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Fixed some logbook typos. Put in some spacing and linefeeds

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@ -408,27 +408,106 @@
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-29b">2015-07-29</div>
<div class="trippeople">Wookey, Matt + <u>Jenny</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">107 - near coldest</div>
<p>Decided to go back to Double Beep and look at the drafting side passage and the pitch 13-CO-1A which seemed likely to be the same pitch that Double Beep has a window out on. Matt appeared and we set off. Again derigged the Coldest rope to use on the way into Double Beep (really another rope would be less tedious!). Matt + I headed in to survey while Wookey looked at 13-CO-1A. I was very disappointed to discover that I had failed to bring my balaclava, instead bringing a pair of pants that I was going to take down the hill to wash - idiot ! Matt + I went to the junction, and followed the [??] drafting passage north. Small at first (phreatic with a small floor trench with water which we were following uphill). It got bigger and we clambered over some flaky boulders into an aven-chamber with water coming in from the roof. Beyond this were some pretty mud/gravel formations that we managed to carefully step over. Beyond this, the way on appeared to be to drop down in the rift, but you'd need a rope. The dripping noise meant that I couldn't hear the beeping Disto. So its called <u>Beepless</u>. Got back to hear Wookey rigging into our passage to give us an easier way out. Unfortunately, although he was in a window into our passage, he was about 8m too high. So he gave up on that and continued down the pitch. The real window was too hard to get to to be worthwhile.</p>
<p>Wookey ran out of rope, so we attempted a DistoX leg down. After some 3m and some 138m answers, the Disto settled on 30m, which sounded plausible. Matt and I each put in a bolt on the Sleepless traverse, so there was a Y-hang on each side.</p>
<p>Got out to find it dry, but only for 15 minutes. We sat at the entrance for a while in the rain. Were very happy to find Anthony's van there to shelter in for the 3 hrs we needed to wait for our lift down the hill.
<p>Decided to go back to Double Beep and look at the drafting side passage and the pitch
13-CO-1A which seemed likely to be the same pitch that Double Beep has a window out on. Matt
appeared and we set off. Again derigged the Coldest rope to use on the way into Double Beep
(really another rope would be less tedious!). Matt + I headed in to survey while Wookey
looked at 13-CO-1A. I was very disappointed to discover that I had failed to bring my
balaclava, instead bringing a pair of pants that I was going to take down the hill to wash -
idiot ! Matt + I went to the junction, and followed the [??] drafting passage north. Small
at first (phreatic with a small floor trench with water which we were following uphill). It
got bigger and we clambered over some flaky boulders into an aven-chamber with water coming
in from the roof. Beyond this were some pretty mud/gravel formations that we managed to
carefully step over. Beyond this, the way on appeared to be to drop down in the rift, but
you'd need a rope. The dripping noise meant that I couldn't hear the beeping Disto. So its
called <u>Beepless</u>. Got back to hear Wookey rigging into our passage to give us an
easier way out. Unfortunately, although he was in a window into our passage, he was about 8m
too high. So he gave up on that and continued down the pitch. The real window was too hard
to get to to be worthwhile.</p>
<p>Wookey ran out of rope, so we attempted a DistoX leg down. After some 3m and some 138m
answers, the Disto settled on 30m, which sounded plausible. Matt and I each put in a bolt on
the Sleepless traverse, so there was a Y-hang on each side.</p>
<p>Got out to find it dry, but only for 15 minutes. We sat at the entrance for a while in
the rain. Were very happy to find Anthony's van there to shelter in for the 3 hrs we needed
to wait for our lift down the hill.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 5½ hrs</div>
<hr>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-27c">2015-07-27</div>
<div class="trippeople">Andy, Ben Whetton, <u>Anthony</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - pushing Kraken</div>
<p>Despite heavy overnight rain, we decided to press on with our planned trip on the basis that if Procrastination were passable on the way in, it would most likely be passable on the way out as well since the overcast conditions meant that afternoon thunderstorms were unlikely. I thought the rain had eased off, but as soon as we left the bivi it became clear that it was raining quite heavily and we got thoroughly drenched on the walk to the entrance.</p>
