After many years of using complicated radio systems of varying degrees of complication and reliability, we have finally settled on a foolproof method for communicating callouts from top camp to base camp: mobile phones. Cheap Austrian pay-as-you-go mobiles have sufficiently good reception on the plateau for sending SMS messages, and even occasionally for conversation.
-We are using the "B-Free" mobile scheme. (In 2011 we tried using another proveder which picked up the T-Mobile network, however the reception was not as good as B-Free. B-Free has an annual renewal of the SIM which gets you the phone number and connection (plus some credit). More credit comes in the form of a card with a scratch-off secret number.
+We are using the "B-Free" mobile scheme. (In 2011 we tried using another provider which picked up the T-Mobile network, however the reception was not as good as B-Free. B-Free has an annual renewal of the SIM which gets you the phone number and connection (plus some credit). More credit comes in the form of a card with a scratch-off secret number.
This has to be done in less than 13 months otherwise it costs a great deal extra (equivalent to starting from scratch). The phone cannot be used in the last month, but renewal is much cheaper than starting from scratch.
On descending Stellerweg, the cave we found was nothing like what we expected. Initially, the German route was missed and a -promising alternative follwed across several traverses, down a +promising alternative followed across several traverses, down a couple of pitches, and one huge, broken 330ft/100m shaft, until things became more cramped and sporting. Courageously, we abandoned this route and made more determined efforts to find the diff --git a/years/1979/report.htm b/years/1979/report.htm index c00dd9036..0f26501a6 100644 --- a/years/1979/report.htm +++ b/years/1979/report.htm @@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ Schacht. A short distance on, the head of another pitch was reached. After rift of ever-increasing dimensions. Clambering down 5m at the end of the rope, a substantial platform (5m wide by 6m long) saw the start of the 14th pitch. 15m below this, the explorers landed on another platform of similar -dimensions. Our last length of rope was flung down the the pitch that +dimensions. Our last length of rope was flung down the pitch that followed and Nick descended. Unfortunately the rope finished about 5m from the floor necessitating a return, but he saw enough to establish that the series of pitches had temporarily come to an end, the passage levelling off @@ -160,12 +160,12 @@ canyon with a narrow trench in the floor. This is followed downstream to the
Some further 150m of traversing at the bottom of this pitch in a high vadose passage ends at the top of the Fiesta Run, a 28m sloping muddy pitch. The way again splits at the bottom of this pitch. A traverse over the obvious -blackness below is follwed by 15m and 23m pitches and a tight crawl to an +blackness below is followed by 15m and 23m pitches and a tight crawl to an undescended pitch, while rigging the pitch down the hole at the bottom of the Fiesta Run yields Madlmeier Schacht, a damp 61m abseil split at 28m by a ledge. The shaft now begins to bell out to magnificent proportions and a short climb over a boulder is followed by a 43m pitch split at 24m. A 5m -climb then leands to the top of the wet pitches of 24 and 17m landing on the +climb then leads to the top of the wet pitches of 24 and 17m landing on the floor of a large level passage covered in shingle and small boulders. A short walk and a climb down a boulder blockage end at a 5m pitch down mud covered walls to the brink of a splendid sump chamber at a depth of about 506m.