diff --git a/caves-tabular.htm b/caves-tabular.htm index 6f5b41c70..4554afd4a 100644 --- a/caves-tabular.htm +++ b/caves-tabular.htm @@ -1,12 +1,15 @@ + + + Caves of loser plateau - - + -

Caves of loserplateau (locations acording to all.3d)

+

Caves of Löserplateau (locations according to all.3d)

+{written by Radost, 2019 - uses JS to sort table. Table is not updated. } Name contains:

diff --git a/folk/l/natdalton.htm b/folk/l/natdalton.htm index 57d435398..76b1c3b6f 100644 --- a/folk/l/natdalton.htm +++ b/folk/l/natdalton.htm @@ -16,12 +16,12 @@ alt="" /> Nat Dalton ULSA
Expedition 2014 -- keen explorer of Balkonhöhle.

+- keen explorer of Balkonhöhle.

-

Photo on right taken whilst tagging the entrance of Balkonhöhle in 2014.

+

Photo on right taken whilst tagging the entrance of Balkonhöhle in 2014.

-

At entrance of Balkonhöhle in 2014, by Katey Bender.

+

At entrance of Balkonhöhle in 2014, by Katey Bender.

diff --git a/handbook/computing/todo-data.html b/handbook/computing/todo-data.html index f5b19d391..05784b801 100644 --- a/handbook/computing/todo-data.html +++ b/handbook/computing/todo-data.html @@ -48,15 +48,15 @@ If a heading is in italics, then there are hidden items.

Cave photos needed, especially entrances

New katastered caves need photos -
1626/359 Homecoming Cave Heimkehrhöhle 2018-dm-07 -
1623/290 Fish Face Cave Fischgesicht-Höhle 2017_cucc_28 -
1623/291 Happy Butterfly Cave Glückliche-Schmetterlingshöhle -
1623/285 Knackered Tacklesack Cave Geknackter-Packsackhöhle 2006-08 -
1623/288 Purple Lupin Cave Lila Lupinenhöhle 2015-mf-06 +
1626/359 Homecoming Cave Heimkehrhöhle 2018-dm-07 +
1623/290 Fish Face Cave Fischgesicht-Höhle 2017_cucc_28 +
1623/291 Happy Butterfly Cave Glückliche-Schmetterlingshöhle +
1623/285 Knackered Tacklesack Cave Geknackter-Packsackhöhle 2006-08 +
1623/288 Purple Lupin Cave Lila Lupinenhöhle 2015-mf-06
2015_cucc_24 -
1623/295 No Watermelon Cave Keine-Wassermelone-Höhle cucc-2017-23 -
1623/293 Blocked Air Cave Blocklufthöhle 2010-03 -
1623/296 Double Gemse Cave Doppel-Gemse-Höhle 2012-70 +
1623/295 No Watermelon Cave Keine-Wassermelone-Höhle cucc-2017-23 +
1623/293 Blocked Air Cave Blocklufthöhle 2010-03 +
1623/296 Double Gemse Cave Doppel-Gemse-Höhle 2012-70

Logbook fettling

diff --git a/years/2008/mission.html b/years/2008/mission.html index 2609a140e..d5f931d07 100644 --- a/years/2008/mission.html +++ b/years/2008/mission.html @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
  • Connection to 204: it seems likely that pitches in the southern end of Tunnocks could drop into a continuation of the 'Wares level in 204. There should only be about 75m to drop to that level. Duncan Collis 06:32, 30 May 2008 (BST)
    • -
  • Explore Hauchhöhle +
  • Explore Hauchhöhle
    • diff --git a/years/2011/descentarticle.html b/years/2011/descentarticle.html index fd3a85187..ce4d8c7a6 100644 --- a/years/2011/descentarticle.html +++ b/years/2011/descentarticle.html @@ -16,22 +16,22 @@

    -Kaninchenhöhle, -Steinbrückenhöhle and Tunnockschacht: a brief history

    +Kaninchenhöhle, +Steinbrückenhöhle and Tunnockschacht: a brief history


    -Kaninchenhöhle was CUCC's +Kaninchenhöhle was CUCC's primary project throughout the 1990s, following its discovery in 1988, eventually reaching 22km length and 500m depth. In 1999 -Steinbrückenhöhle was discovered a km or so to the North, and (not +Steinbrückenhöhle was discovered a km or so to the North, and (not least because it had a really nice bivi site), because the main focus. Over the next decade, nearly 17km of passages were explored there with a vertical range of over 600m. The cave has several levels, lined up with the dip of the limestone plateau, separated from one another by pitch series, and has potential to connect to -both Kaninchenhöhle ('KH') and Tunnockschacht, as it lies between +both Kaninchenhöhle ('KH') and Tunnockschacht, as it lies between them, and by the end of 2010 quite close to both, although the KH nearest approach point had been checked carefully and found hopeless from both sides. @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ passage with a vertical range of 256m. During the previous expedition, CUCC had descended an impressive 80m pitch ‘String Theory’, and had discovered a number of leads at the bottom, one of -which being a tantalising 20m away from Steinbrückenhöhle. +which being a tantalising 20m away from Steinbrückenhöhle.

    Hopes for a connection @@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ decided to return to one of the horizontal levels, Subsoil. The team had two main goals: to continue pushing new passages into blank space, and to search for the potential connection with Tunnockschacht, whose closest point was only a few dozen tantalising -metres away from Steinbrückenhöhle.

    +metres away from Steinbrückenhöhle.


    @@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ chamber led to several hundred metres of large phreatic development: 'A Grand Day Out', which is heading into blank space.

    After two successful -camping trips, about 1km of new cave was found in Steinbrückenhöhle, +camping trips, about 1km of new cave was found in Steinbrückenhöhle, and it is now 17.7km long. A fair amount of time was spent checking out leads in the probable 'connection zone', but they were all ticked off without finding a way into Tunnocks. There is no shortage of @@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ down to the Tunnocks team to keep pushing.

    ‘String Theory’ pitch and exploring leads last year, Neil Pacey and Andy Chapman had eventually been stopped by a small pitch leading upwards into black space and only approximately 20 metres away from -Steinbrückenhöhle. Plans were made, equipment purchased, and Neil, +Steinbrückenhöhle. Plans were made, equipment purchased, and Neil, Andy and some newly recruited team members were ready for a rematch.


    @@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ the surface.


    -Kaninchenhöhle

    +Kaninchenhöhle


    @@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ tyrolean.

    So as is often the case the expedition ended on a high, with a monstrous list of leads for next year, and what looks like an almost certain connection between the -62km Schwartzmooskogelhöhlensystem and the 27km of Steinbrücken + +62km Schwartzmooskogelhöhlensystem and the 27km of Steinbrücken + Tunnockshacht.

    \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/years/2013/logbook.html b/years/2013/logbook.html index 39a296683..57b7db73e 100644 --- a/years/2013/logbook.html +++ b/years/2013/logbook.html @@ -532,7 +532,7 @@ to the top of String Theory, out at 6am.

  • 24 entrances
  • 30 years of expeditions
  • this year - from Normway and NZ
    • -
  • 5 joint members of Verein für Hölenkunde in Obersteir (VfHO)
    • +
  • 5 joint members of Verein für Hölenkunde in Obersteir (VfHO)
  • This year - saved 2 sheep from 3 holes
  • Project + bunch of intellectuals -> world leading cave surveying software.
  • Support (hospitality) of family Wilpernig over 30 years here
    • diff --git a/years/2015/logbook.html b/years/2015/logbook.html index 6593b07f0..ec612dce4 100644 --- a/years/2015/logbook.html +++ b/years/2015/logbook.html @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
    2015-07-07
    Luke, Joe
    -
    Gemsehöhle - 107
    +
    Gemsehöhle - 107

    An early 7:00am start resulted in a marginally cooler walk up to the entrance of 107 after dropping off first load we returned immediately down making good progress, we collected another rucksack worth of rope and returned to the entrance entering the cave at 12:00. The first pitch had a precariously hanging 2 tonnes of snow hanging on the side of the wall, (this was ignored!) trip continued the first 5 ropes where rigged. A quick return to the surface to warm up, and then re-entered with more rope making it all the way to Twin Pitches at which point all the rope had been exhausted, returning out the trick was to ignore the fact that the block of snow/ice was disintegrating above you showering pieces on you (this would have to be sorted).

    sketch of stick-man luke and 'fuckoff bit of snow' hovering in pitch
    T/U: 6hrs
    @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
    2015-07-08
    Luke, Joe
    -
    Gemsehöhle - 107
    +
    Gemsehöhle - 107

    A return with the rope required and drill to sort out the sketchy rigging resulted in the arrival at the top at 12:00 after a more relaxed start. The first task was to destroy the ever melting snow which was achieved in 30 mins. The down trip involved sorting out multiple rigging issues and everything was made much safer. Water flow had increased dramatically since yesterday. Making it to Too Bold For This Spit, we halted, rigged it but had to turn round because of lack of hangers and quantity of water flowing down. Exitting the cave was much more pleasant without the looming iceberg.

    Much rerigging was had.

    T/U: 6 hr
    @@ -146,13 +146,13 @@
    2015-07-16
    Dan, Matt, Anthony
    Team Fiasco go surface prospecting
    -

    The plan was to go and find Organhöhle (located by Wookey and Olaf in 2012) plus swing by some of the holes Duncan and I found in the same area in the same year. Since expo was quite sparsely populated, we decided to take advantage of drill availability to drop some of the short pitches we had found. We decided to take two oversuits, two helmets and one SRT kit between us and also some surveying gear to give ourselves the option of verifying that we really had found Organhöhle.

    +

    The plan was to go and find Organhöhle (located by Wookey and Olaf in 2012) plus swing by some of the holes Duncan and I found in the same area in the same year. Since expo was quite sparsely populated, we decided to take advantage of drill availability to drop some of the short pitches we had found. We decided to take two oversuits, two helmets and one SRT kit between us and also some surveying gear to give ourselves the option of verifying that we really had found Organhöhle.

    Things did not go entirely according to plan.

    -

    We first swung by Tunnocks to pick up an SRT kit. It was at this point that I realised that I hadn't seen any rope being packed. It was hot and fairly late so we pressed on to Balkonhöhle from where we took a somewhat roundabout route towards Organhöhle via a subsidiary summit of the Hohes Augsteck. Coming off the back of this, Dan spotted a cave. There is a hole in the side of the cliff leading onto a rift pitch, with another couple of surface shafts above that go to the same place - definitely worth a tag. Since we had a drill, this should have been a quick job. However, a lack of drill bits was going to make it a lot harder. Fortunately, we had a hand bolting kit, so I made up a tag (2015-DL-01) and Dan set about placing a hand bolt for it.

    -

    Whilst Dan was drilling, I set off in the direction where Mark's GPS said Organhöhle was supposed to be. Found a hole in the right place, and headed back to Dan who had by now stopped drilling - not because the bolt was complete but because the head of the bolt driver had sheared off.

    -

    We all trooped over to the Organhöhle candidate entrance, where we could have started surveying.... if we had brought a tape measure. I donned oversuit and helmet and set off to verify that we had the right cave. After a bit of walking / crawling I found a decent sized pitch with two spits for a Y-hang at the top (one of which looks good, and one is shagged) - so I'm pretty sure we've got the right cave. It looks a bit like this:

    -

    Organhöhle entrance area plan

    -

    With that we headed back towards Top Camp via a more direct route, placing cairns as we went. Eventually we picked up a cairned path that I suspect goes to Bullet's 2nd Höhle. This route is fairly direct and the terrain reasonable, but it is going to takae a while - likely over an hour from Balconyhöhle.

    +

    We first swung by Tunnocks to pick up an SRT kit. It was at this point that I realised that I hadn't seen any rope being packed. It was hot and fairly late so we pressed on to Balkonhöhle from where we took a somewhat roundabout route towards Organhöhle via a subsidiary summit of the Hohes Augsteck. Coming off the back of this, Dan spotted a cave. There is a hole in the side of the cliff leading onto a rift pitch, with another couple of surface shafts above that go to the same place - definitely worth a tag. Since we had a drill, this should have been a quick job. However, a lack of drill bits was going to make it a lot harder. Fortunately, we had a hand bolting kit, so I made up a tag (2015-DL-01) and Dan set about placing a hand bolt for it.

    +

    Whilst Dan was drilling, I set off in the direction where Mark's GPS said Organhöhle was supposed to be. Found a hole in the right place, and headed back to Dan who had by now stopped drilling - not because the bolt was complete but because the head of the bolt driver had sheared off.

    +

    We all trooped over to the Organhöhle candidate entrance, where we could have started surveying.... if we had brought a tape measure. I donned oversuit and helmet and set off to verify that we had the right cave. After a bit of walking / crawling I found a decent sized pitch with two spits for a Y-hang at the top (one of which looks good, and one is shagged) - so I'm pretty sure we've got the right cave. It looks a bit like this:

    +

    Organhöhle entrance area plan

    +

    With that we headed back towards Top Camp via a more direct route, placing cairns as we went. Eventually we picked up a cairned path that I suspect goes to Bullet's 2nd Höhle. This route is fairly direct and the terrain reasonable, but it is going to takae a while - likely over an hour from Balconyhöhle.

    Our final act was to take a look at Ants in Pants schlucht. The snow level looks pretty low, so this might be worth revisiting later on expo.

