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1978: Nick Thorne's Belfry Bulletin report
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<title>1978: Nick Thorne's Belfry Bulletin report</title>
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<h1>Belfry report 1978</h1>
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<font size=-1>Bristol Exploration Club Belfry Bulletin 366 (Oct 1978) pp 4-8</font>
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<h2>Cambridge University versus the Totes Gebirge</h2>
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<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>
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<p class="MsoNormal">This is the third episode in a potentially<br />
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<st1:street w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:address w:st="on">Coronation Street</st1:address></st1:street><br />
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like saga. In 1978 CUCC, tired of the<br />
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Pyrenees, took<br />
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<st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region><br />
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by storm for their summer expedition. Episode Two occurred last year and readers may remember the report I did<br />
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for the B.B. To recap, about a dozen of<br />
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us spent between two and three weeks at at Alt Ausse, a small village about<br />
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80km east of<br />
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<st1:city w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Salzburg</st1:place></st1:city>. Most of our time was spent prospecting on the<br />
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nearby Loser Plateau. Loser is an<br />
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extensive plain undulating between 1600 and 1700m above sea level. The almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau is reached<br />
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bye steeply ascending toll road from Alt Aussee and a brisk hour or so walk<br />
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from the top. Last year we found several<br />
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promising caves: </p>
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<p style="margin-left: 36pt;" class="MsoNormal">97 Schneewindschacht – too tight<br />
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at minus 265m. <br />
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82 – Brauninghohle – sumped (perched) at minus 220m. <br />
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106 – Eislufthohle – 150m deep and unfinished. <br />
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Plus various other 100m pots.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The greatest incentive to return in 1978 was the unfinished<br />
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state of Eislufthohle. Although not our<br />
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deepest find in 1977, the shafts in Eislufthohle were of such a size and the<br />
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draught in the cave so strong, that we felt that the pot ought to yield a few<br />
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more secrets yet, there being 750m of depth potential still left. And with this in mind, we found ourselves<br />
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back on Loser in July/August of this year.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The expedition members fell into three categories</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">a) <!--[endif]-->‘Team Eislufthohle’ – 5 strong team of SRT<br />
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merchants, including Yours Truly. </p>
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<p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">b) <!--[endif]-->‘Team Ladders’ – 3 man, 1 woman team spending<br />
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their first year in<br />
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<st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
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</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">c) <!--[endif]-->‘Team Geriatric’ – 4 cavers plus<br />
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‘hangers-on’. More interested in<br />
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canoeing and haute cuisine, bless ’em; but as events showed, they can still<br />
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deliver the goods when, needed. Team<br />
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Ladders, and later aided at depth by Team Geriatric, did a very creditable job<br />
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of 107 – Gemsehohle – essentially a large draughting rift, choking at about<br />
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minus 280m.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">As for Team Eislufthohle, then I think our fortunes could<br />
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best be described as mixed. A slow rig<br />
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in down last year’s cave was due to the presence of a greater amount of snow<br />
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and ice. In the end, despite enormous<br />
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ice boulders falling. Plugged Shaft was<br />
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rigged with a 300 foot length of rope with 5 belays and 1 rope protector. This affords, some idea of the technical<br />
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difficulties of rigging this large, spiralling broken, shafts. In defence of SRT on a pitch like this one I<br />
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most point out that we had comparable difficulties rigging and de-rigging the<br />
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thing last year on ladders, and once rigged for ropes, then routine ascents and<br />
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descents are not especially slow. </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">From the chamber at the bottom, round a corner, leads to<br />
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Saved Shaft. This 13m shaft defeated the<br />
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ropes men and ladders ruled. At the<br />
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bottom is Boulder Chamber (no cave is a cave without one, you know!) A crawl through boulders and a traverse over<br />
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the first pitch of the Keg Series (no draught) leads to a free climb and &<br />
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30m pitch, split by a large ledge. From<br />
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the bottom a narrowish rift leads to a chamber with a heavy drip. This was as far as we got last year and we<br />
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called the chamber The Tap Room (What makes you think we drink beer?)</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">So off we were again at last, pioneering new ground. The slow progress made during the rig is so<br />
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far, and the prospect of a deep cave, now prompted an interesting change in<br />
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policy – overnight trips. The lapiaz on<br />
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the plateau is impossible to negotiate after night fall, and so allowing for a<br />
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margin of error, it seemed logical to walk to the cave in late afternoon, cave<br />
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overnight and after 2 minimum trips of 10 hours, emerge into the morning<br />
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light. Good idea, we thought.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Indeed, the first overnight trip did pay dividends. I had the privilege (or misfortune) to be<br />
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half of this two man effort. We timed<br />
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things a little too close for comfort on the walk in. We had to virtually run to the cave in<br />
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failing light and found the entrance about ten minutes before darkness trapped<br />
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us on the plateau. </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Once underground things seemed pretty much the norm. We soon reached the Tap Room. We descended a rope assisted climb that had<br />
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been rigged previously and followed an obvious traverse line to a small<br />
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chamber, the water having sunk into the floor at the bottom of the climb. The chamber had a nice big boulder poised in<br />
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the roof and a large enticing slot in the floor. A 10m pitch was rigged off a couple of bolts<br />
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down to a micro-ledge where the rift narrowed. A bolt rebelay was placed and a<br />
