Cat Gut: QMB - Inlet in ceiling. ~3m climb to cavity
QMA - Pitch in floor under 2 boulders, takes a stream
QMD - Mud choked downclimb - small stream sinks
Pussy Riot: QMA - Down pitch on R of climb up into chamber ~15m? ~20m? hard to tell...
QMB - Hole on left under boulders at top of climb into chamber ~2m to a floor
QMB - Pitch on R of chamber, ~20m ?
QMB - Pitch on R of exit of chamber
QMX - Possible phreatic passage ~8m up wall opposite climb up into chamber
Cirque du Soleil: QMB - Pitch on L as enter chamber
QMA - Hole in wall up slope on R as enter chamber
QMA: hole in wall up slope on R as enter chamber
QMA: Big drippy pitch in south side of chamber, drafts strngly in (down pitch)
QMB: Pitch on R by wall just before slope down into trunk passage
QMB: Pitch on L by slope down into trunk passage
QMA: Big drippy pitch at end of trunk passage POSSIBLY FINAL PITCH OF KIWI SUIT
Have we found the legendary phreas at the top of Razordance ????
After Cat and Teresa anaged to sponge a set of caving gear each, we set off to rig a bypass to the top of "King Carbide" and take Teresa on her first underground SRT trip. 204A was descended and thread pitch was rigged. Reflective markers were placed on route to 'No Pain No Gain' and on to half way down 'King Carbide' (although the last couple of markers are cairns) such that it could be followed in reverse by flooded-in cavers. On the way out, Cat demonstrated that 204B was free-climbable by the fool-hardy.
Holly was so kind to take us down this year's route via 204a, King Carbide, Brians Phat Shaft and Pussy Prance to Fat Cat. I was a bit slow and had to get used to all this SRT business again, but eventeually we were all sat at the top of the Fat Cat pitch and made up a plan. Wookey and Holly wanted to look at a climb up from a ledge most of the way down, and Rob and myself were sent off to some scrotty B-lead at hte bottom of the pitch. Or rather at hte bottom of a little side-pitch right underneath the ledge, but still quite a way above the real bottom of Fat Cat. The last bit from the ledge to our lead was fairly clean washed white limestone, and after a little deviation, Rob and I climbed up over hte boulder named Boris, then through a little squeeze to a small "chamber", where we could almost stand upright. Emma and Holly had left a survey station 7 there, we didn't spot their number 8, though. Also, a small passage that I considered "too tight" went on to an aledged A-lead, but I was only told about this on the way out (I hadn't really paid much attention earlier). Anyway, from the small chamber, a small passage with a little water-filled trench at the bottom was heading back up sharply to the right, and behind some boulders a light-connection to the bottom of the pitch could be made. We ignored that (too tight) and rather went down a bit, then up a slope on the other side to crawl underneath a big boulder. Several holes are going up to the left, but an easier way to their top was found from around the corner at the mud choked end of the passage. We now started climbing up, leaving two holes in the floor behind us. They appeared to join up in a lower level horizontal passage leading further on as a QMB. At our survey station 5, we climbed up through a small window and now made steady vertical progress up a pitch full of rock flakes. After about 5 more metres, we reached a ledge with another mud-choked passage leading off and another window going on further up in a similar climbing manner to another QMB. We put our last survey station 8 on the wall and broke off some more popcorn on the way out. Rob and Wookey decided to put in another bolt at the ledge in Fat Cat, while Holly and I started heading out. When I reached the bottom of Painted Lady, someone suddenly turned on a waterfall coming in from a hole in the ceiling. Rather scary ! Brians Phat Shaft was rather drippy to begin with, quite wet further up, but still nothing but a little tease, compared to the showerbath of King Carbide, the horrors of the upper part of King Carbide, and the floods coming down the entrance pitch. I hate wet caves !
After the rather damp trip the day before, I rather wanted a slack, short one, and decided to visit Tunnocks for a change. Ian and Hannah set off ahead of us and took along some rope for Caramel Catharsis. We followed a while later. We met again after the traverse line down the sloped entrance passages, where we interchanged bags and Ian and Hannah went out again. I rigged the first little traverse before Caramel Catharsis, Rob did the rest of the rigging. Then the route-finding problems started. We got to the cobbly slope and 9-key-kay[?] Beach, after a quick detour decided to go left, then took the next passage steeply up to what Rob believed to remember being called Starfish junction. By elimination, we eventually concluded that the passage with the triangular bit of tape was not the one we were looking for, but rather turned rightish. After a while of traversing, we found a little hole, where we unnecessarily built a cairn to remind us of the way out, but as none of the lower level passages seemed to be present in Rob's recollection of a fairly hung-over trip a year ago, we finally decided we were a bit lost again. It took some more trial and error to traverse above the top of the hole, do a stupid climb after a big boulder bypassed by a no less stupid squeeze. Next was a sharp Z-shaped meander, a traverse over some big holes, and finally one more squeeze through a boulder choke. The big passage beyond finally looked like it could go somewhere more interesting, so we now started looking for the p18, that Emma had told us about. We finally found one, but were not quite sure (and it's probably another one). As it was getting late anyway, we decided to leave the 60m rope, hand-bolting and rigging gear behind and went back out of the cave.
