned the grade 4<br />
 survey that had been started, half finished!&nbsp;Photographic trips were scrapped left, right and centre and now having<br />
 given up overnight trips, one alpine start allowed the bottom couple of pitches<br />
 to be de-rigged.&nbsp; And then just what we<br />
 didnt need, the weather closed in.&nbsp; With<br />
 low cloud and rain, we couldnt even see the plateau for several agonising<br />
 days, let alone navigate across it.&nbsp; We<br />
 were forced to kick our heels at the camp site in Alt Ausee until, two days<br />
 before departure, back came the sunshine.&nbsp;With a magnificent effort form Team Geriatric, bless em again, and in<br />
 the company of your long suffering narrator, the rest of the cave was<br />
 cleared.&nbsp; Phew!</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">And so back to good old British beer.&nbsp; The return journey was noted only for a<br />
 delightfully comfortable night spent on a bench in a lay-by of a German<br />
 autobahn; also for being waved through<br />
 <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Belgium</st1:place></st1:country-region> customs by the cleaning<br />
 lady!&nbsp;&nbsp; As for Eislufthohle, then I<br />
 think, judging by the large passage size at the bottom, and the drop test&#8217;s<br />
 performed there, not to mention the draught (or The War!) then to squeeze 400m<br />
 out of the place would be a mere formality.&nbsp;Beyond that, who knows?&nbsp; The local<br />
 expert, Karl Gaisberger, to whom many thanks, inspected the mud on our gear<br />
 from the Fiesta Run area and confirmed that is was quite old stuff, totally<br />
 unlike that deposited a sump backing up.&nbsp;Therefore with a sump not being, imminent and with the passage seeming<br />
 to enlarge all the time, Eislufthohle, already one of Losers most significant<br />
 caves, should become one of<br />
 <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region>s<br />
 deepest.&nbsp; It has to be said however, that<br />
 the cave is no longer the easy series of shafts it was.&nbsp; It is now quite a serious, undertaking.&nbsp; Consequently for<br />
 <st1:city w:st="on"><br />
 <st1:place w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:place></st1:city> to return there, despite the<br />
 keenness of some of us, would be pointless unless we could put up a good crack<br />
 team, numbering at least ten.&nbsp; Dont miss<br />
 next years exciting episode; same time, same channel!</p>
 <p class="MsoNormal">Many thanks to the Ian Dear Memorial Fund, without whose<br />
 financial backing, I may have missed the magnificent abseil; into the Hall of<br />
 the Greene King an experience to make life really worth living..at least until<br />
 the drive back!</p>  <a href='/years/1978/l/BB_400_BB366-AustriaEislufthole.html'><img src='/years/1978/t/BB_400_BB366-AustriaEislufthole.jpg' /></a>
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 <li>1978 Expedition info:
 <ul>
 <li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
@ -24,9 +254,6 @@
 <li>1977/78 report from <a href="npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a></li>
 <li><a href="sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li>
 </ul></li>
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