Expo 2006: mission statement
In the summer of 2006, Cambridge University Caving Club is off to Austria for the 30th time on its annual summer expedition. As ever, there are many promising unexplored cave areas remaining, less major side passages to be ticked, and uncountably many caves waiting to be found. This document introduces the major work areas and the current state of exploration, and lists several specific projects on which it is hoped effort will be expended. Note that numbers given by cave names are those of the Austrian Kataster for our area.
General
For thirty years CUCC has worked on exploring the Loser plateau, a vast expanse of limestone riddled with caves in the Totes Gebirge area of the Austrian Alps, roughly 80km ESE of Salzburg. Over this time CUCC has explored such notable caves as Kaninchenhöhle (161), Stellerweghöhle (41) and Schwarzmooskogel Eishöhle (40), caves now connected to form a system 56km long and over a kilometre deep; more than half of this length was contributed by CUCC.
More recently, exploration of Steinbrückenhöhle (204) has been the main focus of expedition work. Since 1999 it has yielded 11.7km of passage and is over 500m deep. It is anticipated that it will eventually connect to the Schwarzmooskogelhöhlensystem. Along the line between Steinbrückenhöhle and Kaninchenhöhle lies Hauchhöhle (234), the scene of significant exploration in 2004 and 2005; its length is now 619m, and there are still leads to be investigated.
Eislufthöhle was found on the second
ever CUCC expedition to the area in 1977, when the explorers got
to -150m with the way on wide open. They pushed again in 1978, then in 1979
finally reached a sump at approximately -506m. They derigged and nobody
returned for a quarter of a century, until we took another look in 2005.
A previously unknown horizontal level "Brave New World" was discovered at about
-50m and the previously unpushed "Keg Series" pushed to a bypassable sump at
-186m. We also reexplored the original deep series to the Tap Room. In 2006 we
explored further in "Brave New World", found another route down to the "Keg
Series" sump, established a visual connection from a nearby cave
(1623/99). We also
reexplored the original deep series to around -190m.
The cave now has a surveyed length of 1777m (making it the third
longest cave system CUCC has explored in Austria!) There's also at least
300m vertical metres which haven't been resurveyed yet.
Steinbrückenhöhle
- Subsoil - probably not being pushed this year
- Further exploration of QMs off High Hopes.
- The Unconformity in Rhino Rift (unless that was looked at last year>)
- There are a number of other leads in Steinbrückenhöhle which might merit exploration, including an undescended pitch (QM 01-38A) in the Chocolate Salty Balls area, known as 'The Eleven Second Rattle' - named after the sound heard on dropping rocks down it; another undescended pitch (01-68A) at the end of the Merry F***ing Christmas crawl; and many others (cf. the Steinbrückenhöhle question mark list)
- Pitch in Merry-Go-Round with plausible connection to the Underworld
- Push "Rat Biscuit" into "Cresta Run".
- Connect "The Near End"/"Kidney Bean" to "The Colonnade".
- Drop the pitch in "7-11 Chamber" - the most southerly point of the current 204 survey, apart from Ariston which is ~100m deeper.
- Push QM 05-14A (not far inside 204g entrance).
- Push QMs 01-37 and 01-38.
- White Elephant Series (99-26B) draughts, but might be a tight pitchhead?
- QM 03-75A (off "Anonymous Chamber"!)
Hauchhöhle
- Drop Bodge pitch (the one with the long rattle).
Eislufthöhle
Underground work:
- The original 1970s route below -190m is still to be revisited. This is
probably a good year to try to push to the sump at ~-506m, since there
aren't plans to go deep in 204, so there should be enough rope. The
original explorers' accounts suggest there are leads at the level of
"Hall of the Greene King", and another lead somewhat lower. A modern
style SRT rig may reveal further leads, as may a more thorough poke
around - the only bottoming trip in 1979 was under severe time pressure.
- In Brave New World, descend B* pitch to look at a couple of promising
leads (04-57B (Ramp) and 04-38B (Pendulum to slanting pitch) and re-read a
clearly bogus compass reading in "Forward to the Past".
rift.
- Pendulum to reach slanting pitch off B* pitch.
- Push pitches in BNW: Drop Canyon pitch (with a long enough rope this
time) and check if the main passage leads back to Nexus pitch as the direction
suggests it will. Also check the apparent lead in the opposite direction.
Drop Nexus pitch - it seems to be in an interesting position.
- Explore the pitches beyond "Razor Advance" (the "Keg Series" sump bypass).
Potential surface and shallow work near 76:
- Explore, survey and tag 83 (specifically phreatic continuation beyond
pitch).
- Explore the QMs at ~ -25m in 107 (description suggests non-draughting
chokes, survey suggests QMs), and the ~-70m route to the Big Pitch for any
horizontal leads, as this is about the same level as Brave New World, and <100m
away.
- Pirat Schacht (157) perhaps?
(depending on results in 107 and 83).
- Try to refind Tantulus Schacht (177) (probably fruitless at this point...)
- Refind
99-OB-01 and
99-OB-02
(both tagged and photographed and bearings taken but not explored or GPSed).
99-OB-02 must be near to being above Brave New World.
- Proper survey for 2004-01 (bivi cave) - trivial since it's just a large chamber
- Descend/explore/survey 2004-08
- Excavate potential entrance above Pancake Chips Aven in 76, which might
provide an easier route in to at least some of Brave New World
- Find and tag 84 (draughts, unexplored tube) and 86
- Survey 85 (~50m long, no rigging gear
apparantly) and 81 (~15m long, no
rigging gear)
- Tag and survey 2004-03
(hole already drilled, not a very long cave).
- Schneewindschacht (97) probably deserves a revisit, due to its proximity to 76 and a phreatic level known to have a continuing traverse - we should at least check how bad the entrance squeeze actually is!
Odds 'n' Sods