expoweb/years/2007/logbook/2007logbook.txt

===2007-07-10|Rigging Entrance to 204-E| Nial, Edvin, Kathryn, Ollie S, Richard===
Nial put some extra bolts (3) into the entrance pitch then showed us some of the high level horizontal stuff and the top of the main Gaffered pitch.
T/U: 5 hours

===2007-07-10|Djuke's Bedtime Story| Djuke===
Snow greeted us on a snowy cold, misty damp bivy morning. Most of us (except Aaron - who kept emphasising how great his sleeping bag was) had spent the night shivering away and Nial in his £20 argos sleeping bag was up at 6.30am preparing the stove and everyone slowly emerged. As was I, unfortunately discovered (after mustering all the courage in me - and counter my instinct - crawling out of my sleeping bag) that I didn't have my furry. Great! :( had left it at base camp in the tent where I'd used it as a pillow. So Aaron and I spent a cold day taking turns rigging the tarps (intermittantly taking turns to rewarm our fingers). I was soooo annoyed <u>not</u> to be caving and having to spend my time in the cold bivy - am glad to be back at basecamp - am glad to be back at basecamp in warm hut after having shower :)

===2007-07-12|It's raining - again|Djuke, Nial, Edvin, Kathryn, Ollie S===
It's raining... AGAIN! We are about to walk up the hill

===2007-07-10|Germknodel===
Makes 8 large/12 small or 4 superlarge plate sized
500g flour
1 packet germ/heffe - yeast
125g butter
100g sugar
3 eggs
Jam: powidl (damson)
poppy seeds
icing/caster sugar

Combine butter+sugar+eggs in pan-heat, with care to avoid making an omellette (in Aaron style!)  In a separate bowl put the flour and yeast. Omce the butter etc has melted pour the flour/yest mixture into it, take off heat and mix until no lumos remain.Put in a wamr place to rise for 1hr.  Divide into the number pf required portions, shape into circles, and form a dip in the middle of each. Then put a max of a tablespoon of jam into the dough circle, and flod the edges over to cover the hole.
Puit the finished knoedel into a warm place for 1hr ish then steam-super large for about 40mins -1hr, large/smao for 20 mins (using collander over pan of water).
Pour melted butter over then icing sugar and poppy seeds.

===2007-07-07|Anthony's journey out| Anthony===

Those who know their expo love will be aware of the fun and games / endured whilst attempting to tow a decrepit trailer accorss Europe in 1995. Since then I've been pouring money into various European breakdown schemes without further incident- so I was about due for a return on my investment. Somewhere north of Hamburg I noticed that my bonnet seemed to be flapping around quite a lot. Having established that it was actually shut, I ignored the problem for 5 hours until it had clearly got worse. It turns out that the corrosion on the bit of bonnet that the catch was attached to had got so bad that it was in danger of completely unattaching itself- in which case the bonnet could spring open. At this point, I decided to make use of my breakdown cover. To make this a trad. style breakdown I didn't have a mobile with me, so I spent a nostalgic 2 hours sitting in a Gasthof- completely unaware of what (if anything) was happening reminiscing about similar experience ast the side of various European motorways all those years ago. Eventually the mechanic turned up, laughed at the state of my bonnet, bolted it together through the remaining bits of good metal and gaffered it shut. Overall i was only delayed by about 2.5 hours, and made it to Austria without further incident.

===2007-07-11|MarkD & Anthony install a radon detector in 115| MarkD, <u>Anthony</u>===

Tramped along the [Shagway?] armed with a GBS location for 115. Neither of us had been there before, but I recalled seeing a marking showing the way to the cave frp, tje ,aom 204 path. This we duly found and wandered off in the direction of the arrow. Spotted a small entrance which we (erroneously) took as a sign that we were very close to the main entrance. Spent 30 mins thrashing around in bunde and teetering down cliffs whilst the distance to the cave remained stuck at around 30m according to the GPS. We suspected we were too high, and eventually get low enough down that we could see the entrance.

Went in for about 5 mins, through a crawl which enlarges to a small chamber before a climb down. The radon detector is hung in an alcove on the right (on the way in) in this chamber to keep it out of the (considerable) draught. Satisfied with our day's work, we headed off to the Loserhütte for a few.

T/U: 15 mins

===2007-07-11|Julia's journey out| Julia===

After quite a few trains and 6 days cycling in Italy I ended up in venice. Pottered around for a dfay and a half, then got a sleeper train.  Only covering was a sheet, which meant sleeping on the actuial bed without anything separating you from the carpet like covering on the bed. Very comfortalbe and cooling... Got up at 5am to be greeted by the guard bearing my breakfast tray ????? Train from Attang Puchheim to Bad Aussee, where Dour was waiting next to a Citroen van which was looking significantly more battered than a week ago...


===2007-07-16|On obtaining alcohol at top camp - password protect| Aaron===

For the past 3 days, four friendly hungaraians who got in touch with us through Stuart Bennet have visited us. Thery accomplished a ytourist trip dopwn to Kiwi Suit, and carriewd enough gear to camp self sufficiently.  More notably, they carried a substantial volume of intoxicating liquids - enough to keep top camp happy for a night or two.  In the interest of maintaining contact with these amiable cavers and discovering a potential future source of life sustaining fluid, their contact emails are: gabor dot losonci at gmail dot com and adam dot panker at gmail dot com. tel. 00-36-20-5200-665.

===2007-07-12|Setting up 76 bivi| <u>Jenny</u>, Olly===

We left a bag of stuff stored at the bivi cave most of it survived intact.  A mouse appeared to have had a niubble at the food box but failed to get through the gaffer tape let alone open the lid.  It also nibbled the tunnoicks that we had accidentally left.  We left5 a tent and lilo in a drybag.  The elastic in the tent poles is no longer very stretchy, presumably due to the cold?

