IN REQUIEM

Previous trip - Dry route trip (same day) - Next (connection) trip

Discovered a section of large passage containing many mud formations and showing evidence of backing up. Very sump-like. Much of passage (named Bournville Lakes?) was ~5m wide, highly linear and v. tall, hading slightly. Dived off down, even more sump-like, entering a tube before leading ultimately to a small mud-choked bit. The water had cut deep trenches in mud banks but seemed to seep into choss in the floor. Surveyed this lot so didn't have time to complete the whole upstream survey.

(Survey continued William & Sam) Adam
(28/7 - written up earlier) T/U 7 hrs

Previous trip / Next trips

Went with drill to push over the 1st pit (Sam did before, blind pit). Bolted down 2nd pit, clearing choss on the way. Approx 20m deep before choked. Adam bolted up to the last bolt before suggesting Jon continued. He did - it went about 10 feet! Went out - Tony frozen. Needs further push for 3rd pit!

T/UG 5 hrs Adam

Previous trip / 136 trip (same day) / Next trip

Went round the Augstwies side for a look around, starting at 201 level. Lots of bunde bashing and following Bambi tracks up ridiculous slopes. Located (1) a tube
(2) a cave CUCC 1997 # 1 ... (see KH survey book, sorry)

Both are in the cliff which 161d sits in. The tube was too high - need to ab in. The cave is 30m long and may draught slightly. Worth a dig as it is ~30m lower & 20m S of 161d. It is phreatic.

Sketched some surface features to the limit of my ability. See non-KH survey book.

Adam
T/U 30 mins

Bombed down the "Eyehole Route" as far as the limit of the trip on 29/7/97 to find Julian putting in more bolts at the head of the next pitch Some time and 3 bolts later, a distant "pitch free" was heard & I followed. Pitch is approx. 60m with deviation & 2 rebelays. The last 45m is down the wall of a jolly large chamber. (roof not visible from top rebelay (at least 65m high) chamber appears to be part of an enormous rift, ~10m wide and 20m long, choked at either end. At the southern end, a hole is visible ~10m off the ground, possibly accessible by a chossy climb which neither of us fancied our chances of getting back down again without a rope. A hole under the far wall of the chamber from where the rope lands leads to the foot of a drippy aven with no other visible leads. Survey data puts this lot at -257m from 136 entrance and ~30m below the level of Forbidden Land. No obvious draught, though the big pitch is quite breezy. Undid the last 2 rebelays on the way out with a view to hauling the rope out from the top later.

Previous trip / Wet route trip (same day) / Next (connection) trip

I was talked into going to Siberia with Duncan. There were plenty of comments like "Its not that cold", "Burble Crawl is not too bad" and the like. It was in fact one of my best trips and I was warm. This was the first time I did not need a hat and gloves. We went in through Triassic Park and into Knossos. All nice and big. Then Burble Crawl. Not too small but .. its uphill for 100m. Vom Pitch followed. We were glad to get out of this place at the bottom, lots of bits fell off including what we rigged off. Duncan found the way on and off we went. (There is also a hole at the bottom of the pitch. Possible lead!) Found a windy passage. I got cold while Duncan rigged then we went out to meet our call out.

Previous trip / Next trip

Smaller than it looks on the inside. Travels along right angles in space time. Got to Dover so fast we reckoned we'd catch the earlier ferry. Unfortunately the last 2 miles to the docks took 1½ hours therefore caught ¼ to 3 ferry.

Once in France Anthrax, Megadeth and Halloween kept us awake for a while.

Incidental note!
Fuel consumption against speed for Lada Riva 1.3 !

[funny graph follows]

Some fat Kraut tried to shove us off the Autobahn, but we arrived OK.

Sam Lieberman and Mike Richardson

First trip down Magic Jumars (in fact first trip down Alternative Universe) before we'd even got to the pitch series we spotted a V. V. good lead requiring a bolt traverse (Anthony, Dave shits muesli, there was an awful lot of Dave knowledgeable bullshit going on not to mention a "pendule") spot the pissed ramblings in log book). Meanwhile back in the cave....

[map drawn here]

Having descended the pitches Sam took off his SRT gear and squeezed through the rift at the end. There was a gorgeous echo (worthy of a Welsh choir) but the rift got too tight errrrrrr................ well a team of dehydrated midgets might get through - derigged in the well dripping pitches.

