Cambridge University Caving Club Expedition Handbook

The pages which make up this handbook were originally based on the paper documents you might find lying around the Potato Hut or Top Camp. These web pages are now the master documents. They should tell you everything you need to know about Expo. Please update them/add info as required.

Prospecting: The printable prospecting guide or new prospecting guide (slow to load) is essential reading before you wander the plateau stumbling across holes of potential interest. Vast amounts of work have been wasted in the past through inadequate recording. It isn't very much extra work, but ensures that your hard work gains some recognition in the future rather than making lots of tedious work and the cursing of your name... There is a separate page with pictures of surface landmarks for taking bearings, and a new guide to getting a GPS fix.
Surveying: Once the cave starts to get significant (ie. anything which requires getting changed or rigging), it needs good documentation. This is mostly a matter of doing a cave survey, a guidebook description and usually a surface survey. The first time you go to explore a poorly documented question mark, you will realise how important this is, and it also makes for having a pretty survey on your wall to support your bullshit. For 1998, the surveying guide has been split into easily digestible chunks, including pages specifically intended for people who haven't surveyed before.
Rescue: You fall and break your leg – probably need a little help to get out of the cave ? How would you feel if everyone at this stage took the rescue guide into Hilde's bar and started reading about what to do ? Not a happy prospect, is it – so in the hope that it is not you who gets hurt, we suggest you read this now so you know what to do. It may well help you if it is you who gets injured, and may even help prevent that from happening. So don't skip it !
First Aid: Info on expo first aid kits and caving first aid course.
Phones: How to use and update the mobile phones on expo.

Computing stuff

Website and Data: This tells you how the website and cave data are arranged, accessed and used.
Aled's Windows 101: A brief, straightforward guide (with pictures!) covering how to get Putty and TortoiseHg working on a Windows PC.
Expo Computer: Details on how the expo computer and network is set up and adminned.

Solar Panel system: Description of setting up and putting away the solar powered battery charging system at the stone bridge
Bivi Rigging Guide: Pictorial guide on how to rig the tarps at the stone bridge bivi site.
Photography: This section is hardly even written, let alone useful :-)
SRT Rigging: This one's also minimal – but links to useful info on another site. There is (Jan 2000), however, in addition to the rudimentary page above, a few pages towards a full Austria-specific guide. The contents page links to an Introduction and a useful section on placing bolts and it may be useful to refer to the expedition Fixed Aids list to see what gear has been left in place from previous years.
On a matter of stooling: Seriously, this quite important. Do read this document, and when you have finished having a laugh, remember it.
Useful vocabulary: This is hardly a "section", but contains a possibly useful table of translations of climbing (mainly) and caving (some) terms into German, Spanish and French. It's here mainly because I had the material to hand and it would be silly not to make it available.
Checklist for expo leaders: Expo organisers usually haven't done it before, so a list of the necessary jobs is useful. This section is a side-effect of the entire expo leadership being neophytes in 1998. Despite much support from previous leaders, a few odd things got forgotten, like envelopes for survey notes. One of the good things they invented was an annual suggestions file for making things better next time. One of the suggestions was a handbook section telling them what to do! We hope that this checklist will become useful for "experienced" leaders as well as vital guidance for anyone new to the job. However, do not rely on it being complete or uptodate, at least, not yet.
Kit List: Things to bring on expo.
How to be Expo Treasurer: How expo accounting works in theory and practice, the treasurer's tasks, and how to accomplish them.