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<title>1978: Nick Thorne's report for Descent 40</title>
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<p style="font-size: 80%">CTS 79.2025: Descent 40 (Jan/Feb 1979) pp
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10-11</p>
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<p>This article first appeared in <i>Descent</i>(40) for Jan/Feb
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1979, pp10-11 and is reproduced in the password protected part of
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the website with the permission of the author and Wild Places
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Publishing.</p>
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<h1>Eislufthole still going for CUCC at 1148 ft</h1>
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<p style="text-align: right"><b>By Nick Thorne</b></p>
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<p>After last year's quietly successful Cambridge UCC expedition
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(see <a href="../1977/descnt.htm"><i>Descent 38</i></a>),
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enthusiasm to return to the karst regions of Western Austria
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soared. The main incentive was to carry on prospecting on the
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almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau above <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Altaussee,</span> and to continue pushing our unfinished find
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of last year, 106 - <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Eislufthöhle</span> (good name, eh?).</p>
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<p>By way of introduction, <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Altaussee</span> is a small village about 50 miles east of
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<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Salzburg,</span> and it was there
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that we set up our camp. The Loser Plateau where we carried out
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most of our work is then reached by a steep (in more ways than one)
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toll road, followed by an hour's brisk walk from the top.
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Furtunately for us, one of the few local cavers, <span lang="de"
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xml:lang="de">Karl Gaisberger,</span> who seems to be able to
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arrange anything, managed to secure free passes for us on the toll
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road. Cheers Karl; how about a sedan chair for the walk at the top
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next year?</p>
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<p>So in July and August of this year, we were back on the Loser
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with a fairly hefty team. Expedition members divided logically into
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three groups: Team <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Eislufthöhle:</span> Andy Waddington, Simon Farrow, Nick
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Thorne, Doug Florence and Julian Griffiths - the crack ropes team,
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ready for anything. Team Ladders: John Bowers, Ben van Millingen,
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Mike Shearme and Nicola Davies - all spending their first year in
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Austria. Team Geriatric: Rod and Jont Leach, Vic Brown, Dave Fox,
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plus "hangers on". These acted as the emergency reserve powerhouse,
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to be called into service should things get out of hand for the
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rest of us. (Something like Aladdin's lamp I suppose, but this lot
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looked more like a clapped out carbide).</p>
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<p>And so to caving. Team Ladders didn't take long to find a
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promising, draughting entrance. All well and good so far, but the
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entrance initially was only big enough for a midget and it was only
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after a couple of days of boulder hauling that they got
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underground. The cave, 107, they called <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Gemsehöhle.</span> Since I didn't get a trip down it, and know
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Berger all about it, I won't go into too much detail.</p>
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<p>Apparently they descended a series of pitches in a large rift,
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down to about 560ft, when the tackle started to run out, with the
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cave continuing. They chose to get out of this dilemma by rubbing
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the magic carbide lamp. Wham! Team Geriatric hauled their weary
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bodies out of their canoes (canoes?) and went down <span lang="de"
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xml:lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> with a brand new reel of Marlow.