Being a bit shattered after my first two expo trips, I wanted to do a short one today. No idea why I came down to Fat Cat again with someone like Becka. Anyway, we showed them the way to the pushing front with Becka racing ahead and waiting impatiently. Andrew followed promptly and attempted to retrieve a bag of rope that Martin had decided to hang off one bolt in the ceiling way out from the usual route down Fat Cat. Waiting at the bottom I suddenly heard a loud "NOOOO!" and something big falling down the pitch. Apparently Andrew had not only retrieved a bag of rope, but also a good chunk of the wall, but all else was fine. Rob now started rebolting and rerigging Fat Cat on the nice white rope instead of the horrible red stuff. In the meantime, Andrew, Becka and I went back through the scrotty squeezes, past survey station 7 and into Cirque du Soleil. We were looking around for a while but didn't find the window back to Fat Cat, that we were told to find so I eventually went back the way we came, told Rob of our plan and blew my whistle. After a few more blows, we finally found Becka emerging from a window a lot further down. Rob was now bolting a traverse down there, while I started retrieving some rope from Wookey's climb up from the ledge. Finally Rob and I went to Cirque du Soleil, watched Andrew bolting a long traverse towards KH connection, then derigged Cat Gut and the old route down Fat Cat and were joined by Becka and Andrew on the way out. While I was given a bit of a head start, Andrew continuously reduced the gap by racing me up the pitches, but finally refused to overtake me at the very last belay up the entrance pitch where he definitely more than caught up with me.
We faffed an unspeakably long time until we finally reached 258 entrance some time after 2 pm. The rigging was deemed not to be up to the exacting CUCC standards (and my lack of height). So Frank spent about 2 hours with the aim of making it idiot proof. SUCCESS! Frank showed me around until we reached Stirfish junction. We turned back and then it was my time to navigate out. SUCCESS. All in all a lovely day =)
CONNECTION! 161-204
Original plan was me, Andrew + Ollie finishing yesterday's traverse while Rob + Holly pushed leads in Cirque de Soleil but Holly discovered a hole in the bottom bobbin of her Stop at the top of Brian's Phat Shaft so she gave up and went out + Rob joined us. Ollie + I started my first ever PDA + DistoX survey - not a great location to practise on, a teetery traverse with Andrew bolting the next traverse, only just in earshot as I bawled out endless questions "How do I calibrate the screen?", "Why are some splays in dotted lines?" etc. There was only one point where I got a "Not now" which was shortly before a huge lump of rock fell off the traverse leaving a brown smear down the rock face. The survey caught up to Andrew just as he got finished and ..... da-narrr..... found the final survey stastion from last year's KH trip - whoo-hoo, made the connection. Rob then caught up with us + Andrew & I were going to look up the passage but he'd forgotten about the up pitch so I did the bad step traverse withut protection for no reason + then was stuck there until Rob got some gear to give me a sling to get back. Then Rob + Andrew rigged a traverse to avoid the up pitch whilst Ollie + I went to the top of Fat Cat + surveyed the traverse - Dog Days - he'd done with Serena + then up the climb that Andrew had shinned up on the way down + left a skanky rope on it. This led to horizontal drafting passage, yippee + a chamber with several A-leads off ... having already had a very fine trip making the connection we decided to leave them for another day. Met Andrew + Rob on return. On Brian's Phat Shaft, Andrew went up first then as Ollie got about halfway a rock came whistling past me. "What was that from?" "Don't think it was me" says Ollie ... then another came down "Shit, the rebelays breaking up". Rob + I cowered as best we could + Ollie said there was only an inch of rock left on the nose the rebelay was on so we decided it was best if he took it out (the one at the bottom of the first long hang). Rob + I then teetered up past some razor sharp edges + the knot pass + the crab got wedged on Rob so the rope got incredibly tight but, hey, we survived.
Returned to the chamber Ollie + I surveyed yesterday + surveyed the horizontal A-leads which all ended up looping round to each other or at big pitch heads. There was also a fine-looking high level phreatic passage which Andrew tried to climb into from two different directions but the rock was cream cheese. Though he made it up to the right level he couldn't find any decent rock to rig off so he decided it was too dodgy so we rigged the pitch nearest to the chamber instead. This led to a huge breakdown chamber thing with a monster boulder in it, piles of steep loose rock + crazed angle boulders all over so I struggled to survey it + we left it with two QMA's which were sort of passages but unclear if there's much in the way of a proper floor there. Oh yes, waited for 90 min or so on the way down with Rob whilst Wookey rerigged the rebelay on Brian's Phat Shaft, struggling with the super tight rope + then Andrew fettled lots of the rigging in the lower sections.