===2007-07-13|Prospecting Beyond 97| <u>Jenny</u>, Olly===

We went looking for a 'back door' into 97. Olly found a promising looking shaft (2007-70) which he descended. 2007-70 is located ona slight rise ont he edge of a stretch of pavememnt just beyond 97.  The entrance is a approximately 1.5m diameter shaft with a horizontal connection to an adjacent (larger) shaft a few metres down.  At the base, an icy snow slope drops away before the roof comes down - possibly passable with less ice/snow. Above this end, and ice fall comes in from a small passage up which I couldn't easily get to.  The larger adjacent shaft doesn't have any leads.  While walking back Olly noticed a low entrance (2007-71) in a slope.  We took it in turns moving rocks out of the way, and Olly went in.  It drafts out a fair amount, though not as much as Draftbitter.  I went back to the bivy (twice because I was l in my excitement at finding a new cave) to get my caving gear and we went underground.
After the low wriggly start it improved to walking/stooping/crawling passage.  The is a currn#ently undescended pitch early on the right, another at the current end, and a yet to be explored side passage.  I have high hopes that it will be a significant cave in its own right, or else connect with 97 or 76...
T/U 2hrs ish.

===2007-07-14|148; Marylin Monroe Hohle| <u>Jenny</u>, Olly===

Went back to look at 148, 20 years after it was last explored.  rawling entrance to a squeeze and climb into a larger passage, so far th same as the old deasciption and similar to the old survey if you rotate it by about 56 degrees. Then at the junction right doesn't actually choke - there is a way on doubling back that ends at a diggable sandy crawl.  Left at the previous junction was missing the snow from 1987 and led to a pitch which ytou could reach either approximately 10m from the bottom of 20m up. Daylight just about comes in from above along with lots of drips preumably a snow plug on the surface above a bit pitch very close to the 204 path.  
I got really cold cos it drafted a lot and I was only wearing one lot of thermals under my furry. At the base of the pitch left went to loose boulders, a low continuation and before that another pitch.  The other way didnt go very far, low down, but level with the lower entry t the pitch continued.  Olly went here till he got to a big aven/chamber/pitch type thing, and I sat and got cold cos my arm hurts where I scalded it in the morning.  We surveyed half of it on the way out and found some old survewy notes on the floor - we planend to photo them before mivng them out of the cave.
T/U 4.5hrs.

===2007-07-15|2006-70 (cavin cave) and Marilyn Monroe Hohle| Jenny & <u>Olly B</u> ===

Jenny was (uncharacteristically) not feeling well so she sat in what little shade there was, while I went underground. First, at cavin cave I put in a tag spit, then used that plus a thread backup and two protectors to descend.  The pitch head is awkward, then bells out to land on a rubble floor with a dirty snowplug.  A chink of light enters upslope from a nearby shaft, while downslope the roof lowers and chokes.  This is the source of the outward draft noted at the entrance.  

Then onto 148- I entered in thermals plus oversuit and drilled and set two spits for the pitch which bypasses the squeeze and climb.  Then surface surveyed from 148 to 2006-70.  TU 1 hour.

===2007-07-13|Kiwi suit rig| <u>Anthony<u/> Mark D, and Andreas ===

Set off at 3pm following the first wave who had gone into rig as far as the bottom of Ariston.  Met James C in Wolpertinger Way, he was heading out because he was cold, and caught up with the others at the head of Steel Toe Cap.  Mark D rigged the last Ariston pitch, I rigged I the first Kiwi Suit pitch, then wibbled on the start of the traverse to the second for long enough that Mark D took over again --pausing only to spit in a pot at the head of the fourth Kiwi Suit pitch, in the Brown Trouser Pitch head.  Mission accomplished we headed out. TU 7 hours.

===2007-07-15|Razordance Rig| <u>Anthony<u/> and Mark D ===

The previous days team had rigged to GLAD (God Loves a Drunk).  Our plan was to continue the rig as near to the pushing front as possible, so that a later team could come in and do a quick push.  We also intended to install some radon detectors and tidy up various bits of rigging.  I put in a higher bolt on the last hang in Ariston and was preparing to descend Kiwi Seat when Mark's bottom exploded, he elected to carry on and caught up with me at the bottom of the first Kiwi Suit pitch where I was installing an extra traverse bolt.  Our next job was a bolt for a handline on Dave Dives.  Mark drilled a hole, at which point we found that the Hilti pot was missing.  It turned out that I had left them at the side of the previous bolts--fortunately they were retrieved by a later party--so the second wave could use the drill.  Dumped the drill at GLAD, and continued rigging through Tun and Copper.  Put in a handbolt for a deviation on Yeast which looks to have sorted out the rig a treat.  At that pitch we called it a day and headed out, meeting the second wave at GLAD.  Out at 19.30 and bolted down the hill. TU 10.5 hrs.


===2007-07-13|204-Rhino Rift| <u>Richard Mundy <u/> Ollie S, Dave L ===

Dave introduced us novices to exploration in Rhino Rift.  This began by exploring a few QM's, giving dull outcomes.  03-57C became too tight after 3 meters, 03-60C looped back into the passage (with a dead hole in the roof), and 03-70A connected to Grater.  We then ventured into the seemingly maze like Picadilly Junction and tried 03-66B.  This led on in a farily tight phreatic manner, cutting back under itself and twistin into a more rifty character, before coming across a steep slope.  This was all surveyed in record time thanks to Dr Phil Underwood's wonderful Shetland Attack Pony--a loveable device apart from its eyeburning laser.  This "Shanks Pony Passage" led to "Shetland Incline", at which point Dave grew increasingly excited, rigging in an increasingly swift and worrying manner.  We found a muddy rift passageto the right descending this pitch, complete with footprints! Holes in the floor prevented further access, but Dave suspected this to be a link with "Uncomformity"...

