Walked up to top camp in the evening ready for trip down -Balkonhoehle to get Mongol Raly rigged with Jono. I was somewhat -perplexed to find no sign of Jono, and still not as it went dark. He -eventually turned up about 10am the next morning. We had our gear to - carry over so it wasn't a particularly early start.
- -I had forgotten a load of the upper passages, but did at least -remember the obscure left turn for Honeycomb/Mongol Rally. Soon enough -we arrived at the end of the rigging part-way down hangmans, complete -with a rigging diag, some rope and a drill. Jono did this one, -complaining at the bottom that the bolts didn't match the diagram, -rigging a 2-bolt rebelay as a rather peculiar deviation. We realised -that we were starting part-way down the rigging diagram, not the top, -so he went back up to put it right whilst I continued to start Mongol -Rally. Dragging the gear through was the usual faff (someone should -just take a spade and make that crawl bigger).
- -So now it was my turn and I suited up with Anthony's nice new drill -and 125m of rope. The 25m didn't quite reach across the traverse with -a big thread round a boulder, so I put a bolt in the roof to improve -the rigging (another one just over the hole in the floor would make -the traverse line a lot more useful, I later realised). The rock was -impressively cheesy, with about 20mm of goo to remove before getting -to actual rock.
- -The rigging diagram suggested another bolt near the top so I added -one about 6m down on a nose to the right, only to realise that one had -probably already been done some previous year. I also realised at this -point that the tape on Anthony's drill bit was set rather too short -for reliable bolt-setting so adjusted it to give an extra 10mm of -hole. I then added another bolt on the left, replacing one in the -maximum rub-spot just under a lip (very odd placement). This finally -removed all the rubs on this top slope and actually made the -changeovers nicer, so I think it's an improvement.
- -Next dilemma was whether to use the bolt on a nose (with hanger -left behind) or the reflectored bolt on the well-used muddy route. The -nose was harder to get to but gave a nicer hang (and was suggested on -the rigging diagram). With a sling to help the changeover it actually -worked quite well, although maybe the obvious route would also work -fine - there is no way of knowing without trying both and I had faffed -enough by now. Continued down for another hour or so rigging -rebelays. The rigging guide is accurate. Hummed and hawed some more at -the odder bits of rigging trying to work out what 'better' might look -like. Left one bit (with a nearly horizontal deviation) some extra -rope to come back to and add a bolt if time allowed but pressed on -until the rope ran out, just on the same ledge that had had a knot -pass in 2022. Looks like that is where 100m gets you to.
- -We were out of time so called it a day and headed off out, only -realising on the way out that the rope bag we had left contained a -note 'top of mongol rally' in it so we had used the wrong one (misled -by the '25m' rope in the top matching the '25m' rope marked on the -topo for the traverse. Oh well.
- -Got out around 11:30, having had a very satisfying trip, Jono had -finally got underground and enjoyed himself. It was a chill trip with -almost zero stress, and we'd done enough to make a camping trip -feasible next time.
- -My adopt-a-cave for this year was GMH (Guten Morgon Höhle), having -failed to sort it out last time I was here in 2022. And this was the -last day available to get it done, so research was done down at base -to make sure I had the necessary info - email threads, purported -locations, cave descriptions, lobbook entries, GPX tracks, and -Martin's 'mappapp' local copy (ish) of the website. And I went -shopping for stainless screws and HSS bits so we could put in tags, -and had drills, and instruments. We tried hard not to forget anything -important so this would actually work.
- -The weather was a rare case of a bit overcast, but not actually -raining, which is perfect for this work. It warmed up later in the day -but was relatively gentle on us, which is good because we walked for -bloody miles!
- -Tromped past Balkony following vague line of cairns, checking the -points on our map. Checkout 2023-ASH-10 and 2023-ASH-11 which defo -look worth investigating. Then got -to 2012-OK-01 which -is of course one of mine, from the fabled 'Wook and Olaf walk to -Appelhaus' trip of 2012. There were a couple of obvious shafts which -we photoed, but they didn't fit my recollection of OK-01 which was a -smaller shaft under an alcove. Soon we found the right hole just 6m -away, but not obvious due to being 'tucked under' a small cliff.