Early morning negotiation with Julian who was driving to expo meant I was given the all clear for a last day of caving + I really wanted to see the new connection stuff. We took Emma's camera to get some shots of the traverses for Anthony's conference talk on Sat + took other shots later on. Headed off down the huge drafting passage to the climb that Wookey + Rob had stopped at on their trip 2 days ago. Rob shinned up this then rigged it + then he rigged the short pitch down to Holey Low whilst Andrew + I shivered in the howling gale. Finally we got to our lead, Blown Away, marked as 300m to Eislufthoehle on Julian's mini-survey. The last survey station was at the start of a strightforward traverse that Andrew waltzed across whilst Rob + I started the survey then Andrew took over the DistoX as Rob had shaky hands + we rattled down 150m or so of lovely phreatic passage with a strong draft until, BUM, all the air disappeared up a poxy aven. This left a pitch drafting out which Rob freeclimbed to the head of but we called it a day + derigged the traverse. Andrew put bolts in for the up-climb on Holey Low on the return + also bolts for the tiny traverse on the far side of Mordor. Then plodded on out, a good end to 5 days caving!
Having got a little bored of the 204 trip into 161 we decided on a trip to the P18? in MotP. Following a couple of failed trips, Rob & Olaf had kindly left 60m of rope at the pushing front - which made this trip even more appealing
Off down Tunnocks entrance, Caramel Catharsis, Starfish Junction & Flying high. Once you reach the traverse in Flying high, which is quite soon, keep on traversing. You may be tempted to drop down when you come across a large-ish hole. However this is wrong!! Carry on traversing over this for the correct way to MotP. If you drop down, you are sitting in a small chamber with 3 passages leading off.
Carrying along the passage (traversing) you eventually reach the end of the traverse (passing a nice stal) which opens up & you slide down to the floor. Then comes the interesting climb up & over then through boulders. On the second part of the climb - the through the boulders part - watch out for one of the boulders which appears to be held up by small pebbles wedged between said boulder and the walls.
Having reached the higher level, continue onwards to the very end of the passage (don't be tempted to crawl through the small hole through boulders on the right). At the end of the passage, there is a sneakily hidden RH elbow bend & the passage continues. Then is reached the evil bouldery climb of doom. Basically this is a climb down onto a ledge above a pitch. Climb is ~2.5m & the ledge has lots of loose boulders. After I stood on a large, sturdy looking boulder, which then began sliding on the gravel that it was perched on, towards the pitch - I demanded a traverse line - to the relief of Jess & Emma. Finding two hanady naturals we rigged a friendly traverse line with the "shitty red rope" and cut this off the 39m that we had carried in.
From here, carry along the obvious passage - which becomes a slide through boulders. In this boulder choke, turn right up the obvious climb out. I would not recommend attempting to squeeze through the small hole on the left - it's a bit tight! This opens up into a small chamber with a junction, Taking right goes to 39 steps. However, we turned left (down slope) to MotP. The bottom of this slope becomes another short slide through boulders into a stooping passage with a muddy floor. A short climb up and down into another junction. To reach the p18? turn right up the slope & then climb down into the obvious rift. At the bottom head back under the rift, through the smallish hole to the top of the P18? Hooray!
We reached the pushing front and & I was deemed 'bolting queen' whilst Emma & Jess took photos for Antony's looming conference presentation.
The top of the P18? is very nice - hardly any loose boulders, walls close together. Unfortunately it was a bit uncomfortable for hand bolting - but you can't have everything. We used a lovely large pillar/natural for the start of the rigging (on the R heading into the cave) and I placed a bolt on each wall to create a Y-hang straight down the pitch. I headed down the pitch to land in a small-medium sized chamber with a bouldery floor. Unfortunately a rebelay was needed on the P18?, now called 'Hooray for Boobies' (as a result of the girlie team). This meant that gentle prussicking would be needed on the 'shitty red rope' (The 60m still sat in the bag at the top). So only Emma ventured on down to join me. With Jess getting cold at the top, Emma & I had a quick look around before heading back up & out of the cave. We made a pact, after squeezing into a connecting chamber, and through a short rift, that we would still return to survey, even if the lead didn't go anywhere. Thankfully, the rift opened out into a clean washed, Yorkshire-like passage way, with an ~3m pitch. Back out we went, excited for our trip the following day.
(Short squeeze at base of pitch ~2m long known as the Outer Flap).
