Pre-Expo Documentation
- -Post-Expo Documentation
-Pre-Expo Documentation
+ +Post-Expo Documentation
+Rope for rigging down to pushing in 204 -A => 48 (up), 30, +70 (up) [Last item annnoted 'wrong' in pencil] +A => 48 (up), 30, +70 (up) [Last item annnotated 'wrong' in pencil] King Carbide => 50/60 Brians phat shaft => 82+30 Painted Lady => ~30m Puss in bolts + on the prowl traverse => 30+27, rope protector, deviation -Fat Cat => 80, (or 25,45,12) may need more for swing off -> log book -states "QMA would require swing & prob more rigging to assist swing" +Fat Cat => 80, (or 25,45,12) may need more for swing off -> log book +states "QMA would require swing & prob more rigging to assist swing" Actual ropes => A: 41m, 11mm, chop from 92m King Carbide: chop from 92m 10mm @@ -69,8 +69,8 @@ en-route. Very hot all the way here until thunderstorms from Reid in Imkreis onwards. _Very_ wet. Got to Bad Aussee having heard that there was a big concert on but traffic had cleared. Main Rd to Grundlesee was -closed & we were sent the back way, only to find it was totally packed -with drenched pedestrians & vehicles coming the other way. Eventually +closed & we were sent the back way, only to find it was totally packed +with drenched pedestrians & vehicles coming the other way. Eventually got to the main rd to find totally stationary traffic. Went nowhere for about half an hour before finally inching down to camp site which was utterly heaving. @@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ Left 5:30pm, arrived 9:30pm.Martin rigged Fat Cat and explored the wrong way to solution pocket 8m -long & 10m high +long & 10m high
Dour sat at the top for 3hrs and got quite cold.
@@ -137,15 +137,17 @@ bolts. Wish I had not lost drill bit at bivvy.2012-08-04Emma, Holly-204 -> Fat Cat+204 -> Fat CatWent down to fat cat to attempt to rig pitch so we could swing off into "window". Holly placed 3 Hiltis to put us in a nice place for -hang to near window. Had Hilti setting issues -> wasn't sure about +hang to near window. Had Hilti setting issues -> wasn't sure about setting of last one.
When I went down I forgot the hammer so decided it was time to -leave. Exited the cave in v. exciting wet conditions as there was a monster storm on the surface - Holly bravely went first, We got soaked but it was passable.
+leave. Exited the cave in v. exciting wet conditions as there was +a monster storm on the surface - Holly bravely went first, We got +soaked but it was passable.T/U: 9.5hrs@@ -153,11 +155,11 @@ leave. Exited the cave in v. exciting wet conditions as there was a monster stor2012-08-05Emma, Holly-204 -> Fat Cat+204 -> Fat Cat-Back to fat cat to set the last hilti & drop down. Dropped pitch to near survey stn 14 of fat cat survey. Saw window on way down that Holly managed to rig rope to -> Just a pocket at horizontal level but climb up with QMA above.
+Back to fat cat to set the last hilti & drop down. Dropped pitch to near survey stn 14 of fat cat survey. Saw window on way down that Holly managed to rig rope to -> Just a pocket at horizontal level but climb up with QMA above.
-Also dropped pitch below window -> led to scrotty passage which opened upa bit QMB at end & QMA with V. good draft & possible pitch on left. Nice and dry on way out today :-)
+Also dropped pitch below window -> led to scrotty passage which opened up a bit. QMB at end & QMA with V. good draft & possible pitch on left. Nice and dry on way out today :-)
T/U: 12hrs@@ -172,7 +174,7 @@ leave. Exited the cave in v. exciting wet conditions as there was a monster storDour could not be swayed by the temptation of a piss-up in town, he was tempted by the dark side, and by Emma-the-keen. So the alarm went off at 6.30am. He jumped out of his pit and stuck his head back into the tent shortly later to say goodbye. Fair enough I suppose, going caving on a caving expedition...
I meanwhile slept off two consecutive seshes and crawled out of my pit at 10:50. To find Dunks, Noel and Frank standing around the cars having a giggle. The giggling increased significantly when I tried the van door. Dour-the-organised, having borrowed my van key first thing, and meaning to give it back when he came over to say goodbye. Instead got a lift up the road and walked all the way to top camp before realising he still had the key in his pocket. DOH.
-Not being able to drive the van for a day or so probably wouldn't be the end of the world (after all, this is only the second expo I've been on with my own driving licence), but I gradually worked out that the ever-lengthening list of things left in the van included pills, wallet, walkingboots, maps, day rucksack, walking pole etc. Crap. Dour found the van key after Holly and Stuart had set off walking so couldn't send it down the hill with them. Several phone calls later, as I sat trying to plan my day (baring in mind the street party tonight and subsequently written-off tomorrow), remembering more and more useful shit that was locked in our van, a solution was found. But there was much grumbling in certain quarters.
+Not being able to drive the van for a day or so probably wouldn't be the end of the world (after all, this is only the second expo I've been on with my own driving licence), but I gradually worked out that the ever-lengthening list of things left in the van included pills, wallet, walking boots, maps, day rucksack, walking pole etc. Crap. Dour found the van key after Holly and Stuart had set off walking so couldn't send it down the hill with them. Several phone calls later, as I sat trying to plan my day (baring in mind the street party tonight and subsequently written-off tomorrow), remembering more and more useful shit that was locked in our van, a solution was found. But there was much grumbling in certain quarters.
@@ -199,9 +201,9 @@ leave. Exited the cave in v. exciting wet conditions as there was a monster storThe first job was to redo the centreline survey on Brian's Phat Shaft, since the original vintage[?] had rather too many suspicious plumbs for the terrain. The DistoX proved to be a bit tedious, regularly resetting itself into various modes that did not give us the answer we wanted, but it was sorted eventually.
-The next job was to look at a traverse at the top of a climb reached the previous day by Holly and Wookey after swinging off part way down Fat Cat. I put in a couple of bolts and got to the other side, which smelt disgustingly of piss. Shortly afterwards Ollie's light was seen shining down the aven at the far end, confirming that we were below one of the holes near the end of the On The Prowl traverse. Later, Ollie shone his light down a different hole and we saw it coming form above the start of the traverse - so it looks like there is not much to be found here.
+The next job was to look at a traverse at the top of a climb reached the previous day by Holly and Wookey after swinging off part way down Fat Cat. I put in a couple of bolts and got to the other side, which smelt disgustingly of piss. Shortly afterwards Ollie's light was seen shining down the aven at the far end, confirming that we were below one of the holes near the end of the On The Prowl traverse. Later, Ollie shone his light down a different hole and we saw it coming from above the start of the traverse - so it looks like there is not much to be found here.
