EXPO 2001
Sun 5th Aug MarkS travels to Austria.
An uneventful but pleasant journey via Venice (don't ask!). Flew Stansted -> venice, then bus to Venitia Mestré station. Train to Bad Aussee, arriving at 8.05pm (on the dot!) after 16 hours' traveling.
Mon 6th Aug. MarkS, Martin, Earl, Brian, MikeC.
Carry to 204.
Set off from the Bergrestaurant about lunchtime, after ordering fore Gemknödel in the said restaurant. Cargo was to black water butts and the equipment to assemble the waterworks at 204. At the Kratzer junction, there was a delay of 15 mins 'cos Martin's butt had opened (it was being carried upside-down); thankfully no shit fell out. Eventually arrived at Top Camp and proceeded to 204. Nearly at 204, Martin had anothr accident with the again. Earl + Mark took a detour to find a quicker route from the slabs to 204, but ended up just finding Gemknödelhöhle [ed.: Germ...?], to the west of 204 by a few hundred metres. A low entrance leads to a couple of chambers of a climb to a higher entrance. Eventually Mark + Earl got to 204 (after investigating a hole with a choke and a skeleton - chamois??). Set up some water-collecting equipment and then walked back to the car park. Went to Base Camp. Food in Hilde's. Weissbier. Gösser. Tatty Hut.
Sat 04/Sun 05 Aug. Dunks + Martin go to austria
Got up 6am and packed. Drove to Cambridge for 11. A bit of driving around to Collect stuff from various places. Halfway through extracting shit from the tackle store to pack. I threw a 7 and landed on community chest:
So packed the car + then headed north to Chesterfield (130 miles, 2¼ hours away) to get the rope. 24¼ hours after leaving Cambridge, 19½ of which were spent driving, arrived at base camp.
Zondas uif Augustus. Tony, Mike & Letty koen naar Oostenrijk. [this ending appears all over - I can't tell if it is ijk or ijh or yk or yh]
Trein had naturlijh zeals gewoonljh weer vertraging. Eindelijk een ruirn halfuur te latt in Hock van Holland Tony & Mike tegengehomenl toen hat voor elhaar gehregen om ongeveer een nur rond Schiedam rond te blijven ryden voordat we de hoofdweg konden vinden.
Toen nix - behalve hele kolonnes Amerkaanse soldaten langs de autobahn in Duitsland - prima, hoe meer hoe beter. En ze reden niet richting noord-west, dus geen probleem. Nach osten und immer gerade aus, und bring mir mein fahrrad zurück. En dat soort dingen.
Na nog veel meer saais eindelijk Oostenrijk - wahher geworden toen de weg ineens stopte en grindpad werd, maar dat gebeurde daar na nog 10 X en is blijkbaar normaal in ditland. Oostenrijkers sijn blijkbaer vergelijkbaar met Duitsers, Belgen. Rond zonsopgans aangehomen; paer biertjes en wat te rohen en stapen _ in andere woorden _ de recs overleefd, zonder dat allerslei illegaals wit onze auto was gejat door de moffen _ _ En zonder dat we ergens een berg afgereden zijn. Verbazingwehlend genog _ en ih geloof dat ik niets hatelijx over onze chauffeur mag zeygen dusdar zalihniet doen maar hijheet tony. Maar we zijn leverd aangehomen _ [acid-type smiley]
You what? You did What? MCT [ed: this line in different pen]
9-Aug. Thur. Martin & Brian Steinbrucken
Rig 1st pitch, 2nd pitch, stich this & Thread down to Wolpertinger*. Go on joll to Cave tree chamber to check out what new stuff was discovered at end 2000 expo, via 110 bidet, no pain no gain Insig Chmb etc. on the way out drill new spit for Y hang at top of 2nd (jim'll fix it) pitch).
* Deviate thread Pitch with dodgy natural on left wall looking SW above 99-06c QM deviating into potential water down pitch but away from rub point and towards above QM.
10 Aug Fri. Martin & Brian.
Go down to Insignificant chamber to push lead ( ) climb up to left TU 5
9-10 Aug Phil & Mike T go to Austria
Set off Ormskirk 1900h -> Elland to pick up MCT. Tanked down M1 to cambridge - pick up stuff from Wookey. Drove to dover to watch our ferry leave. Slept. Ferry. Autobahn. Austria.
Speeding cameras activated on 14.
Phil U:1 MCT:1 .: draw
decider on way home.
