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<title>1978: Nick Thorne's report for Descent 40</title>
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<p style="font-size: 80%">CTS 79.2025: Descent 40 (Jan/Feb 1979) pp
10-11</p>
<p>This article first appeared in <i>Descent</i>(40) for Jan/Feb
1979, pp10-11 and is reproduced in the password protected part of
the website with the permission of the author and Wild Places
Publishing.</p>

<h1>Eislufthole still going for CUCC at 1148 ft</h1>
<p style="text-align: right"><b>By Nick Thorne</b></p>

<p>After last year's quietly successful Cambridge UCC expedition
(see <a href="../1977/descnt.htm"><i>Descent 38</i></a>),
enthusiasm to return to the karst regions of Western Austria
soared. The main incentive was to carry on prospecting on the
almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau above <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Altaussee,</span> and to continue pushing our unfinished find
of last year, 106 - <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Eislufth&ouml;hle</span> (good name, eh?).</p>
<p>By way of introduction, <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Altaussee</span> is a small village about 50 miles east of
<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Salzburg,</span> and it was there
that we set up our camp. The Loser Plateau where we carried out
most of our work is then reached by a steep (in more ways than one)
toll road, followed by an hour's brisk walk from the top.
Furtunately for us, one of the few local cavers, <span lang="de"
xml:lang="de">Karl Gaisberger,</span> who seems to be able to
arrange anything, managed to secure free passes for us on the toll
road. Cheers Karl; how about a sedan chair for the walk at the top
next year?</p>
<p>So in July and August of this year, we were back on the Loser
with a fairly hefty team. Expedition members divided logically into
three groups: Team <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Eislufth&ouml;hle:</span> Andy Waddington, Simon Farrow, Nick
Thorne, Doug Florence and Julian Griffiths - the crack ropes team,
ready for anything. Team Ladders: John Bowers, Ben van Millingen,
Mike Shearme and Nicola Davies - all spending their first year in
Austria. Team Geriatric: Rod and Jont Leach, Vic Brown, Dave Fox,
plus "hangers on". These acted as the emergency reserve powerhouse,
to be called into service should things get out of hand for the
rest of us. (Something like Aladdin's lamp I suppose, but this lot
looked more like a clapped out carbide).</p>
<p>And so to caving. Team Ladders didn't take long to find a
promising, draughting entrance. All well and good so far, but the
entrance initially was only big enough for a midget and it was only
after a couple of days of boulder hauling that they got
underground. The cave, 107, they called <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Gemseh&ouml;hle.</span> Since I didn't get a trip down it, and know
Berger all about it, I won't go into too much detail.</p>
<p>Apparently they descended a series of pitches in a large rift,
down to about 560ft, when the tackle started to run out, with the
cave continuing. They chose to get out of this dilemma by rubbing
the magic carbide lamp. Wham! Team Geriatric hauled their weary
bodies out of their canoes (canoes?) and went down <span lang="de"
xml:lang="de">Gemseh&ouml;hle</span> with a brand new reel of Marlow.
Once underground, the Geriatrics were immediately transformed into
an efficient well-oiled machine. Within a couple of trips,
<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Gemseh&ouml;hle</span> had been pushed to
a choke at minus 918ft.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what of Team <span lang="de"
xml:lang="de">Eislufth&ouml;hle</span>? Mixed fortunes really. A slow
rig in down to last year's terminus (ie. the Tap Room - see survey)
was due to greater amounts of snow and ice than last year. ("Are
you sure this is the right cave?") At one point a huge ice boulder
was suspended at a pitch take-off, and it refused to give way to a
well-directed wellie. Farrow and Florence then carted a great
crowbar into the cave to shift the thing, only to find that the
boulder had fallen down in the meantime. Ah, well !</p>
<p>Once we had rigged down to The Tap Room, but before pushing far
into new ground, we had an interesting policy change - to overnight
trips. The lapiaz in which the cave entrance is sited is impossible
to negotiate in darkness, and therefore trips during the daytime
are limited to a maximum of eight hours underground. Longer trips
could be attained by going underground in the late afternoon,
spending a minimum time underground of about ten hours, and then
emerging into the morning light.</p>