Back to Hooray for Boobies, to fix the rigging, survey & push. This time with a drill - HOORAY! Becca & Emma headed down the pitch and began surveying while I swapped the red rope for a pre-cut 40m CUCC rope that isn't allowed to be cut. As the 60m is UBSS rope & also not for cutting, we decided it would be better to save the red stuff for smaller pitches. After getting in a tangle & then detangling myself (thankfuly the 40m was white), I headed on down the pitch, placing a rebelay ~8(?)m from the floor.
At the top of the next mini-pitch (~3 or 4m), I attempted to quickly place a couple of bolts and some rigging down, so that Emma & Becca could head onwards to continue surveying & keep warm. I then placed another bolt at the start of the rigging. Once complete, I quickly headed through the cave to join Becca & Emma. The cave closes down to a tall narrow rift - The Inner Flap. I loved it, however, Emma & Becca weren't convinced & after 20 legs, were now bored. I was elected to carry on through the rift - for 1 minute only - just 1 minute, to see if the passage either died or opened up. Unfortunately it did neither! The rift became narrower, but clearly still easily passable, if caving on your side. Knowing that this wasn't going to convince the girls, we headed back out. Now I just need to convince one of the lads to join me on my next trip there. Noel probably . . . . . .
Rigging Topo
Large natural pillar on R
Two bolts at head of pitch on either side (on each wall) of pitch.
Rebelay bolt on obvious 'bulge' on LH wall ~8m from floor.
Decided to have a quick look in 101 to see what it did. Much as described in 1977, pitches all free climbable. Just after 101 and 101a join there is a tight pitch lead to the right into a canyon - we didn't descend. Followed to near the end in 1977 - gets quite small, but continues. Another small tube leads off to right - Olly went for a short way down this and it continues.
Got out survey kit, discovered the disto battery was flat. Didn't survey... passage is roughly SSW and descending slightly. Walked back via looking for 99-OB-01 which we found. Easy to locate if you assume Schoenberg bearing is for 2 peaks further east, and Zinken is a different peak.
Lesson learnt - check disto batteries.
I was still feeling full of cold so we went to have a poke at the dig at the end of 82's top level. Olly successfully dug and got more passage, but sadly it didn't go very far - I suspect it is too near the surface. While I sat on the surface and coughed, Olly had a look at 85, and concluded that there is still a lead.
Went back into 82 and surveyed the new bit.
Olly rigged and bolted down 157. We went down the parallel rift and concluded the bolts of unknown origin spotted in 1987 are not in 107. Cave doesn't continue. We surveyed out, via a brief warm up on the surface. On redescending Olly realised his rack was still underground. Oops! Fortunately I could rescue it for him! We didn't descend the main shaft as it was quite full of snow. There is also another parallel rift we didn't visit.
Lesson learnt: don't prussic out leaving your rack behind.
This cave is right by the path to 204 ~ opposite 157. one day this cave would have had a long section of big passage heading for 107, but is today missing much of it's roof. Off this main 'passage' are several short sections of cave heading off. Sadly they all either get too small, end, or are choked with rocks. Surveyed most of it - will go back and finish off later.
(The cave name is because we saw a pair of gemse twice on the way).
Went into 83, put some new bolts in, but rigged as a pushing rig, assuming we'd only spend a day here. Got into the big rift but needed more rope than expected due to re-belays and an almost non-existent snow pile.
Walked down the big rift until we got near the bottom, took the phreatic passage on the left like in 1977. Pitch was lovely 32m of freehang to a big chamber, as expected the route didn't continue, but we could survey out to connect any new stuff too. Sadly the survey pencil was rubbish, and the 2 spares I was carefully carrying were broken. Olly managed to take notes up the pitch and I derigged it. We then headed home, planning to return with a pencil the next day.
Lesson learnt: don't carry broken pencils.
Decided to see if we could drop back into the trunk passage seen in 1987-02 and the top level of 82 somewhere in between, taking the obvious approach of walking between them. This doesn't work well as the terrain is very broken, but we found what is likely to be the skylight entrance to 1987-02, a postcard on balloons from Italy, and a few scrotty tubes to crawl into.
Went back to 83 planning to look at the bolt traverse over the 32m pitch, as this was likely to be a short trip and the last in 83, we didn't re-rig the entrance pitch and we set an 8pm call out.
Olly did a great job bolting over the pitch and on. I took a few photos and eventually followed along. The bolt traverse was great fun. At the end was an ~8m pitch with a slope/climb up the back wall which sadly didn't go. At the top of this short pitch, Olly spotted an alcove on the left, so bolted into that, and climbed up into the roof tube. We realised there was nowhere near enough time to explore, survey and derig by 8pm. So we surveyed out as far as the main chamber and made our 8pm callout by ~15 minutes. Left the cave rigged for 1 final trip.
