<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN"> <html> <!-- from CTS 78.2034 --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf8" /> <title>1978: Nick Thorne's Belfry Bulletin report</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/main2.css" /> </head> <body> <h1>Belfry report 1978</h1> <font size=-1>Bristol Exploration Club Belfry Bulletin 366 (Oct 1978) pp 4-8</font> <h2>Cambridge University versus the Totes Gebirge</h2> <p>Online at <a href="https://bec-cave.org.uk/belfry-bulletin-no-366-october-1978/#Cambridge_University_Versus_The_Totes_Gebirge">https://bec-cave.org.uk/belfry-bulletin-no-366-october-1978/#Cambridge_University_Versus_The_Totes_Gebirge</a> <p class="MsoNormal">This is the third episode in a potentially<br /> <st1:street w:st="on"><br /> <st1:address w:st="on">Coronation Street</st1:address></st1:street><br /> like saga. In 1978 CUCC, tired of the<br /> Pyrenees, took<br /> <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region><br /> by storm for their summer expedition. Episode Two occurred last year and readers may remember the report I did<br /> for the B.B. To recap, about a dozen of<br /> us spent between two and three weeks at at Alt Ausse, a small village about<br /> 80km east of<br /> <st1:city w:st="on"><br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Salzburg</st1:place></st1:city>. Most of our time was spent prospecting on the<br /> nearby Loser Plateau. Loser is an<br /> extensive plain undulating between 1600 and 1700m above sea level. The almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau is reached<br /> bye steeply ascending toll road from Alt Aussee and a brisk hour or so walk<br /> from the top. Last year we found several<br /> promising caves: </p> <p style="margin-left: 36pt;" class="MsoNormal">97 Schneewindschacht – too tight<br /> at minus 265m. <br /> 82 – Brauninghohle – sumped (perched) at minus 220m. <br /> 106 – Eislufthohle – 150m deep and unfinished. <br /> Plus various other 100m pots.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The greatest incentive to return in 1978 was the unfinished<br /> state of Eislufthohle. Although not our<br /> deepest find in 1977, the shafts in Eislufthohle were of such a size and the<br /> draught in the cave so strong, that we felt that the pot ought to yield a few<br /> more secrets yet, there being 750m of depth potential still left. And with this in mind, we found ourselves<br /> back on Loser in July/August of this year.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The expedition members fell into three categories</p> <p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">a) <!--[endif]-->‘Team Eislufthohle’ – 5 strong team of SRT<br /> merchants, including Yours Truly. </p> <p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">b) <!--[endif]-->‘Team Ladders’ – 3 man, 1 woman team spending<br /> their first year in<br /> <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region>. </p> <p style="margin-left: 57pt; text-indent: -39pt;" class="MsoNormal">c) <!--[endif]-->‘Team Geriatric’ – 4 cavers plus<br /> ‘hangers-on’. More interested in<br /> canoeing and haute cuisine, bless ’em; but as events showed, they can still<br /> deliver the goods when, needed. Team<br /> Ladders, and later aided at depth by Team Geriatric, did a very creditable job<br /> of 107 – Gemsehohle – essentially a large draughting rift, choking at about<br /> minus 280m.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">As for Team Eislufthohle, then I think our fortunes could<br /> best be described as mixed. A slow rig<br /> in down last year’s cave was due to the presence of a greater amount of snow<br /> and ice. In the end, despite enormous<br /> ice boulders falling. Plugged Shaft was<br /> rigged with a 300 foot length of rope with 5 belays and 1 rope protector. This affords, some idea of the technical<br /> difficulties of rigging this large, spiralling broken, shafts. In defence of SRT on a pitch like this one I<br /> most point out that we had comparable difficulties rigging and de-rigging the<br /> thing last year on ladders, and once rigged for ropes, then routine ascents and<br /> descents are not especially slow. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">From the chamber at the bottom, round a corner, leads to<br /> Saved Shaft. This 13m shaft defeated the<br /> ropes men and ladders ruled. At the<br /> bottom is Boulder Chamber (no cave is a cave without one, you know!) A crawl through boulders and a traverse over<br /> the first pitch of the Keg Series (no draught) leads to a free climb and &<br /> 30m pitch, split by a large ledge. From<br /> the bottom a narrowish rift leads to a chamber with a heavy drip. This was as far as we got last year and we<br /> called the chamber The Tap Room (What makes you think we drink beer?)