TU for Mike 6 hours

Previous Alternative Universe trip

Sam Re-rigging Where the Wind Blows 30/7/97

After de-rigging Alternative Universe, Mike headed out from the Guillotine, with some time in hand I decided to go and recover my tape slings and re-rig the traverses and hand-lines in Puerile Humour - boring stuff really. Ran down Triassic/Puerile Humour did the re-rigging/collected the spare ropes and ran back down Triassic.

TU including Alt.Uni trip 7 ½ hours.

Previous WTWB trip / Next trip

Just left the Swiss Alps after 2 weeks very pleasant climbing. Just trogging up the hill to see about doing some caving. Chris

Claggy weather so went to
(1) rig/insert spits for an ab off from Scar Face to below the cliff for
a) surveying down lower
b) rescue evacuation to a helicopter landing
(2) dig the back of 1997/01

Results
(1) rescue rig not completed. Ran out of rope and cones (dropped one :-( ). So far one spit + 4m and 3m north of 161d for traverse round + 2 spits ~ 15m N & below at top of grassy swathe. 40m rope from these takes you through relatively choss free and bunder free region ending on a steep cliff face where 2 more spits are needed for a ~ 30m? drop down to walking terrain.

(2) Dig 4m gained but needs more effort to continue to shift sandy floor & more cobbles back in passage. No draft perceived.

A walking route to the bottom of the Scarface cliff.

Climb approx 15ft above the entrance to 161d, on the path, contour left (southish), aiming at a grassy band below a cliff. Drop diagonally down this grassy band, until an incised gully* (quite narrow) is reached which affords a scramble downwards to a more level patch of broken ground. Contour round & up slightly to the bottom of the cliff.

*Just after entering the gully, a cave entrance behind and to your right (facing down) is seen (entered - no way on ~ 12m of passage & fractured rock floor. Not tagged.) Lower down on the R, right in the gully is another (undescended) cave.

Another small cave at the cliff base

Another cave of water worn origin was investigated, (very) approx 150m S of 161d at the base of the cliff. It is dead straight on a bearing ~ 290° and dips at -30° from the entrance. Dimensions approx 0m5 wide, varying in height from ~1m50 to 0m5. Cobble floored. Length approx 16m. Ends in rubble at floor level & 2 impassable slots above. Seems to draft slightly. Marked "+" and '97/2" in carbide, not tagged.

Time U/G ~ 1hr

Everyone was nursing non-existent post-dinner hangovers in the rain, but Julian + I + Adam, being mugs, headed up the hill. Clag + drizzle. Oh well, we'll walk to top camp, brew up, and psyche ourselves up. I climb into my soaking Alpinex, after my last 136 trip, I was trying to dry it, ended up just making myself miserable, but a good dose of Tom Yam noodles soon sorted us out. Tootled up to 136, bombed on down - gone 2pm! round the Eyehole route to the top of the pitch series into the big chamber. Julian gets the drill out + sweats + strains over a nightmare traverse over a great slab of chossy 80( rock, 50m above the deck. I get cold. Occasionally I make helpful comments like "Do you really need another bolt? Can't you just swing over from there?" and rack my brain for conciliatory phrases after the traverse goes nowhere, "Well at least we know how many bolts the drill does now," "It was a fine view anyway", "Good practice for the real thing" etc. etc.

Eventually Julian disappears over the edge, swings over to another rock bridge, and I can footle over. I'm frozen + Julian is shagged so I get to do a loose 6m hang off a dodgy natural down to a chossy mud slope. Julian is enthusiastic about a vague shadow on the far wall. I try not to get too pessimistic. I get down, the 'way on' looks like a loosely bouldered alcove. I start screeching, at Julian, "Look, look!" "What?" "Look!" I've spotted a huge CM13, we've made the 161 connection to the Forbidden land, yelp. I go hollering off down the next chamber whilst Julian whacked in a couple more bolts for the final pitch, then we both went off for a tourist. We headed towards Elin Algor, but it got v. loose boulder choke. Then we played around down Tirolia Werke as far as the pitch + poked around some QMs. Then we surveyed from the QM13 to Anthony's last point, as we were good bods! Then we went home, prussik, prussik, prussik. Thought there wouldn't be anyone at Top Camp to brag to, but no, every tent was stuffed to the gills so we kept up all the Off-To-The-Far-End-At-6.30AM-Tomorrow-Morning Team up as we pigged out on tortellini again. A fine trip on a dreary day - KH over 500m + a new entrance!!!