11-Aug-01 Becka + Martin Steinbrückenhöhle
Survey down 24A QM from 2000, midway up on left in Treeumphant passage. Easy passage heading up for 9 legs up to chamber with way on continuing (probably) up easy but loose climb - needs a handline? Then surveyed off lead just back from this climb heading down + south, initially into small chamber with lots of snow and I thought I could see a glimmer of daylight alcove. Passage continued on other side of chamber, initially walking down v. atractive phreatic passage the becoming lower, stooping. Had to turn back (after 5 hours surveying) to reach call-out without finishing, so still an open lead. after 40 legs, I was still toasty warm + hadn't put my balaclava on - regretted the extra furry on the way out though. Survey called 'Crowning Glory'. T/U 7hrs 30min
12 / Aug / 01 Becka + Martin Steinbruckenhöhle
Andy + Wayne from TSG
Survey down 41A QM from 2000. For Becka + Martin, after showing Andy + Wayne where 40A lead was. They put 2 bolts in to put handline / shunt - needed? on short climb up over pitch. After tootling back to find us to say their bolts wouldn't set, we eventually realised they'd omitted the cone. Ah. They went back, got up + into 100m passage, large, sloping up + they thought continuing the same direction as Treeumphant passage + ending in a large aven with a further climb to do, to enter continuation of passage. Martin + I surveyed up 41A, smallish walking passage heading North, parallel to Treeumphant passage. Bridged over pitch, only ~5m down but seemed to be a couple more pitches below from rocks bouncing + the draft possibly came from it, not very large but fine except for large, loose boulders at head of it. well worth looking at. We continued surveying up to aven with mud pile on floor, + then another branch off left, passage in tightish rift, small chamber to right, passage continued left into near flat-out-crawl, deteriorating to flat out crawl. Stopped survey at T-junction, ways L+R about large enough to continue but fortunately our time was up. 30 stations in 4 hours. Met other two + headed out. (over 350m surveying in 2 days). [bracket covering 5 lines from 'mud pile on floor' to 'to continue but' saying 'All heading up gently']
12 AUG / 01 - SAME TRIP AS ABOVE
WAYNE + ANDY (FROM TSG)
I'M MORE USED TO USING THRU-BOLTS AND A DRILL WHEN IT COMES TO CLIMBING SO USING A HILTI BOLT WAS CHANGE TO ME. I THINK THE LAST TIME I USED A CONE ? (WELL I CAN'T REMEMBER) ANYWAY IT SOON CAME BACK TO ME WHEN I WAS TOLD WHAT TO DO!
WE WERE DIRECTED TO CLIMBV THIS SHORT CLIMB BY MARTIN & BECKA. IF YOU READ THE ABOVE, THEY HAVE FILLED YOU IN ON OUR CLIMBING ACTIVITIES. AFTER CLIMBING THE CLIMB, USING A SHUNT BECAUSE THEY CAN BE MOVED EITHER DIRECTION ON A ROPE, SO THERE IS NO NEED TO CHANGE DEVICES; IN TERMS OF ABSAILING OR PRUSSIKING DEVICES. THE POINT I PUT ACROSS WAS, THAT USING A SHUNT IN THE [IWTIYI ??] EXPLORATION OF THE CLIMB WAS ESSENTIAL, AS THAT I COULD HAVE CHANGED MY MIND ON CLIMBING UP AND THE SHUNT CAN EASILY BE MOVED DOWN THE ROPE TOWWRDS ME IF REQUIRED. I NEVER SAID THAT A SHUNT WAS REQUIRED, ITS SOMETHING THAT I USE AND SOMETHING/a DEVICE THAT I KNOW ALOT OF PEOPLE WHO ALSO USE THEM. YOU CAN EASILY USE A COWSTAIL ON IT NOW. i'LL STILL USE A SHUNT, LIKE I DO ON MOST HANDLINES I DO!
ABOUT THIS CLIMB, THERE WAS ABOUT 100 METRES OF SLOPING PASSAGE ENDING AT A AVEN, WITH PASSAGES CONTINUING BEYOND BUT NOT EXPLORED. IT GOES IN THE NORTH DIRECTION, BUT IN SEVERAL BENDS (MANY 90°). WE WILL SURVEY TOMORROW?