- -We put in a new concrete-screw tag for "2012 OK 01", only to find -it already tagged just round the corner as -2017-NR-02. So in fact -it has been explored, tagged, located, photoed and sketch-surveyed for -7 years, so we can kataster this one.
- -Next we passed 2012-OK-02 which still needs descending so far as we -can tell. Easy job. We put our cave-blinkers back on in an attempt to -actually get the job we intended to do done. Wook had carefully put -the alleged GPS of GMH on his phone (neither it nor shagged-spit was -in the 2024 entrances list). The back-up plan was that Anthony had -been there before a mere decade ago so could hopefully re-find -them. Fortunately the GPS was spot-on for the GMH entrance, which had -a nice tag saying "2015 -DL 02" so one wonders quite how "Chossy Death Slope Höhle" got -renamed and no-record of this correspondence made it into a logbook. A -short wander up-cliff found the -also-tagged 2015 DL -01 (Shagged Spit Höhle). We GPSed (GPS on the eponymous shagged -spit for about 40 mins) and photoed that location whilst also doing a - 'from-the-surface' SAP6 survey.
- -So now both 2015-DL-01 and 2015-DL-02 are explored, located, -photoed, tagged and surveyed sufficiently to get -katastered. Result. Job done.
- -Time was moving on and we had a dinner to get back to this evg so -we headed back, looking -for 2012-dd-04 on the -way back. Despite our best efforts we stumbled onto an entrance too -fine to ignore and so spent 40 mins GPSing, tagging and surveying -(from the surface) 2024-JC-01. (See how the wiley old lags carefully -made this one Jacob's responsibility :-) It's quite a big -hading shaft entrance about 12m x 2m with a 4m cliff behind and at -least 17m deep. There was a nice boulder for a survey station but it -looked a bit dodgy and shove sent it crashing down the hole so we were -wise not to use that one. Tag is to LH end of the hole. GPS point and -intermediate point are red nail-varnish marked.
- -dd-04 was a tiny bit elusive, although Anthony's GPS took him -nearly straight there whilst Wookey's took him 20m away jus tthe -wrong side of a ridge and then he was marooned by bunde for a while, -but eventually re-found the others. jacob had shoved himself into the -hole but it was about 1.5 cavers long and thus not big enough to be -katasterable. We tagged it anyway.
- -Now it really was time to hot-foot it home so we headed back, -passing the (tagged) caves 277, 272 and 2012-FT-02. There really are -quite a lot of holes round here.
- -Anthony and I collected the rest of our shit and we all headed -briskly down the hill for the final time this year, which was good -because I really did have quite sore feet by the end of the day after -more than 7km of that ridiculous pointy terrain. We even arrived in -good time for Tess to rescue us and take us to a fine dinner
- -A canyonning trip was suggested, and as I'd done it a couple of -times before and thus knew where it was, and what to look out for, it -was easy to blag my way on. We had this idea a bit later in the day -than was ideal, because Strubklamm is miles away (most of the way back -to Salzburg), but it also meant that I was able to collect Tess from -the station before buggering off like a very naughty husband. I had -brought my new wetsuit and was eager to find out if it made Strubklamm -into a much less cold-and-miserable experience than previous -attempts. I was also able to borrow a (kayaking) helmet and neoprene -booties from Julia, which, combined with some sandals and spare caving -gloves, was enough kit to canyon (as this one doesn't actually need a -harness if you can manage an 8m jump).
- -We were going to take my van and Charlotte's car but Tess wanted -the Van, and it's a long way to take two cars, so when PhilB appeared -we pounced on him and made him drive all 5 of us there (Charlote in -the boot). This was very kind as it's about 1hr40 mins each way, and -he doesn't even get to do the canyon. Having a driver avoids all the -shuttle-faff too, which is great, especialy as it turned out the -huttle-road was closed for works, so there was quite a long -drive-around which would have made us even later.