-While this had been going on, we heard excited shouts from Emma and Jen requesting our presence with the drill. We headed down to their lead, via a most entertaining deviation. The passage they had followed was impressively grotty but draughting, eventually opening out into a small bouldery chamber. Wookey's cave radara detected the hole with the draught coming out of it and one bolt later we were into a continuation. This was initially a sandy crawl, but quickly opened out into something of more impressive dimensions, all draughting strongly. Wookey and I surveyed into this while Emma and Jess finished off the survey of the way in, then leapfrogged us and started surveying the new stuff. By the time we had finished our bit they had surveyed around a fairly substantial chamber, full of boulders with black spaces between them. At the north end is a substantial pitch with water coming down that the survey data indicates is probably the final pitch in Kiwi Suit. There is also a pitch lead at the southern end of the chamber, nearest to KH and at a similar altitude. There is a very strong draught in this area, blowing from north to south. There is evidence that the chamber is in part developed along a hading rift with a similar orientation to Razor Dance which is directly below, so I suspect that they may be related to the same feature. Overall, a most promising find.
+While this had been going on, we heard excited shouts from Emma and Jess requesting our presence with the drill. We headed down to their lead, via a most entertaining deviation. The passage they had followed was impressively grotty but draughting, eventually opening out into a small bouldery chamber. Wookey's cave radar detected the hole with the draught coming out of it and one bolt later we were into a continuation. This was initially a sandy crawl, but quickly opened out into something of more impressive dimensions, all draughting strongly. Wookey and I surveyed into this while Emma and Jess finished off the survey of the way in, then leapfrogged us and started surveying the new stuff. By the time we had finished our bit they had surveyed around a fairly substantial chamber, full of boulders with black spaces between them. At the north end is a substantial pitch with water coming down that the survey data indicates is probably the final pitch in Kiwi Suit. There is also a pitch lead at the southern end of the chamber, nearest to KH and at a similar altitude. There is a very strong draught in this area, blowing from north to south. There is evidence that the chamber is in part developed along a hading rift with a similar orientation to Razor Dance which is directly below, so I suspect that they may be related to the same feature. Overall, a most promising find.
At this point Emma and Jess headed out whilst Wookey and I tidied up by surveying a side passage to a pitch lead. During this exercise we saw Emma and Jess's lights and realised that we were standing in a window ~8m from the bottom of Fat Cat. This would avoid the need to go through the scrofulous initial access route.
@@ -211,8 +213,8 @@ leave. Exited the cave in v. exciting wet conditions as there was a monster stor
2012-08-07-Pushing Fat Cat -> Pussy Riot -> Cirque du SoleilJess, Emma+Pushing Fat Cat -> Pussy Riot -> Cirque du SoleilWent to investigate a scrothole that Holly had squidged into and pronounced an "A" lead. So, having already been passed by Rob and Olaf we thought we'd have a look...
@@ -222,17 +224,17 @@ leave. Exited the cave in v. exciting wet conditions as there was a monster storWe carried on along the phreatic passage, which developed a floor trench and ceiling pockets, before dropping down a 2m climb. Howling draft and V.cold.
-Mud choked chamber at foot of climb, pitch on R (QMA). Climbed up 3m opposite original passage, above the pitch, into a BIG phreatic chamber (Pussy Riot) with boulders, pitches ((QMA),QMB,QMB,QMB,QMB) some further phreas entering ~8m up the wall (QMA).
+Mud choked chamber at foot of climb, pitch on R (QMA). Climbed up 3m opposite original passage, above the pitch, into a BIG phreatic chamber (Pussy Riot) with boulders, pitches (QMA,QMB,QMB,QMB,QMB) some further phreas entering ~8m up the wall (QMA).
At this point we decided we needed the wisdom of greater experience to choose our next move, so I ran back to the bottom of Fat Cat, clambering over Boris, and hollered for those well known cave sniffers, Dour and Wookey.
20 mins later, after a pause durig which they finished bolting a traverse and me and Emma sang and cackled and chatted, we headed back to the chamber.
-Wookey immediately walked over the boulders (ignoring the black spaces beneath which we'd found so offputting) straight into a horizontal continuation on hte left of the chamber. A 2m climb down, requiring one bolt and a natural was reached. Me and Emma surveyed while this was bolted, and Wookey had a quick scsoop ahead (tut tut!).
+Wookey immediately walked over the boulders (ignoring the black spaces beneath which we'd found so offputting) straight into a horizontal continuation on the left of the chamber. A 2m climb down, requiring one bolt and a natural was reached. Me and Emma surveyed while this was bolted, and Wookey had a quick scsoop ahead (tut tut!).
Small, mud floored, mostly hands and knees or stoping phreatic passage was reached, which after a couple of minutes opened out into a large chamber - Cirque du Soleil.
-Me and Emma leapfrogged Dour and Wookey (who were now surveying) and started surveyng the chamber. Its V.V. big... amd a big draft... Large pillar in centre, a big drippy pitch to the south ((QMA)), some holes upslope between the pitch and entrance which we thought we could see the others' lights throughh ((QMA),QMA), and four more pitches, 2 on each side of the chamber (4xQMB).
+Me and Emma leapfrogged Dour and Wookey (who were now surveying) and started surveying the chamber. Its V.V. big... amd a big draft... Large pillar in centre, a big drippy pitch to the south (QMA), some holes upslope between the pitch and entrance which we thought we could see the others' lights through (QMA,QMA), and four more pitches, 2 on each side of the chamber (4xQMB).
Carried on to far side of chamber past pillar to a steep chossy slope with perched death down into big stomping trunk passage which, as Dour put in, was "Blowing a hooley". This went ~10m to another massive drippy pitch. @@ -263,7 +265,7 @@ Cirque du Soleil: QMB - Pitch on L as enter chamberMartin, Cat, Teresa204A-After Cat and Teresa anaged to sponge a set of caving gear each, we set off to rig a bypass to the top of "King Carbide" and take Teresa on her first underground SRT trip. 204A was descended and thread pitch was rigged. Reflective markers were placed on route to 'No Pain No Gain' and on to half way down 'King Carbide' (although the last couple of markers are cairns) such that it could be followed in reverse by flooded-in cavers. On the way out, Cat demonstrated that 204B was free-climbable by the fool-hardy.
+After Cat and Teresa managed to sponge a set of caving gear each, we set off to rig a bypass to the top of "King Carbide" and take Teresa on her first underground SRT trip. 204A was descended and thread pitch was rigged. Reflective markers were placed on route to 'No Pain No Gain' and on to half way down 'King Carbide' (although the last couple of markers are cairns) such that it could be followed in reverse by flooded-in cavers. On the way out, Cat demonstrated that 204B was free-climbable by the fool-hardy.