13 AUG 2001 - WAYNE + ANDY, MICK + DUNCAN
WE SURVEYED THE PASSAGE TO THE AVEN (SPEAK TO DUNCAN) MICK + ADNY LOOKED AT THE CONTINUATION OF THE PASSAGE, ANOTHER 50 METRES + PASSAGE, ENDING AT PITCHES. (SPEAK TO MICK T) DUNCAN WILL DRAW UP SURVEY. [all the E's in previous write-up are indistinguishable from U's]
[In even bigger caps, pointing at above writeup] LURN TO FUCKING WRITU
[In another hand:] Is this in hebrew? MCT. [And presumably in response:]IF YOU LIKE, FUCK OFF
Becka, Martin + Earl Surface 13/8/01
Had entered positions of Cave Tree, Great Oak Chamber + the snow chamber in crwning glory into Earl's GPS. Walked up to 204 + set off to find points on surface. Turned out to be q. high up , ~100m above the points we'd surveyed underground, though GPS aren't so good at height. Wandered right up to the bunde-covered peak then back down 204. Lots of big shafts, then Martin found pitch down a thin rift. Put a cairn by it. MarkS, Animal, et al surface surveyed to it next day (14/8) the next day Animal + MikeC (15/8) drill-bolted down + got into Cave Tree via a loose entrance pitch, ~35m down.
T,U 10 minutes
Becka, Martin + Earl 204 14/8/01
Down treeumphant + turned left down Crowning Glory (QM24A). Climbed up free climb at end of main passage where our survey on 11/8/01 down main passage had ended. Put handline (11 metres OK) on + left Earl to put in 2 bolts for pitch down Martin + + went back passage + down left, past snow chamber {put carbides out - Definately Daylight up there, albeit only a glimmer). Down to end of where 11/8/01 survey had ended (down wallking passage q. steep down). Continued surveying on until something that looked like a pitch. Kicked rocks down then decided it was freeclimable, called it Helter Skelter. Ended in a draughting hole with boulders which looked like it could be squeezed over if you didn't mind loose stuff or given a bit of crow-bar persuasion. We dug it a bit the finished off the survey there + headed back to Earl. He'd just finished rigging a hand-line (needs ~16 metres) + got down to the floor, avoiding the pitch. He could scramble up a boulder slope the far side of the pitch + said there was another pitch with passage continuing the other side, needing bolting around the pith to gte to. We'd run out of rope, so headed back down main passage (called Bouldercoaster?) + left immediately after free-climb down to get shortcut back to Treeumphant via the QM28A. Did more taping, & showed Earl cave tree Chamber, then down to 53A. Earl thought about putting a bolt in for pitch there but decided against it, poor hang + not v.exciting pitch whilst Martin + I surveyed. We realised that 42B joined to 53A, so we surveyed between the two starting at 42B. Finally, still had a bi of time left so started surveying up 12B, which Mark Byers had had a quick look up last year. Quickly became pretty low, wide passage with nice mud on floor + white stals. Stopped surveying at station 7, at top of small chamber. Out, goood, varied trip.
T/U 9hrs
Becka + Earl 204 15/8/01
Back to where we'd finihde surveying down 12B yesterday at statio 7. Survey down into chamber (after putting in a largely superfluous 8m handline). Turned left, free-climbed down to bottom of chamber, clambered down + over boulders into rift for ~20m, until got to edge of very large pitch. 2+ second free drop + lovely clean shaft. Surveyed all that. Back to chamber, continued surveying up passage until popped out into HUGE passage. Ignored right passage + surveyed along passing several QMA's + getting 5 consecutive legs of over 20 metres. Finally ended in loose boulder slope leading up to hole in ceiling. Do-able but not great - the passage high above just before the boulder slope looked better. Back down the massive phreatic passage + met Martin, Tony + Letty. Sent them to look at the big stuff, whilt Earl + I surveyed up right where we'd popped out into big stuff. Didn't go far, right ended in another boulder slope up, straight on was a good,, draughting walking sie passage. Earl + I went back to the chamber with Letty to tie up + finish the survey there whilst Tony + Martin surveyed the first left in the big passage which became a rift + then we could see their light from our passages near the chamber. Fine trip. Out.
T/U 9hrs
Martin, Tony and Letty 204 15/8/01
Pushed leads in No pain no gain 2000-2B was pushed to the pitch under King Carbide just above pleasure dome. Pushed leads there which all ended in pitches into pleasure dome, apart from one which was left unpushed.
We then went to look at the stuff of 12B, we surveyed one of Earl abd Beckas side passages to find a number of white stalactites. We then met Earl and Becka who showed us the way to Swings and roundabouts. We had a toursit, then Tony I pushed a lead which looped back to a previous part of Becka and Earls survey. Meanwhile Letty showed Earl and Becka the side lead to confirm the connecting survey stations.