We had a trip booked in the Appelhaus area to visit some of our neighbouring cave systems. So first we had to contour hit across form Top camp. And as I didn't like the idea of walking back to the Stöger-Steig, I came up with a plan to go around northwards from Topcamp. We followed the path to Tunnocks for a start and then headed off into inknown territory north from there. We crossed some large bowl following a ridge on its western rim. After crossing some snowfields the ridge eventually ended and we got to a large depression with a hole in its northwestern corner (UTM 33T 0411876 528324). Appears to be a reltively deep shaft of approx 25m, but with little to no draught. Anyway, its a cave either on its own right and also its very close to March of the Penguins and Bullethöhle (exploration started [illegible]). We tried to look down the shaft, but some bolting and rope seem to be necessary to get anywhere.
We therefore continued our tour and just a bit further to the north we found the next interesting hole (UTM 33T 0411904 5283600). This one appeared to be a bit of underground passage with a collapsed roof and lots of rubble on the floor. However, the passage appeared to continue towards the south and again hte lack of rope stopped us from getting there. Probably only about 5m climb/rope needed. We instead continued walking to the next col and then started heading down one valley further north, where the ski route is marked on some maps. This route took us awfully close to the BS16-BS19 entrances, and we probably also spotted a good bivy site which may have been used during the UBSS expedition. And of course we stmbed across another cave, which must have been described by UBSS somewhere. Entrance is at 33T 0412332 5283988. The entrance is a 2m diameter horizontal passage in the side of the cliffs and Wookey walked inside for a couple of minutes, across some shelf, turning right, and then turning around where the passage got smaller. Again a lack of draught, but quite a bit of cave anyway. Down in the valley we had to struggle a bit with what is not called Bunde, but it was easily possible to reach a real forest, Wildenseealm and eventually Appelhaus
We had to walk to some "Woising Camp" from Appelhaus, which took about 2 hours. Then we got changd and walked another 8 minutes to a little entrance shaft. Following a series of pitches (very steep passages mostly) we eventually reached a horizontal level at 1640m above sea level. We explored that for a while, then went to another pitch going down some more steep passages to the currnet pushing front of the cave. A strong wind was blowing up this, and probably another horizontal level can be reached with little effort. Given the informatsion from other caves in the area, this horizontal level is expected at 1550m, but as this was mostly a touristy trip, we soon turned around and left the cave. The exit, different from the entrance, was rather spectacular high up in the cliffs at the northern edge of the Totes Gebirge with an impressive view and a nice little via ferrata to get back to the Wising Camp and Appelhaus. Overall the system is a lot smaller than SMK, but appears to be very interesting and it probably has exactly the same development history.
Went back to 83 for our final trip to look at the roof tube beyond the bolt traverse and survey the entrance bit. I got part way along and realised I had left the grease syringes on the surface, Olly wasn't yet on the bolt traverse so kindly popped out to get them.
Got into the roof tube, which is called Thunder Road due to the thunder we heard there on the 10th. I took off my SRT kit and wiggled along the passage which rapidly became more rift like. Olly wasn't keen to follow, so sat with the notebook while I shouted back numbers. The passage went for ~30m trending uphill. Near the end was a short section of walking passage followed by a low crawl. Then a drippy aven on the R and a pitch on the left. I surveyed back from here. I suspect it is near the surface.
Derigged back to entrance chamber and began to survey out. Checked the bottom of the rift and it is, as you would expect chossy and connects with the p32. Then, about 1 survey leg up from the p32 passage Olly potted a low passage going off under a rock, named Under a Rock, passage gets to a pitch, which we could carefully traversed round. Next was a short section of lovely big phreas, heading up to a choke. There were a few bits of leaves and pine cones - presumably near another entrance. Right from the pitch went less far. Combined tactics got me up a short climb which led up to a choke, again with leaves. I thought I could smell outside.
Surveyed back to entrance chamber, and left the cave.
Went back into Under a Rock and dropped the pitch. The bottom was a tall rift, up didn't go far, the way the water flows rapidly got too narrow. We followed the 3rd way on, up a short climb and down the other side (via a bolt). We scrambled further down and down some more to find ourselves back at the bottom of the p32. Olly was amused at where we were, I was annoyed. But at least our loop closure was good!
Went back to entrance chamber to survey out. Olly spotted a hole thru' some rocks. It drafted so we pulled some rocks out. We couldn't easily make the gap big enough, so tried a meter or so higher up. I managed to get through, and amazingly got under and through a window into another passage underneath Down Under, removed more rocks so Olly could follow me through. Followed the passage past a squeeze and a climb down. Found ourselves above a reasonable sized passage ~5m above. Didn't look climbable down, but I could traverse over. Did this to another 6m drop into the same passage, but excitingly could see a snow plug. We wondered if this was 107. Surveyed out and up to the tag bolt.
Scrambled in 107 on the way back and saw a similar looking snow plug. Down the hill the survey data confirms we connected! Not as impressive as The Connection, but we have made 107 ~9m deeper (by the CUCC way) and ~500m longer.
