From d15f35e9f217976c24040aa307cd891e262b244f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: dave <devnull@localhost> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 20:00:30 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] [svn r6579] Added an initial segment of the 2004 logbook (not more than a fifth judging by tpaper wodge thickness). It's currently in a sort of pseudo-HTML shorthand which I will search-and-replace out with <span class="foo"> type things in due course. --- years/2004/logbook.html | 260 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 260 insertions(+) create mode 100644 years/2004/logbook.html diff --git a/years/2004/logbook.html b/years/2004/logbook.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c40d8a056 --- /dev/null +++ b/years/2004/logbook.html @@ -0,0 +1,260 @@ +<html> +<head><title>2004 Expo Logbook</title></head> +<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" /> +<body> + +<h1>Expo 2004</h1> + +<!-- <d> = date; <w> = who; <t> = trip title; <g> = time underGround. --> + +<d>5/7/04</d> <w><u>Mark S</u>, Olly M et al</w> <t>In Cambridge</t> + +<p>And so it was that at 12.41 on Monday 5th July did the weighbridge at Madingley Mulch pronounce one white Citroën C15D van, by the +registration mark of L852 MFL, to be 400kg overweight – weighing in at nearly two tonnes. Mark and Olly were not best pleased, the +previous days and morning having been spent cramming Expo goods into every nook and cranny about the van.</p> + +<p>It was a combination of the appaling handling and the measly < 1cm of suspension clearance at the rubber stop which persuaded us to +have the van weighed. It was cearly far more overweight than in previous years – so much so that it was more than 200kg over the +total maximum load on the tyres!</p> + +<p>We returned to the Tackle Store having summoned Martin and Dave, and soon began the tedious task of emptying about 300kg of shit out of +the van – each item being monotonously weighed on Martin's bathroom scales. Many, many phone calls ensued and after various silly +plans (including driving to Expo and then coming back the next day for a second load, utilising a cheap day return on the ferry from +Calais!) we settled on a haulier who would transport it to Munich for 300 quid. Not too bad in fact, given it would cost well over 200 +quid to do the two-drives plan. (In fact, subsequently a cheaper company were found.) We declined one company's quote of three thousand +pounds, refilled the van with lighter items and set off for Milton Tesco's, to collect journey food. At about 5.40pm all was ready (minus +the various tasks which we hadn't had time to do due to the massive hiatus). We set off for Earl's place and arrived without mishaps, +planning to leave for Dover at 4am. Expo had begun.</p> + +<d>6/7/04</d> <w><u>Mark S</u>, Olly M</w> <t>Driving to Austria</t> + +<p>Arose at 3.30pm and left Earl's place just after five past four on Tuesday morning. The ferry was at 6am and we arrived just at the +right time after a stop for fuel. (Got to the port around 5.20am.)</p> + +<p>The ferry was on time and we set off about 8.20am French time onto the motorway. Driving in shifts, there were no mishaps until Mark's +shift around Nürnburg.</p> + +<p><i>[The Nürnburg incident, which apparently involved a high-speed emergency stop with inadequate brakes, never got written up in +the enormous space left for it on the page.]</i></p> + +<d>6/7/04</d> <w><u>Dave</u></w> <t>Dave's trip out</t> + +<p>All went v. smoothly; up at 3am (ouch!), coach to Stansted, Ryanair to Salzburg, tram, train etc to arrive at Bad Aussee at around 3pm. +Bus timetable appears to be beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, so I walked. Then fell asleep, woke up and spent four hours watching +German TV. (Something important has happened to the state governor of Steiermark, but I have no idea what.)</p> + +<d>7/7/04</d> <w>Olly M, Mark and <u>Dave</u></w> + +<p>Walked up hill. Snow level very high. Had considerable fun hauling gear out of Traungold (caving gear + some digging were needed).</p> + +<g>T/U: Dave 1hr</g> + +<d>8/7/04</d> <w>Olly M, Mark and <u>Dave</u></w> + +<p>More getting stuff out of snow-choked holes.</p> + +<g>T/U: Olly M 1hr</g> + +<d>10/7/04</d> <w><u>Dave</u>, Olly M</w> <t>204A rigging</t> + +<p>Rigged down to bottom of A ent pitch. Owing to lack of rope we didn't get any further than that + ran out of excuses for walking +downhill in the rain.