2012-08-06@@ -271,7 +273,7 @@ Cirque du Soleil: QMB - Pitch on L as enter chamberScrotting around at bottom of Fat Cat, now called Cat FleaT/U: 9.5 hrs-Holly was so kind to take us down this year's route via 204a, King Carbide, Brians Phat Shaft and Pussy Prance to Fat Cat. I was a bit slow and had to get used to all this SRT business again, but eventeually we were all sat at the top of the Fat Cat pitch and made up a plan. Wookey and Holly wanted to look at a climb up from a ledge most of the way down, and Rob and myself were sent off to some scrotty B-lead at hte bottom of the pitch. Or rather at hte bottom of a little side-pitch right underneath the ledge, but still quite a way above the real bottom of Fat Cat. The last bit from the ledge to our lead was fairly clean washed white limestone, and after a little deviation, Rob and I climbed up over hte boulder named Boris, then through a little squeeze to a small "chamber", where we could almost stand upright. Emma and Holly had left a survey station 7 there, we didn't spot their number 8, though. Also, a small passage that I considered "too tight" went on to an aledged A-lead, but I was only told about this on the way out (I hadn't really paid much attention earlier). Anyway, from the small chamber, a small passage with a little water-filled trench at the bottom was heading back up sharply to the right, and behind some boulders a light-connection to the bottom of the pitch could be made. We ignored that (too tight) and rather went down a bit, then up a slope on the other side to crawl underneath a big boulder. Several holes are going up to the left, but an easier way to their top was found from around the corner at the mud choked end of the passage. We now started climbing up, leaving two holes in the floor behind us. They appeared to join up in a lower level horizontal passage leading further on as a QMB. At our survey station 5, we climbed up through a small window and now made steady vertical progress up a pitch full of rock flakes. After about 5 more metres, we reached a ledge with another mud-choked passage leading off and another window going on further up in a similar climbing manner to another QMB. We put our last survey station 8 on the wall and broke off some more popcorn on the way out. Rob and Wookey decided to put in another bolt at the ledge in Fat Cat, while Holly and I started heading out. When I reached the bottom of Painted Lady, someone suddenly turned on a waterfall coming in from a hole in the ceiling. Rather scary ! Brians Phat Shaft was rather drippy to begin with, quite wet further up, but still nothing but a little tease, compared to the showerbath of King Carbide, the horrors of the upper part of King Carbide, and the floods coming down the entrance pitch. I hate wet caves !
+Holly was so kind to take us down this year's route via 204a, King Carbide, Brians Phat Shaft and Pussy Prance to Fat Cat. I was a bit slow and had to get used to all this SRT business again, but eventeually we were all sat at the top of the Fat Cat pitch and made up a plan. Wookey and Holly wanted to look at a climb up from a ledge most of the way down, and Rob and myself were sent off to some scrotty B-lead at the bottom of the pitch. Or rather at the bottom of a little side-pitch right underneath the ledge, but still quite a way above the real bottom of Fat Cat. The last bit from the ledge to our lead was fairly clean washed white limestone, and after a little deviation, Rob and I climbed up over the boulder named Boris, then through a little squeeze to a small "chamber", where we could almost stand upright. Emma and Holly had left a survey station 7 there, we didn't spot their number 8, though. Also, a small passage that I considered "too tight" went on to an aledged A-lead, but I was only told about this on the way out (I hadn't really paid much attention earlier). Anyway, from the small chamber, a small passage with a little water-filled trench at the bottom was heading back up sharply to the right, and behind some boulders a light-connection to the bottom of the pitch could be made. We ignored that (too tight) and rather went down a bit, then up a slope on the other side to crawl underneath a big boulder. Several holes are going up to the left, but an easier way to their top was found from around the corner at the mud choked end of the passage. We now started climbing up, leaving two holes in the floor behind us. They appeared to join up in a lower level horizontal passage leading further on as a QMB. At our survey station 5, we climbed up through a small window and now made steady vertical progress up a pitch full of rock flakes. After about 5 more metres, we reached a ledge with another mud-choked passage leading off and another window going on further up in a similar climbing manner to another QMB. We put our last survey station 8 on the wall and broke off some more popcorn on the way out. Rob and Wookey decided to put in another bolt at the ledge in Fat Cat, while Holly and I started heading out. When I reached the bottom of Painted Lady, someone suddenly turned on a waterfall coming in from a hole in the ceiling. Rather scary ! Brians Phat Shaft was rather drippy to begin with, quite wet further up, but still nothing but a little tease, compared to the showerbath of King Carbide, the horrors of the upper part of King Carbide, and the floods coming down the entrance pitch. I hate wet caves !
2012-08-07@@ -279,7 +281,7 @@ Cirque du Soleil: QMB - Pitch on L as enter chamberTunnocks, looking for the PenguinsT/U: 7 h-After the rather damp trip the day before, I rather wanted a slack, short one, and decided to visit Tunnocks for a change. Ian and Hannah set off ahead of us and took along some rope for Caramel Catharsis. We followed a while later. We met again after the traverse line down the sloped entrance passages, where we interchanged bags and Ian and Hannah went out again. I rigged the first little traverse before Caramel Catharsis, Rob did the rest of the rigging. Then the route-finding problems started. We got to the cobbly slope and 9-key-kay[?] Beach, after a quick detour decided to go left, then took the next passage steeply up to what Rob believed to remember being called Starfish junction. By elimination, we eventually concluded that the passage with the triangular bit of tape was not the one we were looking for, but rather turned rightish. After a while of traversing, we found a little hole, where we unnecessarily built a cairn to remind us of the way out, but as none of the lower level passages seemed to be present in Rob's recollection of a fairly hung-over trip a year ago, we finally decided we were a bit lost again. It took some more trial and error to traverse above the top of the hole, do a stupid climb after a big boulder bypassed by a no less stupid squeeze. Next was a sharp Z-shaped meander, a traverse over some big holes, and finally one more squeeze through a boulder choke. The big passage beyond finally looked like it could go somewhere more interesting, so we now started looking for the p18, that Emma had told us about. We finally found one, but were not quite sure (and it's probably another one). As it was getting late anyway, we decided to leave the 60m rope, hand-bolting and rigging gear behind and went back out of the cave.
+After the rather damp trip the day before, I rather wanted a slack, short one, and decided to visit Tunnocks for a change. Ian and Hannah set off ahead of us and took along some rope for Caramel Catharsis. We followed a while later. We met again after the traverse line down the sloped entrance passages, where we interchanged bags and Ian and Hannah went out again. I rigged the first little traverse before Caramel Catharsis, Rob did the rest of the rigging. Then the route-finding problems started. We got to the cobbly slope and Y-key-key Beach, after a quick detour decided to go left, then took the next passage steeply up to what Rob believed to remember being called Starfish junction. By elimination, we eventually concluded that the passage with the triangular bit of tape was not the one we were looking for, but rather turned rightish. After a while of traversing, we found a little hole, where we unnecessarily built a cairn to remind us of the way out, but as none of the lower level passages seemed to be present in Rob's recollection of a fairly hung-over trip a year ago, we finally decided we were a bit lost again. It took some more trial and error to traverse above the top of the hole, do a stupid climb after a big boulder bypassed by a no less stupid squeeze. Next was a sharp Z-shaped meander, a traverse over some big holes, and finally one more squeeze through a boulder choke. The big passage beyond finally looked like it could go somewhere more interesting, so we now started looking for the p18, that Emma had told us about. We finally found one, but were not quite sure (and it's probably another one). As it was getting late anyway, we decided to leave the 60m rope, hand-bolting and rigging gear behind and went back out of the cave.