We assembled outside the Ischlerhutte where we slept the night + marched off at 8.30 sharp. Up the mars[?] track ~10min then on a decent path steeply up to a v.short cave (almost an arch) with snow + on up to the main entrance (55c) with a locked gate. We had 2 guides + 8 of us - 4 CUCC, 2 from Arge Grabbenstetten (Stefan + Ilya), one girl from the Appelhaus group + a guy from the Vienna group using carbide - a while since I've seen that. We abseiled down Glitzerdom -> Deikenkarrengang + got to the Wandgang, Halle des Müde Bruden + through Trepfsteingang, were shown Satan's Gang where the Raucherkarhöhle + Feuertalhöhle systems were connected in 2007, Gigantendom + then Langegang to SchachtbrückenHalle with dodgy polypro blue bridge then out again. All at a pleasant dawdly pace. Very jolly. Back to Ischlerhutte + down the boring track route to Blaa Alm (the Nagelstegweg is more direct + more scenic though v.steep)
This was Olaf's idea so I'd got all keen then he dropped out (having had a hard time walking to Appelhaus form Top Camp) so that left me to bully poor Julian into coming along. By the time we'd dropped off Julia at the teain station to head home to Norway + braved the Bad Aussee traffic jam a second time as we'd forgotten our toll booth pass it was 11 am before we set off. We split Julian's caving gear between us for the walk to Top Camp + had lunch + I packed my caving gear there then set off up Tunnocks to the saddle then followed the German's cairns - excellent route up slabs. From there we were on our own until we hit the 228 main path up the Schönberg which is ridiculously well marked in red + white. To get there we contoured round east side of the Große Grieskogel + E of the Große Wildkogel. By the time we hit the path Julian was feeling really ill so I shuttled the rucksacks one at a time up to the Schönberg + then at hte top I put all the heavy stuff in my bag + left Julian to go to the Ischlerhutte hoping Wookey + Olaf would be there to persuade to fetch Julian's. No such luck so I dumped my bag + left him lying groaning in hte path. Eventually he made it down, threw up + went to bed. Oh dear, seem to have broken him. We think he may have had heat stroke though we had plenty of water + it wasn't that hot. Anyway this is an excellent walk if you aren't carrying a full set of caving gear each + highly recommended as a pre-dinner route from Top Camp with stunning views from the Schönberg ridge. Guides were Harald <- Chief geek for Schönberg + Wig (for Ludwig, who's surveyed 47 km in Schönberg).
This trip is recorded earlier, but some details of our bit are not covered, hence this addendum.
Holly & Emma had got up to shelf off Fat Cat as part of the great 'find KH' exercise and needed someone to shin up a climb. Apparently bottom was loose & would probably need a bolt. Holly considered this a handy opportunity to watch how boltng up climbs is done. In fact, although the move off the ground was tricky, no bolts were needed & Wook shinned easily to near the top. It would have been trivial but for the pile of boulders perched on the edge which comprised all the holds. Attempting to use them might bring the lot crashing down so a couple of bolts were now put in to enable climbing gingerly past. There was passage at the top (!) a climb up to another pitch & a traverse. Holly came up & put in her first 2 drill bolts to make a nice rig, then we surveyed the new bit. Couldn't go further due to lack of rope, but 15m disto shot across traverse deserved a return. Hometime by now, Holly & Olaf exited whilst Wook showed Rob how to put in a bolt to remove Fat Cat rub. Sudden noise of water at 8:30 pm told us it had thunderstormed, and we duly got rather wet on Brians PS, and despite spending 1 hr 45 shifting rocks in the pleasure dome in the hope that levels would reduce, still got wet on 1st half & soaked on 2nd half of King Carbide. Yuk! Tried to wedge a rock in spout of lower half & nearly got stuck upside down in hole whilst last in cave. Out @ 12:30
Went down to the connection to turn the 'exploratory' rigging into something suitable for mere mortals. Took drill + 3batteries + hand bolting kit & leftover nasty red ropes. Spent some hours re-doing the 1st traverse to go higher along line of shelf. Rob did all the bolting & seemed to enjoy himself. Added 3 or 4 there, another on up-bit to remove rub & Y-hang the end. Only possible by replacing 27m white rope with red as we went. Then put rope on climb and 2 more bolts in 2nd traverse. Went to the bad step which was already bolted & put in climb line & traverse line over bridge + step. All this took quite some time so it was getting late & our enthusiasm somewhat dimmed, but we should at least take a look-see having got here. Headed on down March of the ents, noting that most of the wind came in from the 50m pitch QM - Interesting spot. Carried on to rivendell & the stables and rigged little climb round the corner on a couple of dodgy naturals. Didn't have enough rope to do it properly (or the enthusiasm).