</p> + +<g>T/U: Dave 1.25hrs Olly 0.75hrs</g> + +<d>??</d> <w><u>Julia</u> and Anthony...</w> <t>..are here</t> + +<p>Det er veldig variskelig â snakke [illegible]. Men jeg mâ prøve. We left Anthony's office at 3.00pm on Friday (I +remembered the guitar). Getting out of Norge not easy, but achieved eventually. 6 hours Oslo to Gøteborg. Then lots more hours +through Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Sweden + Germany go on far too long especially. Our stereo died, but it only cost 20 NOK so it's fair +enough. No traffic jams once outside Sweden. It took ages, Dour ate lots of chocolate, I didn't fall asleep too much, Expo is great + so +is Gösser.</p> + +<p><i>[In different pen and Dour's handwriting]</i>I say chaps, it's a dashed long way from Oslo to expo, what?</p> + +<d>13/7/04</d> <w><u>Julia</u></w> + +<p>Oh, so caving songs get written in the rain, right. Well, plenty of rain here, so let's have some inspiration. There's Duncan's first +bit:</p> + +<blockquote> +When I first came to Cambridge I was only 18<br /> +With a fiver in my pocket and my old dangly bag<br /> +So I went down the Panton to check out the scene<br /> +But I soon ended up as a beardy old lag. +</blockquote> + +<p>Still Duncan:</p> + +<blockquote> +When the Mornflake + the Tunnocks bars were stacked in great piles<br /> +With the old Expo trailer we would drag them for miles +</blockquote> + +<p>Then me:</p> + +<blockquote> +To the arse-end of Austria we carted our load<br /> +Knowing free schapps awaited at the end of the road +</blockquote> + +<p><strong>INSPIRATION NEEDED HERE</strong></p> + +<p>Last verse:</p> + +<blockquote> +And now I am lying here, I ain't had no booze<br /> +I've been pushing and caving, and I'm all sore and bruised<br /> +I feel like I'm dying, and I wish I could beg<br /> +For a stretcher to carry me to old base camp. +</blockquote> + +<d>12/7/04</d> <w><u>Jenny</u> + Olly B</w> + +<p>We set off for our 3<sup>rd</sup> carry to Top Camp, and for the first time it wasn't raining. As we got to TC it got much darker, and +just as we started pitching the big expo tent it started to hail horizontally which was really quite grim... Eventually we got the tent up +and went to look for Eislufthöhle (76), Olly knew where it was, but couldn't remember quite how to get there so we walked around a +lot in the erratic boulders just below where 76 turned out to be.</p> + +<d>13/7/04 <w><u>Jenny</u> + Olly B</w> + +<p>Carried up our final load to TC, noticed that the tent had lots of big puddles. Perhaps optimistically, I assumed it had come into the +tent whilst we erected it in the hail storm, so I bailed out the water + we set off for 76, armed with a GPS. We got the [illegible] the +GPS point and wandered around and found 97 which still had paint marking it. This gave us an idea of where 76 was which we then found. +About 50m from 76, towards the ridge, was a very very good potential bivvy site – a big arched entrance maybe 15m across and 1.5m +high with a snow patchand a skylight. Probably room for ~6 people without too much rock moving + more people with more work, quite +sheltered as well as it opens out into a small sheltered valley (with room for a small tent). We walked back to TC laying cairns as we +went.</p> + +<d>14/7/04</d> <w><u>Jenny</u> + Olly B</w> + +<p>Woke up to find just how un-waterproof the tent was – lots of leaks through the ceiling and 3 puddles a couple of inches deep, +wet sleeping bags and other wet stuff which wasn't nice at all. Eventually got going after a short delay to dry out the lighter before we +could make breakfast. We walked back to 76 carrying lots of gear to relook at the bivvy with a view to actually using it – and it +looked a whole better <i>[sic]</i> than the tent. We carreid another load from TC adding more cairns as we went.