    T/U: 0
    @@ -235,7 +235,7 @@
    2015-07-16
    Rachel, Luke & Mark
    -
    Balkonhöhle - QMs in Far Side
    +
    Balkonhöhle - QMs in Far Side

    After some unexpeced surface prospecting (read: getting lost) at the left hand valley between Tunnocks and Balcony, we made it into the entrance about 12. Since the Dark Arts had pretty much been killed off, we set our sights on a cluster of A/B leads (85, 86, 87) in the Far Side. Luke rigged the traverse by 60C since the mud here was particularly thick and persistent. It seems like someone blocked all the bolts along here with small stones to prevent them being used again ? (Not mentioned in last year's log book as far as we can see). Unperturbed, Luke set about bolting and soon we reached a second traverse rigged by Mark. There seems to be a minor flaw on the survey where stomping passage leads to a sandy chamber, which is actually a fuck-off 63m pitch. Closer inspection of the survey shows the detail hidden under the sand, and perhaps this could be amended to prevent Luke making any more surprised squeaks & giggles.

    We turned around and took the long route round to the cluster of leads we were after, following the survey since none of us had been in this direction before. I rigged the P10m and we quickly found the F.O. hole from the other (Far Farside?) side. At 85, 86 it was really loose rock and Luke "scampered" up the climb at 87, finding it was a connection without rigging to 85,86.

    Here, Mark's nerves were crushed with all the loose slatey rock that followed with every step Luke made over the pitch 20, so we retreated and tied in the two B leads at 35,36. As the Pre-'15 survey suggests, they do connect, and lead on to a sizeable chamber, which was quite wet and led to two (small) pitches and not a lot else.

    @@ -245,7 +245,7 @@
    2015-07-17
    Rachel, Luke & Frank
    -
    Balkonhöhle
    +
    Balkonhöhle

    Keen and inspired, we took some slings back to Luke's risky climb and followed it up to a chimney climb. Frank followed him up and suddenly backed off exclaiming "fuck me". Luke's opinion on what is free-climbable apparently needs some tuning. Bolts were placed and a path around the pitch to 86A was surveyed. This led to two leads, a right-hand route which finally led to a boulder choke.

    Deciding the left hand passage was much more inspiring, we returned the next day.

    T/U: 8 hours
    @@ -253,7 +253,7 @@
    2015-07-18
    Rachel, Frank & Rob
    -
    Balkonhöhle
    +
    Balkonhöhle

    After showing Rob the sights in Balcony, we continued on the left hand side. It continued much further than we expected, leading to a ~25m chamber containing a 15m pitch and two leads on the far wall.

    The lead on the left connected round to 85A, while the right led on up a loose, steep rift. Here a couple of small pitches were found and what seems to be a moraine left by an ice flow. From here, it would get a bit wet and bolting was required, so we upped and left.

    T/U: 7 hours
    @@ -261,7 +261,7 @@
    2015-07-19
    Rachel & Frank
    -
    Balkonhöhle
    +
    Balkonhöhle

    Frank and I returned to continue surveying and kill off a few leads that led off horizontally. There is a huge draught acting [a wide blank - something intended to be added here?], and further exploration is required. Said draught made it too cold to continue after several hours, so we set off to look for the many other groups down Balcony. After dismissing a muddy climb which looked uninviting, we left the search for Julian's group. We followed Turtlehead to warm ourselves up, and ultimately left, considering the small hole Frank had begun digging at the bottom of the entrance series.

    A human-sized hole was visible, with a steep tube leading downwards for a few metres. We left our SRT kits and descended, myself somewhat unenthusiastic, making comments like "typical Mendip caver" and "Grrr". However, it soon opened up into a T-junction, with 5m high ceilings, and shattered boulders. We followed the route to the left, a rift leading to a 10m pitch (QM A), with a further QMA climb up a small hole on the left hand wall. It was V. cold down here and seemingly solid boulders were actually fragmented, held together with wishful thinking.

    Whilst Frank drew up the survey, I had a gander down the right hand passage, sticking to the right and ignoring further leads off. I followed the sound of running water and finally found the connection with "Room With A View". Frank followed and pointed out a somehwat frisky looking boulder on a left-hand lead that I had passed, a few metres across and held a couple of metres up by two points crumbling away. I obediently stood under said boulder for Frank to take a photo.

    @@ -271,21 +271,21 @@
    2015-07-18
    Luke, Anthony, Dan
    -
    Balcony Höhle - 59b
    +
    Balcony Höhle - 59b

    The aim was to rig rift 59b with the hope of entering the large sandy "massive hole". The rift initially started out in the right direction and after some handy points from Anthony I started on the process of dropping multiple Y hangs (rigging guide with survey). Well Anthony and Dan set off to retrieve more rope from further in the cave and take many photos. They conveniently returned when the drill battery ran out after "6 holes" so returned to collect the rope and extra battery after explaining to Dan and Anthony I was close to the bottom and would only be 30 mins. I dropped the last pitch which was longer than expected. Upon reaching the bottom, the rift decided to change direction away from the massive hole I was aiming to enter. It unfortunately continued in the other direction so a return trip would be needed to survey and derig. I returned an hour later to find a cold Dan and Anthony and headed out.

    T/U: 7
    2015-07-19
    Luke + Rob
    -
    Balconyhöhle - 59b
    +
    Balconyhöhle - 59b

    A return trip was needed to survey and derig the disastour of the previous day. I managed to persuade (cous-cous) Rob into helping me, believing it would crap out and thus be an easy job and being able to move the rope to other areas of the cave. This was not to be. The rift continued so needed surveying. After a couple of sketchy freeclimbs we made it to another big hole. This was wet and it did not look like a suitable way to rig from (could shorten the wetness of the rigging from the top). This was likely to be a thing which was going to be done when all the excellent A leads had been killed off. Rob derigged. By the time we set off, Rachel and Frank were already exitting the area to more warmer leads. We continued so as to give Julian's team the rope. We found them in a massive surveying fuck up but were directed along the passage to where there was a dead bat. By the time Julian caught up the batt was flat and no longer well preserved. Since 5 people were planning to exit the cave, me and Rob head off into the extremeties of the Turtle Head to access the leads. This proved quite interesting and managed to kill off an A lead (92a) by just sticking my head into it (confirmed the following day).

    T/U: 8
    2015-07-21
    Luke
    -
    Balconyhöhle
    +
    Balconyhöhle

    Showed a new team (who?) into Balcony, showing them the leads and rope. Left them to survey, returning from the end of Turtle Head to the entrance pitch in 25 mins to meet up with a team which was exitting early for a trip down the hill.

    T/U: [not mentioned]
    @@ -314,7 +314,7 @@
    2015-07-21
    Wookey, Matt, Sarah, Luke
    -
    Balconhöhle - Einundzwanzig leads (Ice cock)
    +
    Balconhöhle - Einundzwanzig leads (Ice cock)

    1st expo trip for Sarah, 1st trip to BH for Wook.

    Carried gear over after sorting survey stuff so only just underground before midday. Luke showed us the route to the far end + gear dump & the various leads.

    Friendly cave, but a fair way to the end. Had a look at the near (wet) side of the pitch to consider rigging. Could be done from this side but prob better from the other.

    @@ -381,7 +381,7 @@
    2015-07-27
    Pete Talling, Fleur Loveridge
    -
    BALCONY HÖHLE
    Exploring North beyond Icecock Chamber into the Frozen North
    +
    BALCONY HöHLE
    Exploring North beyond Icecock Chamber into the Frozen North
    Plan of frozen North area @@ -395,7 +395,7 @@
    2015-07-28
    Pete Talling, Sarah, Ben Whetton, Matt
    -
    Balcony Höhle Frozen North
    +
    Balcony Höhle Frozen North
    Plan of far frozen North area
    @@ -450,8 +450,8 @@
    2015-07-28
    Martin, Jacob and Elliott
    -
    Balcony - to Gösser Wager
    -

    Having walked up to top camp late and therefore being ready in the afternoon, we left for a shortish trip to look for bits in Balcony. We descended the entrance series pitches and then followed the main route, roughly in the direction of Icecock aven. Eventually we reached the gear dump to find the other two groups down Balcony Höhle having a natter. Michael bet Martin a Gösser that we couldn't find the rift they had just found. We continued down Turtle Head, up a short handlined climb and down another pitch to the rift the other group suggested we survey. We surveyed along it about 20m and then back to the pitch. At the bottom of the rift is a small but potentially descendable hole with a long rattle. Managed to muddle our way out without any difficulties.

    +
    Balcony - to Gösser Wager
    +

    Having walked up to top camp late and therefore being ready in the afternoon, we left for a shortish trip to look for bits in Balcony. We descended the entrance series pitches and then followed the main route, roughly in the direction of Icecock aven. Eventually we reached the gear dump to find the other two groups down Balcony Höhle having a natter. Michael bet Martin a Gösser that we couldn't find the rift they had just found. We continued down Turtle Head, up a short handlined climb and down another pitch to the rift the other group suggested we survey. We surveyed along it about 20m and then back to the pitch. At the bottom of the rift is a small but potentially descendable hole with a long rattle. Managed to muddle our way out without any difficulties.

    T/U: [not mentioned]
    @@ -711,7 +711,7 @@ seen, preparing to slip'n'slide our way back to top camp.

    task for Elaine & Elliott was to take a look at it. It was Elliott's first ever bolting trip. The first bolt went in like a dream. Howeer, whilst setting the second bolt (in the best rock we could find), a large crack appeared around the Hilti, and then the whole bit of rock sheared off. We -therefore decided to name the cave Bergkäsehöhle - Mountain cheese cave.

    +therefore decided to name the cave Bergkäsehöhle - Mountain cheese cave.

    Subsequent bolts were more successful and we dropped the small pitch to a boulder-floored chamber. The way led on over a suspended boulder floor, past a precarious boulder and on to more @@ -753,7 +753,7 @@ below. Another ~15m to another re-belay, single bolt, before 10m to the floor of look and was haued out by his feet. Loose boulder-strewn floor with clean walls gave nothing else away. De-rigging took ~2.30 hours, with the difficult narrow entrance making tackle sack hauling very hard work. Martin & Jacob helped to get gear back to Top Camp, after meeeting -them at Balconhöhle.

    +them at Balconhöhle.

    T/U: 9 hrs
    @@ -1102,7 +1102,7 @@ immediately before Pushing The Envelope squeeze.

    2015-08-10
    Elliott, Nathan, George
    -
    Balkonhöhle, Lost Surveyor(?) pitches
    +
    Balkonhöhle, Lost Surveyor(?) pitches

    [Missing writeup here:]

    Topos for Lost Surveyor pitches

    @@ -1126,9 +1126,9 @@ was holidaying in Bad Aussee) volunteered to help out as a way of seeing what ou like. His partner Sandy came along too for a looksee.

    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 + 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 + 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.

    @@ -1180,7 +1180,7 @@ prooved too hard, so that shot was done downwards on the exit.

    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 + 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 @@ -1207,8 +1207,8 @@ with. As we walked past the Bla-Alm turnoff we were hailed from up the hill, by Elliott and Michael who wanted to leave rope in our car. Key arrangments were made, updates given and we carried on our way.

    -

    Not hard to follow the Eishöhle path, passing numerous caches of ARGE gear along the way (142, -the nipple, Eishöhle 40a). 216 has more cold air than I remember and 40h is transformed. The crawl +

    Not hard to follow the Eishöhle path, passing numerous caches of ARGE gear along the way (142, +the nipple, Eishöhle 40a). 216 has more cold air than I remember and 40h is transformed. The crawl is now a 4-5m-high passage with the old bolts stranded in the ceiling - soon you won't need any ice gear at all to get in. It was very nice to sit in the fridge as huge amounts of cold air spilled out of the entrance, but soon enough we had to get on with the task at hand.

    diff --git a/years/2016/logbook.html b/years/2016/logbook.html index 9d16e4473..674bbb698 100644 --- a/years/2016/logbook.html +++ b/years/2016/logbook.html @@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ that", on a spike, bags were left just below magic glue, with a long plod out.
    2016-06-27
    Sioned, Andrew, Becka
    -
    Balkonhöhle
    +
    Balkonhöhle

    Went for an explore with a few 30m lengths of rope. Was mine & Andrew's first trip down & Becka hadn't been down since 2014. Andrew was initially considering dropping down one of the @@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ from the right & a squeeze over a 4m drop at the bottom but we had no rope l

    2016-06-27
    Nathan, George, Luke
    -
    Balkonhöhle - Bipedal
    +
    Balkonhöhle - Bipedal

    Callout book entry

    22:00
    @@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ only up to 50m (the one we used the day before was 100m) so we de-rigged and cam
    2016-06-28
    Nathan, George
    -
    Balkonhöhle - Bipedal
    +
    Balkonhöhle - Bipedal

    Callout book entry

    @@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ the same order.

    2016-06-29
    Luke, George, Frank
    -
    Balkonhöhle - Dig Dug Pitch
    +
    Balkonhöhle - Dig Dug Pitch

    Callout book entry

    21:00
    @@ -375,7 +375,7 @@ the short traverse beyond.

    2016-07-01
    Becka, Julian, Andrew
    -
    Balkonhöhle 264 - Frozen North
    +
    Balkonhöhle 264 - Frozen North

    Had a good orientation session trying to spot good QMs in 264. Went up Turtlehead and looked for QM92A and concluded it probably didn't exist (it was just the p6). Then looked just to N, looked at S side of QMAp60 but v. wet this side so we picked our way around to @@ -466,7 +466,7 @@ functional was a definite improvement in condition, so I won't complain too much so high as they would have been had we died of hypothermia. I suppose dead people can't feel miserable, but it would have been a hassle for everyone else. Around 5am, the condition of the pitch had dramatically improved, and Mark made the excecutive decision to get out then. Again, it was a very efficient operation. Mark and I tandem -prussicked out, and David followed behind. By 6am we were officially out of Balkonhöhle.