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fine, ever enlarging, 35m pitch was descended to a large ledge and a stream,<br />
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inlet. With the shaft being the ‘best<br />
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pitch ‘O the pot’ so far, spirits were high and we started putting in a couple<br />
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more bolts. These held a traverse line<br />
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that protected a bold step over to a ledge on the opposite wall, and also the<br />
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rope for the next pitch. This was 8m to a pool in a dribbly, dribbly<br />
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streamway.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The stream trundled on down a trench in the floor and we<br />
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traversed along again in a high rift about three or four feet wide. We soon reached a fine rocking boulder<br />
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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<br />
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jam was an immense blackness, impenetrable to a good NiFe beam. Ahead and downwards lay a second impenetrable<br />
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blackness. We placed another couple of<br />
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bolts. This took some time as the bolter<br />
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had to be life lined and rock anchor teeth kept breaking off, and anchors kept<br />
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getting stuck, and
</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Our sleepy beer starved brains were in need of a<br />
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wake-up. And how! The next pitch turned out to be a magnificent<br />
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60m job. Remember<br />
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<st1:place w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:placename w:st="on">Juniper</st1:placename><br />
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<st1:placetype w:st="on">Gulf</st1:placetype></st1:place>?<br />
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– forget it! This fine free hang down a<br />
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sculptured corner of a much larger shaft was truly staggering. It landed on a boulder ledge about 4m from<br />
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the shaft floor. We abseiled past this<br />
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to reach the floor proper.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Downwards, the stream that had slithered down one wall of<br />
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the shaft sank into a too low passage. Upwards led to a balcony, giving a fine view of the ‘Hall of the Greene<br />
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King’. This is circular in plan and<br />
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approximately 20m in diameter. The<br />
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height must be in the order of 100m. At<br />
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this impressive spot, having run out of rope, having made the deepest<br />
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<st1:city w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:place></st1:city> find to date,<br />
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feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, we turned back.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">As we did do, we noted that the water level had risen and<br />
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the big pitch landing was now being liberally showered. This and certain difficulties for your<br />
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humble, narrator when the rope got pulled up on the big pitch and lowered back<br />
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down through the boulder ledge, meant a thorough soaking. Without wetsuits, things were now getting chilly<br />
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and prussiking was the only way to keep warm. This was only hampered by the fact that every time you stopped for a<br />
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rest you fell asleep! We eventually<br />
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surfaced after a twelve hour trip only to dine on plastic ham and biscuits in<br />
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the pouring rain. We then left the<br />
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plateau. It has been a long time since<br />
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I’d left a cave feeling this cold and tired. </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">But the trip was a success. In one trip we added 120m of depth and despite the fact that it took a<br />
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couple of days to recover, overnight trips seemed a good idea still. The next day saw two more of Team Ropes<br />
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going underground. They descended the 6m<br />
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balcony pitch to the floor of the hall of the Green King. Next came a very large passage with some<br />
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proportionally huge hanging death, and this they followed to a short<br />
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pitch. This was descended 5m and several<br />
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inlets and side passages noted. The way<br />
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on seemed less than obvious, but when the draught was detected (despite the<br />
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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<br />
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and contained a lot of dry powdery mud. Lack of tackle, time, energy etc., did not permit a descent of this<br />
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pitch and so the intrepid heroes returned.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">A couple of night later I was back on the scene again, this<br />
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time as part of a three man team. We<br />
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descended the 25m pitch which went round the corner and had to be rebelayed<br />
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twice. It landed in a passage carrying a<br />
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small stream, probably the same one that sank earlier. From here, the stream passed into a very<br />
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narrow vadose canyon and we traversed out. The passage, although very tight at stream level was three or more feet<br />
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wide at traverse level. The total<br />
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passage height was beyond my NiFe beam. The streamway was a classic meandering vadose type, typical of many a<br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place> pot.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">After a rather committing free climb (at least at this sort<br />
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of depth!) the traverse continued. Generally all the traversing was done on good, if not very continuous<br />
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ledges. After what seemed like several<br />
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hundred feet we clambered over a big jammed boulder chaos and on to the head of<br />
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another pitch. A rope was belayed to a<br />
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bolt and a chock-stone and a descent was made down 12m of muddy slope. Up until now things had been just comfortably<br />
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muddy with a mainly dry, powdery variety. This pitch however, later named The Fiesta Run, was a very glutinous<br />
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affair. This fact was later thought to<br />
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be associated with a shaft noted entering the roof at this point. The traverse ledges beyond seemed to clear a<br />
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little. We reached more chock-stones<br />
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with a further pitch beyond. Stones<br />
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dropped directly below fell for about fifty feet. Those that were lobbed outwards a little fell<br />
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a great deal further. We were running<br />
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out of steam here and decided to turn back. To be honest, we were a little disappointed the horizontality<br />
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Eisluftohle was adopting. We had envisaged<br />
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pitch followed immediately by pitch, followed by pitch, going down very deep<br />
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and all very easy! Instead, we had a<br />