Previous trip / Next trips (into 161): Forbidden Land & Gravel Pit / Next 136 push

Team keen up at 6.30 which meant all of Top Camp was up & around by 7.30 & I was the last to leave Top Camp at 9.30 or so.

What is CUCC coming to ? We three beat William + Andrew down 136 + headed off down the wet (Original) Route [ to be called Wet Dreams, and passing through Fhantasy Phreatics level ?] to continue the survey down. I rigged until I'd finished the 100m rope (which had started at the Y-hang of the traverse, where the Eyehole Route splits off). This is 2 pitches off bolts, one off naturals & then 3 more rebelays off increasingly dodgy bolts. No shortage of 83/84 bolts - often two within a metre of each other, but some impressively lousy placements, bolts sticking out miles, wet hangs, etc. etc. Still, it must have been miserable rigging it in the first place. The Wet Route is smaller than the shaft series above the traverse, & apart from the piddly phreatics, it is down, down, with spray + a series of ledges ~10m apart. Finished the survey (a resurvey from the Y-hang would be worth it, if the wet route ever goes anywhere!) & then we derigged the 100m (which was the point of all the above) & went down the Eye-Hole route & rigged the 100m into the Big Chamber. I did the traverse & had a look at the drop.

[ sketch showing location of a QM near connection point ]

QM SHOULD BE DONE, GOOD POTENTIAL + drop of ?20m into rifty passage from the bridge before the final ~6m pitch to the Forbidden World connection.

However, I didn't have a bolting kit + the rock was really chossy so I went back. People in the chamber look really tiny from 45m up on the traverse. Down to the Big Chamber to meet the others, a jolly free hang. Julian had drilled his way up the mud/rock to get to a hole at the south end of the chamber, but it went nowhere. He left the rope on it.

[sketch plan ]

I looked around the chamber q. carefully. The only lead I could find was through (down) the boulder climb (q. stable, big rocks) q. a long way (10-20m) to a q. strongly drafting rift/pitch which would need a bit of hammering to go (or maybe you could get into it from another spot through the boulders). Back out, de-rigged the 100m (again!) + left it on the top of the traverse (well, it might be useful there!) + the drill (see previous excuse) & ambled on out. My last trip! Anthony's knee now thoroughly knackered.

Previous trip / Gravel Pit trip (same day) / Next 136 push

The original plan had been for Mike (Animal) to go with Andrew via Stairway to Hell, special permission having been sought from Tina. However, new way through from 136 means lots of prussiking, so I was drafted in instead. Went via Kaninchenhöhle to pick up SRT kit to find team Keen still not fully underground & returned to 136 entrance to find Julian & Anthony taking the piss over a half-changed Becka (or vice-versa). Followed Julian, Anthony & Becka underground ca 11.30 am & did lots of abseiling down to the bolt traverse followed by a lot more abseiling & a 100% wacky, way-out traverse miles up in the ceiling to reach ... The Forbidden Land. Headed South towards Wookey's lead via a 5m pitch Andy had forgotten about. At this point my penknife came in handy to cut the rope we'd brought. Continued down Wookey's lead to find ourselves in a medium size chamber where the floor + walls comprised entirely gravel or choss (The Gravel Pit). Looked down a pit in the floor where the take off was also 100% choss, no chance of rigging it + too steep to climb. So we went round to the left between more gravel banks to find a pitch with a stream coming in. Andy used the bolt kit I'd picked up from KH entrance to rig it + kicked loads of choss down. At the base of the pitch is a small chamber + a climb down with the water. Passage continues in walking vadose trench to where the water disappears under the stones. Passage continues to an aven + a small chamber with lots of mud + a choked mud sump. Pity. Surveyed out, with me on instruments until my glasses misted up, so swapped. Surveyed back to original lower bolt. NB took a look at an alternative way to the choss hole in the floor where there is a solid boulder in the roof to rig off. This seems to go somewhere else + should be pushed (A). Out at sundown via lots of prussiking + getting v.hot.