    +prussicked out, and David followed behind. By 6am we were officially out of Balkonhöhle.

    There are several lessons to be learned here. The first is to avoid wet pitches - don't be swayed by hubris. Secondly, appreciate cushions, try sitting still on unforgiving limestone for several straight hours if you don't. Thirdly, you don't need to take drugs to experience altered states of consciousness. Just get really cold. But at @@ -476,7 +476,7 @@ the end of the day, it was an experience, albeit not a fun one. We live to cave

    2016-07-02
    Mark D, George, Nat, Haydon
    -
    Balkonhöhle Rescue
    +
    Balkonhöhle Rescue

    At 22:00 David and Roshni's callout went live. We scanned the hill for lights, but saw nothing. So we prepared for a rescue and departed for the entrance. We had the response bag and @@ -525,14 +525,14 @@ got my gear dry before the heavy rain started.

    2016-07-02
    Haydon (Twat), Ash, Mark D, Sioned
    -
    Balkonhöhle
    +
    Balkonhöhle

    Went down to Long Drop after Haydons desire to do some f**king caving after ecoli.

    First tried to approach pitch from wrong direction after Marks misguided directions from last year and Haydon hanging off questionable naturals. (Hammer and setter may have been left here!).

    After continuing to the correct pitch Haydon continued to rig the pitch only to find that the hammer and setter was left at the last pitch. Ash and Sioned retrieved this from the previous pitch while Haydon gardened some sizeable boulders from -a ledge 10m down, that Ashley could hear from the other end of Balkonhöhle.

    +a ledge 10m down, that Ashley could hear from the other end of Balkonhöhle.

    After rope and setter had returned Haydon dropped the pitch to approx 50m and the first main ledge, to continue the next drop having cold grumblings from the top of the pitch (who knows why?).

    Ash's perspective continued below:

    @@ -573,7 +573,7 @@ George and Luke didn't connect when they rigged a parallel shaft in Champagne on
    2016-07-03
    Luke, Andrew, Becka, George
    -
    Looking for 2nd Balkonhöhle entrance (dropping 2010-04)
    +
    Looking for 2nd Balkonhöhle entrance (dropping 2010-04)

    Dropped 2010-04 using naturals to get to snow slope. Andrew and I used the shovel to dig at the base and the side in 3 spots. Soft snow initially and some gaps but no draft. Gave up after less than an hour. Survey in folder #8 (2016-08).

    Dropped 2010-03 using naturals. Becka down - no way on. Turned out Noel had also checked this in 2012 and surveyed it.

    @@ -784,7 +784,7 @@ pushing for another day, we then headed out.

    2016-07-06
    Rob, Alice, Katey
    -
    Balkonhöhle - Hilti-a-Plenty, surveying Northen Straight
    +
    Balkonhöhle - Hilti-a-Plenty, surveying Northen Straight

    My (Alice) first surveying trip. We started at where myself, Katey and Rob had had a nose around the day before. George and I started surveying while Rob went ahead to rig a traverse further ahead. across a pitch ~6m. The larger passage continues to the right into a tight popcorny squeeze which brings you out onto a wedged diff --git a/years/2017/logbook.html b/years/2017/logbook.html index 067c97301..d618cf1f0 100644 --- a/years/2017/logbook.html +++ b/years/2017/logbook.html @@ -408,7 +408,7 @@ Nobody caved.

    2017-08-06
    Jacob, Elaine
    -
    Guten Morgen Höhle - trip #1
    +
    Guten Morgen Höhle - trip #1

    After walking across to the Organhohle bivvy in the rainm and then getting cooped up by the weather, Elaine and I decided to push GMH, a lead very @@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ an undropped pitch. Sketch survey of Guten Morgen <hr /> <div class=2017-08-07

    Jacob, Elaine
    -
    Guten Morgen Höhle - trip #2
    +
    Guten Morgen Höhle - trip #2

    Elaine and I returned to GMH the following day to bolt the pitch and survey the cave as nothing had been surveyed past the entrance pitch so far. @@ -668,7 +668,7 @@ that the area merited another visit the next day.

    2017-07-30
    Rob, Luke, Becka
    -
    GSH - Glücklich Schmetterlingehöhle (GSH) and Kein Wassermelonhöhle (KWH) - initial exploration
    +
    GSH - Glücklich Schmetterlingehöhle (GSH) and Kein Wassermelonhöhle (KWH) - initial exploration

    We returned with more rope and drill batteries to rig the loose climb in CUCC-2017-24 (GSH or Happy Butterfly Hole) and to continue digging CUCC-2017-23 @@ -817,7 +817,7 @@ Bridge, I saw a golden opportunity to utilise the Brendan Cave Cinema SystemTM.

    Diagram of Brendan Cave Cinema System

    This device had -previously been tested with great success in Balkonhöhle with Corin. +previously been tested with great success in Balkonhöhle with Corin. We were able to watch the whole of Skyfall before ASH had finished rigging his pitch.

    @@ -845,7 +845,7 @@ had been rigged previously…

    On a wet, claggy day we decided that we should at least try to go caving, so we set out to try and find Bad Forecast, based only on a GPS pin and the -instructions: ‘you go to Balkonhöhle, then continue up a bit.’ +instructions: ‘you go to Balkonhöhle, then continue up a bit.’ Given the visibility was ~50m and dropping, it took a long time to get to the right area, and then even longer to find the cave.

    Once we had got @@ -1154,7 +1154,7 @@ safely, almost missing callout at 11pm. What a first trip. escorting Nadia down the hill Becka was keen to see the continuation of GSH. Successful distribution of drill batteries. Set off to cave, route needs cairning but only takes 30 minutes. Mike and Nathan in -CUCC-2017-28 (now named Fisch Gesicht Höhle). Inspected some +CUCC-2017-28 (now named Fisch Gesicht Höhle). Inspected some horizontal leads at head of big pitch but crapped out immediately. Still had drill battery so descended to the pushing front from last trip. Battery wouldn’t die so had to keep on going, multiple @@ -1230,7 +1230,7 @@ Becka.

    2017-08-02
    Mike Butcher, Nathan
    -
    CUCC-2017-28 - aka Fisch Gesicht Höhle (FGH)
    +
    CUCC-2017-28 - aka Fisch Gesicht Höhle (FGH)

    Went to drop the pitch reached by Nathan the day before, having rigged a traverse before his batteries died. However, our drill battery was flat. No diff --git a/years/2017/ukcaving/index.html b/years/2017/ukcaving/index.html index 175c908ba..33897e0ce 100644 --- a/years/2017/ukcaving/index.html +++ b/years/2017/ukcaving/index.html @@ -473,7 +473,7 @@ bb2_addLoadEvent(function() {

    -
    So, the first week of CUCC Austria 2017 is over. It has been a slightly uncertain ride, with not many experienced CUCC members being around to coordinate the youth. Luckily, The Professor aka Mark Dougherty showed us what he’s made of by motorcycling for 2 days from central Sweden to be here and show us all the ropes in between Gössers (the beverage of choice in Austria, tasty and cheap). After Brendan, Nathan, Luke and George had arrived after dehydrating themselves and, in George’s case, sustaining an annoying ankle niggle Via Ferrataing in the Dolomites, Base Camp (the hut that ‘keeps the computers dry’) was set up and supplies were brought up to the Top Camp, with more being dug out of their storage in a big iceplug. Brendan in particular enjoys these trips up to Top Camp as they give him a much-needed excuse to eat more than one lunch (for Brendan life is just a succession of lunches broken up by playing with spreadsheets in his role as CHECC Treasurer). The guys got on with setting up the bivvy, installing the water collection system and setting up the main tarp.


    Brendan Hall digs into a hard-earned lunch, the first of four that day, at the StoneBridge. You can actually see his second one already lined up if you are in any way observant.


    The bivvy tarp (white) and water collection tarp (green, feeding the butts) set up and ready to use. The wooden frame is for mounting the solar panels, kindly done by acting Chief Nerd Martin Green.

    This done, myself, Nadia and K Brook arrived after a month of parading around Europe pretending to climb to lend a hand carrying and, more importantly, drinking. What we really needed, however, was a certified Nerd to set up the computers we were keeping dry, and also to configure the solar charging system at Top Camp. The day after and our saviour arrived, none other than Martin Green, officially the highest ranking Nerd on the expedition at this point clocking in at around Level 7 (open-ended scale: currently Wookey and Julian Todd are vying for top position, but who knows, one day a hot kid on the block could put both to shame!). Soon we were getting into the swing of things, and Martin had the server up and going, which importantly meant that we could now play a wealth of music on the expo soundsystem! By a wealth of music, what I really mean is ‘This Corrosion’ by Sisters of Mercy, which has been the unofficial expo anthem ever since everyone accidentally brought the same album on tape during a very wet year in 1993. It also meant that we could get on with some much-needed Nerding (it’s what they live for in Cambridge) in the form of drawing up surveys from last year (apparently 8 of mine had been left – naughty!).

               
    Nerds at work. This activity must always be supplemented with alcohol to heed progress and ensure there is some Nerding left for later members of the expedition to do. And, indeed, for next years attendees...

    Myself and Luke were determined to avoid doing this, however, and decided to go caving instead. Over the course of 3 trips we have rigged to a depth of around -400m in Tunnockschacht en route to the camp there, using over 500m of rope and well over 150 hangers. At the bottom of the always tiresome entrance series, we discovered a number of icicles, melting rapidly and looking a bit the worse for wear. Climate change is clearly having a pronounced effect on the snow conditions on the Plateau, with many former snow plugs no longer present and the usual snow slope at the bottom of the entrance series greatly diminished in volume. The rope lengths for the pitches were difficult to judge as in past years they have been rigged off a reel using a ‘chop-and-go’ approach, and a couple of the rebelays had to be rigged slightly tightly with a couple of skin-of-the-teeth knot passes thrown in. The long lengths of 9mm are being saved for pushing deeper in the cave, so gash 10mm and 10.5mm was needed (but not 11mm – we swore, never again). Elliott arrives today with more of that, along with our 300m of sponsored rope, big excite! Only another 4 pitches need to be rigged before we reach camp now, but these may prove to be the trickiest ones. I have managed to avoid using any skyhooks so far, but that looks set to change. Chris Densham bolted the last section along with Anthony Day and Ben Whetton. The latter two are very tall individuals, and Densham is a big fan of acrobatic deviations, so I expect some entertaining situations! Stay tuned, many more updates on the way…




    Me rigging the entrance series, where a number of icicles were found to be a bit in the way. They remain for now, until the destruction team get off their arses and up the hill. Last week it was 'too misty'... Photo credit for all: Luke Stangroom.
    +
    So, the first week of CUCC Austria 2017 is over. It has been a slightly uncertain ride, with not many experienced CUCC members being around to coordinate the youth. Luckily, The Professor aka Mark Dougherty showed us what he’s made of by motorcycling for 2 days from central Sweden to be here and show us all the ropes in between Gössers (the beverage of choice in Austria, tasty and cheap). After Brendan, Nathan, Luke and George had arrived after dehydrating themselves and, in George’s case, sustaining an annoying ankle niggle Via Ferrataing in the Dolomites, Base Camp (the hut that ‘keeps the computers dry’) was set up and supplies were brought up to the Top Camp, with more being dug out of their storage in a big iceplug. Brendan in particular enjoys these trips up to Top Camp as they give him a much-needed excuse to eat more than one lunch (for Brendan life is just a succession of lunches broken up by playing with spreadsheets in his role as CHECC Treasurer). The guys got on with setting up the bivvy, installing the water collection system and setting up the main tarp.


    Brendan Hall digs into a hard-earned lunch, the first of four that day, at the StoneBridge. You can actually see his second one already lined up if you are in any way observant.


    The bivvy tarp (white) and water collection tarp (green, feeding the butts) set up and ready to use. The wooden frame is for mounting the solar panels, kindly done by acting Chief Nerd Martin Green.

    This done, myself, Nadia and K Brook arrived after a month of parading around Europe pretending to climb to lend a hand carrying and, more importantly, drinking. What we really needed, however, was a certified Nerd to set up the computers we were keeping dry, and also to configure the solar charging system at Top Camp. The day after and our saviour arrived, none other than Martin Green, officially the highest ranking Nerd on the expedition at this point clocking in at around Level 7 (open-ended scale: currently Wookey and Julian Todd are vying for top position, but who knows, one day a hot kid on the block could put both to shame!). Soon we were getting into the swing of things, and Martin had the server up and going, which importantly meant that we could now play a wealth of music on the expo soundsystem! By a wealth of music, what I really mean is ‘This Corrosion’ by Sisters of Mercy, which has been the unofficial expo anthem ever since everyone accidentally brought the same album on tape during a very wet year in 1993. It also meant that we could get on with some much-needed Nerding (it’s what they live for in Cambridge) in the form of drawing up surveys from last year (apparently 8 of mine had been left – naughty!).

               
    Nerds at work. This activity must always be supplemented with alcohol to heed progress and ensure there is some Nerding left for later members of the expedition to do. And, indeed, for next years attendees...