</p> + +<p>Olly taught me how to bolt by demonstrating to drill a tag spit for 97, then I put ones in for tags for 76 and 76b (76a was already +tagged). Then I went underground in the 76a entrance, it goes approximately horizontally for about 15m over a step on the way, there was +quite a lot of soft snow on the floor but no ice visible till near the pitch, where there was a small ice-shell. The pitch continues down +below where the 76 ent shaft comes in (but this looked too loose to be worth using). I placed my first two underground bolts, then looked +round the corner and saw an old spit which suggested that in the 70s the snow level was higher. I carried on down the sloping gully with +snow on the floor, the gully flattened out to a ledge with loose rocks. Just round the corner was a nice looking 10-20m pitch which looked +to land on a big snow ledge. Time was running out so I came back up and added a bolt to the top to make the rope hang in a nicer place. +Then we got changed and walked back to the car via TC to collect our wet sleeping bags to dry them. On the way back we realised that +Olly's GPS was still getting a fix by the bivvy... Oh, whilst I was caving Olly cairned a path from the bivvy to the 204 path.</p> + +<g>T/U Jenny 3.5hrs</g> + +<p>3rd verse</p> + +<blockquote> +Oh, the chill winds at night through the bivvy would blow<br /> +But there were boys at the stone bridge to guide you below<br /> +If you didn't fancy caving you could go and get drunk<br /> +There was always lots of festering down at old base camp +</blockquote> + +<d>14/7/04</d> <w><u>Dave</u>, Olly M, Stuart, Dour</w> <t>Ariston rigging</t> + +<p>Wandered in down 204A re-rigging on Dave Brindle's rope. Dour put in a bolt enabling me to get close enough to the 2nd pitch to see +that it was open, which was a pleasant surprise seeing how much snow was around generally. At this point Dour returned to the surface +while Olly, Stuart and I wandered down Ariston. Ran out of rope at Steel Toecap and headed out.</p> + +<g>T/U Dave, Olly, Stuart 6.5hrs, Dour 1hr</g> + +<d>15/7/04</d> <w><u>Olly M</u>, Stuart, Peter</w> <t>204E rigging</t> + +<p>Had much difficulty finding the entrance, it was further than I remembered. Took ages to rig the pitch, then went out.</p> + +<g>T/U Olly, Stuart, Pete 2.5hours</g> + +<d>15/7/04</d> <w><u>Dave</u>, Mark D, Nial</w> <t>Kiwi Suit rigging</t> + +<p>Continued rig down bottom pitch of Ariston (which is shite) and 54m pitch in Kiwi Suit. Realising we had only three hangers left, we +put in the next 8m pitch but didn't descend, + buggered off out. Nial + Mark apparently got lost in the crawls at the bottom of +Wolpertinger Way and were out an hour after I was; I really ought to have hung around to point out the route – sorry guys, but I was +cold + knackered + wanted to go downhill.</p> + +<p><i>[Mark D's handwriting]</i> Scientific note: air temp measured at Pot-U-Like 2°C.</p> + +<g>T/U Dave 5.5hrs, Nial, MarkD 6.5</g> + +<d>18/7/04</d> <w>Dour, <u>Mark D</u></w> <t>Razor Dance rigging</t> + +<p>Early start – underground by 10:00! Speedy descent to Kiwi Suit, where we picked up the bag of rope left on the 15th. We now had +3 1/2 bags of rope between us, which was considered A LOT. Mark rigged the bottom 2 pitches of Kiwi Suit, then Dour took up the cudgels +and proceeded to rig Razor Dance down to the 2002 limit – the Steady Now pitch. Left the rest of the rope at that point and turned +round at 16:00. Uneventful ascent, Mark D out at 19:45, Dour 21:15. Dour must buy a magic foot jammer!</p> + +<p>Scientific note: the gravel in the crawl between Ariston + Kiwi Suit is very interesting and is in different sizes in different +passages, which gives some indication of the water flow during phreas. This should be (a) recorded and (b) taped off to avoid damage. +MSD.</p> + +<g>TU Mark 10hrs Dour 11.25hrs</g> + +<d>16/7/04</d> <w>Jenny, <u>Olly B</u></w> + +<p>We bolted on down from the head of Draught Bitter (where the draught was so fierce it made my eyes water while drilling a hole for a +bolt). A deviation off a 70s spit got us to a little rock bridge, and a rebelay off another unusually well preserved and flush 70s spit to +the "rock bridge lead". Rebelay off a natural spike (shape enhanced with a bolt hammer), and we're at our first lead. I poked out the +looser rocks, and peered down into a serpentine rift below. I put in a spit, gardened more, and squeezed in, Jenny feeding rope from above +(the bag was too fat). Along the rift, an aven intersects, and goes down a shaft. Another spit, and another awkward squeeze, and I dropped +the pitch, but it was blind. Back up, and the rift seems to form a U, both ends look like the end at snow slopes, presumably out on the +pitch (though we're yet to confirm this). We ascend to the rock bridge, and head on down. I can see a ledge which will keep us away from +falling snow & rocks, but after two spits I'm still not there and my legs are losing feeling. Jenny is cold too so we exit.