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So off we were again at last, pioneering new ground. The slow progress made during the rig is so<br /> far, and the prospect of a deep cave, now prompted an interesting change in<br /> policy – overnight trips. The lapiaz on<br /> the plateau is impossible to negotiate after night fall, and so allowing for a<br /> margin of error, it seemed logical to walk to the cave in late afternoon, cave<br /> overnight and after 2 minimum trips of 10 hours, emerge into the morning<br /> light. Good idea, we thought.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Indeed, the first overnight trip did pay dividends. I had the privilege (or misfortune) to be<br /> half of this two man effort. We timed<br /> things a little too close for comfort on the walk in. We had to virtually run to the cave in<br /> failing light and found the entrance about ten minutes before darkness trapped<br /> us on the plateau. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Once underground things seemed pretty much the norm. We soon reached the Tap Room. We descended a rope assisted climb that had<br /> been rigged previously and followed an obvious traverse line to a small<br /> chamber, the water having sunk into the floor at the bottom of the climb. The chamber had a nice big boulder poised in<br /> the roof and a large enticing slot in the floor. A 10m pitch was rigged off a couple of bolts<br /> down to a micro-ledge where the rift narrowed. A bolt rebelay was placed and a<br /> fine, ever enlarging, 35m pitch was descended to a large ledge and a stream,<br /> inlet. With the shaft being the ‘best<br /> pitch ‘O the pot’ so far, spirits were high and we started putting in a couple<br /> more bolts. These held a traverse line<br /> that protected a bold step over to a ledge on the opposite wall, and also the<br /> rope for the next pitch. This was 8m to a pool in a dribbly, dribbly<br /> streamway.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The stream trundled on down a trench in the floor and we<br /> traversed along again in a high rift about three or four feet wide. We soon reached a fine rocking boulder<br /> perched squarely on the traverse ledges. We quickly realised that we were to break into something big. A bend and upwards above a massive boulder<br /> jam was an immense blackness, impenetrable to a good NiFe beam. Ahead and downwards lay a second impenetrable<br /> blackness. We placed another couple of<br /> bolts. This took some time as the bolter<br /> had to be life lined and rock anchor teeth kept breaking off, and anchors kept<br /> getting stuck, and </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Our sleepy beer starved brains were in need of a<br /> wake-up. And how! The next pitch turned out to be a magnificent<br /> 60m job. Remember<br /> <st1:place w:st="on"><br /> <st1:placename w:st="on">Juniper</st1:placename><br /> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Gulf</st1:placetype></st1:place>?<br /> – forget it! This fine free hang down a<br /> sculptured corner of a much larger shaft was truly staggering. It landed on a boulder ledge about 4m from<br /> the shaft floor. We abseiled past this<br /> to reach the floor proper.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Downwards, the stream that had slithered down one wall of<br /> the shaft sank into a too low passage. Upwards led to a balcony, giving a fine view of the ‘Hall of the Greene<br /> King’. This is circular in plan and<br /> approximately 20m in diameter. The<br /> height must be in the order of 100m. At<br /> this impressive spot, having run out of rope, having made the deepest<br /> <st1:city w:st="on"><br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:place></st1:city> find to date,<br /> feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, we turned back.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">As we did do, we noted that the water level had risen and<br /> the big pitch landing was now being liberally showered. This and certain difficulties for your<br /> humble, narrator when the rope got pulled up on the big pitch and lowered back<br /> down through the boulder ledge, meant a thorough soaking. Without wetsuits, things were now getting chilly<br /> and prussiking was the only way to keep warm. This was only hampered by the fact that every time you stopped for a<br /> rest you fell asleep! We eventually<br /> surfaced after a twelve hour trip only to dine on plastic ham and biscuits in<br /> the pouring rain. We then left the<br /> plateau. It has been a long time since<br /> I’d left a cave feeling this cold and tired. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But the trip was a success. In one trip we added 120m of depth and despite the fact that it took a<br /> couple of days to recover, overnight trips seemed a good idea still. The next day saw two more of Team Ropes<br /> going underground. They descended the 6m<br /> balcony pitch to the floor of the hall of the Green King. Next came a very large passage with some<br /> proportionally huge hanging death, and this they followed to a short<br /> pitch. This was descended 5m and several<br /> inlets and side passages noted. The way<br /> on seemed less than obvious, but when the draught was detected (despite the<br /> large cross section of the passage) the way lay on down to a pitch of 25m. All the next part of the cave seemed very old<br /> and contained a lot of dry powdery mud. Lack of tackle, time, energy etc., did not permit a descent of this<br /> pitch and so the intrepid heroes returned.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">A couple of night later I was back on the scene again, this<br /> time as part of a three man team. We<br /> descended the 25m pitch which went round the corner and had to be rebelayed<br /> twice. It landed in a passage carrying a<br /> small stream, probably the same one that sank earlier. From here, the stream passed into a very<br /> narrow vadose canyon and we traversed out. The passage, although very tight at stream level was three or more feet<br /> wide at traverse level. The total<br /> passage height was beyond my NiFe beam. The streamway was a classic meandering vadose type, typical of many a<br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Yorkshire</st1:place> pot.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">After a rather committing free climb (at least at this sort<br /> of depth!) the traverse continued. Generally all the traversing was done on good, if not very continuous<br /> ledges. After what seemed like several<br /> hundred feet we clambered over a big jammed boulder chaos and on to the head of<br /> another pitch. A rope was belayed to a<br /> bolt and a chock-stone and a descent was made down 12m of muddy slope. Up until now things had been just comfortably<br /> muddy with a mainly dry, powdery variety. This pitch however, later named The Fiesta Run, was a very glutinous<br /> affair. This fact was later thought to<br /> be associated with a shaft noted entering the roof at this point. The traverse ledges beyond seemed to clear a<br /> little. We reached more chock-stones<br /> with a further pitch beyond. Stones<br /> dropped directly below fell for about fifty feet. Those that were lobbed outwards a little fell<br /> a great deal further. We were running<br /> out of steam here and decided to turn back. To be honest, we were a little disappointed the horizontality<br /> Eisluftohle was adopting. We had envisaged<br /> pitch followed immediately by pitch, followed by pitch, going down very deep<br /> and all very easy! Instead, we had a<br /> steeply sloping streamway occasionally punctuated by short pitches. Tackle carrying on the traverses would not be<br /> easy and the streamway could go on for miles. However, our depth we estimated, conservatively, at 350m. Well satisfied with this we left the cave<br /> after another twelve hour trip.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">With just over a week of the expedition left a couple more<br /> pushing trips could be had and even greater depth attained. Just then however disaster struck. We were driving down the toll road after the<br /> above described trip when one of the disadvantages of overnight trips was<br /> hammered home rather brutally. With the<br /> front passenger asleep and me in the back still wide awake the driver decided<br /> to nod off at the wheel. To his credit<br /> he could have chosen a section of road adjacent to a drop of several hundred<br /> feet, but instead settled for one of a mere thirty. Without the slightest hint of last minute<br /> braking or swerving, we missed a telegraph pole and a tree by inches, went<br /> through a fence cum crash barrier and launched ourselves over the near vertical<br /> drop. The next few seconds consisted of<br /> one of lifes great eternal moments. With broken glass flying and twisted, blood bespattered, metal all<br /> about, the car seemed to roll over and over before finally coming to rest,<br /> wheels down, in a river at the bottom of the drop. The driver suffered cuts to face and hands,<br /> slight concussion and a fractured sternum. The front seat passenger suffered a bad gash in the head and was<br /> suspected of having a lightly fractured neck. The car was a write-off and your seemly invincible narrator, I’m almost<br /> ashamed to say it, had not a scratch (well, only one small one!)