    Myself and Luke were determined to avoid doing this, however, and decided to go caving instead. Over the course of 3 trips we have rigged to a depth of around -400m in Tunnockschacht en route to the camp there, using over 500m of rope and well over 150 hangers. At the bottom of the always tiresome entrance series, we discovered a number of icicles, melting rapidly and looking a bit the worse for wear. Climate change is clearly having a pronounced effect on the snow conditions on the Plateau, with many former snow plugs no longer present and the usual snow slope at the bottom of the entrance series greatly diminished in volume. The rope lengths for the pitches were difficult to judge as in past years they have been rigged off a reel using a ‘chop-and-go’ approach, and a couple of the rebelays had to be rigged slightly tightly with a couple of skin-of-the-teeth knot passes thrown in. The long lengths of 9mm are being saved for pushing deeper in the cave, so gash 10mm and 10.5mm was needed (but not 11mm – we swore, never again). Elliott arrives today with more of that, along with our 300m of sponsored rope, big excite! Only another 4 pitches need to be rigged before we reach camp now, but these may prove to be the trickiest ones. I have managed to avoid using any skyhooks so far, but that looks set to change. Chris Densham bolted the last section along with Anthony Day and Ben Whetton. The latter two are very tall individuals, and Densham is a big fan of acrobatic deviations, so I expect some entertaining situations! Stay tuned, many more updates on the way…




    Me rigging the entrance series, where a number of icicles were found to be a bit in the way. They remain for now, until the destruction team get off their arses and up the hill. Last week it was 'too misty'... Photo credit for all: Luke Stangroom.
    @@ -528,7 +528,7 @@ bb2_addLoadEvent(function() {
    -
    On Calories.

    Last year, a few days before setting off on a week-long hike, I found myself in a Canadian supermarket weighing up the pros and cons of different energy bars. “Look,” I squealed excitedly to my companion, “this one has almost a THIRD more calories per 100g! YES PLEASE!” “CavingPig,” she laughed, “that's the exact opposite of what any girl I know would say!”

    Gender stereotypes aside, eating enough is a hugely important consideration for any sport, and caving expeditions are certainly no exception. When you could be expending upwards of 6000 calories a day, you need to consume as much food as you can force down, and preferably in a form that’s incredibly simple to prepare. Haute cuisine is the last thing on your mind when you’re feeling absolutely shagged after a 16-hour surveying mission, but in a bivouac two hours’ hike from the nearest roadhead (or an underground camp several hours’ journey further on from that), chips with everything just isn’t an option – lightweight and compact is very much the order of the day. Throw into the mix the fact that as a student expedition, we’re on a budget as tight as a hipster’s trousers – what’s a hard-up undergrad to do?



    Having enough to eat, and therefore enough energy, is our primary consideration. If this was all we had to worry about, we’d be buying every supermarket in Cambridge out of lard. High calorific value, incredibly cheap, you can burn it for heat and light at night or underground, or even spread it on your skin for insulation if you’re contemplating a dip in one of the beautiful but frigid Alpine lakes that abound in the area. However, there are good reasons why a 100% lard diet is not the best choice (and not just because there are a few vegetarians on the trip).

    Plenty of carbohydrate in your Top Camp diet is essential to replenish glycogen stores and stave off the onset of fatigue after a hard day’s surveying – porridge, couscous, noodles, tortellini and instant mashed potato are our Top Camp staples. For the past couple of years, we’ve received pesto as a sponsorship item, which provides easy calories and makes pretty much anything it’s added to hugely more exciting. A lot of our calories come from boil-in-the-bag curries – although not the lightest thing to cart up a mountainside, these are quick to cook, cheap, and there’s a nice wide range of them to stave off food boredom. They also provide some fat and protein, which can otherwise be slightly more difficult to come by at Top Camp (apart, of course, from in the ubiquitous flapjack). We tend to take the approach of “buy all vegetarian, then if you want meat/cheese you can add that yourself” – so you'll often see dried sausages and hard cheese being fiercely guarded by their owners.


    Fierce.

    For the curious, here’s a typical day of Top Camp’s finest gourmet cuisine. Do you have any particular expedition nosh favourites or tips – or must-avoids?

    Breakfast
    Instant porridge is a firm favourite. Comes in several flavours, can have syrup/spices added for extra taste sensations. Sprinkle over some optional Choco Muesli for an even wilder ride.

    Second breakfast
    Unless we’re being super keen and getting in a cheeky Alpine start, I like to make like a hobbit and treat myself to second breakfast. Usually noodles. Often turns into a game of “guess the contents of the package” since the ingredient lists tend to all be in Asian languages I can’t read. Instant mashed potato with sponsorship pesto and/or wild chives growing round the bivi is another solid choice.


    Penne for your thoughts?

    Caving snacks
    Flapjack, chocolate, then more flapjack. Some people are made of superhero material and are able to complete 600 m of prusiking without a snack stop. I am not one of those people. Chocolate bars are great for a boost of energy to get up the final pitch series, but I sometimes feel even worse after the glucose high. Flapjack contains much more in the way of complex carbohydrates, keeping you caving for longer – hence the industrial quantities we bake to bring out each year!


    Another sponsorship favourite; highly motivational.


    Turns out it’s easier to mix when you don't try to make 7.5 kg in one go.

    Dinner
    The highlight of any evening at Top Camp is surely a steaming curry! Each year brings a new roulette as we ascertain which of the latest batch are burn-your-ears-off spicy and which have the most interestingly textured chunks. Paneer butter masala (which somehow contrives to be vegan) with many scoops of couscous is my fave. If you’re feeling adventurous, Penny Market tortellini offers a cheesier and/or meatier option – pair with sponsorship pesto for maximum Italian vibes.


    Sarah hits the cheesy peas.

    Drinks
    It’s so important to drink plenty while caving, since fluid loss will reduce performance more than any other factor. Yet with the temperature in the caves at 0°C–2°C on average, the urge to drink is often diminished, and dehydration can easily sneak up. A weak solution of around 6 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a litre of water, flavoured to taste with some cordial, is excellent for keeping hydrated. We also get through veritable lakes of cup-a-soup, hot chocolate and tea (sometimes with milk powder added, sometimes with custard powder instead as a surprise when things aren’t labelled properly). Speaking of custard, purchasing the right type is highly important. You don't want “custard powder” – what you need is “instant custard mix”. Otherwise you end up with lots of unhappy people in the bivi holding steaming cups of cornflour.

    Nightcap
    A wee nip of your preferred local schnapps is the perfect accompaniment to stargazing (the Perseids are peaking mid-Expo) or Dachstein TV (AKA lightning storms on the mountain opposite us). All in moderation, obviously – would hate to be hungover and in control of a DistoX. Imagine the margin of error.

    Of course, when we head down for some R&R at Base Camp, all bets are off! The excitingly gas-powered deep-fat fryer is Expo’s most popular appliance for good reason (last year, deep fried Mars Bars and Bakewell tarts featured alongside the more traditional chipped potatoes), while the kitchens at the Gasthof across the road do a roaring trade in spätzle and schnitzel for those feeling flash and in need of a protein hit. And there’s truly nothing finer than washing off the layers of cave grime in the river with a chilled Gösser beer.


    Of course my survey drawings are up to date.
    +
    On Calories.

    Last year, a few days before setting off on a week-long hike, I found myself in a Canadian supermarket weighing up the pros and cons of different energy bars. “Look,” I squealed excitedly to my companion, “this one has almost a THIRD more calories per 100g! YES PLEASE!” “CavingPig,” she laughed, “that's the exact opposite of what any girl I know would say!”

    Gender stereotypes aside, eating enough is a hugely important consideration for any sport, and caving expeditions are certainly no exception. When you could be expending upwards of 6000 calories a day, you need to consume as much food as you can force down, and preferably in a form that’s incredibly simple to prepare. Haute cuisine is the last thing on your mind when you’re feeling absolutely shagged after a 16-hour surveying mission, but in a bivouac two hours’ hike from the nearest roadhead (or an underground camp several hours’ journey further on from that), chips with everything just isn’t an option – lightweight and compact is very much the order of the day. Throw into the mix the fact that as a student expedition, we’re on a budget as tight as a hipster’s trousers – what’s a hard-up undergrad to do?



    Having enough to eat, and therefore enough energy, is our primary consideration. If this was all we had to worry about, we’d be buying every supermarket in Cambridge out of lard. High calorific value, incredibly cheap, you can burn it for heat and light at night or underground, or even spread it on your skin for insulation if you’re contemplating a dip in one of the beautiful but frigid Alpine lakes that abound in the area. However, there are good reasons why a 100% lard diet is not the best choice (and not just because there are a few vegetarians on the trip).

    Plenty of carbohydrate in your Top Camp diet is essential to replenish glycogen stores and stave off the onset of fatigue after a hard day’s surveying – porridge, couscous, noodles, tortellini and instant mashed potato are our Top Camp staples. For the past couple of years, we’ve received pesto as a sponsorship item, which provides easy calories and makes pretty much anything it’s added to hugely more exciting. A lot of our calories come from boil-in-the-bag curries – although not the lightest thing to cart up a mountainside, these are quick to cook, cheap, and there’s a nice wide range of them to stave off food boredom. They also provide some fat and protein, which can otherwise be slightly more difficult to come by at Top Camp (apart, of course, from in the ubiquitous flapjack). We tend to take the approach of “buy all vegetarian, then if you want meat/cheese you can add that yourself” – so you'll often see dried sausages and hard cheese being fiercely guarded by their owners.


    Fierce.

    For the curious, here’s a typical day of Top Camp’s finest gourmet cuisine. Do you have any particular expedition nosh favourites or tips – or must-avoids?

    Breakfast
    Instant porridge is a firm favourite. Comes in several flavours, can have syrup/spices added for extra taste sensations. Sprinkle over some optional Choco Muesli for an even wilder ride.

    Second breakfast
    Unless we’re being super keen and getting in a cheeky Alpine start, I like to make like a hobbit and treat myself to second breakfast. Usually noodles. Often turns into a game of “guess the contents of the package” since the ingredient lists tend to all be in Asian languages I can’t read. Instant mashed potato with sponsorship pesto and/or wild chives growing round the bivi is another solid choice.


    Penne for your thoughts?

    Caving snacks
    Flapjack, chocolate, then more flapjack. Some people are made of superhero material and are able to complete 600 m of prusiking without a snack stop. I am not one of those people. Chocolate bars are great for a boost of energy to get up the final pitch series, but I sometimes feel even worse after the glucose high. Flapjack contains much more in the way of complex carbohydrates, keeping you caving for longer – hence the industrial quantities we bake to bring out each year!


    Another sponsorship favourite; highly motivational.


    Turns out it’s easier to mix when you don't try to make 7.5 kg in one go.

    Dinner
    The highlight of any evening at Top Camp is surely a steaming curry! Each year brings a new roulette as we ascertain which of the latest batch are burn-your-ears-off spicy and which have the most interestingly textured chunks. Paneer butter masala (which somehow contrives to be vegan) with many scoops of couscous is my fave. If you’re feeling adventurous, Penny Market tortellini offers a cheesier and/or meatier option – pair with sponsorship pesto for maximum Italian vibes.


    Sarah hits the cheesy peas.

    Drinks
    It’s so important to drink plenty while caving, since fluid loss will reduce performance more than any other factor. Yet with the temperature in the caves at 0°C–2°C on average, the urge to drink is often diminished, and dehydration can easily sneak up. A weak solution of around 6 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a litre of water, flavoured to taste with some cordial, is excellent for keeping hydrated. We also get through veritable lakes of cup-a-soup, hot chocolate and tea (sometimes with milk powder added, sometimes with custard powder instead as a surprise when things aren’t labelled properly). Speaking of custard, purchasing the right type is highly important. You don't want “custard powder” – what you need is “instant custard mix”. Otherwise you end up with lots of unhappy people in the bivi holding steaming cups of cornflour.

    Nightcap
    A wee nip of your preferred local schnapps is the perfect accompaniment to stargazing (the Perseids are peaking mid-Expo) or Dachstein TV (AKA lightning storms on the mountain opposite us). All in moderation, obviously – would hate to be hungover and in control of a DistoX. Imagine the margin of error.

    Of course, when we head down for some R&R at Base Camp, all bets are off! The excitingly gas-powered deep-fat fryer is Expo’s most popular appliance for good reason (last year, deep fried Mars Bars and Bakewell tarts featured alongside the more traditional chipped potatoes), while the kitchens at the Gasthof across the road do a roaring trade in spätzle and schnitzel for those feeling flash and in need of a protein hit. And there’s truly nothing finer than washing off the layers of cave grime in the river with a chilled Gösser beer.


    Of course my survey drawings are up to date.
    @@ -685,7 +685,7 @@ bb2_addLoadEvent(function() {
    -
    Elliott and Katey's first week on Expo

    Elliott started the journey to Austria in London on Thursday, July 13th. He then travelled to Braintree to Cambridge to Richmond to Ingleton then to Leeds for the night at mine. Meanwhile I was panic-packing my entire life, moving out of my house and packing for expo all at once. The next morning we left for expo via Cambridge to pick up some survey instruments and Braintree to pick up all the remaining expo food – a more challenging prospect than it sounds given that the van was already very full when we set off from Leeds, owing to nearly 1.5km of rope between sponsorship rope, rope we’d bought, and kit from the tackle store.

    Loads of rope in Elliott's van
    Lots and lots of rope. Photo Elliott Smith.

    We finally made it to Dover in time to catch the ferry after the one we’d booked, and after an uneventful overnight drive we arrived at base camp around 4pm on Saturday, July 15th.

    All the rope magically disappeared from the van and everything that wasn’t new rapidly disappeared up the hill with the contingent of keen carriers; all the new rope (1km!) rapidly disappeared into the river to soak overnight. Chris Densham turned up about an hour after us so we celebrated the end of the drive with some schnapps and called it a night.

    The next day, after nursing a hangover (or four) we pulled the rope out of the river and started processing it – stretched it, dried it off, and packed it into tackle sacks to carry up the hill.


    Chris Densham removing rope from the river. Photo Elliott Smith.


    300m of rope packed into two tacklesacks (Katey Bender and Chris Densham). Photo Elliott Smith.