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steeply sloping streamway occasionally punctuated by short pitches. Tackle carrying on the traverses would not be<br />
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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<br />
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after another twelve hour trip.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">With just over a week of the expedition left a couple more<br />
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pushing trips could be had and even greater depth attained. Just then however disaster struck. We were driving down the toll road after the<br />
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above described trip when one of the disadvantages of overnight trips was<br />
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hammered home rather brutally. With the<br />
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front passenger asleep and me in the back still wide awake the driver decided<br />
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to nod off at the wheel. To his credit<br />
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he could have chosen a section of road adjacent to a drop of several hundred<br />
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feet, but instead settled for one of a mere thirty. Without the slightest hint of last minute<br />
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braking or swerving, we missed a telegraph pole and a tree by inches, went<br />
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through a fence cum crash barrier and launched ourselves over the near vertical<br />
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drop. The next few seconds consisted of<br />
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one of lifes great eternal moments. With broken glass flying and twisted, blood bespattered, metal all<br />
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about, the car seemed to roll over and over before finally coming to rest,<br />
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wheels down, in a river at the bottom of the drop. The driver suffered cuts to face and hands,<br />
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slight concussion and a fractured sternum. The front seat passenger suffered a bad gash in the head and was<br />
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suspected of having a lightly fractured neck. The car was a write-off and your seemly invincible narrator, I’m almost<br />
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ashamed to say it, had not a scratch (well, only one small one!)</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">You’ll be pleased to know that both the injured people,<br />
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after spending a week in hospital, and with one getting flown home, both made<br />
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full recoveries.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Whilst being fortunate inasmuch as three of has had been<br />
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spared the greater karts area in the sky, we (that is Team Eislufthohle) were<br />
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now a little short of manpower. Over the<br />
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next week we realised de-rigging with so few people as were left could prove<br />
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awkward. We even started fondling<br />
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insurance policies, wondering whether we could avoid de-rigging<br />
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altogether! We abandoned the grade 4<br />
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survey that had been started, half finished! Photographic trips were scrapped left, right and centre and now having<br />
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given up overnight trips, one alpine start allowed the bottom couple of pitches<br />
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to be de-rigged. And then just what we<br />
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didnt need, the weather closed in. With<br />
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low cloud and rain, we couldnt even see the plateau for several agonising<br />
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days, let alone navigate across it. We<br />
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were forced to kick our heels at the camp site in Alt Ausee until, two days<br />
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before departure, back came the sunshine. With a magnificent effort form Team Geriatric, bless em again, and in<br />
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the company of your long suffering narrator, the rest of the cave was<br />
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cleared. Phew!</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">And so back to good old British beer. The return journey was noted only for a<br />
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delightfully comfortable night spent on a bench in a lay-by of a German<br />
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autobahn; also for being waved through<br />
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<st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Belgium</st1:place></st1:country-region> customs by the cleaning<br />
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lady! As for Eislufthohle, then I<br />
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think, judging by the large passage size at the bottom, and the drop test’s<br />
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performed there, not to mention the draught (or The War!) then to squeeze 400m<br />
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out of the place would be a mere formality. Beyond that, who knows? The local<br />
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expert, Karl Gaisberger, to whom many thanks, inspected the mud on our gear<br />
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from the Fiesta Run area and confirmed that is was quite old stuff, totally<br />
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unlike that deposited a sump backing up. Therefore with a sump not being, imminent and with the passage seeming<br />
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to enlarge all the time, Eislufthohle, already one of Losers most significant<br />
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caves, should become one of<br />
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<st1:country-region w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region>s<br />
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deepest. It has to be said however, that<br />
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the cave is no longer the easy series of shafts it was. It is now quite a serious, undertaking. Consequently for<br />
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<st1:city w:st="on"><br />
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<st1:place w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:place></st1:city> to return there, despite the<br />
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keenness of some of us, would be pointless unless we could put up a good crack<br />
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team, numbering at least ten. Dont miss<br />
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next years exciting episode; same time, same channel!</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Many thanks to the Ian Dear Memorial Fund, without whose<br />
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financial backing, I may have missed the magnificent abseil; into the Hall of<br />
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the Greene King an experience to make life really worth living
..at least until<br />
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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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<hr />
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<!-- LINKS -->
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<ul id="links">
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<ul>
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<li>1978 Expedition info:
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<ul>
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<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
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@ -24,9 +254,6 @@
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<li>1977/78 report from <a href="npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a></li>
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<li><a href="sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1978">Index</a> to all publications</li>
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<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
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<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
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</ul>
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</body>
|
||||
|
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</ul></body>
|
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</html>
|
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|
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