- -This was Isaac and Charlotte's 1st ever canyonning trip, and -Marie's 2nd (after the disastrously cold 'Haute Borne' in the -Ardeche), but we were a crack team of potholers with two harnesses -between us so what could possibly go wrong?
- -In fact the descent was very smooth with everyone having fun, at -least to start with. The water was quite a pleasant temperature, -although every inlet was much colder so we got a chilly bit every so -often as they came in. However it is longer than I remember and there -is a _lot_ of swimming, with a long section in the middle starting -with a canyon, and then a couple more long swims. Clearly the local -canyonning school uses it a lot so there were lots of in-situ ropes -for getting to good takeoffs and dealing with any slippery bits, or -just abseiling if you didn't like the bigger jumps. (Marie skipped the -biggest one).
- -Much jumping fun was had, with Charlotte of course taking to the -game with gusto, although neither of us was any good at keeping the -water out of our noses on impact, and I managed to bite my tongue on -one jump, which was dim. Everyone avoided broken ankles or being -impaled on trees, just some coughing and spluttering.
- -I hardly recognised any of the 2nd half as obviously my brain had -shut down with the chilly misery on the previous two attempts after -the 1st long swim. This time it was all rather lovely - it is a _very_ -pretty canyon. Marie found herself a bit short of stoke after the 1st -half, partly due to the baggy 2mm wetsuit and partly not having -evtirely recovered from the great chunder trip. 1.4km of canyonning -(with ~400m of swimming) over 3 hours feels like quite a long -way, and it was a relief to swim round a corner and finally see a -slackline being rigged and a footbridge with a beach which marks the -escape.
- -Phil was even there to rescue us, so that all worked out -nicely. Good trip, and it's a lot nicer with 5 than 10 but still takes -a solid 3 hours. We got back about 7pm.
- -Walked up to top camp in the evening ready for trip down +Balkonhoehle to get Mongol Raly rigged with Jono. I was somewhat +perplexed to find no sign of Jono, and still not as it went dark. He +eventually turned up about 10am the next morning. We had our gear to + carry over so it wasn't a particularly early start.
+ +I had forgotten a load of the upper passages, but did at least +remember the obscure left turn for Honeycomb/Mongol Rally. Soon enough +we arrived at the end of the rigging part-way down hangmans, complete +with a rigging diag, some rope and a drill. Jono did this one, +complaining at the bottom that the bolts didn't match the diagram, +rigging a 2-bolt rebelay as a rather peculiar deviation. We realised +that we were starting part-way down the rigging diagram, not the top, +so he went back up to put it right whilst I continued to start Mongol +Rally. Dragging the gear through was the usual faff (someone should +just take a spade and make that crawl bigger).
+ +So now it was my turn and I suited up with Anthony's nice new drill +and 125m of rope. The 25m didn't quite reach across the traverse with +a big thread round a boulder, so I put a bolt in the roof to improve +the rigging (another one just over the hole in the floor would make +the traverse line a lot more useful, I later realised). The rock was +impressively cheesy, with about 20mm of goo to remove before getting +to actual rock.
+ +The rigging diagram suggested another bolt near the top so I added +one about 6m down on a nose to the right, only to realise that one had +probably already been done some previous year. I also realised at this +point that the tape on Anthony's drill bit was set rather too short +for reliable bolt-setting so adjusted it to give an extra 10mm of +hole. I then added another bolt on the left, replacing one in the +maximum rub-spot just under a lip (very odd placement). This finally +removed all the rubs on this top slope and actually made the +changeovers nicer, so I think it's an improvement.