    1km of rope disappeared into tacklesacks. Chris Densham and Katey Bender labelling bags. Photo Elliott Smith.

    Sunday evening we made the first of a couple of carries up the hill. As it turns out, 200m of rope is quite heavy; it was an ambitious first carry for me, but a good kickstart to the expo fitness regime. After the best intentions for a quick bounce carry on Monday morning followed by a shallow pushing trip in Balkonhöhle, Chris, Elliott and I ended up carrying in the morning then sitting in the sun all afternoon. This, however, was not a total loss as we managed to get all the kit sorted out for underground camp, meaning we were ready for the first camp the next day.

    Despite our best intentions Elliott and I were allocated to the first underground camp to Kraken, planned for 2 nights – entering Tunnocks on Tuesday and exiting Thursday afternoon, as there were thunderstorms expected Thursday late afternoon/evening. After last year’s experience being flooded in on the way up from a camping trip, Chris and I weren’t too keen on spending another chilly night at the bottom of a flooded pitch. A 600m descent saw Elliott and I at camp for about 4pm. On the final 40m free hang  the rope had, in fact, hit the bottom – we had been slightly concerned after some not-so-confident noises from the team that had rigged down to camp. After leaving the ten in situ at the end of last year we weren’t expecting an easy set-up; the zips to the tent corroded shut, the puddle in the bottom of the tent and a good layer of mold were somewhat worse than expected. However, we soon drained the puddle, found use for a Therion protractor as an excellent mold-scraping tool, and sacrificed our spare buffs to mop up the remains and the bivi was soon back to a state fit for human habitation. Chris joined us a few hours later having fettled the rigging on the way down; we lit a few tea lights, had some dinner and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

    Day 2 of underground camp saw us continue to the deepest passage in Tunnocksschacht – Song of the Earth, pushed last year to -902m. Minimal rigging after most of the ropes were left in last year made for a quick descent and we soon reached the bottom of the cave. The deepest point of the cave is a mud sump with no way on, though we stopped off there to show Chris as he’d not been before and to take some photos.


    Elliott Smith and Katey Bender, from teams 1 and 2 to visit the mud sump. Photo Chris Densham.

    While there, after a brief “oh bugger”, Elliott pointed out that there was a small airspace on the far side of the mud sump. Naturally, as the smallest person on the trip, I got posted down the hole. As I was headfirst down this rather tight hole, helmet off, Chris decided to take some photos.

    Katey headfirst in mud sump at -920m
    “Just hold still Katey, this is a good photo!” Grumble grumble. Photo Chris Densham.

    We noticed a small draft in the mud sump (very odd) but decided not to be Mendip cavers and rather to carry on with the phreatic passage that we knew was 10 minutes away. Through the very drafty, sandy dig to the pushing front!

    The pushing front was a 6m climb, which I’d free climbed at the end of last year but which really needed a rope on to be safe. So, the first task was climbing up it and bolting it.

    Katey Bender free-climbing in Song of the Earth
    Katey Bender free-climbing to the pushing front. Photo Chris Densham.

    That done, Elliott and Chris followed me up and we carried on to the exciting part. Elliott did a slightly dodgy semi free-climb, semi bolt climb up the most promising lead while Chris and I surveyed a couple unpromising leads.

    Elliott Smith approximately bolt-climbing
    Elliott Smith approximately bolt climbing. Photo Chris Densham.

    We followed Elliott up around 30m until we ran out of rope, and hangers, and drill batteries all at once. However, we left 3 pitches ~20m to be dropped, which the next camp should be looking at right now…

    That day’s work done we headed back to camp and, 2.5 hours later, we were all back and our dinner was cooking. We decided that, having not managed to kill off our lead, we’d earned a celebratory tot of rum in our evening hot chocolate! The next day the long prussic began; Chris was the last one out and made it back to top camp for 5:30pm, about a half hour after the thunderstorm started.

    The next day Chris headed down the hill to draw up our survey while Elliott and I headed into Balcony for another dose of Vitamin D deficiency. Elliott, Rachel, Nadia and Phil went to survey and explore Galactica – a really quite large chamber discovered at the very end of last year’s expo. Having surveyed it they found it was over 100m long, 40m wide and up to 90m high. Unfortunately the only lead went nowhere. Meanwhile Nathan, Adam and I went to Sloppy Seconds to drop one of the pitches in the area. We had a similar success rate to Galactica, though we taught Adam how to survey so it was a useful training trip for him.

    This morning Elliott and I decided we’d had enough of caving and probably ought to draw up our surveys, so we headed down the hill for a day of ice cream and quality festering.
    +
    Elliott and Katey's first week on Expo

    Elliott started the journey to Austria in London on Thursday, July 13th. He then travelled to Braintree to Cambridge to Richmond to Ingleton then to Leeds for the night at mine. Meanwhile I was panic-packing my entire life, moving out of my house and packing for expo all at once. The next morning we left for expo via Cambridge to pick up some survey instruments and Braintree to pick up all the remaining expo food – a more challenging prospect than it sounds given that the van was already very full when we set off from Leeds, owing to nearly 1.5km of rope between sponsorship rope, rope we’d bought, and kit from the tackle store.

    Loads of rope in Elliott's van
    Lots and lots of rope. Photo Elliott Smith.

    We finally made it to Dover in time to catch the ferry after the one we’d booked, and after an uneventful overnight drive we arrived at base camp around 4pm on Saturday, July 15th.

    All the rope magically disappeared from the van and everything that wasn’t new rapidly disappeared up the hill with the contingent of keen carriers; all the new rope (1km!) rapidly disappeared into the river to soak overnight. Chris Densham turned up about an hour after us so we celebrated the end of the drive with some schnapps and called it a night.

    The next day, after nursing a hangover (or four) we pulled the rope out of the river and started processing it – stretched it, dried it off, and packed it into tackle sacks to carry up the hill.


    Chris Densham removing rope from the river. Photo Elliott Smith.


    300m of rope packed into two tacklesacks (Katey Bender and Chris Densham). Photo Elliott Smith.


    1km of rope disappeared into tacklesacks. Chris Densham and Katey Bender labelling bags. Photo Elliott Smith.

    Sunday evening we made the first of a couple of carries up the hill. As it turns out, 200m of rope is quite heavy; it was an ambitious first carry for me, but a good kickstart to the expo fitness regime. After the best intentions for a quick bounce carry on Monday morning followed by a shallow pushing trip in Balkonhöhle, Chris, Elliott and I ended up carrying in the morning then sitting in the sun all afternoon. This, however, was not a total loss as we managed to get all the kit sorted out for underground camp, meaning we were ready for the first camp the next day.

    Despite our best intentions Elliott and I were allocated to the first underground camp to Kraken, planned for 2 nights – entering Tunnocks on Tuesday and exiting Thursday afternoon, as there were thunderstorms expected Thursday late afternoon/evening. After last year’s experience being flooded in on the way up from a camping trip, Chris and I weren’t too keen on spending another chilly night at the bottom of a flooded pitch. A 600m descent saw Elliott and I at camp for about 4pm. On the final 40m free hang  the rope had, in fact, hit the bottom – we had been slightly concerned after some not-so-confident noises from the team that had rigged down to camp. After leaving the ten in situ at the end of last year we weren’t expecting an easy set-up; the zips to the tent corroded shut, the puddle in the bottom of the tent and a good layer of mold were somewhat worse than expected. However, we soon drained the puddle, found use for a Therion protractor as an excellent mold-scraping tool, and sacrificed our spare buffs to mop up the remains and the bivi was soon back to a state fit for human habitation. Chris joined us a few hours later having fettled the rigging on the way down; we lit a few tea lights, had some dinner and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

    Day 2 of underground camp saw us continue to the deepest passage in Tunnocksschacht – Song of the Earth, pushed last year to -902m. Minimal rigging after most of the ropes were left in last year made for a quick descent and we soon reached the bottom of the cave. The deepest point of the cave is a mud sump with no way on, though we stopped off there to show Chris as he’d not been before and to take some photos.


    Elliott Smith and Katey Bender, from teams 1 and 2 to visit the mud sump. Photo Chris Densham.

    While there, after a brief “oh bugger”, Elliott pointed out that there was a small airspace on the far side of the mud sump. Naturally, as the smallest person on the trip, I got posted down the hole. As I was headfirst down this rather tight hole, helmet off, Chris decided to take some photos.

    Katey headfirst in mud sump at -920m
    “Just hold still Katey, this is a good photo!” Grumble grumble. Photo Chris Densham.

    We noticed a small draft in the mud sump (very odd) but decided not to be Mendip cavers and rather to carry on with the phreatic passage that we knew was 10 minutes away. Through the very drafty, sandy dig to the pushing front!

    The pushing front was a 6m climb, which I’d free climbed at the end of last year but which really needed a rope on to be safe. So, the first task was climbing up it and bolting it.

    Katey Bender free-climbing in Song of the Earth
    Katey Bender free-climbing to the pushing front. Photo Chris Densham.

    That done, Elliott and Chris followed me up and we carried on to the exciting part. Elliott did a slightly dodgy semi free-climb, semi bolt climb up the most promising lead while Chris and I surveyed a couple unpromising leads.

    Elliott Smith approximately bolt-climbing
    Elliott Smith approximately bolt climbing. Photo Chris Densham.

    We followed Elliott up around 30m until we ran out of rope, and hangers, and drill batteries all at once. However, we left 3 pitches ~20m to be dropped, which the next camp should be looking at right now…

    That day’s work done we headed back to camp and, 2.5 hours later, we were all back and our dinner was cooking. We decided that, having not managed to kill off our lead, we’d earned a celebratory tot of rum in our evening hot chocolate! The next day the long prussic began; Chris was the last one out and made it back to top camp for 5:30pm, about a half hour after the thunderstorm started.

    The next day Chris headed down the hill to draw up our survey while Elliott and I headed into Balcony for another dose of Vitamin D deficiency. Elliott, Rachel, Nadia and Phil went to survey and explore Galactica – a really quite large chamber discovered at the very end of last year’s expo. Having surveyed it they found it was over 100m long, 40m wide and up to 90m high. Unfortunately the only lead went nowhere. Meanwhile Nathan, Adam and I went to Sloppy Seconds to drop one of the pitches in the area. We had a similar success rate to Galactica, though we taught Adam how to survey so it was a useful training trip for him.

    This morning Elliott and I decided we’d had enough of caving and probably ought to draw up our surveys, so we headed down the hill for a day of ice cream and quality festering.
    @@ -787,7 +787,7 @@ bb2_addLoadEvent(function() {
    -
    Perspective of a newcomer to expo

    Having been caving for several years with CUCC, but having managed to successfully avoid Expo previously, 2017 was my first year in Austria exploring the caves of the Löser plateau. I spent two weeks out there and, having returned home and had a few showers, here are some of my thoughts about the Expo experience.

    I turned up on Expo shortly after the setup and rigging had been completed, meaning that some of my first trips were to the pushing edge of exploration. All of my trips this year were in Balkonhöhle (apart from a couple of trips down a new cave, found while prospecting; more on that below). This was more caving than I had done before on any trip: more depth, longer duration, and more technical SRT in one place at the same time. Good fun. While I was confident with my caving before arriving, there was the inevitable mismatch in prussiking fitness between me and those who had already been out on Expo for a week or two. A few trips down to Galactica (one of the lower areas in Balkonhöhle at the start of Expo) started to sort that out.

    There were other skills which I hadn’t had the opportunity to practice before: surveying, and photography. Since a lot of Expo is about surveying, that was a critical skill to learn. Thanks to the patience of Luke, Nadia and Rachel, I got enough practice on a couple of trips to feel confident about surveying. Rachel and I surveyed the bottom of Galactica (a huge chamber found at the end of last year’s expedition which, unfortunately, is an almost complete dead end due to fill from fault breakdown). Later on, Nadia, Nathan and I started surveying a new cave. Exciting to do; less exciting to try and work out how to write up afterwards. Thankfully, various people at base camp were quite helpful in guiding me through writing up surveys and tying a new cave into the overall survey.

    One of the downsides I found on Expo was that knowing the set of A-leads to investigate was hard; the information mostly resides in a few people’s heads, rather than on a list somewhere. It was only during my second week on Expo when we got a relatively up-to-date survey to look at at top camp. This made it a bit harder to take the initiative to lead trips to the pushing front. Hence I became a sheep; a situation I was happy with, given it was my first year at Expo.

    Prospecting was another activity which I got some practice at, due to a few days where the weather forecast was terrible (and the weather reality was rather nice). Given a bad forecast, going down Balkonhöhle is inadvisable due to the potential for getting flooded in (the Entrance series drains a lot of water). Prospecting seemed a safer option, and the possibility for finding the long-sought second entrance to Balkonhöhle was attractive.

    We didn’t manage to find a second entrance to Balkonhöhle, but we did manage to find another promising cave (nicknamed Bad Forecast; I’m looking forward to the Austrian translation) which we pushed to -100m in a large phreatic chamber. The entrance passage is about 100m long at 45°, running contrary to the dip of the surrounding plateau, and doesn’t seem to take water. So at least we’ve found a cave people can do in wet weather (so far), and something for people to push if they’re bored of Balkonhöhle or Tunnocks. And I think we’ve now surveyed enough of it that the name can’t be changed, so that’s one more pun set in stone.