We then decided to get out, but found ourselves to be racing against a 22.00hr call out.  Dave and I cut a deal whereby he carried the tackle sack along the passage and I pulled it up the pitches.  The 204e entrance pitch at 21.50 thus left me a sweaty blob.  We got back to the Stone Bridge at 21.59 after an 11 hour trip! 

Leads uncovered by the trip included C at the bottom of pitch descended by Dave and an aven in the roof.  This was at the bottom left, looking down the sloping pitch.  At the head of this sloping pitch was a B lead similar leads existed on the right and at the bottom.  A C lead existed from the muddy footsteps passage.


===2007-07-13 and 15 |204e Crowning Glory exploration| <u>Edvin Deadman<u/> Kathryn Hopkins, Aaron Curtis ===

On the 13th the three of us went pushing the end of Crowning Glory, an A grade lead.  As a starry eyed novice, I was expecting a Kilometer of passage leading either to Tunnockschacht, a new entrance or Kaninchen Hohle.  Instead, the passage just fizzled out! It rapidly became too tight, although we did find an impressive aven on the left, which didn't lead anywhere.  On the way back, we bolted and descended a new pitch.  A 20 meter descent led to a squeeze down into a chamber that looked like it needed a handline.  

On the 15th Kathryn and I, went back and went back into this chamber: turned out to be a 6m pitch with a very dodgy squeeze onto the pitch head.  The chamber led nowhere but had a hole in the ground.  Standing in the hole, the floor started to vanish beneath us revealing a deep looking rift which unfortunately looks too tight to descend.


===2007-07-14| 204-Rhino Rift| <u>Richard Mundy<u/>, Ollie Stevens, Dave L, Andreas ===

Andreas joined us, all the way from Sweden, hunting meteorites, in order to check out our link from the previous day.  A couple of survey legs swiftly led to where we had been.  Dave was thus revealed as a prophet of some considerable power and cemented the respect of us novice cavers.  Rather an easy task compared to the 200m surveying and rigging task of the previous day.  A and B leads are thought to extend from the top of a pitch linking "Uncomformity" to the passage linking "Shetland Incline".  

We progressed to explor 03-90A.  This involved Dave cutting our old (2003) 11mm rope into lots of teeny bits.  We dropped down a very satisfyingly shaped (rounded cross section) pitch onto a stony floor.  A climb led to a further pitch.  Andreas and I were left here whilst Dave and Ollie went back to peer at some other QM's.  As I became bored, I climbed up to watch Andreas rig.  I observed that one natural in his Y-hang was not a solid column of rock, but instead two rocks entirely disconnected from anything.  Dave had started rigging from it and now Andreas was rigging from it.  Andreas later admitted feeling considerable fear when I wriggled the rock he was rigging off!  After a change of plan we descended.  The end was dull, but Andreas kicked some mud.  This impromptu dig was hastened by the sound of water "a sump" Andreas claimed.  In fact a tiny grim loose chamber with a 2cm squared puddle! We got out having discovered this "Spitters End".  Less than the previous day's 200 meters of survey, but still satisfying.

===2007-07-19| Surface messing| <u>Richard Mundy<u/>, Ollie Stevens, Aaron Curtis ===

After an 11 hour and a 9 hour trip, Ollie and I fancied a day off.  We travelled Rhundereishohle with Aaron in order to wire and start some data loggers. We had installed thermistors 3 days before, Aaron and I not setting a call out and thus prompting a rescue to begin at nightfall!  The weather was scorching (hence Ollie's radiation burns all over) in contrast to last week's snow.  We did well, apart from Aaron falling and filling his USB cable with dirt, rendering it useless to start data loggers.

Later in the day Ollie and I went surface prospecting.  We found a promising hole on the ridge just behind 03-01.  We now consider this a rediscover of 03-02.  Our journey onwards was not fruitful, but on our return leg, not a couple of 100 meters from the Bivi, we came across an area riddled with unchartered cave.  We tagged 2007-01 and Ollie sent me down (I was geared up).  A vertical climb down opened into a hollow plate a few meters down.  A boulder floor made the C QM in the floor dangerous.  An edge exist was too tight.  Many vertical openings existed in a similar place.  We tagged one, 2007-02, but did not descend.  TU 1.5 hrs.


===2007-07-16|204:Underworld| Richard Mundy, Nial Peters, Kathryn Hopkins===
Given previous Rhino Rift and surface prospecting exploits, I allowed myself to be tempted into a deeper expedition by Nial, despite wise seer Dave's protestations that I woldn't find much onward in the underworld.

We firstly took a promising lead from Terra firma. I was 'on notes' for the first time and had no clue what was going on.  It disapointingly linked quickly to Quiz rift.

We then moved on to peering down a pitch from Quiz rift.  This continued over a ledge to a rocky downward, becoming a muddy upward, as is the way with the underworld.  A sharp rocky crawl led up and back to the pitch and a downward squeeze, deemed too tight without capping, seemed to lead downward onto a pitch.

Miserable squirmings led to the bottom of a pitch which Nial climbed up, making me promise to catch him if he fell.  Bastard.  He then spied two hard-to-reach 'C' leads up there and a further pitch close by.  Two tiny holes linked the bottom of our pitch with this further pitch.  I tried digging the lower of these and failed.  Thus Nial told Kathryn to squeeze feet first through the tiny upper one, into a 2m drop. Bastard. Sure enough, this led nowhere. We labelled this 'Dangerous dig and the gut-busters'.  A rubbish bit of nasty cave.

Sure enough Nial made it worse by then forcing me up an earlier lead.  This had a squeeze which involved removing SRT kit and hammering off proterberances.  The passage grew rifty before becoming too tight.