Previous trip / Forbidden Land trip (same day) Next 136 push

Picked up 75m of 9 mil at the Guillotine. Then went to retrieve Andrew from the far end of Salt Lake, while Jon + Phil set off to survey to SEP.

Faff, Faff, Faff. Eventually the survey to the pitchhead was complete and descents had begun. Wibble, Wibble went the cavers. Twang, Twang, went the 9 mil. F***ING BIG SHAFT. Only rubs a little bit half way up. (Fettled with a loopless rebelay off of a spike on the way out.) The rope was just reachable after unloading it.

LEADS: (1) Down short climb, traverse across head of another climb into a draughting crawl.
(2) Down same climb, climb down again, then down 5m pitch. Undescended ~15m pitch with wind farting up it.

Previous trip / Next SEP trip / Next Siberia trip (Fuzzy Logic)

3.8.97 Dave H & Mike R TU 5½ hrs

Aim:- to bolt up at Moomintroll

No problems getting to Moomintroll but the traverse around the right hand side of Zebedee is a bit hairy in that it is horribly loose and all the holds come off in your hand. The climb up is pretty impressive, a good big black space waiting to be explored, but it is not clear whether it just goes up and up.

At any rate we looked at the climb, reckoned that with a bit of bottle and a climbing rope it would be no problem to get up it, but as we had neither we had to start bolting. Put the first bolt in, about 5 ft up. Unfortunately, at this point I dropped the driver down a small crack. Should be able to get it back with a coat hanger.

At this point we decided that it would be much easier with a drill and that it might be a good idea to jack. I made sure the jack was certain by hitting the entry to Hymen Crawl with the hammer & snapping the head off.

As we had only been down the cave 2½ hrs we needed something else to do. So on the way back we climbed up to the left just after the two holes in the floor near the start of Wheelchair Access. There looks to be a roof tube going off at this point but we failed to climb into it. Mike had a look at some other small tubes going off and found some surface debris & bits of skeleton, but it closed down after about 6 ft.

We still had more time to kill so looked down the two holes that you traverse across just before you reach Moth Chamber and the short climb up in Triassic. The two holes connect, lead to a 1.5m climb down to the head of a pitch. Unfortunately, this just drops into Wheelchair Access, and needs surveying.

Next Moomintroll trip / Other trips (same day): 136 Forbidden Land / 136 Gravel Pit / Siberia

4/8/97 Dave H, Mike B, Chris D, Mary, Juliette

Wheelchair Access -> Lost World to survey the downstream end

TU Dave H, Mike & Juliette 9 hrs
TU Chris D, Mary 7 hrs

Rather a slow trip, didn't get underground until 1 pm. Even then everything went really slowly, taking almost an hour to get from the entrance to the start of Wheelchair Access. The new route into Wheelchair Access needs surveying, but me and Mike, who'd got bored and gone on ahead didn't have the gear.

We headed on down to Lost World as a group of five, once we got to the big stuff, as it seemed to be taking ages for everyone to get down the last 5m pitch I took Mike for a quick tour of the upstream stuff. On returning, the others had disappeared downstream so we buggered off after them, to catch up in he boulder choke.

At this point Mary and Chris decided to go out as it was getting late & Mary thought she would be slow. This left me , Mike and Juliet to do the survey, and me t have my third ever go at doing book.

We pushed through the boulders, down a climb and eventually found the pitch into the chamber. Got off the pitch part way as soon as we could step into the big chamber, but the pitch continues below. Found the Germans' G find survey mark and survey left as you look into the chamber. This ends at an aven, with water coming in. I then surveyed back underneath what I'd just done, but at stream level ending up roughly back close to the pitch. From here two possible ways go off. To the left a long straight rift taking the small stream. The boulder floor drops and the stream disappears under the right hand wall and the passage is not enterable. The rift continues, but you are now ascending boulders, and soon the roof is seen which descends to meet the floor.

To the right a short piece of rift with water entering down one wall, soon ends in a deep pool (marked a survey station with a cross on the wall at this point - no. 16 on the left hand wall as you face the pool).

