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<title>1993: BCRA Caves & Caving report</title>
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<center><font size=-1>CTS 94.2037: BCRA Caves & Caving 63, spring 1994, pp 18-22 [ISSN 0142-1832]</font>
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<h1>The continuing saga of ... CUCC in Austria</h1></center>
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<p>In contrast to the (relatively) glorious sunshine of the previous year,
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1993 was mainly a contest with the notoriously fickle Austrian weather,
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although we still found plenty of new cave in KH (about 1.3km). This was
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despite the increasing difficulties involved in getting to the far end, and
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the relatively inexperienced team. Kaninchenhöhle is now more than 10km
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long, and is proving to be a fascinating system. We have great hopes for
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1994.
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<center><h2>1993</h2></center>
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<p>It rained. Lots. Every day. For four weeks.
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<p>The inexperience of most of the expo this year meant that there was some
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question as to whether the cave would be found at all before the
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'experience' arrived after a week or so. The surprise appearance of old lag
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Adam Cooper at the beginning solved this problem, and that of rigging in.
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<p>France was also rigged quickly, the weather showing its teeth for the
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first time as they exited, running from the lightning all the way back to
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the car.
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<p>The radio's had been improved with a 50W booster at Basecamp, and a
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proper aerial which allowed us convincing communication to Topcamp at last.
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<p>A few souls pushed back the inevitable onset of more caving by taking the
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new 200m rope to the big cliff above Toplitzsee shown in last year's
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slideshow. An unnerving approach down the very steep wooded slope was
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followed by the rather disturbing rigging at the cliff edge, and the truly
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horrendous abseil itself. On average it took the descenders about a quarter
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of an hour to get down, mostly filled with thoughts of rubbing ropes, the
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knot at the end and thoughts of melting STOP's. It was generally agreed
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that it had now been Done, and this was a Good Thing, since no-one need try
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it again.
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<p>Meanwhile Adam had been taking poor ouigees down to his 1989 question
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mark at the end of Yapate Inlet 'The Final Cut'. It started very tight &
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wet & nasty, but soon opened out giving the 'Gob' series, a gorgeous 52m
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freehang 'Alexander Technique', and a 35m pitch which joined the
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De-Hydration route going down to -420m. The ouigees were severly knackered
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by this deep caving, compounded by light failure, and one vowed not to go
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anywhere with Adam ever again!
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<p>The 1992 drill battery had been replaced by a much smaller and lighter
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one, still doing about 30 holes. Unfortunately on the first trip to the
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bitter end (Far Too Far), its lid cane off and it fell down the 8m pitch.
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Despite the ammo box now being an extremely strange shape the batteries
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survived. This trip found another 100m of sandy passage leading to yet
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another pitch, and finally rigged the tyrolean traverse across Hyper Gamma
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Spaces that had been bolted the year before. The extraordinarily exposed 18m
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'Strange Acrossfall' replaced the 28m 'Strange Downfall' and 20m 'Strange
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Upfall' pitches by going straight over the top of the huge pit. The trip
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took16hrs.
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<p>Everybody was frightened, knackered or at least wet by now, so we had
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Ali's birthday party as an excuse to have nice food rather than bean
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slop. He and MTS had shown their skills earlier by sharking some German
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girls ("she was at least fourteen, honest") and when trying to
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find their rooms at half past midnight were intercepted by their teachers
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who were awake and sitting in ambush. Some swiftly cobbled together excuses
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about the toilets were mumbled before they scarpered. Since then a party of
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Czechs had shown up, in much improved tents since the previous year. They
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had a collection of even younger girls, which was just the ticket for our
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two intrepid Cassanova's. Ali had to be dragged away to be fed his
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birthday cake and be thrown in the river, and rounded his evening
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demonstrating his newly found prowess at firebreathing.
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<p>A new school of caving was developing - typified by the question 'Are
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there any Question marks near the top, please'. This meant that 'Ignore this
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bit', and some very old (1988) question marks in Arrow Chamber were pushed
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to a conclusion, all going down 30-100m before stopping. One of these trips
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caused a stir when Dave Galvin felt ill and spent an hour on the last
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rebelay of the Entrance Pitch, throwing up for the first 20 mins. The dark,
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cloud, rain and the fact that it was their 1st and 2nd trips to the cave,
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also made it very hard to find their way back to Top Camp.
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<p>With all this against them they missed their call-out so the radios
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proved themselves useful as the three cavers at Topcamp were able to call up
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those at Base. An hour after the first call, with still no sign everyone
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sobered up rapidly - a CB was wired into Wadders van, and two carfuls of
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cavers zoomed up the mountain. Just as we were driving up, wondering why we
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had heard nothing from Topcamp there was a 'Top camp calling Base camp,
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everything is BZZZZT Fizzle POP'. We had blown a fuse at the vital moment.
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Fettling it at the top we were unable to make ourselves heard but got a
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repeating message from Base saying everything was OK, just in time to stop
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all the pissed would-be rescuers from walking all the way across the Plateau.
