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<h2 align=center>2003 Expo documentation index</h2>
-<p>The 2003 expo has now happened; but the expedition report has not yet been written. Hence there is not much to say here, except to say a big thank you to our <a href="sponsors.html">sponsors</a>.
+<p>The 2003 expo has now happened; see the <a href="report.htm">report</a>. The original <a href="goals.htm">mission statement</a> is also available, as is a list of our <a href="sponsors.html">sponsors</a>.
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
+<html lang="en">
+<head><title>CUCC Expo 2003</title></head>
+<body>
+<h1>Expedition Report: CUCC Totes Gebirge 2003</h1>
+
+<p><i>This is the text that was submitted for publication in the January 2004
+issue of <a href="">Speleology</a> magazine.</i></p>
+
+<p>The 2003 Cambridge University Caving Club expedition to the Loser Plateau in
+Austria's Totes Gebirgewas a resounding success, with two major new horizontal
+levels discovered in Steinbrückenhöhle and nearly 2km of new passage
+discovered in total.</p>
+
+<h2>The story so far</h2>
+
+<p>This summer was CUCC's 27th annual expedition to the Loser plateau. All that
+effort has not exhausted the potential of an area less than 5km square, which
+now contains over 75km of surveyed passage.</p>
+
+<p>The majority of the passage found in the 1970's and 80's was towards the
+southern end of the plateau. The major caves are Schwarzmooskogel Eishöhle,
+which boasts the largest chamber in the area - Schneevulkanhalle, 115m across
+and stunningly decorated with ice formations - and Stellerweghöhle, the
+deepest cave in the area, descending to a sump at -898m. These were connected
+together by a French group (Groupe Sp\'el\'eologique de Clerval - Baume les
+Dames) in 1987, forming a composite system exceeding 20km.</p>
+
+<p>In 1988, a new entrance further to the north, Kaninchenhöhle, was
+discovered. This rapidly became the main focus of CUCC exploration, with 4km
+of passage discovered in the first two years alone; by 1999 it stood at 24km
+long and 534m deep. This included the huge passage of Chile, heading
+southwards towards Eishöhle; much effort was spent in the next few years
+seeking a connection, with the gap eventually narrowed to around 30m, but
+there was no breakthrough; a fault in the rock appeared to have stopped all
+development.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, further to the south a German group, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Höhle
+und Karst Grabenstetten e.V.~(ARGE), were exploring in the Stellerweg area;
+finally, in summer 2002 a group of muddy but elated Germans arrived at our
+camp with the news that their cave (still known by the name originally
+given to it by CUCC, Tony's Second Höhle) had dropped into an aven near the
+southern end of Chile, tying together Kaninchenhöhle and the southern caves
+to form the 54km long Schwarzmooskogelhöhlensystem.</p>
+
+<p>Since 1999 most of CUCC's exploration effort has focussed on the area around
+the Hinterer Schwarzmooskogel, the peak which lies above the northernmost
+reaches of Kaninchenhöhle; this was begun as an attempt to find an easier
+entrance to the remote northern reaches of Kaninchenhöhle, but gained a
+momentum of its own with the discovery of Steinbrückenhöhle.</p>
+
+<p>Exploration this year primarily focussed on Steinbrückenhöhle, 1623/204 in
+the Austrian 'Hoehlenkataster' (cave index), a cave towards the northern end
+of the plateau discovered by CUCC in 1999. Four years of exploration had
+already revealed 5.3km of passage, with a vertical range of 454m.</p>
+
+<p>This year's most major discoveries were in the horizontal levels of the
+system, in the 'Swings and Roundabouts' area. On one of the first caving trips
+of the expedition, Julian Haines spotted a passage leading off from the far
+side of 'Gaffer Tape' pitch (an imposing 80m deep and 20m wide shaft), and
+Julian and Earl Merson set out the next day to bolt across the yawning gulf.