    Weather was ever-present during my time on Expo: there was typically the threat of rain (also typically dismissed, correctly, by people). When there wasn’t rain, there was sunburn. A particularly entertaining two days of rain lead to us rebuilding the kitchen area of the bivvy, and me running out of reading material. Pro tip: bring more reading to top camp. Another pro tip: bring more interesting food; preferably things which can have the powdered custard from top camp added to them to increase their deliciousness. After much experimentation with various combinations of powdered food up there, I concluded that custard and smash is a timeless combination.
    +
    Perspective of a newcomer to expo

    Having been caving for several years with CUCC, but having managed to successfully avoid Expo previously, 2017 was my first year in Austria exploring the caves of the Löser plateau. I spent two weeks out there and, having returned home and had a few showers, here are some of my thoughts about the Expo experience.

    I turned up on Expo shortly after the setup and rigging had been completed, meaning that some of my first trips were to the pushing edge of exploration. All of my trips this year were in Balkonhöhle (apart from a couple of trips down a new cave, found while prospecting; more on that below). This was more caving than I had done before on any trip: more depth, longer duration, and more technical SRT in one place at the same time. Good fun. While I was confident with my caving before arriving, there was the inevitable mismatch in prussiking fitness between me and those who had already been out on Expo for a week or two. A few trips down to Galactica (one of the lower areas in Balkonhöhle at the start of Expo) started to sort that out.

    There were other skills which I hadn’t had the opportunity to practice before: surveying, and photography. Since a lot of Expo is about surveying, that was a critical skill to learn. Thanks to the patience of Luke, Nadia and Rachel, I got enough practice on a couple of trips to feel confident about surveying. Rachel and I surveyed the bottom of Galactica (a huge chamber found at the end of last year’s expedition which, unfortunately, is an almost complete dead end due to fill from fault breakdown). Later on, Nadia, Nathan and I started surveying a new cave. Exciting to do; less exciting to try and work out how to write up afterwards. Thankfully, various people at base camp were quite helpful in guiding me through writing up surveys and tying a new cave into the overall survey.

    One of the downsides I found on Expo was that knowing the set of A-leads to investigate was hard; the information mostly resides in a few people’s heads, rather than on a list somewhere. It was only during my second week on Expo when we got a relatively up-to-date survey to look at at top camp. This made it a bit harder to take the initiative to lead trips to the pushing front. Hence I became a sheep; a situation I was happy with, given it was my first year at Expo.

    Prospecting was another activity which I got some practice at, due to a few days where the weather forecast was terrible (and the weather reality was rather nice). Given a bad forecast, going down Balkonhöhle is inadvisable due to the potential for getting flooded in (the Entrance series drains a lot of water). Prospecting seemed a safer option, and the possibility for finding the long-sought second entrance to Balkonhöhle was attractive.

    We didn’t manage to find a second entrance to Balkonhöhle, but we did manage to find another promising cave (nicknamed Bad Forecast; I’m looking forward to the Austrian translation) which we pushed to -100m in a large phreatic chamber. The entrance passage is about 100m long at 45°, running contrary to the dip of the surrounding plateau, and doesn’t seem to take water. So at least we’ve found a cave people can do in wet weather (so far), and something for people to push if they’re bored of Balkonhöhle or Tunnocks. And I think we’ve now surveyed enough of it that the name can’t be changed, so that’s one more pun set in stone.

    Weather was ever-present during my time on Expo: there was typically the threat of rain (also typically dismissed, correctly, by people). When there wasn’t rain, there was sunburn. A particularly entertaining two days of rain lead to us rebuilding the kitchen area of the bivvy, and me running out of reading material. Pro tip: bring more reading to top camp. Another pro tip: bring more interesting food; preferably things which can have the powdered custard from top camp added to them to increase their deliciousness. After much experimentation with various combinations of powdered food up there, I concluded that custard and smash is a timeless combination.
    @@ -999,7 +999,7 @@ bb2_addLoadEvent(function() {
    -
    As the expo dinner approaches and the halfway point looms close, what exactly has CUCC expo 2017 achieved so far? Well, we’ve worked out one thing: deep Tunnocks is a stubborn beast that refuses to reveal its secrets easily. So far 5 camping trips have been completed, and the finale of last years’ big find, Song of the Earth, ended in a huge chamber choked by mud and boulders, which George nearly became part of after having crawled into a boulder choke, only to pull on the ceiling and then nearly become encased in the cave. So, the chamber, named ‘Big Lad’, is now dead, at least for a while. The other camping trips have turned some seemingly less promising leads near to Octopussy into howling chasms, most of which need dropping within the next week. Lots to do on that front. There is still some good windy phreatic passage to go at as well, after Densham, Nadia and Haydon descended a pitch to a very muddy floor only to miss some very draughty passage 5m above the floor. However, it was very very very muddy. So that was left as well.


    Fleur Loveridge silhouetted against the massive backdrop of Galactica, which sadly died after very few trips. Photo: Brendan Hall.

    Whilst all this excitement was occurring, Balkony was also progressing steadily. Further leads above Galactica, in an area called ‘Nothing to See’ because it had been overlooked last year were pushed, but mainly found to link into Galactica disappointingly. This might have happened much quicker, but for a critical factor. One of the great problems over the last 2 weeks has been a problem with one of the drill battery chargers. The older drills are taped with electrical tape and Wookey has extensively fettled them over the years. However, this year there was no qualified Nerd to nurture and care for them. Consequently, Luke Stangroom was the man left in charge of their care, with that responsibility soon to be passed to me (or hopefully someone else entirely), meaning that no one can really be sure how they work. There is soon to be a full consultation, but for now they are rationed very carefully. This seems to mean that myself and Luke get the ones that are correctly charged each day, and everyone else has to bodge, survey, use naturals or just resign themselves to their fate. There has been enough battery for plenty of pushing at a deeper level in Balkony, however, with a lead called ‘Sloppy Seconds’ still going to previously unrecorded depths in Balkony.



    Silverback Stangroom begins the Great Battery Auction. The batteries numbered 7, 8 and 14 are the Lucky Ones. Or is it all in the hands of one man? Photo: Becka Lawson

    Aside from established classics, there has been some serious development of the system in a previously totally unexplored area. Early on in week 2, George and Becka refound a cave about which Andy Waddington proclaimed "we haven't a kitten's chance in heck of finding this again". This was called No Helicopter Hole, or 110 in normal speak, and was very miserable and ultimately a fruitless endeavour. However, after some prospecting in the vicinity of this cave, we broke into excellent passage after 4 days of trying. Glücklich Schmetterlinge Höhle proved to be an excellent and very windy cave, albeit very loose, quite wet and a bit scary. This cave is now over 100m deep and 500m long after 3 days of work and still carries a gale through it. Very promising! Whilst this was occurring, Nadia was busy waiting for Nathan to bolt the cave next door, also with a howling draught, and then pulling a large rock onto herself, causing her fibula to fracture. In addition to this injury, Lydia Leather, after around 4 trips, took a trip to town on the expo bike (retrieved from the lake a few years back) and got the European and British braking systems the wrong way round and mashed up her left hand, resulting  in a premature return to the UK.

               
    Left: Rachel with a gamse skull in front of 110. Dead. Very much like all the leads in 110. Photo: Becka Lawson. Right: Nadia looking pathetic and unimpressed after walking for 5 hours on a broken leg. The brace on her knee cost us £150. Photo: Brendan Hall.

    The other main source of excitement at Top Camp was the Mousetrap. No, not the 7 hour long play, but the contraption built by George to catch rogue rodents at Top Camp, whose sightings are recorded on the whiteboard carried up by our hoofed animal, Adam Aldridge. This inhumane creation managed to kill a mouse via either drowning or hyperthermia, resulting in rage from the environmentalists and delight from disgusting people like Luke. The mouse had a sky burial and no further animals were harmed. We had a slight water shortage, but this was dealt with by shovelling some snow. Brendan has started to go caving again after he discovered that he could store films on his phone and then watch them in a group shelter whilst other people bolted pitches. Plus lunch, obviously…

           
    This is horrid. What is it? Luke considers wolfing down the extra protein before deciding instead that it deservved greater respect and that another more deserving animal could eat it. Photo: Brendan Hall. And, on the right, comedy character and farmyard beast Adam Aldridge is doing an excellent job of carrying a lot of things on the outside of his very small bag. Huge! Photo: Luke Stangroom.
    +
    As the expo dinner approaches and the halfway point looms close, what exactly has CUCC expo 2017 achieved so far? Well, we’ve worked out one thing: deep Tunnocks is a stubborn beast that refuses to reveal its secrets easily. So far 5 camping trips have been completed, and the finale of last years’ big find, Song of the Earth, ended in a huge chamber choked by mud and boulders, which George nearly became part of after having crawled into a boulder choke, only to pull on the ceiling and then nearly become encased in the cave. So, the chamber, named ‘Big Lad’, is now dead, at least for a while. The other camping trips have turned some seemingly less promising leads near to Octopussy into howling chasms, most of which need dropping within the next week. Lots to do on that front. There is still some good windy phreatic passage to go at as well, after Densham, Nadia and Haydon descended a pitch to a very muddy floor only to miss some very draughty passage 5m above the floor. However, it was very very very muddy. So that was left as well.


    Fleur Loveridge silhouetted against the massive backdrop of Galactica, which sadly died after very few trips. Photo: Brendan Hall.

    Whilst all this excitement was occurring, Balkony was also progressing steadily. Further leads above Galactica, in an area called ‘Nothing to See’ because it had been overlooked last year were pushed, but mainly found to link into Galactica disappointingly. This might have happened much quicker, but for a critical factor. One of the great problems over the last 2 weeks has been a problem with one of the drill battery chargers. The older drills are taped with electrical tape and Wookey has extensively fettled them over the years. However, this year there was no qualified Nerd to nurture and care for them. Consequently, Luke Stangroom was the man left in charge of their care, with that responsibility soon to be passed to me (or hopefully someone else entirely), meaning that no one can really be sure how they work. There is soon to be a full consultation, but for now they are rationed very carefully. This seems to mean that myself and Luke get the ones that are correctly charged each day, and everyone else has to bodge, survey, use naturals or just resign themselves to their fate. There has been enough battery for plenty of pushing at a deeper level in Balkony, however, with a lead called ‘Sloppy Seconds’ still going to previously unrecorded depths in Balkony.



    Silverback Stangroom begins the Great Battery Auction. The batteries numbered 7, 8 and 14 are the Lucky Ones. Or is it all in the hands of one man? Photo: Becka Lawson

    Aside from established classics, there has been some serious development of the system in a previously totally unexplored area. Early on in week 2, George and Becka refound a cave about which Andy Waddington proclaimed "we haven't a kitten's chance in heck of finding this again". This was called No Helicopter Hole, or 110 in normal speak, and was very miserable and ultimately a fruitless endeavour. However, after some prospecting in the vicinity of this cave, we broke into excellent passage after 4 days of trying. Glücklich Schmetterlinge Höhle proved to be an excellent and very windy cave, albeit very loose, quite wet and a bit scary. This cave is now over 100m deep and 500m long after 3 days of work and still carries a gale through it. Very promising! Whilst this was occurring, Nadia was busy waiting for Nathan to bolt the cave next door, also with a howling draught, and then pulling a large rock onto herself, causing her fibula to fracture. In addition to this injury, Lydia Leather, after around 4 trips, took a trip to town on the expo bike (retrieved from the lake a few years back) and got the European and British braking systems the wrong way round and mashed up her left hand, resulting  in a premature return to the UK.

               
    Left: Rachel with a gamse skull in front of 110. Dead. Very much like all the leads in 110. Photo: Becka Lawson. Right: Nadia looking pathetic and unimpressed after walking for 5 hours on a broken leg. The brace on her knee cost us £150. Photo: Brendan Hall.

    The other main source of excitement at Top Camp was the Mousetrap. No, not the 7 hour long play, but the contraption built by George to catch rogue rodents at Top Camp, whose sightings are recorded on the whiteboard carried up by our hoofed animal, Adam Aldridge. This inhumane creation managed to kill a mouse via either drowning or hyperthermia, resulting in rage from the environmentalists and delight from disgusting people like Luke. The mouse had a sky burial and no further animals were harmed. We had a slight water shortage, but this was dealt with by shovelling some snow. Brendan has started to go caving again after he discovered that he could store films on his phone and then watch them in a group shelter whilst other people bolted pitches. Plus lunch, obviously…

           
    This is horrid. What is it? Luke considers wolfing down the extra protein before deciding instead that it deservved greater respect and that another more deserving animal could eat it. Photo: Brendan Hall. And, on the right, comedy character and farmyard beast Adam Aldridge is doing an excellent job of carrying a lot of things on the outside of his very small bag. Huge! Photo: Luke Stangroom.
    @@ -1055,7 +1055,7 @@ bb2_addLoadEvent(function() {
    -
    The expo is nearly over and derigging had begun when I left on Tuesday (15th August). Lots of interesting stuff found: ice-covered walls deep in Happy Butterfly (or was it Fishface?), an open, very long, traverse lead in Balkon, a new cave with lots of prospects in Good Morning, just near the rather distant Organhöhle bivvy.

    But I'll leave all that to a proper wrap up post at the end of expo. What I want to write about is what it is like returning to expo after a gap of 34 years.

    I was on the last expo which camped at the lake at Altaussee (1982), and the first which stayed at Hilde's at Staudnwirt (1983).  I was already 28 in 1982, and not nearly hard enough for the desperately long and cold trips to the bottom of  Schnellzughöhle (1623/115) - whose sump is still the deepest point in the SMK system.

    So what is different between now and then? Most impressive and immediate is the size of the operation, and the organisation of getting so many people and gear properly based at the Steinbrückenhöhle (204) bivvy site. The bivvy is "only" a couple of hours walk and scramble from the road-head but it supports 12-15 people continuously caving eating and sleeping, including supporting the underground camp in Tunnocksschaft and the further hour-distant surface camp at Organhöhle bivvy. A massive operation.

