<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN"> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>1623:97</title> </head> <body> <center><table border=0 width=100%> <tr><th align=left><font size=+2>97</font></th> <th align=center lang="de"><font size=+2>Schneewindschacht</font></th> <th align=right><font size=+2>4/S/W +</font></th></tr> </table></center> <p><b>Altitude:</b> 1639m, depth 265m.<br> <b>Position:</b> E 35840.2 N (52)83041.3 (west edge of doline)<br> <b>Marking:</b> "97" in red paint on doline wall <p><b>Location:</b> Out on the plateau. Head across for the large erratic boulders near <a href="76.htm">76</a> (aka 106), then away from the col past the open shaft of <a href="105.htm">105</a>, turning left at a gap in the scrub which leads down a bare karren corridor to some dolines. Step across one and cast about for a large one with 97 in red paint. <p>A moderately large doline, usually without snow, has a small triangular opening at the SW end. This is the head of a 10m freeclimbable chimney, followed by a 5m climb into a small chamber. Two ways on from the chamber unite in a tiny crawl under a drip. A thrutch through (about the size of Baptistry in Car Pot) is <b>The Nun's Cunt</b>, which ends abruptly at <b>The Vestry</b>, where SRT gear can be put back on while perched above the pitch which follows. Drops of 15m, 20m and 20m, <b>The Bottomless Abbess</b>, lead to a traverse over a blind pitch of about 10m. <p>The Bottomless Abbess continues with pitches of 15m, 30m, 15m and 15m to a short horizontal section. This breaks out into the side of another shaft where 15m and 10m pitches lead to a more complex area. A short pitch of 6m leads to the <b>Priest's Hole</b> and a gently slanting ramp into a dry, dusty, abandoned phreatic passage. This is interrupted by a large hole in the floor, which would require bolts to cross. <p>Down the hole, the 25m pitch starts unpromisingly, but soon bells out into a magnificent trench passage. Traversing over a gully leads to a series of short climbs and a fine last pitch <b>The Dissolution</b>. Here the water sinks into an impenetrable crack. <p>The entrance draughts strongly, but there is no air movement at the end, the most likely way on being the traverse to reach the continuation of the phreatic level at -190m. Unfortunately, the trip to this point is quite severe, since the crawl would render rescue impractical and the Bottomless Abbess rapidly becomes very wet after rain. <p><b>Exploration:</b> CUCC 1977 - Team Enthusiast <p><b>Survey:</b> grade 1 extended section, JTG, 1977.<br> Surface survey grade 3, 1984, AERW+MM from laser 0/4 at <span lang="de">Wolfhöhle</span> <p><center><img alt="100 dpi elevation (710x1710) 30k gif" width=710 height=1710 src="others/97.png"></center> <hr> <!-- LINKS --> <img alt=">" src="../../icons/lists/0.png"> <a href="../index.htm">Back to Expedition Intro page</a><br> <img alt="--->" src="../../icons/lists/1.png"> <a href="../indxal.htm">Full Index</a><br> <img alt="--->" src="../../icons/lists/1.png"> <a href="../areas.htm">Other areas</a><br> <img alt="------>" src="../../icons/lists/2.png"> <a href="index.htm#97">Plateau area index</a> </body> </html>