We surveyed a reasonable bit, but I resolve to charge Nial a 'shit cave tax' for his transgressions.

The upward pitches went on for ever, Gaffered itself beimg especially epic with horrid rebelay.  Lower pitches mud on rope requires manual manipulation of jamming cams.

We finally got out for noodles and hot chocolate (mixed with vile spirit unicum - not as tasty as ejaculate) after an exhasting 13hr trip.

===2007-07-13|Rigging Gaffered| Nial Peters, Djuke Veldhuis===

The plan was to rig to the underworld in one trip, so with over 300m of rope between us (200m of 11mm in Big Bertha - which was a mistake!) we set off. The rigging went quite fast and several improvements over the old rig were found. However, we had accidentally left all the sipts and cones on the surface. When we reached Trihang and decided it needed a new bolt therefore, we had no option but to turn back. The return trip was much easier given we no longer had any rope to carry! The round trip was 7.9hrs at an easy pace.

===2007-07-14|The Gaffered rebolting project| Nial Peters, Edvin Deadman, Kathryn Hopkins, Djuke Veldhuis, Sarah White===

After the previous rigging trip I decided that the Gaffered rig could be greatlyh improved with a few extra bolts. With lots of novices keen to learn to bolt and an abundance of hand bolting gear (well, 3 sets|) this seemed like the perfect opportunity to sort the rig oiut once and for all. Myself and Edvin went ahead to re-rig the Eyehole and Trihang leaving the others to practice some bolting and rigging by installing a traverse line between Gaffer Tape and Tape Worm. Edvin installed tow new spits at the top of the Eyehole pitch meaning you no longer have to squeeze through the eyehole. This rig is perfect! Why was it not rigged like this in the first place!? While Edvin did this, I put in an additional spit at the top of Trihang in order to allow it to be rigged as a Trihang (how was this done before?). Further improvements to the rig include a deviation on Gaffer Tape just below the first re-belay (this looks a bit strange, but it stops the rope rubbing when you swing across for the second re-belay). A deviation on the Lx pitch also makes staying out of the slot above the re-belay easier.

Having finished the rigging Edvin and I started pushing leads in the Underworld. We started with 04-15B, now called "Shprinkles Pitch." This is a ~15m pitch down leading to a sharp rifty passage which is too tight. One wall of the pitch is made entirely of mud, which rains down on you as you descend - hence the name. We were then joined by Djuke who had left the other two bolting and had come to join us. The three of us went to look at 03-14B (which looks to be the same lead as 03-15B). This is a steeply sloping tube (-50deg) down near the start of Sirens traverse. It descended for ~15m before becoming vertical. It has a strong draft and looks like a promising lead! However, we were out of time and headed back. the whole trip took 12 1/4 hours.

Meanwhile at the bottom of Gaffer Tape.....

<u>Kathryn</u> Sarah and Djuke started to bolt the traverse between the bottom of Gaffer tape and the tape worm pitch. The traverse had not previously been protected, but a slip there could be very serious, so it was decided that a rope was a good idea. None of the the three of us had much experience bolting, and so we had many aborted attempts. We only had one bolting kit between the three of us, and this meant we got quite cold, so Djuke decideded to find Edvin and Nial in the Underworld. Sarah and Kathryn eventually eventually placed 4 bolts of varying quality and rigged the traverse, by which time it was too late to join the others pushing in the Underworld, and so they headed out. 

===2007-07-15|204a - Razordance| Nial Peters, Sarah White, Hungarian Cavers===

===2007-07-14|Surface prospecting northwest of 204e| Mark D, Mark S, Dour, Hungarian===






===2007-07-18|Razordance| Duncan, MarkD, Dour===




We got underground at 9:30 and made rapid progress down to God Loves a Drunk, Mark pausing en-route to swap his radon detectors. Regrouping at GLAD we brewed up a couple of packets of soup and a dehydrated meal to fuel us up for the push.

At 1pm we reached the front and started to rig and survey onwards. Mark wielded the drill, I weilded the pencil and Dour brought up the rear with a shetland attack pony.

Four and a half hours later we had descended five pitches and were looking down a sixth, with no hiltis left and precious few hangers, so we headed out via another very welcome soup at GLAD.

According to the survey data, 204 now has a vertical range of 599.99m.




T/U: Duncan 12.5, MarkD 12, Dour 14




[rigging diagram]

===2007-07-17|148 (Maralin Munroe)| Olly and Jenny===

Went back to 148 witha drill and mroe rope. Went to the previous pitch and traversed over it to what was 'the pitch' in 1987 nice big aven & pitch Olly found a nice rig down and into a little rift -> thus avoiding the loose choss at the top. Looked at the Ice Castle foute first, this roughtly goes back under the higher shaft past some very cool ice formations (big icicles) and very old snow plugs -> one section the snow plug essentially filled the entire passage except for a small crawl underneath it which I found a bit unnerving. More ice & snow, including a snow plug with clear Summer / Winter layering, I saw at least 30 layers (and it continued high up as well, so the oldest snow was older than me!). This passage ended at an up pitch maybe 15m high. Surveyed back along this (noting that the hanging death in the ceiling was quite varied -- rocks, snow and ice. Back at the 20ish m pitch we took the continuation passage, initially promising -- a huge rift heading for 107, but soon turns a corner and chokes (as noted in 1987). I climbed up before the choke and over the top and sadly no continuation visable. Olly poked under the choke and you could see into the blackness inside...

Surveyed this and left the cave.