Wandered along a bit and took a look down QM [fill in] which had a fine breeze at the top. Very silly sloping 'pitch'. Our 27m rope got us down past one traverse level to overlook more rift, but still at least 6m to the floor & not shinnable. So surveyed out, teaching Rob distoX usage. Seemed to be no draught at the bottom, so the wind presumably comes from across the top somewhere. We called it soilathon.
Took a look further down l[blank-for-name] shinning round various things and poking one hole (goes to a pitch). Eventually got to a dead-end at Mad Dogs and marvelled at the very hard-looking C5 into the roof which the survey claimed was the way on. As it was after midnight & we were knackered (especially Rob) we were glad of excuse to go home & slowly came out, regretting hoiking 3 batts down here, and taking about 5hrs to exit @5am. (It is quite a long way). Curry felt well-deserved.
Traverse Rig
FAR FROM SUPPORT - 2 TRAVERSES:
Rigging from Far from Support to March of the Ents
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More rigging
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LIST OF ROPES LEFT - Far From Support double traverse
- Rivendale traverse
- Mad Dogs pitch
- Puss in Boots traverse (+ pitch at end of it)
- Cat Flap Pitches (left rigged in 2009)
2012-08-
Duncan, Andrew
T/U: 5hrs
1319 Rock'n'Roll Höhle
Over the pitch at the north end of the cave was an A lead. So for a more relaxing day, thought we would have a look and possibly add some length to the system if we could connect it on. Interesting start to the cave with a flat out crawl where every time you moved forward the rocks pushed you into the ceiling. Traverse first pit and got to end where Duncan traversed over and put in a hand-spit. Lead was so good it had already been scooped, but did our duty and surveyed it adding about 40m on to what had been scooped. Although it had not been scooped, nail varnish was found on wall, but looks like the data was lost.....
2012-08-15
Stu W, Andrew, Mike TA
T/U: 12hrs?
204a
Cave pre-rigged. Descended entrance, Kng Carbide, Brian's Phat Shaft uneventfully and proceeded to Dog Days near top of Fat Cat to examine possible leads and survey with distoX + PDA. Dog Days contains many steep, unstable sandy slopes and a boulder choke with some unstable parts. A quick search of the boulder choke revealed no worthwhile leads - StuW found a narrow rift and what was thought to be a pitch but turned out to be the chamber flor. Andrew found an area with scary unstable boulders. The area was then surveyed, as was another area at the other end of the chamber which contained ground that turned white when walked on. StuW operated the disto but sometimes had trouble with shaking arms. Disto ran out of power half way through and was recalibrated by Andrew. A section of cave was surveyed yielding some leads. Cave was then exited with Andrew rebolting a Y hang on the traverse before Dog Days (Fat Cat?) and Stuw finding some slack and moving it along to make the Y hang descendable. StuW got exhausted during hte exit and became slow at prussiking, (due to equipment config and strength) leaving Andrew to take cover in the bothy bag below Fat Cat. StuW's route finding was bad - cave exited by Andrew followed by StuW (somewhat later) at araound 10 pm. Mike TA took photos then exited prior to Fat Cat traverse.
2012-08-17
Hirlatzhehle Excursion
Olaf, Becka + Julian
T/U: 6½hrs
A team of 10 led by Gottfried met at 8.15. It's a 40 min steep slog up from the carpark at the Simony Denkmal above Hallstatt to the entrance on a small footpath next to a fresh landslide then up a 4m ladder into the gated entrance with a gale coming out of it. Gottfried said it was even tronger in the winter - the whole cave drafted more than any I've known I think. The first section to the Zul??nger is common to all trips - there are 5 entrances to the Hirlatz system but the others have sumps or are difficult to access. Q. slow going with a large group up lots of aluminium ladders + then down until a final ladder to a major junction where wenwent left to the Alter Teil whilst the main W and E sections of the system are off to the right. Left soon brought us to a stream rift + a traverse left then up more ladders + past 2 campsites to Bachschwinde where a few of us traversed along the final narrow Streamway until it got crawly. Met the 2 other groups as we returned and then 3 of us headed towards Nordriften which was fun rifty streamway. Mark took some shots of the traverse + I wasn't allowed to go on further excursions as Mark had had enough so out to the sunshine. Our trips were the first in there since February, amazing. A fine trip - several kilometres of huge borehole.
2012-08-10
Looking for BS17 (Organhöhle)
Duncan & Anthony
T/U: negligible
Went for a stroll over the back of the Hohes AugstEck ridge in search of Organhöhle, the cave found by UBSS in 1989/90. We didn't find it, though it looks as though Wookey & Olaf found something that cosely matches the description on the following day. We spent a while looking around where the GPS says BS17 should be, until Duncan noticed that the UBSS map placed BS17 almost due east of the summit of the Hohes AugstEck, which was significantly further south - so we tried our luck in that area. The cave that Wookey and Olaf found is actually much closaer to the GPS point.