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Once underground, the Geriatrics were immediately transformed into
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an efficient well-oiled machine. Within a couple of trips,
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<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> had been pushed to
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a choke at minus 918ft.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what of Team <span lang="de"
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xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span>? Mixed fortunes really. A slow
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rig in down to last year's terminus (ie. the Tap Room - see survey)
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was due to greater amounts of snow and ice than last year. ("Are
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you sure this is the right cave?") At one point a huge ice boulder
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was suspended at a pitch take-off, and it refused to give way to a
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well-directed wellie. Farrow and Florence then carted a great
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crowbar into the cave to shift the thing, only to find that the
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boulder had fallen down in the meantime. Ah, well !</p>
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<p>Once we had rigged down to The Tap Room, but before pushing far
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into new ground, we had an interesting policy change - to overnight
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trips. The lapiaz in which the cave entrance is sited is impossible
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to negotiate in darkness, and therefore trips during the daytime
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are limited to a maximum of eight hours underground. Longer trips
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could be attained by going underground in the late afternoon,
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spending a minimum time underground of about ten hours, and then
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emerging into the morning light.</p>
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<p>Good idea, we thought, and indeed the first of these trips did
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add 394ft to the depth of <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Eislufthöhle,</span> including the magnificent 197ft abseil
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into The Hall of the Greene King. Subsequent overnight trips pushed
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on down some more pitches, and a very muddy 'Fiesta Run' to give a
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total depth of 1,148ft, the cave still continuing. This bottom part
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of the cave is a very tall vadose stream canyon. The passage is
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very tight at stream level and traversing was necessary.</p>
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<p>It was whilst driving back from the last of these overnight
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trips, at about 7 o'clock in the morning, when we had a slight
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mishap. The driver of the car carrying three of Team <span lang=
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"de" xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> back down the toll road,
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fell asleep at the wheel. With that Great Karst Area in the Sky
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Looming ever nearer, the car missed a telegraph pole and a tree by
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inches, went through a fence cum crash barrier, and gracefully
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launched itself over the void.</p>
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<p>Well, it could have been a drop of a couple of hundred feet had
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it happened further up the road, but as it was, any spectators
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stupid enough to be awake at that ungodly hour would have seen a
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fine piece of 'S' registered, British engineering fall, roll, and
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tumble down a near vertical 30ft bank, to land wheels down in the
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river at the bottom. (all film rights reserved.)</p>
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<p>The driver had a broken sternum, cuts to face and hands, and
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concussion. The front seat passenger had a bad gash in the head,
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and was suspected of having a lightly fractured neck, and as the
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passenger in the back (I'm almost ashamed to say it!) I escaped
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uninjured. The car was a write-off. Both injured parties are now
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out of hospital, and well on the way to recovery. (Rats, I wanted
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his watch!)</p>
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<p>One consequence of the crash was to leave Team <span lang="de"
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xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> a little short of manpower.
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Efforts were shifted from surveying and photographing to derigging.
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As the expedition neared its close, we even started fondling
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insurance policies as we contemplated having to abandon some tackle
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down the cave. With most of the cave still to derig, things looked
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bleak. Then we remembered the magic carbide lamp . . . Wham! In
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came Team Geriatric, fresh from <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Gemsehöhle,</span> and in one magnificent combined effort, we
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cleared the cave with one day to spare.</p>
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<p>On the return journey we were waved through Belgian customs by
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the cleaning lady, and just reached an English telly five minutes
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before Sid's Pippikin film started.</p>
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<p>In conclusion then, the expedition was a great success, even if
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the exploration of <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Eislufthöhle</span> was halted a little early. As for
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<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> itself, it is now
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one of Austria's most significant caves. From our end point this
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year, we could lob stones down a considerable distance below, with
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the stream canyon continuing. No sump appears imminent as there is
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no fresh mud on the walls. (The mud of the Fiesta Run is probably
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associated with a shaft overhead, and is quite old stuff.)</p>
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<p>To get 1300ft out of the place should be a mere formality, and
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after that, there's still 1640ft of depth potential left. Now we
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must try and muster a really crack team for next year. And crack
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team it must be, as <span lang="de" xml:lang=
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"de">Eislufthöhle</span> is no longer the easy series of shafts it
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was, but a long and serious undertaking.</p>
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<p><i>References: Cambridge Underground <a href=
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"../../../years/1976/report.htm">1977</a>, <a href=
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"../../../years/1977/report.htm">1978</a> and <a href=
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"../../../years/1978/report.htm">1979</a> [to be published]
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containing surveys of all underground discoveries made by CUCC
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in recent years, plus surface survey giving accurate entrance
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locations and altitudes.</i> <span style="font-size: 80%">[This is a slight
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exagerration, WebEd.]</span></p>
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<hr />
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<ul id="links">
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<li>1978 Expedition info:
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<ul>
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<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
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<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1979</a></li>
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<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a></li>
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<li>Nick Thorne's write-up in <a href= "../../../years/1978/782034.htm">Belfry Bulletin 366</a></li>
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<li>1977/78 report from <a href="../../../years/1978/npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a></li>
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<li><a href= "../../../years/1978/sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href= "../../../pubs.htm#pubs1978">Index</a> to all publications</li>
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<li><a href= "../../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
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<li><a href= "../../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
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</ul>
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