T/U 8.5h

===2007-07-18|Bath pot (2007-72)| Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-15|Continuation of Razordance rig| Dave and Andreas===

===2007-07-19|Useful Walkies| Julia and Dour===

===2007-07-19|161d| Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-19|The 11 second rattle story| Ollie Stevens, Sarah White, Richard Mundy===

It all began with one rock, one pitch, a stopwatch and a certain lack of imagination on the part of those naming the pitch. It should at this point be noted that it actually rattles for longer than 11 seconds. But I digress. Armed with 105m of rope, Richard, Sarah and I began the arduous task of negotiating Chocolate Salty Balls on the way to the 11SR, with the minor detour of liberating 33m of rope from 'Taking the Piss.' This rope had clearly been affected by its opressor as it was the fastest rope I have ever witnessed. Still, I got my own back by using a full turn round my breaking krab and twisting the hell out of it.

After rigging the short pitch above the 11SR with a deviation superman himself would have difficulty passing thanks to a school of rigging that involves ignoring obvious spits and letting the location of naturals decide the path the rig will take, we finally met the proverbial 11 second rattle.

Having carried a full suite of power-bolting equipment with us it seemed sensible to put in a Y-hang with the drill. It is often noted that problems between the keyboard and chair are the main source of computer problems, in this case I suppose the problem existed between the muddy floor and the trigger, when we found that the drill was not nearly as effective in reverse. I blame my thermodynamics lectures for teaching me that reversible systems are most efficient and my education at Cambridge for leaving me with no common sense. With a new burst of enthusiasm after realising our mistake, and the drill firmly switched to forwards we continued to drill. It is indicative of the human ability for learning that during the second attempt at a hole we noted more quickly that the drill was still in reverse.

One and a half holes later the drill decided that all this changing direction was a bit too much and refused to go on.

We went all Old Skool on the hole's ass and cracked out the hand bolting gear. One perfectly placed spit later, and we continued on our journey. I abseiled down a few metres to place a survey station whilst Sarah and Richard admired my beautiful spit placement, awe-stricken at its poise, dedication and charm. One survey leg for good measure later, and it was time to go home. Nothing would prepare us for the following day's events. To be continued...

===2007-07-19|Rigging down to Fat worm blows a Sparky| Edvin Deadman, Nial Peters===

===2007-07-20|Slimy Sludge Chute continued| Richard Mundy, Djuke Velduis===

===2007-07-20|Convenience Series| Kathryn Hopkins, Edvin Deadman, Nial Peters===

===2007-07-22|More Useful Walkies| Julia===

===2007-07-22|Razor Dance|Dunks 'n' Dour===

The previous trip down Razor Dance had returned with tales of a deep pool that they had started traversing around to where they could see into a perpendicular rift with running water audible. Could this be the bottom? The target for this trip was to continue the traverse into the side rift to find out whether the sound of water was a continuation or an inlet.

Set off down at 10:30 with Dunks in the lead. I was therefore surprised (and a little perturbed) to arrive at the pushing front to find no sign of him. I soon heard him thrutching through the rift. It turns out that he had missed the traverse level below Yeast pitch had had thrashed through at stream level to emerge at a ~15-20m pitch with no rope on it – presumably where the water drops in at Pepper Pot.

Before continuing the traverse we opted to try one of the self-heating meals provided by Andrew that the Welsh diggers “swear by not at”. After following the instructions to the letter and waiting the requisite 15 minutes, it was still stone cold, so we scoffed it anyway.

Duncan then started work on the traverse. Andreas had bolted along a ledge on the right-hand wall (opposite the cross-rift). Duncan elected to take out his last two bolts and bolt on the left-hand wall instead, then he bridged across the (narrower) cross rift. Some time later I followed, hating every minute of it (so I took the opportunity to spit into a pot).

It turns out that the sound of water in the side rift comes from an inlet, and that the deep pool is a sump – so 204 is now 622m deep. A bit disappointing that it didn't go deeper, but at least we've bottomed the bastard.

The inlet is keyhole passage with ~3m round phreatic part elongate along the dip direction, and a trench that is typically 5m deep, trending upwards at 25°. We surveyed up this for ~70m before running out of time. Our last survey station is by a junction where the main route continues for ~40m to a climb which may or may not be climbable, and an inlet rift that is passable for some distance. With that we headed out with the drill and spare metalwork at a sedate pace (set by my), pausing for a food stop at GLAD. Duncan emerged at 04:50, and I got out at 06:20.

Duncan had a suspicion that the inlet contained water from the Midnight in Moscow series. Survex reinforced this suspicion: if the project the inlet up at its current angle for ~100m along and ~25m up, it will hit the bottom of Rasputin in 161 – so hopes are high for a connection, which would be a satisfactory 2nd prize after its failure to go very deep.




T/U: Dunks 18:12 hrs, Dour 20hrs




===2007-07-24|Razordance -> The forbidden City|Andreas, MarkD, George===




The trip was originally intended to compose of Andreas, <u>James</u> and myself, but unfortunately James was feeling a touch ill, and so Mark stepped in to take his place. The weather was looking a little overcast, but still dry and we made a late-ish start at 11:00am. All went smoothly until we reached the top of Copper pitch where we heard an ominous rumble/whistling noise in the distance. Although we all heard this noise we stayed quiet until we reached the following pitch where-upon it became obvious that the water levels were rising. A couple of minutes later the water levels had reached impressive heights! After a brief discussion we decided to press on into the drier part of the rift.

Although the lower pitches were a bit damp none of them proved too wet so we carried on to do some pushing. At the top of the long slippery ramp that Dunks and Dour had explored two days previously we took a left turn into a steeply ascending dry passage. We followed this up 10-15 short free climbs, via some quite nice formations. Eventually we reached a phreatic tunnel which levelled out, and then started to head downhill. Sensing that a connection with KH was imminent we ditched the instruments and went for a poke around.