Mike waded across the pool, shallowest along the left wall to find an inlet stream. Looking at our survey and Becka's description of her trip with the Germans, I think this inlet is the continuation of the pitch into the chamber - but this needs checking.

There are no other obvious leads except this inlet in the chamber.

As it was now getting rather late we couldn't:

(1) Do some tie up legs I wanted to do

(2) check the continuation of the pitch into the chamber.

(3) Derig.

So we headed out. As we'd bombed down through the boulders really quickly we'd not taken much notice of the way out. At one point, there is an unobvious climb up t the right - which is the way out - however it is much more obvious to climb up through the large spaces in the boulders to the left - this ended in a large rift pitch, which, looking at our survey, may or may not connect back into the left hand rift continuation of the large chamber.

We soon found the real way out and 'cos I'm getting lots of hassle about writing too much I'll just say it took ages to get out.

Things to note when derigging:
There is tackle up a climb on the left, as you go downstream near a rock bridge marked with a tackle bag. This may be interesting as it seems to be heading away from the large chamber.
It also needs surveying.

Previous trip / Next (derigging) trip

5/8/97 Surveying Siberia Left hand branch
Phil U, Phil B, Brian, Andrew K
TU 11½

Fairly swift journey in. Tried to fix previous Siberia survey up to genuine survey station, but couldn't find CM labelled 'end', so settled for CM not labelled 'not this ...' (point 2 of last Siberia survey a few years back).

Set off up LH route - lots of mazy phreatic passage connecting at insane angles with a loop or two. Now X-ened 'Fuzzy Logic'.

Rough description: LH branch off Not This Junction turn sharp left. Passage follows rift for a few metres before turning left again. Rift continues straight ahead, but looks too narrow to push. Small opening on right before left hand turn quickly chokes with mud. Left hand turn leads into Y-junction with swirlpool at intersection. Left leads to steep phreatic tube; this connects back into right hand turn. Right turn leads to connection with left hand turn, then into complicated rift junction. Rift pitches up to left and down to left probably connect up; this is a going lead. Right hand small hole leads into left hand rift and small passages connecting back up the passage, but it is v. tight.

Not having a rope to hand, we went back to poke around in some Siberia leads, brief sketch of crossroads on the way to SEP follows:

[ sketch of Greengables ]

RH passage leads into small chamber with easily climbable (at least for a while) rift off to left and small passage to right.

Middle passage leads into rift junction. High LH passage connects back into route to SEP, straight on in a loop also connecting back to SEP route. Right leads into oval shaped rift with ~6m aven at far end. Small passages off to left of SEP route connect up in easy crawl in muddy phreatic passage which does not appear to close down - 'Burble II - the Mud strikes back'.

At this point it was 1800, so we chugged on out in order to get back at a sensible time.

Previous trip / Next SEP trip / 1997 derig trip / Next pushing trip in Fuzzy Logic (1998)

1 3 6   5th Aug '97
Steinschlagschacht
Chris D, Andy A

First trip in this hole for me - far less chossy than feared, due to latest bolting techniques no doubt. Down to pit at connection between 136 + KH - bolted down 'Distraction' - swing across to a window, down to drippy drafty chamber - with footprints. We'd reached the Orchestra Pit. Surveyed & derigged (50m vert.) then went off to the Gravel Pit. Bizzare place, walls of eroded stuck together gravel. Dried up stream sported a STONKING DRAFT - all it needs is a crowbar to open it up a bit. This must be done soon ! Alas we had no crowbar. So we put in our penultimate bolt in the only solid wall in the area & dropped down to a squitty streamway. "Have a look at it if you want, I'm too fat" said AA. So I grovelled in until enthusiasm waned after 30 mins or so. Then AA continued the flat out crawl in water until that choked too. A Grand Canyon it was not. Saved the seventh & final bolt to take out the rub to the core I'd noticed on the 2nd pitch. Good trip, shame nothing went.

Previous trip / Next trip

161d Chris & Mary 6th August 1997

Went to Staudnwirt Palace, climbed up miserable climb, bits of it fell off at embarassing moments, de-rigged two ropes and retrieved Julian's gear for price of two beers.