@@ -308,7 +310,7 @@ Cirque du Soleil: QMB - Pitch on L as enter chamber204 - Cirque de Soleil
CONNECTION! 161-204T/U: 10½-Original plan was me, Andrew + Ollie finishing yesterday's traverse while Rob + Holly pushed leads in Cirque de Soleil but Holly discovered a hole in the bottom bobbin of her Stop at the top of Brian's Phat Shaft so she gave up and went out + Rob joined us. Ollie + I started my first ever PDA + DistoX survey - not a great location to practise on, a teetery traverse with Andrew bolting the next traverse, only just in earshot as I bawled out endless questions "How do I calibrate the screen?", "Why are some splays in dotted lines?" etc. There was only one point where I got a "Not now" which was shortly before a huge lump of rock fell off the traverse leaving a brown smear down the rock face. The survey caught up to Andrew just as he got finished and ..... da-narrr..... found the final survey stastion from last year's KH trip - whoo-hoo, made the connection. Rob then caught up with us + Andrew & I were going to look up the passage but he'd forgotten about the up pitch so I did the bad step traverse withut protection for no reason + then was stuck there until Rob got some gear to give me a sling to get back. Then Rob + Andrew rigged a traverse to avoid the up pitch whilst Ollie + I went to the top of Fat Cat + surveyed the traverse - Dog Days - he'd done with Serena + then up the climb that Andrew had shinned up on the way down + left a skanky rope on it. This led to horizontal drafting passage, yippee + a chamber with several A-leads off ... having already had a very fine trip making the connection we decided to leave them for another day. Met Andrew + Rob on return. On Brian's Phat Shaft, Andrew went up first then as Ollie got about halfway a rock came whistling past me. "What was that from?" "Don't think it was me" says Ollie ... then another came down "Shit, the rebelays breaking up". Rob + I cowered as best we could + Ollie said there was only an inch of rock left on the nose the rebelay was on so we decided it was best if he took it out (the one at the bottom of the first long hang). Rob + I then teetered up past some razor sharp edges + the knot pass + the crab got wedged on Rob so the rope got incredibly tight but, hey, we survived.
+Original plan was me, Andrew + Ollie finishing yesterday's traverse while Rob + Holly pushed leads in Cirque de Soleil but Holly discovered a hole in the bottom bobbin of her Stop at the top of Brian's Phat Shaft so she gave up and went out + Rob joined us. Ollie + I started my first ever PDA + DistoX survey - not a great location to practise on, a teetery traverse with Andrew bolting the next traverse, only just in earshot as I bawled out endless questions "How do I calibrate the screen?", "Why are some splays in dotted lines?" etc. There was only one point where I got a "Not now" which was shortly before a huge lump of rock fell off the traverse leaving a brown smear down the rock face. The survey caught up to Andrew just as he got finished and ..... da-narrr..... found the final survey station from last year's KH trip - whoo-hoo, made the connection. Rob then caught up with us + Andrew & I were going to look up the passage but he'd forgotten about the up pitch so I did the bad step traverse withut protection for no reason + then was stuck there until Rob got some gear to give me a sling to get back. Then Rob + Andrew rigged a traverse to avoid the up pitch whilst Ollie + I went to the top of Fat Cat + surveyed the traverse - Dog Days - he'd done with Serena + then up the climb that Andrew had shinned up on the way down + left a skanky rope on it. This led to horizontal drafting passage, yippee + a chamber with several A-leads off ... having already had a very fine trip making the connection we decided to leave them for another day. Met Andrew + Rob on return. On Brian's Phat Shaft, Andrew went up first then as Ollie got about halfway a rock came whistling past me. "What was that from?" "Don't think it was me" says Ollie ... then another came down "Shit, the rebelays breaking up". Rob + I cowered as best we could + Ollie said there was only an inch of rock left on the nose the rebelay was on so we decided it was best if he took it out (the one at the bottom of the first long hang). Rob + I then teetered up past some razor sharp edges + the knot pass + the crab got wedged on Rob so the rope got incredibly tight but, hey, we survived.
@@ -459,9 +461,9 @@ Olly did a great job bolting over the pitch and on. I took a few photos and evenOlaf, WookeyProspecting and walking to Appelhaus-We had a trip booked in the Appelhaus area to visit some of our neighbouring cave systems. So first we had to contour hit across form Top camp. And as I didn't like the idea of walking back to the Stöger-Steig, I came up with a plan to go around northwards from Topcamp. We followed the path to Tunnocks for a start and then headed off into inknown territory north from there. We crossed some large bowl following a ridge on its western rim. After crossing some snowfields the ridge eventually ended and we got to a large depression with a hole in its northwestern corner (UTM 33T 0411876 528324). Appears to be a reltively deep shaft of approx 25m, but with little to no draught. Anyway, its a cave either on its own right and also its very close to March of the Penguins and Bullethöhle (exploration started [illegible]). We tried to look down the shaft, but some bolting and rope seem to be necessary to get anywhere.
+We had a trip booked in the Appelhaus area to visit some of our neighbouring cave systems. So first we had to contour hit across from Top camp. And as I didn't like the idea of walking back to the Stöger-Steig, I came up with a plan to go around northwards from Topcamp. We followed the path to Tunnocks for a start and then headed off into inknown territory north from there. We crossed some large bowl following a ridge on its western rim. After crossing some snowfields the ridge eventually ended and we got to a large depression with a hole in its northwestern corner (UTM 33T 0411876 528324). Appears to be a reltively deep shaft of approx 25m, but with little to no draught. Anyway, its a cave either on its own right and also its very close to March of the Penguins and Bullethöhle (exploration started [illegible]). We tried to look down the shaft, but some bolting and rope seem to be necessary to get anywhere.