A low sandy crawl emerged 2m up the wall of what was clearly a very large passage. unfortunately the climb down was a bit on the suicidal side so we tried a lower crawl that emerged a bit closer to the floor. Although still a little on the loose and necky side we all reached the bottom and set up off the large 6m diameter tunnel. Downslope a stream could be heard (Midnight in Moscow?) and upslope gave us some fine long survey legs until an impressive echo started to sound. The source of the echo was a ~40m diameter chamber which was greeted with much whooping. Several leads go off from this and after we did a few survey legs across it we headed out.

Again all went smoothly, we stopped for some food at GLAD, until we reached Mystery Wind pitch where it became clear that the cave was flooding again, only this time rather more so. It was some relief that we reached the bottom of Kiwi Suit which was very cool, windy and wet. The amount of water now flowing down RD was at least 10 x that of when we had entered. I couldn't help thinking that we had got out just in the nick of time. After a long and tedious prussik we all eventually all reached the surface at 00:30 -> 01:00. An excellent trip!

T/U: 13 ½ hrs

===2007-07-23|11 Second Rattle| Richard Mundy, Ollie Stevens, Andreas===

===2007-07-25|Walk from Base camp| Julia ===

===2007-07-23|Convenience Series| Nial Peters, Kathryn Hopkins, Edvin Deadman===

===2007-07-22|148 - Surveying| Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-23|76 - rigging and radon detecting| Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-24| 76 - Sea of holes|Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-25|76 - The ledge in plugged  shaft|Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-26|Surface shaft on Plateau|Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-28|Razor Dance -> Gobi Trail|Andrew A, Andrea + George===




We had meant to get underground before 9.00am, but unfortunately Andreas and myself were feeling rather sleepy in the morning and so we managed to get underground shortly after 11:00am. We had a smooth 4 and a bit hour journey down to the pushing front, slowed down slightly by Andrew As enormous camera case (which was later left in “The Silk Road”.

We commenced the surveying by re-doing a couple of the legs in “The forbidden City” that had gone pear-shaped on the previous visit. We had also had a quick look down some sandy crawls at the base of the chamber, but they would all seem to offer only long term digging prospects. We surveyed up the large loose passage at the top of the chamber for approximately 100m. There is a climb there where care needs to be taken not to slip! It appeared as though the passage was going to crap out, but a low crawl lead to a complex junction. We chose the RH passage as it was heading towards KH, but the LH passage looked excellent too. A few survey legs with good formations lead us to a junction with a passage with a very small trickle of water flowing down it, where we decided to call it a day. Our highest point is now 118m above the sump level. Another uneventful if tiring, journey out had us at the surface at 1.00am is. Lots more question marks!

T/U: 14 hrs


===2007-07-29|Climbing|Djuke Veldhuis, Dave Loeffler, Nial Peters, Stuart Bennet===

===2007-07-25|Convenience Series|Nial Peters, Kathryn Hopkins, Edvin Deadman, Pete Harley===

===2007-07-27|Eishohle|Nial Peters, Mark Shinwell, Jon Telling===

===2007-07-28| 81/82/85 |Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-29|148|Olly and Jenny===

===2007-07-30|76 - Radon Detector change| Jenny===

===2007-07-29|Razordance -> Far East|MarkD, Duncan, JonT, OllieS===

Back down Razordance to take another look at the Far East. Uneventful journey down. Jon took a look at the tubes at the bottom of the Forbidden City. After ½ hour working with a crowbar we decided that it was a long-term job to dig through. We also looked downhill at the end of the Silk Road. After descending a ~6m drop a shortish passage leads to the top of a pitch. This is almost certainly the same pitch which can be reached from below “Carry on the Khyber” by  following the water. After that we continued along the phreatic passage above the Forbidden City (the ”Gobi Trail”) to the first major junction. Left here was unsurveyed so we surveyed in, clocking up ~100m of new passage to a point where a vadose canyon intersected. Right (up) led to a 6m aven, reasonably climbable with some gear. Left led, via a climb down, to a continuing rift which heads towards the left zipper/right zipper area in Razordance. The phreas clearly continues over the top of the vadose canyon but would require some effort to reach it. Finally we tidied up a few minor leads. Closing a loop which led back to the gobi trail at the climb (where we had previously rigged a hand line). Then out. A long hard struggle back up Razordance and all of us ran out of puff in the Ariston series. Ollie got slightly lost at Wolpertinger Way, but it was his first trip in the cave. Given that he has only been caving a year this trip was a major step up for him and all the rest of us thought he did BLOODY WELL. We can expect HARD BASTARD exploits from this chap in the future. Hats off!

T/U 18 hrs

===2007-07-31|Surface walk and radon detector collection|Mark D, Phil, George===

===2007-07-31|Via Ferrata|Dave and Sarah Z===

===2007-07-24|The Happy Hippocampus|Dave L, Djuke Veldhuis, Frank===

===2007-07-23|Surface prospecting|Dave L and Djuke V===

===2007-07-29|Loser Klettersteig| Wookey, Julian, John B, Becka===


===2007-07-31|Razordance -> push horizontal leads. Combined push, survey, photo + derig trip. Sigh.|Wookey, Julian, Andrew, Becka===

