mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-11-23 15:51:56 +00:00
171 lines
9.3 KiB
HTML
Executable File
171 lines
9.3 KiB
HTML
Executable File
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
<html lang="en">
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>1978: Nick Thorne's report for Descent 40</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../css/main2.css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<font size=-1>CTS 79.2025: Descent 40 (Jan/Feb 1979) pp 10-11</font>
|
|
|
|
<p>This article first appeared in <i>Descent</i>(40) for Jan/Feb 1979,
|
|
pp10-11 and is reproduced in the password protected part of the website with the
|
|
permission of the author and Wild Places Publishing.
|
|
|
|
<h2>Eislufthole still going for CUCC at 1148 ft</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p align=right><b>By Nick Thorne</b>
|
|
|
|
<p>After last year's quietly successful Cambridge UCC expedition (see
|
|
<a href="../1977/descnt.htm"><i>Descent 38</i></a>), enthusiasm to return to
|
|
the karst regions of Western Austria soared. The main incentive was to carry
|
|
on prospecting on the almost virgin lapiaz of the plateau above
|
|
<span lang="de">Altaussee,</span> and to continue pushing our unfinished find
|
|
of last year, 106 - <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> (good name,
|
|
eh?).
|
|
|
|
<p>By way of introduction, <span lang="de">Altaussee</span> is a small
|
|
village about 50 miles east of <span lang="de">Salzburg,</span> and it was
|
|
there that we set up our camp. The Loser Plateau where we carried out most of
|
|
our work is then reached by a steep (in more ways than one) toll road,
|
|
follwed by an hour's brisk walk from the top. Furtunately for us, one of the
|
|
few local cavers, <span lang="de">Karl Gaisberger,</span> who seems to be
|
|
able to arrange anything, managed to secure free passes for us on the toll
|
|
road. Cheers Karl; how about a sedan chair for the walk at the top next year
|
|
?
|
|
|
|
<p>So in July and August of this year, we were back on the Loser with a
|
|
fairly hefty team. Expedition members divided logically into three groups:
|
|
Team <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle:</span> Andy Waddington, Simon Farrow,
|
|
Nick Thorne, Doug Florence and Julian Griffiths - the crack ropes team, ready
|
|
for anything. Team Ladders: John Bowers, Ben van Millingen, Mike Shearme and
|
|
Nicola Davies - all spending their first year in Austria. Team Geriatric: Rod
|
|
and Jont Leach, Vic Brown, Dave Fox, plus "hangers on". These acted as the
|
|
emergency reserve powerhouse, to be called into service should things get out
|
|
of hand for the rest of us. (Something like Aladdin's lamp I suppose, but
|
|
this lot looked more like a clapped out carbide).
|
|
|
|
<p>And so to caving. Team Ladders didn't take long to find a promising,
|
|
draughting entrance. All well and good so far, but the entrance initially was
|
|
only big enough for a midget and it was only after a couple of days of
|
|
boulder hauling that they got underground. The cave, 107, they called
|
|
<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle.</span> Since I didn't get a trip down it,
|
|
and know Berger all about it, I won't go into too much detail.
|
|
|
|
<p>Apparently they descended a series of pitches in a large rift, down to
|
|
about 560ft, when the tackle started to run out, with the cave continuing.
|
|
They chose to get out of this dilemma by rubbing the magic carbide lamp.
|
|
Wham! Team Geriatric hauled their weary bodies out of their canoes (canoes?)
|
|
and went down <span lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> with a brand new reel of
|
|
Marlow. Once underground, the Geriatrics were immediately transformed into an
|
|
efficient well-oiled machine. Within a couple of trips,
|
|
<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle</span> had been pushed to a choke at minus
|
|
918ft.
|
|
|
|
<p>Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what of Team
|
|
<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> ? Mixed fortunes really. A slow rig
|
|
in down to last year's terminus (ie. the Tap Room - see survey) was due to
|
|
greater amounts of snow and ice than last year. ("Are you sure this is the
|
|
right cave?") At one point a huge ice boulder was suspended at a pitch
|
|
take-off, and it refused to give way to a well-directed wellie. Farrow and
|
|
Florence then carted a great crowbar into the cave to shift the thing, only
|
|
to find that the boulder had fallen down in the meantime. Ah, well !
|
|
|
|
<p>Once we had rigged down to The Tap Room, but before pushing far into new
|
|
ground, we had an interesting policy change - to overnight trips. The lapiaz
|
|
in which the cave entrance is sited is impossible to negotiate in darkness,
|
|
and therefore trips during the daytime are limited to a maximum of eight
|
|
hours underground. Longer trips could be attained by going underground in the
|
|
late afternoon, spending a minimum time underground of about ten hours, and
|
|
then emerging into the morning light.