<p>Good idea, we thought, and indeed the first of these trips did
add 394ft to the depth of <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Eislufth&ouml;hle,</span> including the magnificent 197ft abseil
into The Hall of the Greene King. Subsequent overnight trips pushed
on down some more pitches, and a very muddy 'Fiesta Run' to give a
total depth of 1,148ft, the cave still continuing. This bottom part
of the cave is a very tall vadose stream canyon. The passage is
very tight at stream level and traversing was necessary.</p>
<p>It was whilst driving back from the last of these overnight
trips, at about 7 o'clock in the morning, when we had a slight
mishap. The driver of the car carrying three of Team <span lang=
"de" xml:lang="de">Eislufth&ouml;hle</span> back down the toll road,
fell asleep at the wheel. With that Great Karst Area in the Sky
Looming ever nearer, the car missed a telegraph pole and a tree by
inches, went through a fence cum crash barrier, and gracefully
launched itself over the void.</p>
<p>Well, it could have been a drop of a couple of hundred feet had
it happened further up the road, but as it was, any spectators
stupid enough to be awake at that ungodly hour would have seen a
fine piece of 'S' registered, British engineering fall, roll, and
tumble down a near vertical 30ft bank, to land wheels down in the
river at the bottom. (all film rights reserved.)</p>
<p>The driver had a broken sternum, cuts to face and hands, and
concussion. The front seat passenger had a bad gash in the head,
and was suspected of having a lightly fractured neck, and as the
passenger in the back (I'm almost ashamed to say it!) I escaped
uninjured. The car was a write-off. Both injured parties are now
out of hospital, and well on the way to recovery. (Rats, I wanted
his watch!)</p>
<p>One consequence of the crash was to leave Team <span lang="de"
xml:lang="de">Eislufth&ouml;hle</span> a little short of manpower.
Efforts were shifted from surveying and photographing to derigging.
As the expedition neared its close, we even started fondling
insurance policies as we contemplated having to abandon some tackle
down the cave. With most of the cave still to derig, things looked
bleak. Then we remembered the magic carbide lamp . . . Wham! In
came Team Geriatric, fresh from <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Gemseh&ouml;hle,</span> and in one magnificent combined effort, we
cleared the cave with one day to spare.</p>
<p>On the return journey we were waved through Belgian customs by
the cleaning lady, and just reached an English telly five minutes
before Sid's Pippikin film started.</p>
<p>In conclusion then, the expedition was a great success, even if
the exploration of <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Eislufth&ouml;hle</span> was halted a little early. As for
<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Eislufth&ouml;hle</span> itself, it is now
one of Austria's most significant caves. From our end point this
year, we could lob stones down a considerable distance below, with
the stream canyon continuing. No sump appears imminent as there is
no fresh mud on the walls. (The mud of the Fiesta Run is probably
associated with a shaft overhead, and is quite old stuff.)</p>
<p>To get 1300ft out of the place should be a mere formality, and
after that, there's still 1640ft of depth potential left. Now we
must try and muster a really crack team for next year. And crack
team it must be, as <span lang="de" xml:lang=
"de">Eislufth&ouml;hle</span> is no longer the easy series of shafts it
was, but a long and serious undertaking.</p>
<p><i>References: Cambridge Underground <a href=
"../../../years/1976/report.htm">1977</a>, <a href=
"../../../years/1977/report.htm">1978</a> and <a href=
"../../../years/1978/report.htm">1979</a> [to be published]
containing surveys of all underground discoveries made by CUCC
in recent years, plus surface survey giving accurate entrance
locations and altitudes.</i> <span style="font-size: 80%">[This is a slight
exagerration, WebEd.]</span></p>
<hr />

<ul id="links">
<li>1978 Expedition info:
<ul>
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1979</a></li>
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves &amp; Caving Report</a></li>
<li>Nick Thorne's write-up in <a href= "../../../years/1978/782034.htm">Belfry Bulletin 366</a></li>
<li>1977/78 report from <a href="../../../years/1978/npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a></li>
<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href= "../../../pubs.htm#pubs1978">Index</a> to all publications</li>
<li><a href= "../../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
<li><a href= "../../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
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