    The second great difference that struck me is in the standard of surveying: the exacting detail of the pencil and waterproof paper records in particular. Yes of course the laser ranging distos and Bluetooth automatic data capture are great, but it was the improvement in the manual processes which impressed me.

    I wasn't up to caving much: Becka gave me a 2-hour tourist trip down the first couple of pitches in Steinbrückenhöhle past a couple of snow plus to the top of the 3rd pitch, but while I could manage technically it was obvious that I was getting out of breath too quickly to be any use underground. Or maybe I am just much more sensitive to altitude (1800m) than I used to be. (Anyway, my SRT kit was carried up by Becka and down by Fleur, and gave the security people in Salzburg airport some amusement on my return. My 1980s-era furry suit was quite handy for days when top camp was in heavy cloud - even extending into the shelter itself when particularly thick.) Later on in my stay there were open leads near the surface in the new discoveries but I felt that it would be better to give the expo freshers the experience of new discovery.

    I was very glad to be able to get onto the plateau at all. When I had last been on expo in 1983 the closest I got was Wolfhöhle and various places on the Vord.- and Hinterer-Schwartzmooskögel. I suffered a number of "plateau bites" on knuckles, hands and knees as the rock is really very sharp - especially so when I was wandering off the main routes prospecting and getting lost. It is a magnificent place and everything is much further apart than it appears as the terrain is so unforgiving and complex.







    Kristian, Aidan and Radost in top camp. Camp beds are stored over winter and it sleeps 15 comfortably, and 22 in varying degrees of discomfort. {Click to see full-size image.}





    Partial view of the PV/car-battery Makita battery pack, phones, AAs and 18650 cell charging system at Steinbrückenhöhle bivvy. {Click to see full-size image.}
    		As the expo resumed after the dinner at Hilde's, I took charge of the drill battery situation. There was a lot of frustration with dying Makita battery packs and confusion as to why it was happening and which packs could be rescued and which not. The Titan packs at the Organhöhle site were fine, but the 16 or so Makita ones at the main bivvy were the problem. I read the relevant bits of the expo handbook on my phone (which means sitting on the "signal rock" a few metres from the bivvy to get adequate 3G reception to the website http://expo.survex.com/handbook/charging.html) and worked through it systematically: 3 packs were completely dead, 5 seemed OK and taking charge, but the rest seemed stuck at 12.2V and accepting only a trickle: a couple of these eventually clicked into a 13V+ state and seemed to be OK (but in fact only did a couple of holes underground before dying again). This seems to mean that nearly all the packs had got drastically unbalanced (the packs contain 4 sets of 3.6V in series, and if one set is dud then the other 3 just expend their energy heating it up). Confusing factors were that the fuses in the 12V "car charger" plugs had blown so that the  (15A) inverter and the old Makita charger (8A) weren't working at all: a bit of aluminium foil fixed the most urgent of these, and a trip to Bad Aussee bought replacements (10A, but nothing had blown up since).

    A much more pleasant job was improving the cairning on surface routes. This means pottering about on my own under a blue sky in the empty karst building cairns at 4m intervals in the tricky bits of the new paths up to Organhöhle and the new prospecting area down on the plateau to Fischgesichthöhle and Glücklichsmetterlinghöhle. I was really just having fun, but apparently this was really quite appreciated by late-night returners in cloud. [I also did rather a lot of washing up - the squalor level among students is one thing that hasn't changed in 30 years.]

    While in Bad Aussee we discovered that new14.4V Makita packs could only be bought in a town half-way to Vienna so multiple phone conversations with Wookey lead to us (or rather him) buying 2 new packs for urgent delivery by Amazon. The idea was that we could use an Amazon Prime account back home to get quick delivery... but this doesn't work. Amazon has the concept of "out of country" deliveries, and new accounts can't get fast delivery at all - until some validation or delay has occurred. So we learned that it would have been a good idea to set up an Austrian or German Amazon account with a main delivery address at Gasthof Staudnwirt some time earlier. This is probably a good idea for any expedition in a vaguely civilised country covered by Amazon services. The result was a number of abbreviated or partially aborted pushing trips. We got the new packs on a Monday afternoon when we could really have done with them on the previous Thursday.




    Elliott and Thom revising manual procedures for recording survey data using pencils, protractor and notebook - at the Organhöhle bivvy site.

    All in all a very enjoyable trip for an old lag, though I am rather suffering still from carrying all my caving and expo kit between train stations and bus stations on my return. Next time I'll plan this sort of thing further in advance and get the heavy stuff taken by van. I added one innovation to the expo Bier Book: a new page for "number of stings at base camp in one day" with my entry of Wx4 (wasps, the buggers).
    +
    The expo is nearly over and derigging had begun when I left on Tuesday (15th August). Lots of interesting stuff found: ice-covered walls deep in Happy Butterfly (or was it Fishface?), an open, very long, traverse lead in Balkon, a new cave with lots of prospects in Good Morning, just near the rather distant Organhöhle bivvy.

    But I'll leave all that to a proper wrap up post at the end of expo. What I want to write about is what it is like returning to expo after a gap of 34 years.

    I was on the last expo which camped at the lake at Altaussee (1982), and the first which stayed at Hilde's at Staudnwirt (1983).  I was already 28 in 1982, and not nearly hard enough for the desperately long and cold trips to the bottom of  Schnellzughöhle (1623/115) - whose sump is still the deepest point in the SMK system.

    So what is different between now and then? Most impressive and immediate is the size of the operation, and the organisation of getting so many people and gear properly based at the Steinbrückenhöhle (204) bivvy site. The bivvy is "only" a couple of hours walk and scramble from the road-head but it supports 12-15 people continuously caving eating and sleeping, including supporting the underground camp in Tunnocksschaft and the further hour-distant surface camp at Organhöhle bivvy. A massive operation.

    The second great difference that struck me is in the standard of surveying: the exacting detail of the pencil and waterproof paper records in particular. Yes of course the laser ranging distos and Bluetooth automatic data capture are great, but it was the improvement in the manual processes which impressed me.

    I wasn't up to caving much: Becka gave me a 2-hour tourist trip down the first couple of pitches in Steinbrückenhöhle past a couple of snow plus to the top of the 3rd pitch, but while I could manage technically it was obvious that I was getting out of breath too quickly to be any use underground. Or maybe I am just much more sensitive to altitude (1800m) than I used to be. (Anyway, my SRT kit was carried up by Becka and down by Fleur, and gave the security people in Salzburg airport some amusement on my return. My 1980s-era furry suit was quite handy for days when top camp was in heavy cloud - even extending into the shelter itself when particularly thick.) Later on in my stay there were open leads near the surface in the new discoveries but I felt that it would be better to give the expo freshers the experience of new discovery.

    I was very glad to be able to get onto the plateau at all. When I had last been on expo in 1983 the closest I got was Wolfhöhle and various places on the Vord.- and Hinterer-Schwartzmooskögel. I suffered a number of "plateau bites" on knuckles, hands and knees as the rock is really very sharp - especially so when I was wandering off the main routes prospecting and getting lost. It is a magnificent place and everything is much further apart than it appears as the terrain is so unforgiving and complex.







    Kristian, Aidan and Radost in top camp. Camp beds are stored over winter and it sleeps 15 comfortably, and 22 in varying degrees of discomfort. {Click to see full-size image.}





    Partial view of the PV/car-battery Makita battery pack, phones, AAs and 18650 cell charging system at Steinbrückenhöhle bivvy. {Click to see full-size image.}
    		As the expo resumed after the dinner at Hilde's, I took charge of the drill battery situation. There was a lot of frustration with dying Makita battery packs and confusion as to why it was happening and which packs could be rescued and which not. The Titan packs at the Organhöhle site were fine, but the 16 or so Makita ones at the main bivvy were the problem. I read the relevant bits of the expo handbook on my phone (which means sitting on the "signal rock" a few metres from the bivvy to get adequate 3G reception to the website http://expo.survex.com/handbook/charging.html) and worked through it systematically: 3 packs were completely dead, 5 seemed OK and taking charge, but the rest seemed stuck at 12.2V and accepting only a trickle: a couple of these eventually clicked into a 13V+ state and seemed to be OK (but in fact only did a couple of holes underground before dying again). This seems to mean that nearly all the packs had got drastically unbalanced (the packs contain 4 sets of 3.6V in series, and if one set is dud then the other 3 just expend their energy heating it up). Confusing factors were that the fuses in the 12V "car charger" plugs had blown so that the  (15A) inverter and the old Makita charger (8A) weren't working at all: a bit of aluminium foil fixed the most urgent of these, and a trip to Bad Aussee bought replacements (10A, but nothing had blown up since).

    A much more pleasant job was improving the cairning on surface routes. This means pottering about on my own under a blue sky in the empty karst building cairns at 4m intervals in the tricky bits of the new paths up to Organhöhle and the new prospecting area down on the plateau to Fischgesichthöhle and Glücklichsmetterlinghöhle. I was really just having fun, but apparently this was really quite appreciated by late-night returners in cloud. [I also did rather a lot of washing up - the squalor level among students is one thing that hasn't changed in 30 years.]

    While in Bad Aussee we discovered that new14.4V Makita packs could only be bought in a town half-way to Vienna so multiple phone conversations with Wookey lead to us (or rather him) buying 2 new packs for urgent delivery by Amazon. The idea was that we could use an Amazon Prime account back home to get quick delivery... but this doesn't work. Amazon has the concept of "out of country" deliveries, and new accounts can't get fast delivery at all - until some validation or delay has occurred. So we learned that it would have been a good idea to set up an Austrian or German Amazon account with a main delivery address at Gasthof Staudnwirt some time earlier. This is probably a good idea for any expedition in a vaguely civilised country covered by Amazon services. The result was a number of abbreviated or partially aborted pushing trips. We got the new packs on a Monday afternoon when we could really have done with them on the previous Thursday.




    Elliott and Thom revising manual procedures for recording survey data using pencils, protractor and notebook - at the Organhöhle bivvy site.

    All in all a very enjoyable trip for an old lag, though I am rather suffering still from carrying all my caving and expo kit between train stations and bus stations on my return. Next time I'll plan this sort of thing further in advance and get the heavy stuff taken by van. I added one innovation to the expo Bier Book: a new page for "number of stings at base camp in one day" with my entry of Wx4 (wasps, the buggers).
    @@ -1199,7 +1199,7 @@ bb2_addLoadEvent(function() {
    -
    Beyond my comfort zone

    It's been six hours since we left the quiet, calm space of the fossil level and started dropping down hundreds of metres of spray-lashed pitches. Six hours fighting hypothermia with not one alcove or sheltered ledge to escape the unremitting, icy gale. We're at the head of another 50m pitch with anchors going in for the final bag of rope but I can't wait any longer. I strip half naked to piss in the churning pool at the base of a waterfall then battle for ten minutes to get dressed again, my useless, numb fingers refusing to grip my central MR tight enough to turn it. Over 800m above me the sun is baking the limestone pavement. What am I doing here, struggling to hold it together?

    Setting off for the two hour walk up from the valley to the surface camp at Plankamira.


    And in the drizzle on the way up, with Glitzi kitted out in wellies and an umbrella.

    Having been on the CUCC Expo since week one I took a few days out in the final week to join the local Austrian club, VHO, for their annual week of expedition to the Plankamira area, a few kilometres east of CUCC's patch in the Totes Gebirge. After five weeks of expedition caving I wasn't expecting anything too stressful and I thought I knew what to expect as I'd joined them twice before to cave in the same area. With my flaky German I only realised we were heading on a multi-day underground camping trip the night before we set off. We were going to Wildbader Höhle, which was explored to -874m in 1982 by a team of tough French speleos from the Société des Amateurs de Cavernes de Rioz (SAC). Since 2013 VHO has been systematically resurveying and extending the cave. However, bad weather in the past two years meant that they hadn't yet reached the deepest horizontal level because the only route down is via a wet shaft series.

    The French survey of Wildbader Hoehle (1625/150) after exploration from 1977-1982.

    I set off to the underground camp with two tacklesacks - my own, laughably small by Austrian standards, plus another I was lent that was over twice the size. En route three of the five of us diverted off to take rope to start re-rigging the deep, wet pitch series. However, after a couple of short pitches, we reached a big shaft where the overnight rain meant that a powerful waterfall was shooting across it to hit the far wall, filling it with spray. With the cave at 2 degrees and us sleeping in our caving undersuits we weren't willing to get soaked so we left the gear and headed back up.

    Later, whilst unpacking at camp, I spotted a wetsuit. Hmm, what's that about? It's for Robert, I was told. Strange, I thought, surely he's not diving here? Then, mixed in with the bags of food, I saw a neoprene hood - so what's this needed for? After all, the Austrians think British cavers are crazy for going near pitches with water. They explore flood-prone caves in the winter, when water levels are low and predictable as any precipitation falls as snow. Well, they do except that, just this once, and unbeknownst to me, the plan was to try to bottom Wildbader Höhle, dropping from the camp at -400m to follow the master streamway down another 500m of aqueous pitches. So they all had their wet gear with them. WHY DID NOBODY THINK TO TELL ME? I even had neoprene at the CUCC Base Camp, neatly packed away, that I could have brought. And it looks like I'm supposed to be in the team of three going deep tomorrow.