-We therefore continued our tour and just a bit further to the north we found the next interesting hole (UTM 33T 0411904 5283600). This one appeared to be a bit of underground passage with a collapsed roof and lots of rubble on the floor. However, the passage appeared to continue towards the south and again hte lack of rope stopped us from getting there. Probably only about 5m climb/rope needed. We instead continued walking to the next col and then started heading down one valley further north, where the ski route is marked on some maps. This route took us awfully close to the BS16-BS19 entrances, and we probably also spotted a good bivy site which may have been used during the UBSS expedition. And of course we stmbed across another cave, which must have been described by UBSS somewhere. Entrance is at 33T 0412332 5283988. The entrance is a 2m diameter horizontal passage in the side of the cliffs and Wookey walked inside for a couple of minutes, across some shelf, turning right, and then turning around where the passage got smaller. Again a lack of draught, but quite a bit of cave anyway. Down in the valley we had to struggle a bit with what is not called Bunde, but it was easily possible to reach a real forest, Wildenseealm and eventually Appelhaus
+We therefore continued our tour and just a bit further to the north we found the next interesting hole (UTM 33T 0411904 5283600). This one appeared to be a bit of underground passage with a collapsed roof and lots of rubble on the floor. However, the passage appeared to continue towards the south and again the lack of rope stopped us from getting there. Probably only about 5m climb/rope needed. We instead continued walking to the next col and then started heading down one valley further north, where the ski route is marked on some maps. This route took us awfully close to the BS16-BS19 entrances, and we probably also spotted a good bivy site which may have been used during the UBSS expedition. And of course we stmbed across another cave, which must have been described by UBSS somewhere. Entrance is at 33T 0412332 5283988. The entrance is a 2m diameter horizontal passage in the side of the cliffs and Wookey walked inside for a couple of minutes, across some shelf, turning right, and then turning around where the passage got smaller. Again a lack of draught, but quite a bit of cave anyway. Down in the valley we had to struggle a bit with what is not called Bunde, but it was easily possible to reach a real forest, Wildenseealm and eventually Appelhaus
T/U = 3 mins (Wook)@@ -471,7 +473,7 @@ Olly did a great job bolting over the pitch and on. I took a few photos and evenUure Kalmback, Olaf, Wookey, Thomas Holder (ARGE), Ulid AikeHochdruckblasi (Woising)-We had to walk to some "Woising Camp" from Appelhaus, which took about 2 hours. Then we got changd and walked another 8 minutes to a little entrance shaft. Following a series of pitches (very steep passages mostly) we eventually reached a horizontal level at 1640m above sea level. We explored that for a while, then went to another pitch going down some more steep passages to the currnet pushing front of the cave. A strong wind was blowing up this, and probably another horizontal level can be reached with little effort. Given the informatsion from other caves in the area, this horizontal level is expected at 1550m, but as this was mostly a touristy trip, we soon turned around and left the cave. The exit, different from the entrance, was rather spectacular high up in the cliffs at the northern edge of the Totes Gebirge with an impressive view and a nice little via ferrata to get back to the Wising Camp and Appelhaus. Overall the system is a lot smaller than SMK, but appears to be very interesting and it probably has exactly the same development history.
+We had to walk to some "Woising Camp" from Appelhaus, which took about 2 hours. Then we got changd and walked another 8 minutes to a little entrance shaft. Following a series of pitches (very steep passages mostly) we eventually reached a horizontal level at 1640m above sea level. We explored that for a while, then went to another pitch going down some more steep passages to the current pushing front of the cave. A strong wind was blowing up this, and probably another horizontal level can be reached with little effort. Given the information from other caves in the area, this horizontal level is expected at 1550m, but as this was mostly a touristy trip, we soon turned around and left the cave. The exit, different from the entrance, was rather spectacular high up in the cliffs at the northern edge of the Totes Gebirge with an impressive view and a nice little via ferrata to get back to the Woising Camp and Appelhaus. Overall the system is a lot smaller than SMK, but appears to be very interesting and it probably has exactly the same development history.
T/U: 5½ hours@@ -484,7 +486,7 @@ Went back to 83 for our final trip to look at the roof tube beyond the bolt travGot into the roof tube, which is called Thunder Road due to the thunder we heard there on the 10th. I took off my SRT kit and wiggled along the passage which rapidly became more rift like. Olly wasn't keen to follow, so sat with the notebook while I shouted back numbers. The passage went for ~30m trending uphill. Near the end was a short section of walking passage followed by a low crawl. Then a drippy aven on the R and a pitch on the left. I surveyed back from here. I suspect it is near the surface.
-Derigged back to entrance chamber and began to survey out. Checked the bottom of the rift and it is, as you would expect chossy and connects with the p32. Then, about 1 survey leg up from the p32 passage Olly potted a low passage going off under a rock, named Under a Rock, passage gets to a pitch, which we could carefully traversed round. Next was a short section of lovely big phreas, heading up to a choke. There were a few bits of leaves and pine cones - presumably near another entrance. Right from the pitch went less far. Combined tactics got me up a short climb which led up to a choke, again with leaves. I thought I could smell outside. +Derigged back to entrance chamber and began to survey out. Checked the bottom of the rift and it is, as you would expect chossy and connects with the p32. Then, about 1 survey leg up from the p32 passage Olly spotted a low passage going off under a rock, named Under a Rock, passage gets to a pitch, which we could carefully traversed round. Next was a short section of lovely big phreas, heading up to a choke. There were a few bits of leaves and pine cones - presumably near another entrance. Right from the pitch went less far. Combined tactics got me up a short climb which led up to a choke, again with leaves. I thought I could smell outside.
Surveyed back to entrance chamber, and left the cave.
@@ -615,7 +617,7 @@ LIST OF ROPES LEFT - Far From Support double traverse204aT/U: 12hrs?-Cave pre-rigged. Descended entrance, Kng Carbide, Brian's Phat Shaft uneventfully and proceeded to Dog Days near top of Fat Cat to examine possible leads and survey with distoX + PDA. Dog Days contains many steep, unstable sandy slopes and a boulder choke with some unstable parts. A quick search of the boulder choke revealed no worthwhile leads - StuW found a narrow rift and what was thought to be a pitch but turned out to be the chamber flor. Andrew found an area with scary unstable boulders. The area was then surveyed, as was another area at the other end of the chamber which contained ground that turned white when walked on. StuW operated the disto but sometimes had trouble with shaking arms. Disto ran out of power half way through and was recalibrated by Andrew. A section of cave was surveyed yielding some leads. Cave was then exited with Andrew rebolting a Y hang on the traverse before Dog Days (Fat Cat?) and Stuw finding some slack and moving it along to make the Y hang descendable. StuW got exhausted during hte exit and became slow at prussiking, (due to equipment config and strength) leaving Andrew to take cover in the bothy bag below Fat Cat. StuW's route finding was bad - cave exited by Andrew followed by StuW (somewhat later) at araound 10 pm. Mike TA took photos then exited prior to Fat Cat traverse.