T/U 9hours
Anthony & Julia Surface Survey 14/8/01
Sat around until 5pm when it was sufficiently cool to walk more than 5 yards without totally dehydrating. Surface surveyed from 204A to a hole Becka had spotted earlier in the week via 2 other holes. The firs is a small downhill crawl at the bottom of a shakehole, looked at by Mike TA who declared it to be a dig [ now tagged 2001/02]. The second hole is a short (~5m) downclimb with passage going off [now tagged 2001/03]. Survey puts this straight over the colonnade in 04 (which boasts a couple of avens). This hole had what appeared to be a freshly placed spit of unknown provenance. Neither hole has been tagged yet, thought spits are placed for this. The final hole was descended by MikeTA and MikeC the folowing day...
Anthony, Duncan, Mick & Brian 204 15/8/01
Plan was for Mick & Brian to bolt across a pit at the northern extremity of "Chocolate Salty Balls" while me & Dunks caught up with the surveying backlog. Got to Cave Tree chamber to find a rope hanging out of the roof and an Animal stood at the bottom - hence 204 had its third entrance. We were warned that the pitch head was "rather loose" but planned to go out that way. Surveying proceeded at a reasonable pace, and we caught up with Mick & Brian just as Brian was preparing to place the last traverse bolt. At this point we notied that there was no draught coming from across the pitch, so it came as less of a surprise when Brian teetered across to find all of four feet of cave. While we were there, we thought we might as well drop the pitch. At the bottom is a short horizontal passage leading to another pitch. This appears to be mderately deep as a stone rattled for 11 seconds down it ...
Steamed on out and got to the bottom of the new entrance pitch. Pitch was very nice until the last 5m where the rope appeared to hang out of a "rather loose" boulder choke. Once off the rope, the fun continues with an uphill squeeze through mobile boulders.
If this pitch is to become a trade route, some serious gardening must be performed because at the moment it is a deathtrap - one of the loosest pitch heads Dunks or I have seen in Austria *
TU 7hrs
* This place is a fucking death-trap. it is in danger of major collapse. I'd give it a resounding Ø star reommendation. Duncan
Duncan, Wayne 204 Chocolate Salty Balls 13/9/01
Survey of stuff pushed by Wayne + Andy on an earlier trip. About 120m of stomping passage trending mainly north from Cave Tree Chamber.
TU 6hrs.
Friday 17th Aug Eishöhle - Mission Impossible
Connection seeking - Hils + Olly
We heroically dragged
ourselves out of our pits at 7.30 the morning aftr the Expo Dinner + headed
u the hill to Find The Connetion. - a bolt traverse around the head of Over
The Top.
Olly wants to call this traverse "Too Hard For CUCC" (I think on the grounds that he couldn't drag anyone else up here when there was 4k of open passage to be walked into on the other side of the hill, till an unsuspecting oxford mug came along), but since he bolted the entire traverse while I fell asleep on a pile of rope, it might not be as appropiate as he'd hoped :-) [This smiley actually vertical - Ed]
Anyway, we (Olly) bolted the traverse, and found a loose sand/rocks slope heading up a tunnel on the far side of the pitch chamber. TBC....
Heading [Arrow pointing to comment in pencil Not surveyed'] back from Over The Top, I (when I wasn't asleep) dropped a pitch (~20m) to a rocky floor, with a slot in the wall at chest height, heading down a pitch of indeterminate length. *
No naturals + I didn't have a bolt kit, so couldn't go any further. It's heading the wrong way for a connection anyway (both horizontally + vertically), & Olly thinks it might drop into a known pitch whose name he isn't sure of ("the Missio Impossible Pitch"/"Ol's Pitch"??).
(* Stone rattle varies beteen ~5s and ~10s )
Sat 18th & Sun 19th Aug
Eishöhle - Mission Impossible
More connection-seeking mit Hils + Olly (....cont'd from Fri 17th)
Yesterday (18th - bit confused... ) we bolted/climbed up a 20m 45° slope, beyond the sandy slope ( see writeup of Fri 17th). This made us very happy, coz apparently the most promising-looking leads in KH around the Theatre - the nearest part to where we are - are unbolted up-pitches, so, we wanna get high…
On the 19th we gained a rift passage at the top of the 45° slope. It changes direction lots, has no roof or floor and is confusing. It feels like we're heading up an inlet, or possibly we've intersected one and could follow it up- or downstream. Going to plot centreline to figure out what's happening…
[Olly (while calculatig coordinates so we can figure out where the hell we're going); "Yay, we're 3mm further North"]
Following the rift upstream leads to a climb which I've temporary-rigged (needs rigging as a pitch really). At the top you can go left, right or up … TBC …
Mon 20th am (not a caving trip, just an admin sesh)
The currently closest explored EH point to KH is 37m away. Our bolt traverse over Over The Top started 102m away. The first day we got 32m closer. The second day we got 16m closer again. From this we conclude that our approach to KH is an exponential decay to a asymptote at 38m separation. FFS. Shall we just go to the pub?