<p>Underground, water could be heard in lots of places where it normally isn't. However, Usual Suspects didn't sound too bad, so on arrival at Procrastination, I was despatched to assess the water levels. The deal was that if the pitch was passable but we would get a soaking we would abort - I think we were all half hoping for this outcome. The water on the bottom hang was higher than usual but mostly OK. Just as I was starting to think that if it got much wetter we would have to leave, the bottom of the pitch appeared - so we were committed.</p>
<p>Carried on down to the pushing front, pausing briefly to measure one leg with a tape measure where the previous survey had encountered a DistoX refusal. Andy started rigging the way on from the top of the mud ridge in the Kraken chamber. This proved to be quite tricky since everything was either covered in mud or falling apart or both. After much head scratching he elected to rig a short drop then a bolt traverse along the wall where there was some good rock to try to get beyond the edge of the mud slope. I went down to have a look, and thought there looked like some reasonable rock that I could just about reach at full stretch from the end of the mud slope that would make a reasonable rig if we could find a way to get there. Ben went down and swung around on a sky hook for a while, eventually finding a placement for an intermediate rebelay. Then I went down and doubled it up, but by now it was getting late so we headed out.</p>
<p>Overall a frustrating trip with little actual progress and a lot of time spent cowering in the bothy bag. However, at least water levels were back to normal so we had a relatively dry exit.</p>
<p>Despite heavy overnight rain, we decided to press on with our planned trip on the basis
that if Procrastination were passable on the way in, it would most likely be passable on the
way out as well since the overcast conditions meant that afternoon thunderstorms were
unlikely. I thought the rain had eased off, but as soon as we left the bivi it became clear
that it was raining quite heavily and we got thoroughly drenched on the walk to the
entrance.</p>
<p>Underground, water could be heard in lots of places where it normally isn't. However,
Usual Suspects didn't sound too bad, so on arrival at Procrastination, I was despatched to
assess the water levels. The deal was that if the pitch was passable but we would get a
soaking we would abort - I think we were all half hoping for this outcome. The water on the
bottom hang was higher than usual but mostly OK. Just as I was starting to think that if it
got much wetter we would have to leave, the bottom of the pitch appeared - so we were
committed.</p>
<p>Carried on down to the pushing front, pausing briefly to measure one leg with a tape
measure where the previous survey had encountered a DistoX refusal. Andy started rigging the
way on from the top of the mud ridge in the Kraken chamber. This proved to be quite tricky
since everything was either covered in mud or falling apart or both. After much head
scratching he elected to rig a short drop then a bolt traverse along the wall where there
was some good rock to try to get beyond the edge of the mud slope. I went down to have a
look, and thought there looked like some reasonable rock that I could just about reach at
full stretch from the end of the mud slope that would make a reasonable rig if we could find
a way to get there. Ben went down and swung around on a sky hook for a while, eventually
finding a placement for an intermediate rebelay. Then I went down and doubled it up, but by
now it was getting late so we headed out.</p>
<p>Overall a frustrating trip with little actual progress and a lot of time spent cowering
in the bothy bag. However, at least water levels were back to normal so we had a relatively
dry exit.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 15½ hrs</div>
<hr>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-29c">2015-07-29</div>
<div class="trippeople">Andy &amp; <u>Anthony</u></div>
<div class="triptitle">Tunnocks - Pushing Kraken (again)</div>
<p>Zipped back down to Kraken to the point where we had left off two days previously. I wielded the drill to try to execute the rigging plan from the previous trip. I put in another intermediate rebelay that got me down to the edge of mud slope. Here I placed a truly awful rebelay bolt - cratered and overdriven such that the anchor went right to the back of the hole when setting t. Fortunately, I had a bollard with me to hide the evidence.</p>