+Cave pre-rigged. Descended entrance, Kng Carbide, Brian's Phat Shaft uneventfully and proceeded to Dog Days near top of Fat Cat to examine possible leads and survey with distoX + PDA. Dog Days contains many steep, unstable sandy slopes and a boulder choke with some unstable parts. A quick search of the boulder choke revealed no worthwhile leads - StuW found a narrow rift and what was thought to be a pitch but turned out to be the chamber flor. Andrew found an area with scary unstable boulders. The area was then surveyed, as was another area at the other end of the chamber which contained ground that turned white when walked on. StuW operated the disto but sometimes had trouble with shaking arms. Disto ran out of power half way through and was recalibrated by Andrew. A section of cave was surveyed yielding some leads. Cave was then exited with Andrew rebolting a Y hang on the traverse before Dog Days (Fat Cat?) and Stuw finding some slack and moving it along to make the Y hang descendable. StuW got exhausted during the exit and became slow at prussiking, (due to equipment config and strength) leaving Andrew to take cover in the bothy bag below Fat Cat. StuW's route finding was bad - cave exited by Andrew followed by StuW (somewhat later) at araound 10 pm. Mike TA took photos then exited prior to Fat Cat traverse.
@@ -667,7 +669,7 @@ LIST OF ROPES LEFT - Far From Support double traverseHeaded down 204 and into 161 via the new connection - a fine piece of work by Andrew. Our target was a pitch lead heading west from March of the Ents with a howling draught coming out of it. Rob wielded the drill with occasional helpful advice from yours truly. It took a while to find some decent rock so by the time Rob had rigged the pitch head I was freezing, so went for a quick tourist to Mordor - all very impressive. When I returned, Rob was rigging a rebelay from where he descended to the floor. The pitch is a fine circulara shaft, about 5m round, but unfortunately the way on at the bottom is rather uninspiring immature rift. We surveyed into this for a bit until we got to an arbitrary point where the rift got a bit narrower and packed it in. The rift continues but there is no draught - QMB. With that we surveyed out and derigged. There is a possible continuation across the pitch head that could be reached by an easy traverse (2-3 bolts) but it is not obvious if there really is any passage there (QMB). It appears that the considerable draught comes down some aven above the pitch.
-At this point we packed up the drill and most of the gear that had been stashed at this relatively inaccessible location to make a tacklebag each to lug out. I made exceptionally heavy weather of the prussik out, not helped by having left my foot jammer behind at hte top of the new pitch.
+At this point we packed up the drill and most of the gear that had been stashed at this relatively inaccessible location to make a tacklebag each to lug out. I made exceptionally heavy weather of the prussik out, not helped by having left my foot jammer behind at the top of the new pitch.
@@ -731,7 +733,7 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got outBecka + Julian + Holly + Noel204a - Runnel Stone-After having taken a day off caving and run out of caves, Becka ordered me to follow her up to top camp, denying me my post canyon relaxing beer and chips. At least I had chips. It was total blackout when we arrived at empty top camp. Faffed and squabbled for long enough in the morning for Noel + Holly to arrive, which proved we could have walked up in the morning. We talked them into following us down to the same pushing front for camping, though Noel is one of the Tunnocks warriors and has never been in 204 or 161 and isn't interested. We gave them the maps[?]. My god it's a long way down. Reminded me of that insane trip down Razor dance I once did in 2007. The Pussy Prance area is all traverses and holes. Team Zeus seemed to have no trouble exploring here day after day when it was being pushed. I am used to being outdone by girlies. After doing what has been disclosed to is known as a 'Julian', we went down some slimy pitches in Dog Days to check out a B-lead before pulling up the rope. I left my warm things in the tacklesack at the top and terminated the surveying when I got too cold in the drafty passages. Back at Pussy Prance, H and N had turned up. Fat Cat head to airy traverses and finally the connection to KH. Romped all the way down to the end, pointing out leads left and right, to the end statsion 30m away from Chicken Flied Nice. It didn't look appealing (bolt up boulders up to passage above) when there were so many other leads to do. Noel + H took the first B-lead on the left going out, and Becka and I took the two A-leads on the right of the Runnel Stone, which joined and headed on North and in several different ways. Decided to move out as a group at 7 pm. Although the route in is in many ways more direct than going all the way through 161H and all that, it doesn't feel easier. Out at 2 am.
+After having taken a day off caving and run out of caves, Becka ordered me to follow her up to top camp, denying me my post canyon relaxing beer and chips. At least I had chips. It was total blackout when we arrived at empty top camp. Faffed and squabbled for long enough in the morning for Noel + Holly to arrive, which proved we could have walked up in the morning. We talked them into following us down to the same pushing front for camping, though Noel is one of the Tunnocks warriors and has never been in 204 or 161 and isn't interested. We gave them the maps[?]. My god it's a long way down. Reminded me of that insane trip down Razor dance I once did in 2007. The Pussy Prance area is all traverses and holes. Team Zeus seemed to have no trouble exploring here day after day when it was being pushed. I am used to being outdone by girlies. After doing what has been disclosed to is known as a 'Julian', we went down some slimy pitches in Dog Days to check out a B-lead before pulling up the rope. I left my warm things in the tacklesack at the top and terminated the surveying when I got too cold in the drafty passages. Back at Pussy Prance, H and N had turned up. Fat Cat head to airy traverses and finally the connection to KH. Romped all the way down to the end, pointing out leads left and right, to the end station 30m away from Chicken Flied Nice. It didn't look appealing (bolt up boulders up to passage above) when there were so many other leads to do. Noel + H took the first B-lead on the left going out, and Becka and I took the two A-leads on the right of the Runnel Stone, which joined and headed on North and in several different ways. Decided to move out as a group at 7 pm. Although the route in is in many ways more direct than going all the way through 161H and all that, it doesn't feel easier. Out at 2 am.
T/U 15hrs@@ -741,7 +743,7 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got outNoel + JulianSurface prospecting above March of the Penguins-It was too hot to make my escape to base camp in the morning, so somehow it seemed like the agreed idea to explore on the surface and give people a rest so they could take Becka caving the next day. Maybe we could find a cave entrance and sit in it. MotP is in an isolated mound of limestone higher than the entrance, and there must be a way into it from the surface. This area is paydirt. I quickly found a cave entrance on the edge, whcih drafted on account of the hole it came out of 12m away. I still have the cuts and scratches from the through trip no one will ever do again because it is now tagged to show the next person who finds it that they did not discover it. Poked around a snow plug. Found some deeper holes that rattle a long time to the east of hte area, encouraged Noel to check out another hole with SRT rigged from the hole drilled for the tag, and then surveyed Bat Slot [?] Cave (all 4 legs). A lot of holes here. Very tantalising.
+It was too hot to make my escape to base camp in the morning, so somehow it seemed like the agreed idea to explore on the surface and give people a rest so they could take Becka caving the next day. Maybe we could find a cave entrance and sit in it. MotP is in an isolated mound of limestone higher than the entrance, and there must be a way into it from the surface. This area is paydirt. I quickly found a cave entrance on the edge, whcih drafted on account of the hole it came out of 12m away. I still have the cuts and scratches from the through trip no one will ever do again because it is now tagged to show the next person who finds it that they did not discover it. Poked around a snow plug. Found some deeper holes that rattle a long time to the east of the area, encouraged Noel to check out another hole with SRT rigged from the hole drilled for the tag, and then surveyed Bat Slot [?] Cave (all 4 legs). A lot of holes here. Very tantalising.