|
|
|
|
<p>Good idea, we thought, and indeed the first of these trips did add 394ft
|
|
to the depth of <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle,</span> including the
|
|
magnificent 197ft abseil into The Hall of the Greene King. Subsequent
|
|
overnight trips pushed on down some more pitches, and a very muddy 'Fiesta
|
|
Run' to give a total depth of 1,148ft, the cave still continuing. This bottom
|
|
part of the cave is a very tall vadose stream canyon. The passage is very
|
|
tight at stream level and traversing was necessary.
|
|
|
|
<p>It was whilst driving back from the last of these overnight trips, at
|
|
about 7 o'clock in the morning, when we had a slight mishap. The driver of
|
|
the car carrying three of Team <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> back
|
|
down the toll road, fell asleep at the wheel. With that Great Karst Area in
|
|
the Sky Looming ever nearer, the car missed a telegraph pole and a tree by
|
|
inches, went through a fence cum crash barrier, and gracefully launched
|
|
itself over the void.
|
|
|
|
<p>Well, it could have been a drop of a couple of hundred feet had it
|
|
happened further up the road, but as it was, any spectators stupid enough to
|
|
be awake at that ungodly hour would have seen a fine piece of 'S' registered,
|
|
British engineering fall, roll, and tumble down a near vertical 30ft bank, to
|
|
land wheels down in the river at the bottom. (all film rights reserved.)
|
|
|
|
<p>The driver had a broken sternum, cuts to face and hands, and concussion.
|
|
The front seat passenger had a bad gash in the head, and was suspected of
|
|
having a lightly fractured neck, and as the passenger in the back (I'm almost
|
|
ashamed to say it!) I escaped uninjured. The car was a write-off. Both
|
|
injured parties are now out of hospital, and well on the way to recovery.
|
|
(Rats, I wanted his watch!)
|
|
|
|
<p>One consequence of the crash was to leave Team
|
|
<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> a little short of manpower. Efforts
|
|
were shifted from surveying and photographing to derigging. As the expedition
|
|
neared its close, we even started fondling insurance policies as we
|
|
contemplated having to abandon some tackle down the cave. With most of the
|
|
cave still to derig, things looked bleak. Then we remembered the magic
|
|
carbide lamp . . . Wham! In came Team Geriatric, fresh from
|
|
<span lang="de">Gemsehöhle,</span> and in one magnificent combined
|
|
effort, we cleared the cave with one day to spare.
|
|
|
|
<p>On the return journey we were waved through Belgian customs by the
|
|
cleaning lady, and just reached an English telly five minutes before Sid's
|
|
Pippikin film started.
|
|
|
|
<p>In conclusion then, the expedition was a great success, even if the
|
|
exploration of <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> was halted a little
|
|
early. As for <span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> itself, it is now one
|
|
of Austria's most significant caves. From our end point this year, we could
|
|
lob stones down a considerable distance below, with the stream canyon
|
|
continuing. No sump appears imminent as there is no fresh mud on the walls.
|
|
(The mud of the Fiesta Run is probably associated with a shaft overhead, and
|
|
is quite old stuff.)
|
|
|
|
<p>To get 1300ft out of the place should be a mere formality, and after that,
|
|
there's still 1640ft of depth potential left. Now we must try and muster a
|
|
really crack team for next year. And crack team it must be, as
|
|
<span lang="de">Eislufthöhle</span> is no longer the easy series of
|
|
shafts it was, but a long and serious undertaking.
|
|
|
|
<p><i>References: Cambridge Underground
|
|
<a href="../../../years/1976/report.htm">1977</a>, <a href="../../../years/1977/report.htm">1978</a>
|
|
and <a href="../../../years/1978/report.htm">1979</a> [to be published] containing surveys of all
|
|
underground discoveries made by CUCC inrecent years, plus surface survey
|
|
giving accurate entrance locations and altitudes.</i> <font size=-1>[This is
|
|
a slight exagerration, WebEd.]</font>
|
|
|
|
<hr>
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
1978 Expedition info:<br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../years/1978/log.htm">Logbook</a><br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../years/1978/report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1979</a><br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../years/1978/bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a><br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
Nick Thorne's write-up in <a href="../../../years/1978/782034.htm">Belfry Bulletin 366</a><br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
1977/78 report from <a href="../../../years/1978/npc79.htm">NPC Journal</a><br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../years/1978/sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a><br>
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../pubs.htm#1978">Index</a> to all publications<br>
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a><br>
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|