<p>Heading into new territory, I got lucky when I found a nice overhang with some beautiful clean rock - presumably because part of the ceiling has become the floor in the not too distant past. From here I got a beautiful 40+m hang to the floor, so called Andy to join me.</p>
<p>The pitch lands on a large boulder slope - pretty much the same as the upper level of Kraken Chamber. Heading downhill closes off but there is a rift on the north wall that leads to a mud slope where I couldn't see Andy's light - so presumably going somewhere different (QM-A). There may be a passage high up at the western end that would need a bolt climb to gain access - a better light is needed to assess this (QM-B). There is a nice cracked mud floor in one corner. Going east from the bottom of the rope leads to a further shortish looking pitch (~10m) QM-A. This may simply go to the bottom of the boulder pile - hard to see if there is a way on. So there are a few levels, but nothing that screams "push here for more cave". This is a very big space so it is hard to tell if there is a draught - especially since the draught was weaker than when the weather was baking hot the previous week.</p>
<p>We surveyed this lot using a Pony and Wookey's Chinese Disto knock-off. The latter proved very tedious when the leg length exceeded about 10m. "error 160" was seen quite a lot, with "Error 155" in second place and the occasional "Error 154". Eventually got everything in the book and headed out to complete a fine trip. The survey data puts us 626m below the entrance, and ~25m above the level of the Razordance sump, which helps explain why I was quite tired.</p>
<p>Zipped back down to Kraken to the point where we had left off two days previously. I
wielded the drill to try to execute the rigging plan from the previous trip. I put in
another intermediate rebelay that got me down to the edge of mud slope. Here I placed a
truly awful rebelay bolt - cratered and overdriven such that the anchor went right to the
back of the hole when setting t. Fortunately, I had a bollard with me to hide the
evidence.</p>
<p>Heading into new territory, I got lucky when I found a nice overhang with some beautiful
clean rock - presumably because part of the ceiling has become the floor in the not too
distant past. From here I got a beautiful 40+m hang to the floor, so called Andy to join
me.</p>
<p>The pitch lands on a large boulder slope - pretty much the same as the upper level of
Kraken Chamber. Heading downhill closes off but there is a rift on the north wall that leads
to a mud slope where I couldn't see Andy's light - so presumably going somewhere different
(QM-A). There may be a passage high up at the western end that would need a bolt climb to
gain access - a better light is needed to assess this (QM-B). There is a nice cracked mud
floor in one corner. Going east from the bottom of the rope leads to a further shortish
looking pitch (~10m) QM-A. This may simply go to the bottom of the boulder pile - hard to
see if there is a way on. So there are a few levels, but nothing that screams "push here for
more cave". This is a very big space so it is hard to tell if there is a draught -
especially since the draught was weaker than when the weather was baking hot the previous
week.</p>
<p>We surveyed this lot using a Pony and Wookey's Chinese Disto knock-off. The latter proved
very tedious when the leg length exceeded about 10m. "error 160" was seen quite a lot, with
"Error 155" in second place and the occasional "Error 154". Eventually got everything in the
book and headed out to complete a fine trip. The survey data puts us 626m below the
entrance, and ~25m above the level of the Razordance sump, which helps explain why I was
quite tired.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 14 hrs</div>
<hr>
<p>[Two whole page diagrams of below Procrastination, and Inferno]</p>
@ -436,40 +515,117 @@
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-26a">2015-07-26</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob</u> + George</div>
<div class="triptitle">Beyond Dig Dug</div>
<p>After a helpful surveying lesson from the Futrells a day before, I was ready to try bolting and rigging in a cave. After spending far too much time triple checking that we had all the necessary equipment, we set off into Balcony, aiming to continue where Frank left off. (As a matter of pride, not just because the destination was diabolically close to the entrance).</p>
<p>Heading through Dig Dug, I was shocked to find George had little memory of the cave, and was forced to guide him through each section of the short passage. Arriving at the ledge, we decided to traverse. I set up the bolting equipment and got to work. This left George sufficiently bored. I offered the drill to him and he declined, opting instead to explore the cave he had already visited.</p>