    The next morning I could hear them talking about me but I couldn't follow what they were saying. Eventually Paulina said that Robert and Glitzi would wear their wetsuits under their oversuits and that I could use her thin rubber suit which should keep my furry stuff dry underneath it. I didn't really understand what I was being offered but anything had to be better than drenching all my clothes. It turned out the suit was a Russia-made, lightweight, membrane caving drysuit. Despite being taller than Paulina I managed to get into it though once I had my harness on I couldn't raise my arms far ... but hopefully there'd be no stretchy free-climbs needed. It felt odd but toasty and comforting, hurrah, things were looking up. However, barely five minutes after leaving camp, my wrists were being squeezed unbearably tight by the seals: this just wasn't going to work. I struggled out of the top half of the suit then tied the arms around myself, so effectively I was wearing pontonnieres. I was now perfectly equipped for wading deep canals .... but that wasn't where I was going. I was scared that, with water falling down on me, I'd fill up like a tacklebag with no drainage holes ... and then what?

    The three of us set off down the pitches. The water levels hadn't dropped from yesterday and we were each struggling with a beast of a bag. Together we had around 300m of 10mm rope, rigging gear, a hefty drill, spare battery and all the rest of the usual junk you need. Around 250m down we got to VHO's previous limit of rigging. Here we slowed down as Glitzi started to put in thru-bolts whilst Robert began surveying. I was at the back, tasked with the no-brainer, donkey-plus-Disto-target role.

    Is this the worst water yet, I kept pestering Robert. No, no, it gets wetter further down, as inlets come in. Sheeesh. The low point was a long drop that ended with 10m where the rope disappeared, unavoidably, into the middle of the main water course. I abseiled through, water pounding down on me and emerged to join Robert at a small ledge. The shaft here was 7m in diameter. Some bits didn't even have much spray. All innocence, I shouted to him above the din: so could the rig perhaps go, err, a little further away from the water? Not possible, I was told, firmly. Oh woe.

    Fortunately below here Glitzi found a dry parallel shaft series for a series of drops. Unfortunately the draft was even stronger. Pitiably, I tried to use my tacklesack to shelter from it. As we slowly crept deeper I knew I wasn't the only one struggling to keep my temperature from steadily dropping: I could see the tell-tale, jittery dance of the laser beam of the Disto and I felt for Robert as I watched him battling  to control his hand shake enough to draw the survey notes. It transpired that he and Glitzi were in just 2mm of neoprene under their cordura oversuits - madness. Later still I was told that when the original French explorers got hit by heavy rain down there they couldn't keep their carbides alight. There was nowhere to shelter so they'd put plastic bags over their heads to let them breathe and then prussiked up through the waterfalls in the dark. There's always another level of misery to sink down to.

    Finally, seven hours in, Glitzi then Robert whooped and, at last, I touched down in the huge chamber at the base of the shafts. I climbed stiffly up the boulder pile to them, out of the spray, and we shook hands formally and grinned inanely - we'd done it. We stomped off down the huge phreatic passage slowly driving some warmth into ourselves, took photos and heated drinks on the Jetboil (an excellent, well-designed bit of kit - light and really fast to boil). I braced myself and breezily asked, so, what now? Do we finish the survey down here? No, it's late - we'll just head out. Phew.

    Five hours later I was at last away from the water. My arms were sodden and I was still chilled through but I'd thrashed myself and my bigger-cross-section-than-me tacklesack up through some tight pitch heads that vied with the most awkward that Yorkshire has to offer. We made it back to camp before 3am after fifteen hours of effort. The other two woke and cooked for us whilst Robert and Glitzi peeled off their wetsuits and changed into their dry furries with shudders of pleasure. No such instant relief for me. However, from now on in it was just a waiting game. I pulled off my wettest layer and tucked up in my pit to gradually warm up and then to start to dry off. Finally back within my comfort zone ....

    Relaxing in the sunshine after the underground camping trip.
    +
    Beyond my comfort zone

    It's been six hours since we left the quiet, calm space of the fossil level and started dropping down hundreds of metres of spray-lashed pitches. Six hours fighting hypothermia with not one alcove or sheltered ledge to escape the unremitting, icy gale. We're at the head of another 50m pitch with anchors going in for the final bag of rope but I can't wait any longer. I strip half naked to piss in the churning pool at the base of a waterfall then battle for ten minutes to get dressed again, my useless, numb fingers refusing to grip my central MR tight enough to turn it. Over 800m above me the sun is baking the limestone pavement. What am I doing here, struggling to hold it together?

    Setting off for the two hour walk up from the valley to the surface camp at Plankamira.


    And in the drizzle on the way up, with Glitzi kitted out in wellies and an umbrella.

    Having been on the CUCC Expo since week one I took a few days out in the final week to join the local Austrian club, VHO, for their annual week of expedition to the Plankamira area, a few kilometres east of CUCC's patch in the Totes Gebirge. After five weeks of expedition caving I wasn't expecting anything too stressful and I thought I knew what to expect as I'd joined them twice before to cave in the same area. With my flaky German I only realised we were heading on a multi-day underground camping trip the night before we set off. We were going to Wildbader Höhle, which was explored to -874m in 1982 by a team of tough French speleos from the Société des Amateurs de Cavernes de Rioz (SAC). Since 2013 VHO has been systematically resurveying and extending the cave. However, bad weather in the past two years meant that they hadn't yet reached the deepest horizontal level because the only route down is via a wet shaft series.

    The French survey of Wildbader Hoehle (1625/150) after exploration from 1977-1982.

    I set off to the underground camp with two tacklesacks - my own, laughably small by Austrian standards, plus another I was lent that was over twice the size. En route three of the five of us diverted off to take rope to start re-rigging the deep, wet pitch series. However, after a couple of short pitches, we reached a big shaft where the overnight rain meant that a powerful waterfall was shooting across it to hit the far wall, filling it with spray. With the cave at 2 degrees and us sleeping in our caving undersuits we weren't willing to get soaked so we left the gear and headed back up.

    Later, whilst unpacking at camp, I spotted a wetsuit. Hmm, what's that about? It's for Robert, I was told. Strange, I thought, surely he's not diving here? Then, mixed in with the bags of food, I saw a neoprene hood - so what's this needed for? After all, the Austrians think British cavers are crazy for going near pitches with water. They explore flood-prone caves in the winter, when water levels are low and predictable as any precipitation falls as snow. Well, they do except that, just this once, and unbeknownst to me, the plan was to try to bottom Wildbader Höhle, dropping from the camp at -400m to follow the master streamway down another 500m of aqueous pitches. So they all had their wet gear with them. WHY DID NOBODY THINK TO TELL ME? I even had neoprene at the CUCC Base Camp, neatly packed away, that I could have brought. And it looks like I'm supposed to be in the team of three going deep tomorrow.

    The next morning I could hear them talking about me but I couldn't follow what they were saying. Eventually Paulina said that Robert and Glitzi would wear their wetsuits under their oversuits and that I could use her thin rubber suit which should keep my furry stuff dry underneath it. I didn't really understand what I was being offered but anything had to be better than drenching all my clothes. It turned out the suit was a Russia-made, lightweight, membrane caving drysuit. Despite being taller than Paulina I managed to get into it though once I had my harness on I couldn't raise my arms far ... but hopefully there'd be no stretchy free-climbs needed. It felt odd but toasty and comforting, hurrah, things were looking up. However, barely five minutes after leaving camp, my wrists were being squeezed unbearably tight by the seals: this just wasn't going to work. I struggled out of the top half of the suit then tied the arms around myself, so effectively I was wearing pontonnieres. I was now perfectly equipped for wading deep canals .... but that wasn't where I was going. I was scared that, with water falling down on me, I'd fill up like a tacklebag with no drainage holes ... and then what?

    The three of us set off down the pitches. The water levels hadn't dropped from yesterday and we were each struggling with a beast of a bag. Together we had around 300m of 10mm rope, rigging gear, a hefty drill, spare battery and all the rest of the usual junk you need. Around 250m down we got to VHO's previous limit of rigging. Here we slowed down as Glitzi started to put in thru-bolts whilst Robert began surveying. I was at the back, tasked with the no-brainer, donkey-plus-Disto-target role.

    Is this the worst water yet, I kept pestering Robert. No, no, it gets wetter further down, as inlets come in. Sheeesh. The low point was a long drop that ended with 10m where the rope disappeared, unavoidably, into the middle of the main water course. I abseiled through, water pounding down on me and emerged to join Robert at a small ledge. The shaft here was 7m in diameter. Some bits didn't even have much spray. All innocence, I shouted to him above the din: so could the rig perhaps go, err, a little further away from the water? Not possible, I was told, firmly. Oh woe.

    Fortunately below here Glitzi found a dry parallel shaft series for a series of drops. Unfortunately the draft was even stronger. Pitiably, I tried to use my tacklesack to shelter from it. As we slowly crept deeper I knew I wasn't the only one struggling to keep my temperature from steadily dropping: I could see the tell-tale, jittery dance of the laser beam of the Disto and I felt for Robert as I watched him battling  to control his hand shake enough to draw the survey notes. It transpired that he and Glitzi were in just 2mm of neoprene under their cordura oversuits - madness. Later still I was told that when the original French explorers got hit by heavy rain down there they couldn't keep their carbides alight. There was nowhere to shelter so they'd put plastic bags over their heads to let them breathe and then prussiked up through the waterfalls in the dark. There's always another level of misery to sink down to.

    Finally, seven hours in, Glitzi then Robert whooped and, at last, I touched down in the huge chamber at the base of the shafts. I climbed stiffly up the boulder pile to them, out of the spray, and we shook hands formally and grinned inanely - we'd done it. We stomped off down the huge phreatic passage slowly driving some warmth into ourselves, took photos and heated drinks on the Jetboil (an excellent, well-designed bit of kit - light and really fast to boil). I braced myself and breezily asked, so, what now? Do we finish the survey down here? No, it's late - we'll just head out. Phew.

    Five hours later I was at last away from the water. My arms were sodden and I was still chilled through but I'd thrashed myself and my bigger-cross-section-than-me tacklesack up through some tight pitch heads that vied with the most awkward that Yorkshire has to offer. We made it back to camp before 3am after fifteen hours of effort. The other two woke and cooked for us whilst Robert and Glitzi peeled off their wetsuits and changed into their dry furries with shudders of pleasure. No such instant relief for me. However, from now on in it was just a waiting game. I pulled off my wettest layer and tucked up in my pit to gradually warm up and then to start to dry off. Finally back within my comfort zone ....

    Relaxing in the sunshine after the underground camping trip.
    diff --git a/years/2018/logbook.html b/years/2018/logbook.html index 3237e963a..3963c311d 100644 --- a/years/2018/logbook.html +++ b/years/2018/logbook.html @@ -2161,7 +2161,7 @@ We've already had posts from first timers so, to balance that out, here's my old For the avoidance of doubt, and for those of you don't know us, that's utter bollocks. George is a far better caver than me at SRT, rigging, finding and sticking with a project, navigation (not hard), climbing, carrying heavy bags, derigging, patience, surveying, conservation and scooping (yup, it's out there, sue me for defamation if you dare!). Don't be running away with the idea that list is comprehensive though: I have the edge on him at squeezes (despite him being willing to try harder, sleep deprivation (my, don't young people sleep a lot?), I'm far bossier and, though I haven't tested this properly, I reckon I've a greater bloody-minded capacity for enduring misery (I suspect it would take around a week of 10 hour trips in small, cold, wet, muddy, boring caves to break him and you just wouldn't believe how full my diary is right now so that'll have to wait).

    -Anyway, we (us two, Luke, Olly, Adam, Rachel, Nadia, Jacob, Philip, Wookey and Max) had a series of fine trips including finding what we think is the deepest shaft in the SMK system (Mongol Rally at 200m deep), two connections between Balkonhöhle and Tunnockschact, a sprout and a sump at -720m, many, many bat bones and over 5km of passage including the monster Grand Prix (incidentally, I agree, what's with the names? My carefully crafted puns were all flat-out rejected so we're stuck with a notable chamber called Big Lad - it should have been Raisin' Hell - and both Hangryman Pitch and Hangeryman Pitch are still up for grabs). Also, after 5 weeks of training I've mastered an alternative way to the tie a stopper knot and learnt the industry standard way to tie knots in the end of a rope (thanks, guys, for that fine use of my strictly limited long term memory). +Anyway, we (us two, Luke, Olly, Adam, Rachel, Nadia, Jacob, Philip, Wookey and Max) had a series of fine trips including finding what we think is the deepest shaft in the SMK system (Mongol Rally at 200m deep), two connections between Balkonhöhle and Tunnockschact, a sprout and a sump at -720m, many, many bat bones and over 5km of passage including the monster Grand Prix (incidentally, I agree, what's with the names? My carefully crafted puns were all flat-out rejected so we're stuck with a notable chamber called Big Lad - it should have been Raisin' Hell - and both Hangryman Pitch and Hangeryman Pitch are still up for grabs). Also, after 5 weeks of training I've mastered an alternative way to the tie a stopper knot and learnt the industry standard way to tie knots in the end of a rope (thanks, guys, for that fine use of my strictly limited long term memory).

    After 220 hours underground this summer with CUCC I've skipped derigging (obviously I'd have loved to have helped out but unfortunately the timing was against me) and I've decamped to spend a week with the local Austrian club (VHO http://vho-caving-news.blogspot.com/) on their Plankamira expedition. This made for quite a culture change - there's only 5 of us and we're all around a half century old. Now, at last, my rigging suggestions are listened to attentively (rather than being firmly squashed) and nobody passes comment about the volume of food I get through (George eats like a grasshopper). I've also escaped the unending put-downs - "if you're going to rig that pitch don't do a half-arsed job of it"; "that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't placed it in a flake"; "you and your slopy shoulders"; and "no, you can't lead us out, you're so bad it's just not funny" and so on. Also, it's relaxing not having to tell everyone what to do :-) Best of all, I'm now the fastest prussiker (yeah, yeah, of course it's not a competition).