Oh yeah, and we've rejigged the "bolt traverse" round Over The Top as a pendule - new riging topo:
[pic]
Mon 20th Eishöhle
Guess what. Looking for a connection again.
Now we've also rejigged the upper half of Devil's Chute: new rigging topo :
[pic]
We also climbed a few metres higher in yesterday's rift [ rerigged the pitch - new rigging topo:
[pic]
then decided to check out the downstream direction of the high-level rift, to see if it went anywhere different from downstream rift at low level (i.e. where we'd come from). It doesn't [appear to], so we surveyed + derigged it.
The remaining lead is to continue climbing + traversing in the upstream direction. Following upstream at floor level reaches (yet another) drippy aven but (yet again), a few metres before the aven, it's possible to climb the rift (which we've now done), and traverse across. (The rift isn't confusing any more - linear, but hading and winding.)
Top cave. Top 4 days. Don't know if I'm going back there, but somone else should :-} And here's my most important Top Tip: wear crampons that stay on your feet. Otherwise you end up doing a frighteningly friendly dance with Olly in order to claw your way out of Schneevulcanhalle. Euugghh.
Hilary
P.S. derigged the bolt traverse (Too Across)* and the going-the-wrong-direction pitch from Fri 17th.
* (but left the pendule in place, obviously)
Becka + Earl 204B 17/08/01
Up + off early after the dinner . Plod up to 204 with 'bide + stuff. Underground ~1pm, still feeling a bit woozy after drinking too much last night. Down to Swings+ Roundabouts. Surveyed phreatic tube to RHS at start. Pretty, inclining up, gets to large but not especially deep pitch + side passage linked back into S+R. Back to S+R, + started to survey QM on LHS about halfway along as far as a pit in the floor. Out.
T/U 6hours?
Becka + Earl 204B 18/08/01
I think this was the 10am underground day. Back to Swings + Roundabouts. Finished surveying the LHS, QM which we started yesterday. Cimbed into pit in floor. No big ways on. Up over the top, continued to loose boulder choked area. Thought I could dig through in the floor. Moved enough stuff to wriggle myself down + got into **BIG** passage with what looked like 3 ways on. Jabbered to Earl + started pulling boulders out of another small hole (so two ways out, both bit loose) + we surveyed through whilst I tried to work out which way we wanted to head for KH. Then Earl wandered out into the massive phreatic and found a survey point - Earl sniggered like a manic mouse for a couple of minutes - Bum. nother QM A ticked off. Had a slow wander up S+R + couldn't see any more obbvious ways on so I decided to have another look at the loose boulder slope at the end. Noticed a largish solution tube at the top, above the boulders. Climbed into it + whoa, it went up steeply + popped out near the top of the pile of boulders in a chamber with a ramp off to the right + a passage ahead. The passage had a 3m drop into what looked like the continuation of the Swings + Roundabouts main passage. Looked good! Slithered back don the boulders to Earl, Happy. Out
T/U 8hours?
Becka + Earl 204B -> 204D! 19/08/01
Back to where had finished off yesterday. Continued the survey from the boulder pile up the solution tube ("Suspended Solutions") + rigged a ladder off a natural down into the passage below. Noticed a moth in the chamber - hmm. It turned out to be a 11m × 11m massive chamber, very alternative, huge q.low angled roof slab and boulder floor with a river bed of dry mud running through it. Earl + I squabbled over wh go to go first. One main way out - and a pile of snow + ice. Hmm. Then Earl ducked under another low roof ridge - and saw daylight,&ellip; slightly disapointed the passage had ended but a new entrance was the next best thing. Chimneyed up about 6m + there were several places with light chinking through boulders but nowhere big eough to get out . Earl put a bolt in from a ledge then hung off it as he hammered away at the boulders. After some considerable gardening ( hard to stop Mr. Merson when he gets going so I just cowered) he could squeeze out + then had a better angle of attack to kick down yet more choss. Put a rope on to protect the freeclimb + surveyed out. The snow plug was rotten + q.hard to climb out of + the rock a