<p>He arrived back after the traverse was rigged, and proceeded to critically critique the traverse, calling it resource intensive and unnecessary. On the other side we found 2 holes, one bearing north to passage and one more easterly is an entrance to a metre by metre tube.</p>
<p>We surveyed the tube first, noting its remarkable length and draft, but alas, it eventually got far too tight, so we decided to leave it to those with more malleable bone structures. In the larger passage we found it led to a balcony overlooking the chamber we rigged, and further on it led to another large chamber, complete with another large, stomping passage to survey, which we would proceed to do the next day.</p>
<p>After a helpful surveying lesson from the Futrells a day before, I was ready to try
bolting and rigging in a cave. After spending far too much time triple checking that we had
all the necessary equipment, we set off into Balcony, aiming to continue where Frank left
off. (As a matter of pride, not just because the destination was diabolically close to the
entrance).</p>
<p>Heading through Dig Dug, I was shocked to find George had little memory of the cave, and
was forced to guide him through each section of the short passage. Arriving at the ledge, we
decided to traverse. I set up the bolting equipment and got to work. This left George
sufficiently bored. I offered the drill to him and he declined, opting instead to explore
the cave he had already visited.</p>
<p>He arrived back after the traverse was rigged, and proceeded to critically critique the
traverse, calling it resource intensive and unnecessary. On the other side we found 2 holes,
one bearing north to passage and one more easterly is an entrance to a metre by metre
tube.</p>
<p>We surveyed the tube first, noting its remarkable length and draft, but alas, it
eventually got far too tight, so we decided to leave it to those with more malleable bone
structures. In the larger passage we found it led to a balcony overlooking the chamber we
rigged, and further on it led to another large chamber, complete with another large,
stomping passage to survey, which we would proceed to do the next day.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 6 hrs</div>
<hr>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-27d">2015-07-27</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Rob</u> + George + Sarah</div>
<div class="triptitle">Beyond Thunderdome</div>
<p>George and I acquired Sarah, who was keen to see our very promising lead and my traverse. On location she took the same attitude as George, insulting both the theory and application of the bolting and rigging. I would not let that faze me, due to the large, obviously going, passage that we had yet to survey.</p>
<p>This did not go to plan. First we had Sarah make a questionable descent into the pit so we could document the pitchhead it leads to. Then we did the exciting beginning of the open passage. It quickly ended in a large boulder choke.</p>
<p>After some frustrated, emotional attempts at digging our way through, we realised it was futile. We instead crawled through some holes to survey the rifty things that were aluring underneath the passage. The bottom of the rift was accessible by a rather suspect free climb, so we sent Sarah down for a look. She found that the bottom went nowhere in both directions, so for safety reasons George and I abstained the climb, thus ending a rather disappointing day. We derigged the traverse, hoping it would be used for more fruitful endeavours.</p>
<p>George and I acquired Sarah, who was keen to see our very promising lead and my
traverse. On location she took the same attitude as George, insulting both the theory and
application of the bolting and rigging. I would not let that faze me, due to the large,
obviously going, passage that we had yet to survey.</p>
<p>This did not go to plan. First we had Sarah make a questionable descent into the pit so
we could document the pitchhead it leads to. Then we did the exciting beginning of the open
passage. It quickly ended in a large boulder choke.</p>
<p>After some frustrated, emotional attempts at digging our way through, we realised it was
futile. We instead crawled through some holes to survey the rifty things that were aluring
underneath the passage. The bottom of the rift was accessible by a rather suspect free
climb, so we sent Sarah down for a look. She found that the bottom went nowhere in both
directions, so for safety reasons George and I abstained the climb, thus ending a rather