TU 4 hrs

7th August '97

Steinschlagschacht Julian, Chris

Tripped our way down to the 'Y' hang above 'Traverse of the Gods'. Set about bolting over the top - straight over ? No - left horrible climb up carrying drill, tacklesack etc., over the top to a high level chamber over the pitch. Through a window, down pitch to 'The Box' - superb view across to 'Traverse of the Gods', and tried to bolt the 'Footlights' traverse across the 'Theatre'. Got half way across - an imposing situation that ended in overhanging choss. Oh dear. Need some magical method of getting across the choss to the mythical window that heads south to Stellerweg.

TU 8 hrs

Previous trip / Next trip

7th Aug 97

walking around the area of 136, putting tags on stuff [Tagged 136, 138, 139, 97-07 (formerly WK7), 97-08 (formerly WK8,9,10)], taking photos of entrances and finding new cave. Near 163, which has some nice ice formations, we found a couple of interesting things. A going hole numbered

H88 was explored by AndyA, who eventually got bored with crawling. It is further south than the current southern extremity of 136 and is ~50m above level of Forbidden Land - should at least be surveyed to. AJD.

8th August 97
Derig of Wheelchair Access
Dave H, Brian, Mike B, TU 6 hrs

Initial aims were to go down, look for leads and survey some bits + pieces. But we also had to be out quite early so we could have a meal at Hilde's. Unfortunately, on the way in, I thought to check the traverse and pitches off under the wall to the left to see if any gear had been left. Yes, the traverse was still rigged, so Mike went across to derig & found that the pitch at the end was rigged via two rebelays and was at least 20-30m deep. When we got this rope out, found we had an extra 83m rope to get out. Headed on down to the Lost World & headed downstream. Checked out the 'big rift' that we had seen last trip down, to the right just after the climb down. All this was was a climb up in boulders and then looking back down on the main passage from a great height.

Onward to the final chamber to check out a couple more leads.

(1) Continuation of the pitch - lands at the deep pool (which was fairly empty) just beyond survey station 16.

(2) Mike climbed the inlet and I could hear him from the top of the pitch. I made a visual connection from where the water sinks at the passage just back from the top of the pitch with this inlet, via a rather large wide pitch, narrow at the top and covered in chocked boulders - one of which I was standing on.

Did a couple of grade 2 drawings - couldn't survey as we'd left the tape behind.

This left Becka's climb up to the left (as you go downstream) by the rock bridge. This looks quite good. 2m climb up to a 15m pitch down with two ways on, again I took some grade 2 drawings.

Detackled this and started on out. Detackling was OK, even of Kein Zimmer Rift. We each prussiked up it with a tackle bag, Mike filling his with the rope from the pitch as we went - no problems.

Left gear at the guillotine, continued out with a tackle bag each, which we left at Mothshag.

Previous trip

6/8/97 Julian H, Andy A, Mike B. T/U 8 hrs
136 - Steinschlagchact

Went down with the intention of taking a few photos and then pushing some leads in Forbidden. My first (+ last?) underground photo trip with mostly overground photo gear. Took pictures of people on most of the pitches, traverse of the gods and eyehole traverse. Had an attempt at taking picture of chamber at the end of Elin Algor, but this proved tedious trying to use "B" setting on camera. I doubt I'll bother with that again !

Once in the Forbidden land, we systematically reviewed all known leads and possibly found one or two others. Went down Tirolia Werke first. Andy climbed up the roof tubes on the right hand side (walking W) and found most either closed down or turned into avens. About ½ along Tirolia Werke on RH side, small climb up (c.3) leads to large(ish) chamber at foot of aven. Grade C tight, wet lead in here. Looked at Gravel Pit. Big draft but not very inspiring. Opposite(ish) Gravel Pit is a big fallen boulder with a pitch behind. It's possible to climb around the boulder to pitchhead, probably about 10m hang, possibly a way on at the bottom.

Next we went back up Tirolia Werke, into Elin Algor and up to the large chamber near the Pump House turn. Look/threw rocks down all the holes. Big Holes in the chamber sound dead and look very likely to be choked - probably not good leads. Went down choss back and around the RH wall to small adjoining chamber. Climbed up another choss bank towards Chris D's lead - BIG pitch with good boom at the bottom. V. good lead but for the small scrotty connecting tube.