T/U 20 min@@ -751,7 +753,7 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got outHolly, Rob & AntonyInner Flap - Tunnocks-Antony has already written a short piece regarding this trip, but going to add some additional detail regarding the Inner Flap push. After Antony had a peak at hte lead, he declared that this was a two-man survey job & headed off to the 39 steps to rig the pitch there. After ~3-4 hours of surveyng winding narrow rift - we eventually reached what I was hoping would happen ~> the rift opens out and a void below can be seen. Sending Rob ahead with his bright light, he lit up hte pitch below - where we could see a puddle at the bottom. Rob also thought he could see a window part way down the pitch. Lowering the tape measure down, the bottom of the pitch was not reached after 20m! Poop !
+Antony has already written a short piece regarding this trip, but going to add some additional detail regarding the Inner Flap push. After Antony had a peak at the lead, he declared that this was a two-man survey job & headed off to the 39 steps to rig the pitch there. After ~3-4 hours of surveyng winding narrow rift - we eventually reached what I was hoping would happen ~> the rift opens out and a void below can be seen. Sending Rob ahead with his bright light, he lit up the pitch below - where we could see a puddle at the bottom. Rob also thought he could see a window part way down the pitch. Lowering the tape measure down, the bottom of the pitch was not reached after 20m! Poop !
Now what letter lead is this ? If it was me I would label this as a QMA! I believe there's a faint draft, although Rob wasn't convinced (maybe it was wishful thinking on my part). However, having seen some piccies of the Razor Dance pitches, it seems quite likely that there will be another rift at the bottom - so lets go for a QMB lead (and don't forget the potential window!)
@@ -810,7 +812,7 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got outSerena, Stuart B, Stu W234 - Hauchhöle - Slapper Pink-Uneventful descent down to wee-wee land with some difficulty experienced with the drill in tackle sack blues. Found station 10 on the previous survey and tied in. Stuart B bolted / descended the pitch while Serena / Stuart W surveying behind. Pitch crapped out with C lead near the bottom which Serena could squeeze into. An aven was found above the pitch. Serena spilt half our pot of "Slapper Pink" named nail varnish onto hte bottom of the itch hence the name. Trip out was uneventful.
+Uneventful descent down to wee-wee land with some difficulty experienced with the drill in tackle sack blues. Found station 10 on the previous survey and tied in. Stuart B bolted / descended the pitch while Serena / Stuart W surveying behind. Pitch crapped out with C lead near the bottom which Serena could squeeze into. An aven was found above the pitch. Serena spilt half our pot of "Slapper Pink" named nail varnish onto the bottom of the pitch hence the name. Trip out was uneventful.
@@ -826,7 +828,7 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got outFrank, Serena, Stu WTunnockschäfte - climb of the penguins-Proceeded down Tunnocks to March of the Penguins and surveyed a small B lead which crapped out after 3 legs, ending in a stream. Serena spotted a climb opposite hte lead which was promptly gardened and led to a T unction. Left was choked with rocks and unstable. Right continued and end up being a new lead (or two) QMA/B and a bypass for the boulder choke (next to which we tied hte survey back to close our loop). This pasage was named Climb of the Penguins. Trip out was uneventful.
+Proceeded down Tunnocks to March of the Penguins and surveyed a small B lead which crapped out after 3 legs, ending in a stream. Serena spotted a climb opposite the lead which was promptly gardened and led to a T junction. Left was choked with rocks and unstable. Right continued and end up being a new lead (or two) QMA/B and a bypass for the boulder choke (next to which we tied the survey back to close our loop). This pasage was named Climb of the Penguins. Trip out was uneventful.
@@ -850,7 +852,7 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got outFrank, Martin, Stu W"Bullets second höle" 2011-01-After promising rsults last time we returned with an extra bag of rope (70ish meters again) a drill (together a heavy carry) and an extra person. Martin descended the pitch and began drilling. Frank bolted several more entrances in hte surrounding area as there is lots of promising cave in hte region. StuW waited at the top and then descended. The drill ran out of power after two holes (it was the rubbish heavy hilti bivy setting one) and we decided to retreat and derig for now due to the weather and feeling cold. We decided that it would be easy to return to as it was not deep and could be done after derigging the deeper cave. A brief shower caused a lot of water to run down the cave while we were in it. On the way back we found a shaft (untagged) on the Tunnocksshaft path which was noted in StuWs GPS
+After promising results last time we returned with an extra bag of rope (70ish meters again) a drill (together a heavy carry) and an extra person. Martin descended the pitch and began drilling. Frank bolted several more entrances in the surrounding area as there is lots of promising cave in the region. StuW waited at the top and then descended. The drill ran out of power after two holes (it was the rubbish heavy hilti bivy setting one) and we decided to retreat and derig for now due to the weather and feeling cold. We decided that it would be easy to return to as it was not deep and could be done after derigging the deeper cave. A brief shower caused a lot of water to run down the cave while we were in it. On the way back we found a shaft (untagged) on the Tunnocksshaft path which was noted in StuWs GPS
@@ -859,7 +861,7 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got outStu WProspecting (2012-SW0x)-A day's prospecting and tagging in previously noted areas yielded 3 tagged caves. First the shaft on the way to Tunnocks was visited, labeled 20120SW01 with a handbolting kit and found to be 8-10m deep and chossed up at the bottom. It wasn't descended due to lack of rope but this could be done in hte future and will only need to be done once, so was worth tagging for this reason. Returning to anoher point on my GPS and bolted it with the tag 2012-SW02. It was then descended via a slippery free climb and eventually ended with a rift and an ice sheet (ice sump?) On the way back I stumbled acaross a third cave - a shaft with a two second drop from a tennis ball sized/shaped piece of rock. The shaft was (about) wide enough to fit a small car into and I could not see the bottom as it was deep / steep sided. It is likely to be chossed up but remains undescended and is labelled with tag 2012-SW03.
+A day's prospecting and tagging in previously noted areas yielded 3 tagged caves. First the shaft on the way to Tunnocks was visited, labeled 20120SW01 with a handbolting kit and found to be 8-10m deep and chossed up at the bottom. It wasn't descended due to lack of rope but this could be done in the future and will only need to be done once, so was worth tagging for this reason. Returning to anoher point on my GPS and bolted it with the tag 2012-SW02. It was then descended via a slippery free climb and eventually ended with a rift and an ice sheet (ice sump?) On the way back I stumbled acaross a third cave - a shaft with a two second drop from a tennis ball sized/shaped piece of rock. The shaft was (about) wide enough to fit a small car into and I could not see the bottom as it was deep / steep sided. It is likely to be chossed up but remains undescended and is labelled with tag 2012-SW03.