disappointing day. We derigged the traverse, hoping it would be used for more fruitful
endeavours.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 5hrs</div>
<hr>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-28e">2015-07-28</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Elaine</u>, Michael, Matt</div>
<div class="triptitle">Balcony Ice Cock area</div>
<p>Previous trips to the Ice Cock area left two A leads, so two teams went down to push the two leads. The first team consisted of Petem, Ben Wright, Sarah &amp; George, while Michael, Matt and Elaine followed a short period of time later. Upon reaching Ice Cock however, the latter team found the former in their lead - it had connected.</p>
<p>We met the other team at the head of a small pitch. George was busying himself looking at small scrotty crawls and soon popped out halfway up the aven two others were trying to climb.</p>
<p>I and George's task was then to survey these scrotty crawls. We surveyed around 30-35m of tube of varying size - mostly sandy-bottomed, some with loose choss bottom. We discovered further survey stations at the end of our bit of passage - think it is EinUndZwanzig. Followed another bit of passage parallel to what we'd just crawled through and found ourselves straddling the top of the passage where Ben and Michael were just coming down. Gave them a good surprise.</p>
<p>All 7 underground reconvened at the tackle store before heading out. We did an inventory of what was there and wondered when Jacob, Eliott and Martin (freshly arrived) would go caving. At that moment, Jacob, Elliott and Martin walked round the corner.</p>
<p>J,E &amp; M went on to do a bit of surveying while the other 7 headed out. Split into two teams to avoid traffic jams on the pitches - Michael &amp; George ran out at great speed, followed by Matt &amp; Sarah, then Elaine, Pete and Ben broought up the rear.</p>
<p>Previous trips to the Ice Cock area left two A leads, so two teams went down to push the
two leads. The first team consisted of Petem, Ben Wright, Sarah &amp; George, while Michael,
Matt and Elaine followed a short period of time later. Upon reaching Ice Cock however, the
latter team found the former in their lead - it had connected.</p>
<p>We met the other team at the head of a small pitch. George was busying himself looking at
small scrotty crawls and soon popped out halfway up the aven two others were trying to
climb.</p>
<p>I and George's task was then to survey these scrotty crawls. We surveyed around 30-35m of
tube of varying size - mostly sandy-bottomed, some with loose choss bottom. We discovered
further survey stations at the end of our bit of passage - think it is
EinUndZwanzig. Followed another bit of passage parallel to what we'd just crawled through
and found ourselves straddling the top of the passage where Ben and Michael were just coming
down. Gave them a good surprise.</p>
<p>All 7 underground reconvened at the tackle store before heading out. We did an inventory
of what was there and wondered when Jacob, Eliott and Martin (freshly arrived) would go
caving. At that moment, Jacob, Elliott and Martin walked round the corner.</p>
<p>J,E &amp; M went on to do a bit of surveying while the other 7 headed out. Split into two
teams to avoid traffic jams on the pitches - Michael &amp; George ran out at great speed,
followed by Matt &amp; Sarah, then Elaine, Pete and Ben broought up the rear.</p>
<p>Others on this trip will hopefully describe their bits of pushing/surveying elsewhere.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: around 8 hours</div>
<hr>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-07-29d">2015-07-29</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Elaine</u> &amp; Ben Wright</div>
<div class="triptitle">Prospecting east of Balcony</div>
<p>With beatiful (or at least decent) weather predicted, Elaine &amp; Ben decided a surface trip was the way to go. Mike Futrell pointed out where he hadn't been /planned to go if he didn't have to leave, and off we set! Turned east off the Balcony path &amp; soon came across a promising hole. Elaine applied helmets kneepads &amp; gloves &amp; sscrotted off past some gämse bones until things became too loose to continue. Came back to discover a shiny tag by the entrance - CUCC 2009 03 :-( Nonetheless took details &amp; photos &amp; have since updated website.</p>
<p>Next found a big arena enclosed by rock with impressive rock arch entrance - just a bit further on that '09/03'. One promising-looking entrnce goes about 3m.</p>
<p>Then looked at two choss bowls east of this - <u>lots</u> of recent frost-shattering. One potential entrance at N47°41.741' E013°44.594'. ~6m pit with v large boulder at the top. Potential lead SSW under overhang but couldn't really see from any angle &amp; would want rope to check (we didn't any). Nothing else in this area went.</p>