Exitted chamber, climbed up into Pump House and thence to Hall of the Mounting Choss. Pump House passage has same feel about it as Mississipi/Mississipi Mud Pie - the other side of Stairway to Hell. HoTMC is huge and loose as the name suggests. Pitches in the top left corner (looking from the bottom of the slope) look quite good leads - may eventually go to Regurgitation ?

Exitted, stopping en route only to dismiss a couple of scrotty leads off the side of Elin Algor.

Previous trip / Next trip

6/8/97 - Pushing below SEP TU 17 hr
Dunk, William, Jon

Pushed below S.E.P.
Whacked in loads of Bolts
Abbed down some Pitches
Found a short phreatic passage "Auspuff"
with undescended climbat the end
BLOWS LIKE A BASTARD !

Previous SEP trip / Previous day's Siberia trip (Fuzzy Logic) / Next trip (derig)

8/7/97 - Derigging SEP

Dunk, William --> TU 11 hour
Jon, Phil U --> TU 6½ hour

Derigged.

Previous trips: Fuzzy Logic / SEP / Next Siberia trip (rig-in 1998)

10/8/97 136 - Footlights Traverse Chris & Anthony

TU ~9 hrs

Finally got underground after a week nursing an injured knee (more through boredom than any improvement to the injury). Attempted to replace my main beam bulb with the Julian Haines lighthouse bulb and in doing so snapped the connector to the main beam - mutter. So rather than take an FX5 down just for the pilot, I caved with my zoom and its dodgy connector as back up for my Austrian sand grade carbide - not an auspicious start.

Bumbled down to the theatre box and Chris continued on the Footlights Traverse complete with homemade grappling hook - a crowbar lashed to a 1½m yellow pole. Unfortunately, since being taken underground, the string by which the crowbar was attached had got wet, stretched and was thus no use. So the yellow pole was abandoned, and I watched as Chris teetered across a chossy and airy traverse, banged in a couple of bolts and found ... no cave whatever. So Chris continued down the wall and found an eyehole into a chossy little passage, banged another bolt into its camembert-like walls, and I followed him, only shitting myself once on the traverse. The passage leads to a loose, uninspiring looking pitch head, which opens out into a decent shaft with aven above, which lands on a rock bridge (ie. a jammed boulder) with more pitch beyond. This whole area is gloop coated and falling apart - very KH like - and there is a significant draught coming up the continuing pitch. This is quite a good lead, but we had run out of rope.

Rather than survey out, I pootled out at this point whilst Chris drilled some more bolts to improve the rig. Not surveying was probably a good thing since it took an astonishingly long time to get out, not helped by an ailing leg and too much beer at basecamp the week before. Also, the big loose flake at the top of the big pitch is no longer a problem as Phil kicked most of it off. The remnants of it came whistling past my ear as I hung on the rebelay below the ledge we wait on before ascending the big pitch, causing me to gibber quite a lot, especially as I could smell freshly fractured rock on the ledge. Phil also neglected to call pitch free, so I spent quite a while at the bottom before making a cautious ascent (the rope looks OK). I then gardened the rest of the rubbish at the pitchhead in the general direction of Brian's head to ensure no repeat performance.

Previous trip / Next trip

Haines Miracle Carbide Cure

As the glorious expo leader departed, he bequeathed me a few of his precious items, namely 3 lumps of large carbide (all the expo stuff from the Austrians is tiny bitty stuff). This was gratefully (and gullibly) received, and used on the above 136 trip.

And so it was, Footlights Traverse now being bolted, Anthony headed out with the spare carbide & I started out lugging the drill + battery. That's strange, I thought, my light's going a bit dim. Fettle. The bitty stuff all gone, but Haines lump was sat there just as it went in. Magic - everlasting carbide ! Complete with calcite veins ... hmmm, chortle, most amusing. Dark thoughts cast in the Haines direction on the dim prusik out.

C D

TU 9 hrs

10/8/97 136 To Tirolia via Elin Algor. Brian & Phil B

Trogged off down the pitches & across the traverse to the slot and waited for Phil. We both walked along Elin Algor (lead off to right up climbable rift with stream descending & little mud volcanoes - did not push as did not fancy climb due to state of my shoulder). Came back to climb up through boulders just after 1st main chamber past junction in Tirolia and investigated climb up into roof on left with pitch: whacked in bolt & sling around natural & lo & behold I ended back in main passage - got pissed off & went out.