Woken up by Andrew to the news that we were going down Razordance. Hmm, really? I was prussiking out of 204E at 10pm last night + fancied a bit of a mellow, shallow shufty. Still, now or never as the derig loomed + Wookey was keen. Then Julian astounded us all by muttering that he'd come along. He went off for a dump whilst we consulted Andrew who was going to have to shepherd us down there. Why not? says Andrew, so we were underground by 10am feeling a bit old, unfit + generally fragile for all of this lark. Slowly down the pitched then into the rift. And more rift. And more sodding rift, ye gods. Only Andrew had been through before (+ then only once) so we got lost a couple of times, particularly trying to find the oxbow thing but finally we hit the sump + the infeasible traverse. don't worry, its easier this direction says Andrew. Hmm, reassuring. Quick chochy stop + off up lots of scramble climbs – not too bad but it felt a long way from here by now. What's all this about? asks Wookey. We have to go up 120m now says Andrew. Bloody hell. Wish we'd looked at the survey a bit more carefully before setting off – except that would probably have discouraged us from all this nonsense. This is wasting my valuable getting-out energy grumbles Julian. Picked up Andrew's camera case + did some 4 flash shots in the big chamber then split with Andrew + Julian taking photos + Wookey + I continuing Andrew, George + Andreas' Gobi Trail survey ~ SW for 130m including plenty of diddly 2m legs in mainly crawly / stoopy tubes with sand or pebble floor. A reasonable draft heading in with us. It was all quite cosy + friendly and we could easily have notched up a few more hours surveying but Wookey decided that enough was enough so we took some cheesy group shots + left things at a complex junction wuth 2 QM A's and a QM B with sound of water. One to a Razordance-like rift with water, the other with a strong draft coming out + heading up steeply. Derigged the hand line + I picked up the tacklesack of unrigged rope + back to the sump to put on our SRT gear. I failed to palm off the tacklesack on anyone + set off to the start of the traverse. I'd heard Dunks muttering that cutting the rope for the traverse without leaving a tail down to the sump level had been a bit overkeen on scrimping with the rope + the muddy slope from the end of the traverse down had been a awkward on the way but hey, nobody had actually fallen off it yet. Andrew had mentioned it was easier high but with the tacklesack I didn't want to slither a long way down so I gingerly teetered forward on muddy ledges + eyed up the slot in the sump, wondering if it was narrow enough that I couldn't possibly fall down it. Yes I thought + promptly my foot slid + I decided to check it out. 'Shit'. Then I've got one foot under the water + the other braced on the far wall with the tacklesack dangling like a Mafioso's cement sack from my waist + some serious knee shake. “Andrew's coming” shouts Wookey. He gets his long cows tail into the traverse + I manage to clip my cow's tail into his footloops + then do a flailing prussik up him and onto the traverse. <u>Still</u> nobody volunteered to take the Fucking tacklesack. I hauled myself across the traverse trying to maintain enough stress that my 8pm spit sample on the far side was a good 'un. Right, that was my low point, literally as well as figuratively. Andrew derigged the traverse whilst collecting his spit + gobs as soon as he gets over. Were you holding the spit pot whilst you derigged? asked Wookey. Er, he's good but even Andrew probably didn't have a spare hand there. Tootled up the rift – not as bad as feared, route-finding easier than on the way down + it didn't seem any more energetic than on the way down, especially as all the pitches are nice + bite sized. I didn't let anyone have a cup-of-soup at the camp as we didn't deserve it. On + on, I'd forgotten all the pitches by now. I managed to do an awkward section right at the bottom whilst everyone else wandered around trying to find the way higher up. Then a really long pitch, followed by another largish one. I got a bit concerned as Julian would be slow on this + I knew Razordance started with an awkward section + a couple of short pitches so we must still have quite a long way to go in the rift... Andrew came up swearing at his dysfunctional jammer. How many more pitches? I asked. 12. OK altogether, but how many to go? Well, we've done 1 or 2. No, but the first ones in Razordance are short... ah! You mean I'm not in the rift any more??? Great news – halfway up Kiwi Suit before I knew it. No time out from here. Andrew + I got out + rehydrated, went to bed + Julian + Wookey came out a couple of hours later. Julian did an ad hoc spit sample just to see what euphoria hormones look like (though how he gets his 4am baseline comparison I don't know). A fine trip – once in a lifetime, literally, for Julian at least... Combined age of 4 team members = 152 years, what's the retirement age for this kind of nonsense?

T/U: 16-17 hrs


===2007-08-1|Prospecting from 204|Andrew and Becka===

===2007-07-01 to 2007-07-02|Overnight pushing trip to Convenience Series|Nial, Pete, Sarah===


===2007-08-02| and 2007-08-03 <u>John B</u>'s  account of Razor Dance derigging trip|===

John Billings, Aaron Curtis, Jon Telling (+ Duncan Collis, Mark Dougherty, Richard Mundy + George North)

Left basecamp for an “early start” at (maybe) 10am. (Duncan + Mark had been talking about a R.D. trip the day before...) Got to Stone Bridge early afternoon. JonT was itching for a RD derigging trip. - already up there for a few days, wanted a “decent” trip. Aaron + I pulled on our gear quickly, & then the three of us set off down 204A... Duncan & Mark to follow after a few hours.

My second trip in Austria, first one was with Aaron to do some science stuff in a shallow cave. This RD trip turned out to be quite vertical. Not much horizontal caving, at least to start with. Stopped briefly for my 2pm spit sample. We carried on downwards (later learnt that this was the Kiwi series).

After a couple of hours we hit Razor Dance. Much more horizontal & quite tight. Had a few problems finding the correct level – it's quite a deep vertical rift in a few/most places. Lots of grunting. JonT: “flow with the rock, not against it”.

Got to final pitch before sump at bottom. Jon + Aaron already down. Just as I was half-way down, Jon shouts for me to start going back up. What the fuck? Shouts that it's getting very wet. Bloody hell, he's got a point, this little RD stream <u>has</u> got a lot wetter. Better had get out. Oops, not chest jammer on central MR (in dangly bag) – have to go right down. Thunderstorm?

Put chest jammer on. Jon volunteers to derig – yes please! Start heading out, followed by Aaron then Jon. Bottom pitches very wet – get quite soaked. After a while, bump into Duncan& Mark. Good to see them. Say they've re-rigged Paster of Muppets pitch 'cause it's a bit damp. Follow Duncan up to top of Pepper Pot. Duncan, Mark & I wait there for an hour (<u>damn</u> cold!) until Aaron & Jon turn up. Given heavy tacklesack full of wet rope, carry on pushing up through RD. Duncan goes on ahead.