@@ -868,11 +870,11 @@ The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got out204 -> 161, leads near Runnel StoneT/U: 12hrs-It was my turn to keep Becka company on a trip into 161. Since we had decided we were going to tick off horizontal leads we had no drills or other gear to carry, so zipped down to the Runnel Stone in 3 hrs flat. We then proceeded to work back along hte passage ticking off leads as we went.
+It was my turn to keep Becka company on a trip into 161. Since we had decided we were going to tick off horizontal leads we had no drills or other gear to carry, so zipped down to the Runnel Stone in 3 hrs flat. We then proceeded to work back along the passage ticking off leads as we went.
First stop was an A lead on the south side of the passage. This led almost immediately to a steep slope down covered in sand that leadsback into Runnel Stone chamber with a pitch immediately beyond. I had an entertaining time slithering up and down this.
-Next, we proved that the adjacent B lead connected to hte obvious C lead round hte corner before heading to the next B lead that went somewhere, a draughting passage heading uphill to the north. We quickly reached a junction where most of the draught was coming from the right, which quickly led to a pitch presumed to go back into Runnel Stone chamber. The warmer brach headed north for a while, past a small inlet with specks of mud on the wall (hence "Polka Dot Passage") ending at a pitch that the survey places close to the end of Julian and Becka's find from the previous day.
+Next, we proved that the adjacent B lead connected to the obvious C lead round the corner before heading to the next B lead that went somewhere, a draughting passage heading uphill to the north. We quickly reached a junction where most of the draught was coming from the right, which quickly led to a pitch presumed to go back into Runnel Stone chamber. The warmer brach headed north for a while, past a small inlet with specks of mud on the wall (hence "Polka Dot Passage") ending at a pitch that the survey places close to the end of Julian and Becka's find from the previous day.
Back in the main passage, we established that a couple of B leads connected to each other before hitting on the next A lead, a substantial draughting passage heading south. This looked most promising, and so it proved. We quickly reached a junction and threw a few legs up the north-going passage which looked as though it was heading back to the main passage (this was confirmed the following day). Then we happily stomped off south in big draughting phreas - the "Lärchen Republic" - past some very nice crystals (of gypsum??). Eventually the phreas turned into a rift where the draught got weaker, which we presumed was because it was going up into the rof. We weren't in the mood for climbing and time was getting on, so we headed out.
@@ -960,7 +962,7 @@ Had an explore, realised the 1978 survey has the wrong angle for the side passagOlly, Jenny Stuart B, Terry, AnnetteEishöhle Tourist Trip-Walked down from our bivi to meet the others at the Stogerweg junction. Walked (slowly) to Eishöhle. It was very hot and took hours, eventually got to the Ice Tunnel entrance which had less ice than Olly remembered. The bolts were almost out of reach! All got down and admired hte ice.
+Walked down from our bivi to meet the others at the Stogerweg junction. Walked (slowly) to Eishöhle. It was very hot and took hours, eventually got to the Ice Tunnel entrance which had less ice than Olly remembered. The bolts were almost out of reach! All got down and admired the ice.
On the way back removed the deviation hangs from the old 40A bivi. It took a long time, and we got back to the car as it got dark. Stuart kindly took Terry + Annette back to basecamp, while we walked back to our bivi. Got caught in a big thundestorm - hail stones nearly 1 cm &Oslah; - fortunately we had helmets on!
@@ -992,7 +994,7 @@ Had an explore, realised the 1978 survey has the wrong angle for the side passagOlly + Jenny107 - north of entrance-Still too wet to derig 148, so back in 107 with drill and our remaining rope (17, 12, 11 and 5m long). Started at the short loose drop north of the entrance pitch. Olly rigged down to hte stream, upstream led to a boulder choke and downstream led to the 2nd pitch. Went back up the pitch and Olly climbed up the ramp opposite (left permanently rigged). This led to some phreatic stuff, mostly in a fault plane. Rigged down another short drop, then a climb. Short section of horizontal led t another short pitch, so we surveyed out.
+Still too wet to derig 148, so back in 107 with drill and our remaining rope (17, 12, 11 and 5m long). Started at the short loose drop north of the entrance pitch. Olly rigged down to the stream, upstream led to a boulder choke and downstream led to the 2nd pitch. Went back up the pitch and Olly climbed up the ramp opposite (left permanently rigged). This led to some phreatic stuff, mostly in a fault plane. Rigged down another short drop, then a climb. Short section of horizontal led t another short pitch, so we surveyed out.
T/U 4hrs 10@@ -1002,7 +1004,7 @@ Had an explore, realised the 1978 survey has the wrong angle for the side passagOlly + Jenny107 - Ropeless-Still too wet to derig 148 so back to 107 to look at yesterday's lead and to derig. Olly rigged the 12m rope down the drop. Part way down was a window across into a pitch, presumably the main way on (you could hear water). Scrambled down a bit further until things got a bit steep. Olly rigged the 11 dwn and across, then the 5m rope. This got us to no gear left, but on a ledge. I traversed across (~ north) until the ledge ran out, fortunately the floor was now close (only 4m away) and I could traverse back underneath and down to the floor. I checked out whether the passage went (it did) and helped Olly down too. Continued along in hte smae directeion we had been traversing, got to a short drop, climbed that then another short one. Ended up in a ~25m high aven with drips coming in. Aven quite big, but pitch on was quite small - couldn't realy get to it without gear, so left it for now and surveyed back to near the end of the traverse. Looked down the lead on the right (heading out) and it led to loads of rifty passage. A few little climbs down got us to a junction, we went left first, got to an aven where up looked to the start of the traverse (from the survey data). Rift continued until it hit a cross rift which we think is higher in the rift of the route used in 1978 to get to the big pitch.
+Still too wet to derig 148 so back to 107 to look at yesterday's lead and to derig. Olly rigged the 12m rope down the drop. Part way down was a window across into a pitch, presumably the main way on (you could hear water). Scrambled down a bit further until things got a bit steep. Olly rigged the 11 dwn and across, then the 5m rope. This got us to no gear left, but on a ledge. I traversed across (~ north) until the ledge ran out, fortunately the floor was now close (only 4m away) and I could traverse back underneath and down to the floor. I checked out whether the passage went (it did) and helped Olly down too. Continued along in the same direction we had been traversing, got to a short drop, climbed that then another short one. Ended up in a ~25m high aven with drips coming in. Aven quite big, but pitch on was quite small - couldn't realy get to it without gear, so left it for now and surveyed back to near the end of the traverse. Looked down the lead on the right (heading out) and it led to loads of rifty passage. A few little climbs down got us to a junction, we went left first, got to an aven where up looked to the start of the traverse (from the survey data). Rift continued until it hit a cross rift which we think is higher in the rift of the route used in 1978 to get to the big pitch.
Back at the previous junction, right led under a low muddy/wet crawl into more passage, which led to another cross rift. Right was an inlet that didn't go, left continued, but would probably need something to be rigged first. Surveyed out, derigging as we went.