+After some very airy traversing, they reached the entrance to this side
+passage only to find that although it drafted inwards strongly, it was choked
+with precarious boulders. Attempts to dislodge these proved rather
+hair-raising, as there was nowhere at all to stand, and were abandoned; the bolt
+traverse was removed, to allow another party to rig down the pitch into the
+Gaffered to the Walls series without being deluged with falling rocks. </p>
+
+<p>At this point, Earl and Julian headed off to investigate 'Dutch Beauty', a
+tight crawl leading off from the main Swings and Roundabouts passage slightly
+further north. Earl squeezed through, returning slightly later with tales of a
+spacious passage ('Rhino Rift') connecting to the far side of Julian's
+Gaffered boulder choke! The next day, Julian and Becka Lawson surveyed this,
+discovering in the process a short pitch ('Deviated Pitch') which led to yet
+more horizontal passage, stretching off several hundred metres to the
+north-west and carrying a substantial draught, with more leads branching off
+in all directions. Within five days 900m of passage had been surveyed in the
+new series, and there are still many leads awaiting exploration.</p>
+
+<p>The location of the new series is particularly interesting, as the area of
+plateau to the west of Steinbrückenhöhle has not been thoroughly explored, and
+beyond it lies the vast 78km system of Raucherkarhöhle. The ultimate dream of
+CUCC's work in the plateau is to connect Raucherkarhöhle to the
+Schwarzmooskogel system, which would result in a composite system in excess of
+130km long. This is a remote prospect as yet, but the westward trend of the
+new series is encouraging. Although the present end is in a boulder choke
+close to the surface, there are several undescended pitches which might lead
+to deeper levels of westward-trending passage, possibly intersecting caves in
+the unexplored region further west.</p>
+
+<p>There were also many discoveries elsewhere. The 'Gaffered to the Walls' pitch
+series, of which Gaffer Tape is the first pitch, had been explored last year
+to a depth of 207m. Only 26m further on, a new series of horizontal passages
+(known as the Underworld) was found, which is the deepest known phreatic
+development in Steinbrückenhöhle. According to Martin Green,
+<blockquote>"A complex series
+of horizontal passages were discovered intermingled with large shafts, with
+clean washed walls and floors, where pools of crystal clear water could be
+found. A number of the chambers were covered in a thin black layer of mud,
+which was broken though upon being trodden on into richer light brown
+sediment. Within some of the sediment were piles of bat bones, presumably
+washed down from higher levels, where bats are occasionally seen. To our great
+surprise we encountered several fine grottos of stalagmites, which are
+uncommon in our area. A grotto named the Sirens has bright white foot long
+stalagmites which were actively dripping water, suggesting that stalagmite
+formation is still active. Horizontal development is still going in the area
+and there are a number of shafts to explore, as well as avens to bolt up."</blockquote>
+</p>
+
+<p>There was also exploration at the deepest point of Steinbrückenhöhle, the
+streamway of 'Razordance', which is entered at around -350m and proceeds
+downwards at an average gradient of about 1:2, interrupted by occasional small
+pitches. Anthony Day, Mark Shinwell and myself explored a further 150m to
+reach a new deep point to the system 487m below the main entrace, putting the
+total vertical range at 510m. Much of the new passage is similar to the
+existing sections, an awkward, narrow, high rift; but this is interrupted by a
+sizeable boulder-filled chamber, 'God Loves a Drunk', formed by breakdown at a
+point where a small inlet streamway enters. This offers the first viable site
+for an underground camp, which may well be used in the planned further
+exploration of Razordance next year.</p>
+
+<p>Razordance has clearly carried an active stream for an extremely long time,
+which is unusual in the area (most of the known caves consist of fossil
+phreatic passages). This has given rise to hopes that it may lead to a
+significant deep system: over CUCC's 26 years of exploration in the Loser
+plateau, all but one of the deep pitch series that have been found terminate
+at a common level approximately 550m below the surface. The exception is
+Stellerweghöhle (1623/40), where a similar rift streamway apparently breaks
+through this layer and plunges down to -1030m. It is hoped that Razordance may
+do the same; since its entrance is significantly higher up than that of
+Stellerweghöhle, this would be a major discovery, and motivates plans to