<p>Continued on to a grassy (in places boggy) depression with a couple of interesting holes. Looked at most promising - had a tag. Tag tucked in a crevice, Hilti almost completely out - prob. frost shattering (but has someone been there since to ensure tag was safe?) -> tag: CUCC 2002 AD 03 looked promising. ~20ft pitch, potenetially went back underneath, also potential way on slightly to R as looking at pitch from entrance.</p>
<p>With beautiful (or at least decent) weather predicted, Elaine &amp; Ben decided a surface
trip was the way to go. Mike Futrell pointed out where he hadn't been /planned to go if he
didn't have to leave, and off we set! Turned east off the Balcony path &amp; soon came
across a promising hole. Elaine applied helmets kneepads &amp; gloves &amp; sscrotted off
past some gämse bones until things became too loose to continue. Came back to discover a
shiny tag by the entrance - CUCC 2009 03 :-( Nonetheless took details &amp; photos &amp;
have since updated website.</p>
<p>Next found a big arena enclosed by rock with impressive rock arch entrance - just a bit
further on that '09/03'. One promising-looking entrnce goes about 3m.</p>
<p>Then looked at two choss bowls east of this - <u>lots</u> of recent frost-shattering. One
potential entrance at N47°41.741' E013°44.594'. ~6m pit with v large boulder at the
top. Potential lead SSW under overhang but couldn't really see from any angle &amp; would
want rope to check (we didn't any). Nothing else in this area went.</p>
<p>Continued on to a grassy (in places boggy) depression with a couple of interesting
holes. Looked at most promising - had a tag. Tag tucked in a crevice, Hilti almost
completely out - prob. frost shattering (but has someone been there since to ensure tag was
safe?) -> tag: CUCC 2002 AD 03 looked promising. ~20ft pitch, potenetially went back
underneath, also potential way on slightly to R as looking at pitch from entrance.</p>
<p>GPS N47°41.638' E0139.511' (grassy hollow. Entrance is on W wall of this depression).</p>
<p>It then proceeded to piss it down, so we couldn't look at the other promising lead we had seen, preparing to slip'n'slide our way back to top camp.</p>
<p>It then proceeded to piss it down, so we couldn't look at the other promising lead we had
seen, preparing to slip'n'slide our way back to top camp.</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: ½ hr (Elaine)</div>
<hr>
<div class="tripdate" id="t2015-08-01a">2015-08-01</div>
@ -494,7 +650,10 @@ prospecting in the area.</p>
<p>One nice horizontal entrance proved just too short to count as a cave (just S of CUCC 2002 AD 03)
(no tag).</p>
<p>A very promsining-looking entrance N of CUCC 2002 AD 03 (named "The Devil's Arse" by Elliott) (to be fair it did look like a giant arse crack) went nowhere (any way on is choked or plugged with snow).</p>
<p>A very promsining-looking entrance N of CUCC 2002 AD 03 (named "The Devil's Arse" by
Elliott) (to be fair it did look like a giant arse crack) went nowhere (any way on is choked
or plugged with snow).</p>
<p>We had a poke about up the hill in which CUCC 2002 AD 03 is situated - yielded 3 tiny entrances
that went nowhere.</p>
@ -625,7 +784,9 @@ joe's rope?
round to hit our callout, allowing for surveying up the pitch and derigging and dragging drill +
rope out of cave. Interesting passage. QMA (and hole in the floor at last station, QMB)</p>
<p>Just about made our callout, getting out at 7:30pm, and were surprised to find Ol + Jenny coming out at the same time as they'd had success too. Turns out that base-camp hadn't even noticed our SMS anyway so no need to worry much about missing callouts...</p>
<p>Just about made our callout, getting out at 7:30pm, and were surprised to find Ol + Jenny
coming out at the same time as they'd had success too. Turns out that base-camp hadn't even
noticed our SMS anyway so no need to worry much about missing callouts...</p>
<div class="timeug">T/U: 6.5 hrs</div>
<hr>
@ -667,39 +828,76 @@ immediately before Pushing The Envelope squeeze.</p>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Wookey</u>, Philip Balister, Sandy Knapp</div>
<div class="triptitle">Document remaining wook-caves (wk12, wk11)</div>
<p>Wook foolishly recorded some entrances whilst wandering in the 1990s, before realising that it's
actually rather unhelpful to just note entrances. Most of those have long been explored and
catalogued but 3 remain in the dataset: wk4, wk11 and wk12. One of my objectives for this expo was