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">You’ll be pleased to know that both the injured people,<br /> after spending a week in hospital, and with one getting flown home, both made<br /> full recoveries.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Whilst being fortunate inasmuch as three of has had been<br /> spared the greater karts area in the sky, we (that is Team Eislufthohle) were<br /> now a little short of manpower. Over the<br /> next week we realised de-rigging with so few people as were left could prove<br /> awkward. We even started fondling<br /> insurance policies, wondering whether we could avoid de-rigging<br /> altogether! We abandoned the grade 4<br /> survey that had been started, half finished! Photographic trips were scrapped left, right and centre and now having<br /> given up overnight trips, one alpine start allowed the bottom couple of pitches<br /> to be de-rigged. And then just what we<br /> didnt need, the weather closed in. With<br /> low cloud and rain, we couldnt even see the plateau for several agonising<br /> days, let alone navigate across it. We<br /> were forced to kick our heels at the camp site in Alt Ausee until, two days<br /> before departure, back came the sunshine. With a magnificent effort form Team Geriatric, bless em again, and in<br /> the company of your long suffering narrator, the rest of the cave was<br /> cleared. Phew!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And so back to good old British beer. The return journey was noted only for a<br /> delightfully comfortable night spent on a bench in a lay-by of a German<br /> autobahn; also for being waved through<br /> <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Belgium</st1:place></st1:country-region> customs by the cleaning<br /> lady! As for Eislufthohle, then I<br /> think, judging by the large passage size at the bottom, and the drop test’s<br /> performed there, not to mention the draught (or The War!) then to squeeze 400m<br /> out of the place would be a mere formality. Beyond that, who knows? The local<br /> expert, Karl Gaisberger, to whom many thanks, inspected the mud on our gear<br /> from the Fiesta Run area and confirmed that is was quite old stuff, totally<br /> unlike that deposited a sump backing up. Therefore with a sump not being, imminent and with the passage seeming<br /> to enlarge all the time, Eislufthohle, already one of Losers most significant<br /> caves, should become one of<br /> <st1:country-region w:st="on"><br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Austria</st1:place></st1:country-region>s<br /> deepest. It has to be said however, that<br /> the cave is no longer the easy series of shafts it was. It is now quite a serious, undertaking. Consequently for<br /> <st1:city w:st="on"><br /> <st1:place w:st="on">Cambridge</st1:place></st1:city> to return there, despite the<br /> keenness of some of us, would be pointless unless we could put up a good crack<br /> team, numbering at least ten. Dont miss<br /> next years exciting episode; same time, same channel!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Many thanks to the Ian Dear Memorial Fund, without whose<br /> financial backing, I may have missed the magnificent abseil; into the Hall of<br /> the Greene King an experience to make life really worth living ..at least until<br /> the drive back!</p> <a href='/years/1978/l/BB_400_BB366-AustriaEislufthole.html'><img src='/years/1978/t/BB_400_BB366-AustriaEislufthole.jpg' /></a> <hr /> <!-- LINKS --> <ul> <li>1978 Expedition info: <ul> <li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li> <li><a href="report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1979</a></li> <li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a></li> <li>Eislufthöhle - <a href="descnt.htm">from Descent 40</a></li> <li>1977/78 report from <a href="npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a></li> <li><a href="sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li> </ul></li> </ul></body> </html>