Although we didn't find BS17, we did find several entrances, all of which have been documented on the expo computer. The most interesting of these are:
- 2012-dd-05:
- Horizontal entrance that quickly leads to a short pitch. Carries a draught, and well worth a return visit. This is close to hte GPS point for BS16 but does not match the description in the UBSS report.
- 2012-dd-06:
- Another horizontal entrance leading to shrt pitch. This cave contains evidence of previous exploration: we found an old zoom flatpack and an empty packet of "Big D" brand peanuts with a 1988 sell-by date, which is after the LUSS expeditions but before the UBSS expeditions. However, since the cavea is much closer to the UBSS area, we suspect that UBSS are more likely to have explored it, usng out-of-date peanuts for sustenance. There is no sign of any painted number and hte cave does not seem to match any of the descriptions of UBSS or LUSS finds.
- 2013-dd-07:
- A well hidden hole that looks like a rock shelter until you are standing right next to it. A low, wide phreatic passage lead downhill along the edding to a choke. The modest draught appears to go up a climbable aven a short way back. Close to 2012-dd-06.
- 2012-dd-08:
- Large entrance a little higher up and south of the other entrance, allways on are choked but there is a hole that looks diggable that carries a draught.
All these caves are at a similar altitude to each other and (most likely) Organhöhle, so there appears to be something interesting ging on here - well worth a return.
Went back to 83 for the actual final trip. I retrieved the rigging gear while Olly sketched the entrance chamber. I derigged and swung across to look at side tubes. One near the top generated another ~15m of passage.
Finished de-rigging. [rigging diagram in original]
Went to 148 and rigged in the first 4 pitches (i.e. to just before deep space). I'd forgotten how cold and drafty 148 is.
Went to 148 with 100+m of rope, hangers and a drill. Tweaked the rigging on the way in to add a bolt on pitch 2 -> clowns are a poor hanger choice for free hanging rebelays! Also changed natural backups and things. Olly rigged down deep space (and hated using a stop more than hating using a rack) After much swinging about with too much gear he gave up looking for the deviation and came back up. I had a go and managed to find it eventually - a sling on a nose of rick behind you. Must be more than 5 years since I last rigged but I mostly remembered what to do. Except I was slow and failed to find the next few bolts. Safely got to the asteroid belt and found more bolts. Olly came down too and we rigged on to the pushing front. Olly found the missing bolts on the way out.
The pitch heads are nasty and tight, but things look better deeper down. Got out surprisingly fast (1hr 40) despite bimbling.
Finally, after a five year wait it was time to go beyond the Asteroid Belt in Deep Space (148). Got down to the pushing front fairly quickly, and Olly proceeded to rig our 200m of rope down. First pitch was long (as we knew from dropping rocks) ~60m, most rocks had also gone down the next short pitch too. The pitch after that one was also short, and just round the corner. Basically cave is a very high rift with a little trickle of water down the back. Next pitch was longer + spray lashed at base. Next very short pitch wetter still. Then there was a little bit of horizontal to the following (dry) short pitch, and the same again to the next. Olly got to the bottom of that with 4m rope left, 4 hangers and 4 hiltis, and the cave changed to being horizontal. How is that for careful planning and frugal rigging!
Walked/bridged along the rift passage until we hit a boulder choke. I hypothesised that this was the altitude that 107, 97, 82 end at, but actually we were ~40m higher. Olly spotted that the water went under the choke in a little trench. I took off my SRT kit and Olly moved some rocks out. With some effort I managed to wriggle through with the water, under the boulders. Inside the choke I could stand up and cautiously climb up and out the other side! Short passage off to right into another choke (upstream). Downstream to left continued some way, so I went back to get Olly. Olly managed to get through too, and we headed off to explore. Followed downstream, down a climb and to a pitch. Surveyed out from here. Looked at a climb up on the right (going out) which goes up into an aven with black space above - so might be possible to go over the boulder choke. Surveyed back to above the final pitch, then began the long route out. Got out safely and before dawn, what more can you ask for?
Got up late after yesterdays trip, but needed an early ngiht ready for going to Eishohle the next day, so planned a short trip into 107. Olly placed a bolt backup and then a hang bolt - managed to get a free hang just. Didn't spot the 1978 spit until a later trip - it is a bit higher than ours, but would rub. Entrance shaft bells out, and has several possible leads high up. Landed near the snow plug we could see from 83 (Down Under).
Had an explore, realised the 1978 survey has the wrong angle for the side passages, and that the projected elevation has the plan lengths and vica versa. Area is a little more complex with various tubes going off - all the ones we looked at either ended or connected with the pitch below. We planned to survey but got cold as it was really drafty.