to sort them out. Phil Balister (a caver/geek Wookey knows who was holidaying in Bad Aussee)
volunteered to help out as a way of seeing what our area is like. His partner Sandy came along too for a looksee.</p>
<p>Wook foolishly recorded some entrances whilst wandering in the 1990s, before realising
that it's actually rather unhelpful to just note entrances. Most of those have long been
explored and catalogued but 3 remain in the dataset: wk4, wk11 and wk12. One of my
objectives for this expo was to sort them out. Phil Balister (a caver/geek Wookey knows who
was holidaying in Bad Aussee) volunteered to help out as a way of seeing what our area is
like. His partner Sandy came along too for a looksee.</p>
<p>
The caves are somewhat scattered. wk12 is on the Schwarzmoos Sattel, wk11 is near the top of the Vord and wk4 is down the back of the vord, below Eishöhle. Also the rope and gear was at 107. THe plan was to try and relocate the caves, taking enough gear to actually look in, hopefully having time to visit Eishöhle too and bring some rope down from 107. And to start nice and early to minimise the time in the boiling heat of midday. Needless to say this plan proved to be hopelessly ambitious. </p>
The caves are somewhat scattered. wk12 is on the Schwarzmoos Sattel, wk11 is near the top
of the Vord and wk4 is down the back of the vord, below Eishöhle. Also the rope and gear
was at 107. THe plan was to try and relocate the caves, taking enough gear to actually
look in, hopefully having time to visit Eishöhle too and bring some rope down from
107. And to start nice and early to minimise the time in the boiling heat of
midday. Needless to say this plan proved to be hopelessly ambitious. </p>
<p>Some research showed that wk12 had in fact been surveyed, photoed and tagged (2005-89) in 2005 on
a trip with Dave Loeffler. So that was used as a check that the GPS co-ords matched the real world. It was easily found on the col, along with B4. Both were photoed and a quick sketch of B4 done.</p>
<p>Some research showed that wk12 had in fact been surveyed, photoed and tagged (2005-89) in
2005 on a trip with Dave Loeffler. So that was used as a check that the GPS co-ords
matched the real world. It was easily found on the col, along with B4. Both were photoed
and a quick sketch of B4 done.</p>
<p>Then we headed over to 107 to fish out a suitable shortish (thin, light) rope, SRT kit,
helmet+light, distoX2, hangers, sling. We also had tags, notebook, pencils. We staggered over from
107 with the rest of the rope and a T-sack which didn't strap on anywhere, and left that gear at the
end of the plateau 'crack', for collection on the way back if we had time. Sandy decided she had the general idea now, as as her new hip and knackered knees slow her down significantly, headed back to the car park, whilst we slogged up the Vord. The cave was only 650m away according to phone GPS, but it took a good, sweaty, while to get that down to 170m by reaching the peak of the Vord. We signed the book, noting that Wook was last there in 2005, and most visitors come in Feb and March, and thus must ski there.</p>
helmet+light, distoX2, hangers, sling. We also had tags, notebook, pencils. We staggered
over from 107 with the rest of the rope and a T-sack which didn't strap on anywhere, and
left that gear at the end of the plateau 'crack', for collection on the way back if we had
time. Sandy decided she had the general idea now, as as her new hip and knackered knees slow
her down significantly, headed back to the car park, whilst we slogged up the Vord. The cave
was only 650m away according to phone GPS, but it took a good, sweaty, while to get that
down to 170m by reaching the peak of the Vord. We signed the book, noting that Wook was last
there in 2005, and most visitors come in Feb and March, and thus must ski there.</p>
<p>
We headed down the shelves on the SE side of the Vord, and soon found a good schacht. This was between 'p140' and 'gps00.140' so seemed very likely to be 140. We could find no sign of a tag, or rigging for descent. Looks a fine hole - really should be properly rigged and documented. Pressing on we soon got to a large hole below, '155' according to the GPS, and indeed it has '155' written on it in orange paint which has stod the test of time well.
We headed down the shelves on the SE side of the Vord, and soon found a good schacht. This
was between 'p140' and 'gps00.140' so seemed very likely to be 140. We could find no sign
of a tag, or rigging for descent. Looks a fine hole - really should be properly rigged and
documented. Pressing on we soon got to a large hole below, '155' according to the GPS, and
indeed it has '155' written on it in orange paint which has stod the test of time well.