+ +Next dilemma was whether to use the bolt on a nose (with hanger +left behind) or the reflectored bolt on the well-used muddy route. The +nose was harder to get to but gave a nicer hang (and was suggested on +the rigging diagram). With a sling to help the changeover it actually +worked quite well, although maybe the obvious route would also work +fine - there is no way of knowing without trying both and I had faffed +enough by now. Continued down for another hour or so rigging +rebelays. The rigging guide is accurate. Hummed and hawed some more at +the odder bits of rigging trying to work out what 'better' might look +like. Left one bit (with a nearly horizontal deviation) some extra +rope to come back to and add a bolt if time allowed but pressed on +until the rope ran out, just on the same ledge that had had a knot +pass in 2022. Looks like that is where 100m gets you to.
+ +We were out of time so called it a day and headed off out, only +realising on the way out that the rope bag we had left contained a +note 'top of mongol rally' in it so we had used the wrong one (misled +by the '25m' rope in the top matching the '25m' rope marked on the +topo for the traverse. Oh well.
+ +Got out around 11:30, having had a very satisfying trip, Jono had +finally got underground and enjoyed himself. It was a chill trip with +almost zero stress, and we'd done enough to make a camping trip +feasible next time.
+ +My adopt-a-cave for this year was GMH (Guten Morgon Höhle), having +failed to sort it out last time I was here in 2022. And this was the +last day available to get it done, so research was done down at base +to make sure I had the necessary info - email threads, purported +locations, cave descriptions, lobbook entries, GPX tracks, and +Martin's 'mappapp' local copy (ish) of the website. And I went +shopping for stainless screws and HSS bits so we could put in tags, +and had drills, and instruments. We tried hard not to forget anything +important so this would actually work.
+ +The weather was a rare case of a bit overcast, but not actually +raining, which is perfect for this work. It warmed up later in the day +but was relatively gentle on us, which is good because we walked for +bloody miles!
+ +Tromped past Balkony following vague line of cairns, checking the +points on our map. Checkout 2023-ASH-10 and 2023-ASH-11 which defo +look worth investigating. Then got +to 2012-OK-01 which +is of course one of mine, from the fabled 'Wook and Olaf walk to +Appelhaus' trip of 2012. There were a couple of obvious shafts which +we photoed, but they didn't fit my recollection of OK-01 which was a +smaller shaft under an alcove. Soon we found the right hole just 6m +away, but not obvious due to being 'tucked under' a small cliff.
+ +We put in a new concrete-screw tag for "2012 OK 01", only to find +it already tagged just round the corner as +2017-NR-02. So in fact +it has been explored, tagged, located, photoed and sketch-surveyed for +7 years, so we can kataster this one.
+ +Next we passed 2012-OK-02 which still needs descending so far as we +can tell. Easy job. We put our cave-blinkers back on in an attempt to +actually get the job we intended to do done. Wook had carefully put +the alleged GPS of GMH on his phone (neither it nor shagged-spit was +in the 2024 entrances list). The back-up plan was that Anthony had +been there before a mere decade ago so could hopefully re-find +them. Fortunately the GPS was spot-on for the GMH entrance, which had +a nice tag saying "2015 +DL 02" so one wonders quite how "Chossy Death Slope Höhle" got +renamed and no-record of this correspondence made it into a logbook. A +short wander up-cliff found the +also-tagged 2015 DL +01 (Shagged Spit Höhle). We GPSed (GPS on the eponymous shagged +spit for about 40 mins) and photoed that location whilst also doing a + 'from-the-surface' SAP6 survey.
+ +So now both 2015-DL-01 and 2015-DL-02 are explored, located, +photoed, tagged and surveyed sufficiently to get +katastered. Result. Job done.
+ +Time was moving on and we had a dinner to get back to this evg so +we headed back, looking +for 2012-dd-04 on the +way back. Despite our best efforts we stumbled onto an entrance too +fine to ignore and so spent 40 mins GPSing, tagging and surveying +(from the surface) 2024-JC-01. (See how the wiley old lags carefully +made this one Jacob's responsibility :-) It's quite a big +hading shaft entrance about 12m x 2m with a 4m cliff behind and at +least 17m deep. There was a nice boulder for a survey station but it +looked a bit dodgy and shove sent it crashing down the hole so we were +wise not to use that one. Tag is to LH end of the hole. GPS point and +intermediate point are red nail-varnish marked.