Previous trip / Next trip

12/8/97 Anthony - Pissing about on the surface

Plan was to put tags on the unmarked 161e and 161f entrances, except I left the tags at top camp. Bunged in a spit at 161f anyway and tried to do likewise at 161e except a large chunk of wall fell off when I tried to set it. Got bored and went to retrieve gear from 161d. Whilst failing to find 161f I came across lots of holes - this is prime prospecting territory for anyone wanting to find a more northerly entrance to 161 with an even more atrocious approach.

13/8/97 Phil U & Anthony Pissing about on the surface again.

Planned to surface survey 191->161c, and look for the elusive 192, which is allegedly marked and in the same area. Took a while to find 191 and in the process we found 180, which I thought was miles away. Didn't have a tag for 180, but put in a spit for one and surface surveyed from there to 191 and back to 161c. Failed to find 192. Took photos of 180 and 191, the latter now sports a CUCC tag. Retrieved gear from 161d and derigged climbs on surface route and trundled back to topcamp for a brew, then on to 186 ("Rosenkavalierhöhle"). This is the hole erroneously numbered 185 on the side of the Vord which Olly & I refound in 1994 and which William had confirmed as being 186 earlier this expo. The paint has all but disappeared, but we banged in a CUCC tag and surveyed back to top camp - another gets ticked. No photo because I'd run out of film.

Incidentally - The marking at 161c entrance is

This is similar to the markings on caves H88 and 88F found on 7/8/97 making me suggest that latter caves are also French.

14/8/97 Phil U & Anthony Derig 136
TU 5 hrs (AD) 2½ hrs (PU)

Team hero having done the hard bit the day before, team knackered knees went down and derigged from the traverse to the eyehole. All the spits are greased, though I couldn't get the syringe to fill so used my finger. All spits above eyehole traverse have a matchstick in too. Circlips are shit gear - at least half the bolts fell out when I unscrewed, but I think I've rescued most of them.

Previous trip / Next trip - 1999

12/8/97 136 Footlights cont. Chris, Brian, John

Brian & I trolled around Forbidden Land derigging various bits & pieces to generate enough rope to drop the pitch at the end of Footlights. Having decided this would become a through route, I tarted up the traverse on the way over to make it more comfortable, ie.

[rigging sketch]

rather than the precarious rebelays that were used to rig it. John & I surveyed in, Brian arrived with rope & went off down the first pitch. 30m later he touched the floor: "It's big". Oh good. "There's a rope here". Oh bother. Been Hainesed again - his climb up from the Orchestra Pit finished here. Brian & I checked out the rift chamber pretty carefully - the draft appears to drop in somewhere at the southern end, then heads up the pitch we'd dropped. One drippy chamber could be seen through a tiny window - almost certainly the same as the Orchestra Pit. Otherwise - the entire S end chokes.

At least it gave us a chance to start the derigging early. Out at 4 am, back to camp just before dawn, in time for some carries down the hill.

TU Brian, Chris 13
John 11

Previous trip / Next trip (final derig)

11/8/97 KH Moomintroll Jon, Phil

We went down to have a look at the climb up beyond Moomintroll. Having taken a drill battery with us we then found that the drill did not work. There were no bolting kits either so we went to look anyway.

We traversed around the terrifying pit (8 ft deep) and found the climb. Looked at it for a bit and then I climbed up it. There were only a few loose hand holds. I rigged a rope for Phil and up he came.

As expected, there was a large aven. However, there was no obvious way on. We sat down for a bit while we decided what to do next. At this point, some water was heard dripping. I went to investigate a tiny tube where the noise was coming from. After removing a few rocks the floor dropped away to reveal a 30 ft drop into a large space. With a little enlargement someone will be able to fit through and see where the draft is coming from.

TU 3 hours

Last Moomintroll trip / Next Moomintroll trip (1998)

• 1997 Expedition info:
  • Index (more detail than in this list)
  • Expedition Sponsors' Report 1997
  • Pre-expo mission statement
  • Index to Kaninchenhöhle trips in the log
  • Published accounts
• Index to all publications
• Current year's sponsors
• Back to Expeditions intro page
• CUCC Home Page