</p>
<p>Now we were only 76m from the fabled wk11. Passed a great big rift cave too big to ignore on the left, on shelf below 155, but no sign of tags/paint. Hard to believe given size of it. Pressed on and had to ignore another 12m+ shaft nearby quite hard. Phil couldn't quite cope with the idea of ignoring such good holes, but Wook pointed out that sorting out wk11, but adding another undescended entrance instead would not improve the situation at all. Some more wandering showed no cave at al at the actual GPS location, but the big rift was within 50m, fit the description and was exactly the sort of thing that would be very hard to ignore.</p>
<p>Now we were only 76m from the fabled wk11. Passed a great big rift cave too big to ignore
on the left, on shelf below 155, but no sign of tags/paint. Hard to believe given size of
it. Pressed on and had to ignore another 12m+ shaft nearby quite hard. Phil couldn't quite
cope with the idea of ignoring such good holes, but Wook pointed out that sorting out wk11,
but adding another undescended entrance instead would not improve the situation at all. Some
more wandering showed no cave at al at the actual GPS location, but the big rift was within
50m, fit the description and was exactly the sort of thing that would be very hard to
ignore.</p>
<p>The cave has a steepish slope, mostly snow-covered, going out of sight about 15m down. We GPSed
it, then started survey. Phil put in the handbolt whilst wook belayed off a couple of boulders and
descended. Turned out to go further than expected. 20m-ish rope wasn't quite long enough, but snow
slope leveled out enough to make ginger descent possible. At the bottom it closes down and the open
way on is slightly too small for a person, certainly one in shorts+t-shirt, but there is a decent
ingoing draught. It looks like a few mins moving rocks and some actualy caving gear might make it passsable.</p>
<p>The cave has a steepish slope, mostly snow-covered, going out of sight about 15m down. We
GPSed it, then started survey. Phil put in the handbolt whilst wook belayed off a couple of
boulders and descended. Turned out to go further than expected. 20m-ish rope wasn't quite
long enough, but snow slope leveled out enough to make ginger descent possible. At the
bottom it closes down and the open way on is slightly too small for a person, certainly one
in shorts+t-shirt, but there is a decent ingoing draught. It looks like a few mins moving
rocks and some actualy caving gear might make it passsable.</p>
<p>Solo surveying is possible with a distoX, although still a fag as you have to check lines, mark both ends and then survey. Getting a shot out into the very bright sunshine prooved too hard, so that shot was done downwards on the exit.</p>
<p>Solo surveying is possible with a distoX, although still a fag as you have to check
lines, mark both ends and then survey. Getting a shot out into the very bright sunshine
prooved too hard, so that shot was done downwards on the exit.</p>
<p>It was now 4pm and we had to be back at the carpark by 6pm as Phil+Sandy had a restaurant slot
booked. A Tag 'WK11' was hastily prepared (by penknife scratching as we had no stamps) and attached, and we packed up and left ASAP, except of course that we are still lost in the karren, with the nipple visible quite some distance away. (There was clearly no time for a look at Eishöhle or for wk4 - those would have to wait for another day). The going was mostly not too bad but we did get stopped by Bunde and big (15m) drops into holes in a couple of places. Soon saw a couple of rucksacks, which were ARGE ones at 158 (Donner und Blitzen Hohle). This was helpful as we could now track faint bootprints to get ourselves out of there (There was bugger-all cairning). Eventually got to the nipple where the path become a lot easier to follow. Slogged on for some time, eventually getting to the Storgerweg, for a mere 25mins hike back to the carpark. We had 20 mins to spare on deadline, but it was bloody hard work.</p>
<p>It was now 4pm and we had to be back at the carpark by 6pm as Phil+Sandy had a restaurant
slot booked. A Tag 'WK11' was hastily prepared (by penknife scratching as we had no
stamps) and attached, and we packed up and left ASAP, except of course that we are still
lost in the karren, with the nipple visible quite some distance away. (There was clearly
no time for a look at Eishöhle or for wk4 - those would have to wait for another day). The
going was mostly not too bad but we did get stopped by Bunde and big (15m) drops into
holes in a couple of places. Soon saw a couple of rucksacks, which were ARGE ones at 158
(Donner und Blitzen Hohle). This was helpful as we could now track faint bootprints to get
ourselves out of there (There was bugger-all cairning). Eventually got to the nipple where
the path become a lot easier to follow. Slogged on for some time, eventually getting to
the Storgerweg, for a mere 25mins hike back to the carpark. We had 20 mins to spare on
deadline, but it was bloody hard work.</p>
<p>Still, objective of making wk11 katasterable achieved, and thinks muchly to Phil for helping carry the crap.</p>
@ -715,7 +913,7 @@ the Stogerweg in 1995 to see if it was a better route than back over the col (it
<p>Wook and Sam set off at an unheard-of early 7am partly to get Luke up the hill in time to do
something before derigging, and to avoid the worst of the heat of the day, at least to start
with. As we walked past the Bla-Alm turnoff we were ahiled from up the hill, by ChrisD, Anthony,
with. As we walked past the Bla-Alm turnoff we were hailed from up the hill, by ChrisD, Anthony,
Elliot and Michael who wanted to leave rope in our car. Key arrangments were made, updates given and
we carried on our way.</p>