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Top camp had suffered a flat battery, and had had to use three Zoom flatpacks
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taped together to broadcast their final 'All OK' message!
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<p>The next day, those unfortunate to be at Top camp were treated to rain,
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sleet, mist, drizzle, hail and an over inch of snow. All the cars were
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hiding at base camp, and the radios were dead, so a break for Base camp was
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made. Eventually, despite the several inches of snow at Top Camp people got
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bored enough to go caving again. France then went deep, changing from big
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pitches and chambers to a typical Yorkshire streamway, with cascades, pools
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etc. and an awful sump at the bottom(-378m). All the other finished stuff
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was surveyed and derigged.
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<p>Because of the amount of caving required to get to the far end, people
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began prospecting around the area of mountain above the end of the cave.
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This yielded nothing except a few small shafts, so it was time for another
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long trip.
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<p>Bolts for campsite hammocks were installed, and a ramp pitch 'Axle Stand'
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rigged at the end of 'Black Velvet', leading to 'Further Chamber' with all
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the breeze coming out of the roof. This 9m pitch 'The Needle' was
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freeclimbed to look out onto another big chamber 'Even Further'. About 140m
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of sandy crawly passages, 'Scrofulosity' were also found. The exit from this
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trip also caused problems. Clive was last out at the 30m Knossus pitch. He
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wasn't seen again on the way out, and was assumed to be slow. The others
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staggered back to Topcamp at about 5am, deciding that no sign of Clive by
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8am meant he was definately late. Normally the sun roasts the tents so that
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everyone is forced out of bed by 8am, but this morning it didn't happen (cos
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it was raining) so it wasn't until 10am that Clive's rescue got going. He
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was out of the cave by 3pm, having spent 27 hours underground. He had gone
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the wrong way in Boulder alley, got exposed and then psyched, so sat down
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for several hours until he felt up to another try. After more wandering to
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get his bearings he was making his way out when the rescuers arrived, just
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before his light finally died. He came out to more pouring rain.
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<p>It was so awful everyone hung around in base camp shouting at each other
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about the lack of bolts, slings, sunshine, nice food etc, until with the end
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drawing near the camping trip that had been mooted got underway. All the
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stuff found on the previous trip was surveyed, and the awful angled,
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slippery pitch into Even Further, 'Weasel Pit' rigged. In a stunning display
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of competence they had lost the setter for power drill bolts, and the only
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hand bolting kit was missing its driver, so dodgy naturals were the order of
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the day. Two were sleeping in hammocks, the third on a mudbank. The hammock
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users hadn't tried them before, and after spending a good 45mins getting in,
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they spent all night staring at the ceiling worrying about falling out
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again! Needless to say the mudbank was lovely. Team hammock weren't too
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chuffed so after surveying the remainder of the finds they retreated to the
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surface, coming out in the rain, of course.
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<p>Meanwhile some more of the leads in Algeria were checked out, finding
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'Twin Tubs', a pair of parallel shafts, one wet one dry.
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<p>We had 36 hours of not rain (even some sunshine) then a truly incredible
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rainstorm. 3 inches in 20 minutes, turning the place into a river, running
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through people's tents, soaking all the stuff that had just got dry. A trip
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had just reached Algeria when the storm hit. They got very cold & wet on the
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way out.
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<p>The crappy weather even stopped us festering properly. A couple of people
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borrowed tanks from the Austrians and went diving, and some cycling was
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done, but the Hang-gliding was washed out, although Julian got in a flight
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towards the end, which was somewhat marred by him being buzzed by a
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helicopter with a dead cow hanging from it.
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<p>So, a less than brilliant year, mostly due to persistently awful weather.
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We still found 1.3km of new cave even though it is getting to be a long, hard
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trip to the far end. More camping may well need to be done in the future. The
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question mark list continues to grow faster than we can tick them off,
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currently at 44. Kaninchenhöhle is now 10,210m long and looks set to be
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a very significant cave. The END
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<p>Cast:<br> Adam 'Moose' Cooper, Ali 'Child molester'
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Morris, Andy 'Half a caravan owner' Waddington, Anthony 'Dour
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Yorkshireman' Day, Clive George, Dave Galvin, Dave Gordon, Hugh
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'Ninja Caver' , Julian 'Rant' Haines, Julian Shilton,
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Julian 'Womanizer' Todd, Lummat 'The Gumby', Mike
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'The Sapling' Pigram, Nick 'Alcoholic' Proctor, Pete
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'Doris' Lord, Seb "Fatty" Holland, Spencer 'Curry
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Monster' Davey, Tess 'Token Woman' Jones, Wookey
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<hr />
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<!-- LINKS -->
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<ul id="links">
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<li>1993 Expedition info:
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<ul>
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<li><a href="index.htm">Index</a> (more detail than in this list)</li>
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<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
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<li><a href="report.htm">Cambridge Underground report</a></li>
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<li>This year's <a href="sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1993">Published accounts</a></li>
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<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expedition 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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</body>
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