expoweb/handbook/survey/why.htm

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<title>CUCC Expo Surveying Handbook: Rationale</title>
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<h2 id="tophead">CUCC Expo Surveying Handbook</h2>
<h1>Why am I doing this?</h1>
<p>The main aim of the expedition is to explore new passages - to boldly
explore what noone has seen before. Indeed, in many cases, what noone even
suspected was there. This is the fun and excitement of expo, so why spoil it
all by doing tedious activities like surveying?</p>
<p>Once upon a time, none of the caves were explored. Anything you found was
guaranteed virgin. Now, many of the obvious caves have been looked at. Some
went, some didn't. The fact that you can come to Austria and be pretty sure
of finding new passage to explore is all down to the folk who came before you
recording what they looked at, both the stuff that went, and the stuff that
didn't. Without detailed recording and surveying of the caves, it would
rapidly become more difficult to find new passage, or to be sure that round
the next corner wouldn't be a load of previous explorers' footprints.</p>
<p>A lot of work is involved in maintaining the lists of caves that didn't
go, the lists of going leads, the cave surveys, the route descriptions and
other documentation. In the very earliest years, this work was not regarded
as a priority and we are still living with the problems which this created.
In the UK this work is done by a dedicated few souls with a long-term
commitment to the Loser plateau. To make their job easier, indeed, to make
their job possible, and thus to ensure that future expeditions have new
passage to find, those actually exploring the caves need also to survey them
and to record what they looked at in a variety of other ways.</p>
<p>Of course, its also rewarding to have a big survey or a cave photograph on
your wall and to be able to point to it and say "I found that !" Good
documentation is also essential to ensure that the club appears competant
when applying for Sports Council money and the like. Indirectly, surveying
makes your holiday cheaper.</p>
<p><b>Surveying ethics</b>. <em>Survey what you find - don't leave it for
someone else</em>. For horizontal stuff, it is usually most effective to
survey into virgin passage. Don't run off finding loads of cave and then
survey back - this leads to long nights and eventually to poor or incomplete
surveys, and probably to missed call-outs. For vertical stuff, where rigging
is time consuming and you don't find too much in one go, surveying back is
probably warmer, but if you run out of time, energy, morale or lights, make
sure you go back and survey before derigging or pushing more!</p>
<p>One great advantage of doing the surveying yourself is that a surveying
party inevitably looks more closely at a passage than an exploration party.
This means you are quite likely to find new going leads as a result of doing
the survey. As evidence for this, at one time, the University of Leeds
Speleological Association found more passage in Yorkshire each year than most
other clubs put together. The reason - they had a program of systematically
resurveying known caves, and invariably found previously overlooked ways
on.</p>
<hr />
<ul id="links">
<li><b>Expedition Handbook</b>:
<ul>
<li>Expo Handbook <a href="../index.htm">Introduction</a></li>
<li><b>Surveying</b>:
<ul>
<li>Surveying <a href="index.htm">Overview</a> and index of
topics</li>
<li><a href="what.htm">What is a cave survey?</a></li>
<li>Why am I doing this?</li>
<li>Methods: <a href="how.htm">underground</a></li>
<li>Pitfalls to avoid, <a href="hints.htm">hints'n'tips</a> to
make life easier</li>
<li>Methods: <a href="ontop.htm">surface</a></li>
<li>Base Camp: <a href="getin.htm">getting it in</a> to the
computer</li>
<li>Base Camp: <a href="drawup.htm">drawing it up</a>, writing
the description</li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="../look4.htm">Prospecting guide</a></li>
<li><a href="../rescue.htm">Rescue guide</a></li>
<li><a href="../rig/rigit.html">Rigging guide</a></li>
<li><a href="../photo.htm">Photography guide</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="../../infodx.htm">Index to info/topics pages</a></li>
<li><a href="../../indxal.htm">Full Index to area 1623</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="../../areas.htm">Area/subarea descriptions</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expedition Intro page</a></li>
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">Back to CUCC Home page</a></li>
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