+continue the exploration of Razordance next year (hopefully with a larger
+team).</p>
+
+<p>There were also discoveries outside Steinbrückenhöhle. Ten new entrances
+were explored; the majority of these lie on the eastern slopes of the
+Schwarzmooskogel ridge, where the plateau drops away sharply into a glaciated
+valley; it was hoped that this downcutting would have opened up entrances
+where it intersected levels of horizontal development. A number of such
+entrances have already been found further south, particularly the Eishöhle
+'portal row' which is a cluster of over a dozen entrances within a 100m
+radius.</p>
+
+<p>Our hopes of finding a new entrance to Kaninchenhöhle were fulfilled by
+2003-06, which rapidly led into the Iceland area; but this will not make too
+much difference to the ease of exploration of Kaninchenhöhle, as it is close
+to the existing 161e and f entrances. 2003-05, being further west, offered a
+chance to connect to the much deeper and more remote northwestern reaches of
+Kaninchenhöhle, but proved to be choked at only -50m.</p>
+
+<p>Further north lies 2003-02, where an awkward entrance rift gives access to a
+shaft. Rocks dropped down the shaft fall for two seconds, bounce off a ledge,
+then fall for a further four seconds, suggesting a pitch of impressive
+dimensions; this will be investigated next summer.</p>
+
+<p>Further west near the 204d entrance is 2003-09 (Weizeneishöhle); although
+quite short, this is well decorated with ice formations and has a strong
+inward draught. This draught can be followed to an unstable descending boulder
+slope, which was not followed downwards for safety reasons, but the original
+explorers have vowed to return next year with a crowbar! As this point is
+only 30m from the terminal choke of 'On a Mission', the northwestern extremity
+of the new Rhino Rift series in Steinbrückenhöhle; this choke draughts
+strongly outwards, so it is natural to suspect that they connect.</p>
+
+<p>All in all it was a most successful expedition, with the final tally at 1.9km
+of passage surveyed; and a great time was had by all the expedition's 14
+participants (including two expedition newbies). Planning has already begun in
+earnest for next summer's return visit; we can only hope for similar luck next
+year! Further information is available on CUCC's website at
+http://cucc.survex.com/, including a complete archive of expedition findings
+from 1976 to the present.
+
+<h3>Expedition members</h3>
+
+<p>Julia Bradshaw, Anthony Day, Martin Green, Julian Haines, Becka Lawson,
+David Loeffler (leader), Brian Outram, Olly Madge, Earl Merson, Tony
+Rooke, Mark Shinwell, Julian Todd, Frank Tully, Lucia Vittorini.</p>
+
+<h3>Acknowledgements</h3>
+
+<p>We would like to thank the following for their sponsorship of the
+expedition:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li />Thomas Tunnock Ltd, for their generous donation of Tunnock Bars;
+<li />G. Costa + Co, UK distributors of Blue Dragon instant noodles, for
+supplying us with nearly a thousand packets of the latter;
+<li />The Ghar Parau Foundation, for their generous financial support.
+</ul>
+
+<p>We would also like to thank the management of the Loser Panoramastrasse toll
+road; the local caving authority, the Verein für Höhlenkunde in Obersteier;
+and, last but not least, Hilde, Karin and everyone else at the Gasthof
+Staud'nwirt in Bad Aussee (location of our base camp) for their hospitality.</p>
+
+<p style="font-style: italic; text-align: right">David Loeffler (dl267 - at - cam.ac.uk)<br />
+Expedition Leader 2003<br />
+Trinity College, Cambridge, CB2 1TQ, UK<br />
+11th January 2004</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<!-- LINKS -->
+<p><img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
+2003 Expedition info:<br>
+<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
+<a href="index.htm">2003 index</a> (more detail than in this list)<br>
+<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
+
+Expedition <a href="report.htm">Report</a> 2003<br>
+<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
+Pre-expo <a href="goals.htm">mission statement</a><br>
+<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
+<a href="../../pubs.htm#2003">Published accounts</a><br>
+<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
+<a href="../../pubs.htm">Index</a> to all publications<br>
+<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
+<a href="../../sponsr.htm">Current year's</a> sponsors<br>
+<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
+<a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a><br>
+
+<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
+<a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a>
+</body>
+</html>
+
+
+