+ +dd-04 was a tiny bit elusive, although Anthony's GPS took him +nearly straight there whilst Wookey's took him 20m away jus tthe +wrong side of a ridge and then he was marooned by bunde for a while, +but eventually re-found the others. jacob had shoved himself into the +hole but it was about 1.5 cavers long and thus not big enough to be +katasterable. We tagged it anyway.
+ +Now it really was time to hot-foot it home so we headed back, +passing the (tagged) caves 277, 272 and 2012-FT-02. There really are +quite a lot of holes round here.
+ +Anthony and I collected the rest of our shit and we all headed +briskly down the hill for the final time this year, which was good +because I really did have quite sore feet by the end of the day after +more than 7km of that ridiculous pointy terrain. We even arrived in +good time for Tess to rescue us and take us to a fine dinner
+ +A canyonning trip was suggested, and as I'd done it a couple of +times before and thus knew where it was, and what to look out for, it +was easy to blag my way on. We had this idea a bit later in the day +than was ideal, because Strubklamm is miles away (most of the way back +to Salzburg), but it also meant that I was able to collect Tess from +the station before buggering off like a very naughty husband. I had +brought my new wetsuit and was eager to find out if it made Strubklamm +into a much less cold-and-miserable experience than previous +attempts. I was also able to borrow a (kayaking) helmet and neoprene +booties from Julia, which, combined with some sandals and spare caving +gloves, was enough kit to canyon (as this one doesn't actually need a +harness if you can manage an 8m jump).
+ +We were going to take my van and Charlotte's car but Tess wanted +the Van, and it's a long way to take two cars, so when PhilB appeared +we pounced on him and made him drive all 5 of us there (Charlote in +the boot). This was very kind as it's about 1hr40 mins each way, and +he doesn't even get to do the canyon. Having a driver avoids all the +shuttle-faff too, which is great, especialy as it turned out the +huttle-road was closed for works, so there was quite a long +drive-around which would have made us even later.
+ +This was Isaac and Charlotte's 1st ever canyonning trip, and +Marie's 2nd (after the disastrously cold 'Haute Borne' in the +Ardeche), but we were a crack team of potholers with two harnesses +between us so what could possibly go wrong?
+ +In fact the descent was very smooth with everyone having fun, at +least to start with. The water was quite a pleasant temperature, +although every inlet was much colder so we got a chilly bit every so +often as they came in. However it is longer than I remember and there +is a _lot_ of swimming, with a long section in the middle starting +with a canyon, and then a couple more long swims. Clearly the local +canyonning school uses it a lot so there were lots of in-situ ropes +for getting to good takeoffs and dealing with any slippery bits, or +just abseiling if you didn't like the bigger jumps. (Marie skipped the +biggest one).
+ +Much jumping fun was had, with Charlotte of course taking to the +game with gusto, although neither of us was any good at keeping the +water out of our noses on impact, and I managed to bite my tongue on +one jump, which was dim. Everyone avoided broken ankles or being +impaled on trees, just some coughing and spluttering.
+ +I hardly recognised any of the 2nd half as obviously my brain had +shut down with the chilly misery on the previous two attempts after +the 1st long swim. This time it was all rather lovely - it is a _very_ +pretty canyon. Marie found herself a bit short of stoke after the 1st +half, partly due to the baggy 2mm wetsuit and partly not having +evtirely recovered from the great chunder trip. 1.4km of canyonning +(with ~400m of swimming) over 3 hours feels like quite a long +way, and it was a relief to swim round a corner and finally see a +slackline being rigged and a footbridge with a beach which marks the +escape.
+ +Phil was even there to rescue us, so that all worked out +nicely. Good trip, and it's a lot nicer with 5 than 10 but still takes +a solid 3 hours. We got back about 7pm.
+ +