</p> + +<d>17/7/04</d> <w>Olly + <u>Jenny</u></w> + +<p>Back down 76 again, this time it's my turn to bolt. I get down to the bolts Olly put in yesterday (after adding a spit for a deviation +on the way down to stop the rope cutting through the big snow plug), and spend quite a while swinging around trying to work out what is +attached to what (tacklesack, hangers, deviation...). Eventually I sorted it all out and follow Olly's advice to rig the deviation as a +rebelay temporarily to enable me to swing onto the ledge more easily. The rebelay was all exciting and wide and free-hanging, but I +managed to cope, then just as I start to swing I noticed the rope would rub, so had to go back up, pass the rebelay, add an extra maillon, +pass the rebelay and start swinging.</p> + +<p><i>[Diagram of a stick-Jenny attempting to swing onto a ledge]</i></p> + +<p>I landed on the ledge and did some gardening of rocks, which boomed lots and made the ledge feel really rather exposed. Olly was +complaining about the cold so I put in a bolt rather too quickly and he came down to the ledge. Olly took over the bolting so he could +warm up, and started a traverse along from the ledge, passing a small lead up a tube on the left. Down and across a bit I think (I +couldn't really see from where I was). After warming up outside + drinking some hot chocolate, we returned to survey from the A entrance +to the pitches (draft bitter). Then returned to BC, racing darkness + an electrical storm.</p> + +<g>Total TU 6.5hrs</g> + +<d>5/7/04</d> <w><u>Martin</u></w> + +<p>I was phoned, "There is a problem", "Please bring your bathroom scales", "400kg overweight", "bollocks" (thought Martin). +Solutions ...another car ... too crap .. another trailer ... too long ... DSL ... too expensive ...</p> + +<p>After some time trying to find someone to fit a tow bar to Mark's van for a non-existent trailer, a haulier was found to transport from +Newton Hall to Munich. This required me to find cardboard boxes, twenty minutes after the bloke came to collect them.</p> + +<p>The next day Fast Freight hauliers gave a better quote. If I measured the height, width and girth of the pallet. So on Tuesday, I +stacked a fine tower of boxes in the tacklestore. I got a quote, and on Wednesday I stacked a slightly dodgy pile of boxes. The van turned +up to collect it, wiht his hydraulic tail gate and his pump hand truck. The pump truck did not fit under the pallet, leaving the truck +driver and I to lift the 390kg pallet on to another pallet. After much grunting and straining we lifted the boxes on to a "decent" pallet. +On Friday I received a message saying the cheque I sent on Thursday had not arrived. So I ignored it, and it all turned up in Bad Aussee +on Monday.</p> + +<d>19/7/04</d> <w><u>Martin</u>, Nial</w> + +<p>Went in E, noticed rubs (Olly says it wasn't his (threatened with hammer)). Rigged Taking the Piss, with PPE green string. Rigged Wot +No Bolts, from first hole using two bolts! (Deviation needed). 03-67B pushed to conclusion, 03-68B, 03-69B pushed to beginning of Faith +traverse. Pencil broke, so took some photos.</p> + +<d>18/7/04</d> <w>Olly B + <u>Jenny</u></w> + +<p>Walked back up to the bivvy, and sat around for a while feeling too hot. Eventually got underground with a plan of finishing surveying +what we have found. We started at Draught Bitter, and surveyed downwards. I realised how crap surveying pitches was, especially really +draughty pitches that twist around lots meaning you can't easily do plumbs. Only once did we both need to be hanging from the same rope +for a little while. Got down to the higher rock bridge (the one with the rebelay) before we got cold and unenthused. Olly went out whilst +I swung around looking at possible leads and so I could draw things better. The big snow plug appears to be partly resting on another rock +bridge, with an alternative smaller route down behind it. There were also two smallish (~1 or 2m in diameter) aven tube type things going +up from behind. I then checked out the small aven with ice near the top of Draught Bitter - this didn't appear to go too far. Once out we +surveyed in the 76b entrance. This was less nice as the rocks are very sharp, the roof is a bit loose and there is a little climb in the +middle. Definitely not worth using as an entrance when 76a is so much nicer.</p> + +<g>T/U 3hrs</g> + +