Turns out that it's quite a mission to push a tackle sack through tight, vertical rift. Almost leave it a couple of times. Arms tired. Actually, there <u>is</u> a technique to it. Push it ahead and wedge it, then follow.

Got to basic 'camp' (stove + food) called “God Loves a Drunk” - passed straight through on way down. Hot food, courtesy of Duncan. Richard & George also there! Set off again after a bit, following Jon. Hear him now & then at top of pitches.

Leave tacklesack at bottom of Kiwi Suit next to Jon's Start up, bloody hard work. See Duncan following at the bottom of pitches. Should have brought more chocolate bars. Find my discarded water bottle on way up – very thirsty, quite welcome! Also a flap-jack cache :)

Eventually got to the surface at 2am. “Job's  a good 'un”. Food then sleep. Won't do that again in a hurry. Appears there <u>was</u> a ~7pm thunderstorm.

Finis.


T/U: John+Jon+Aaron 12hrs

Duncan + MarkD: 11hrs

Richard + George: 8 ½ hrs

===2007-08-03|Razordance – Finish derigging|Wookey, Andrew + <u>Becka</u> (plus OllieS for last third)===




Down 10am. Wookey + I fetched the tackle sack of rope from Mystery Wind + derigged the two pitches. By the time we were back at the bottom of Kiwi Suit Andrew had unbagged all the rope and done paella number one (& two) up the first pitch by himself... at which point we were committed... to 9 more paella stacks until the last one emerged onto the slaps outside of Top Camp. Ollie came along to help when we were on the big pitch below Wolpertinger Way, which made life easier (down to only one tackle bag each) + on the final pull we had an excellent surface support party of Aaron, Richard, John + Jon to do all the hard work. Rope dried overnight, coiled the next day so all the RD derigged in 2.5 trips – not bad.




T/U: Wookey, Andrew + Becka: 11 hrs

Ollie S: 5hrs

===2007-08-04|Rigging Tunnockschacht|Jon, Becka===




Neither of us had been before but the magic of GPS and a good set of cairns got us to the entrance. Jon then winged all the way down the entrance pitch about rubs. I just thought he was seeing some standard CUCC rigging but as I went down it went rub, twang, rub along with a hail of loose rocks. On the way out we realized that some of the problem was that the snow level was way down on last year … but we’d also not been warned about the three rope protectors needed. After that comes a small sloping crawl. Should I take the tacklesack? Asks Jon. No, it’s OK if you just roll it ahead says I. Oh no- you OK? Er, do you want to go check out this QMC down this little shaft? Fortunately Jon could get down & reported it kept going as a QMB…& fetched the tacklesack. We then looked at 06-19A which looked an excellent lead. After some gardening there was no time left to survey so nosed around the rest of the passage there & then out. Be a lovely cave if someone with a drill rigged the entrance more creatively.




T/U 4 ½ hrs







===2007-07-30|Fucking about in the Quarries (?)|Pete, Jon T, Nial, Sarah, Frank (Maybe others)===




Some of the people at top camp decided that caving was effort. They were right. Therefore we decided to look at some hole we had walked past on a previous slack day showing newcomers where Tunnocks is.




We passed 204 E to find some reasonably deep but snow filled holes. Armed with a drill Nial bolted our way down a hole. Our team (Nial Pete and Sarah) was joined by Jon after Pete had descended and decided we didn't have enough rope. Aided by Jon what we decided was 2007.03 was descended to a snow plug and a slot followed by Jon. We surveyed down the slot to a choke. It turns out this place was probably already explored in 2002. Frank laddered down a hole that had a vital connection to where we had been. Sarah and I looked [continued 3 pages later: “Quarries continued” ] in another hole that had a bolt already in place and found no leads. Sarah + Jon looked at some other places further in the Tunnocks direction  which one of them will have to write about. To conclude: Time wasted – 1 day.







===2007-08-01|Surface Shaft|Jenny + Olly===




Having failed to find 2004-04 the previous afternoon we had another go and it was still hidden sadly. Then went to look for 84 which we also failed to find, I guess it is either well hidden or not close to 83 to the WNW.

Found an interesting looking hole (2007-73) walking entrance down a snow slope which then went down a bit to a chamber. Olly looked at the continuation which was a bit snowy & small. We will return later in expo.




===2007-08-02|82-85|Jenny & Olly===

Went over to survey the connection with 85. Shortly into the connection is an aven up to the surface a new higher entrance!

As we surveyed we could hear very loudly a Thunderstorm overhead, and a waterfall appeared near the 85 entrance.

Olly had a look at the continuation of 85 but thought the climb wasn't freeclimbable due to the current snowline position.

===2007-08-03|76: Boiling Tubes|Jenny & Olly===


It had rained a lot overnight + was still raining so decided the pitch in 148 might be unpleasant, so decided on 76 instead. Went to the end of the Boiling Tubes where we left 3 leads in 2004. None of the leads looked great, but we started with 04-62B, the straight on lead. This was crawling then wiggling to a boulder which was followed shortly by a stal blockage – unusual for Austria. The stals weren't huge, but neither was the passage. I surveyed back while Olly took notes, and sadly my promising lead haeding straight for 2007-71 was no more. (There was a small red spider there)




Olly removed some soil from the RH lead 04-63C and discovered that the soil continued for quite some way, so we left off that and looked at the final crap lead (04-04C), after moving some rocks I crawled down, slightly downhill + over rocks. I was realy hoping that I would be able to turn around at some point as I wasn't looking forward to reversing back.




Then I noticed the passage was echoing. In my experience so far small crawls tend not to make large echos. This made me excited and optimistic that I might be able to turn round. After a few more meters the crawl enlarged enough that I could just turn round yay! Rocks droped down the pitch went for ~ 2.5s then bounced a bit more. Shame it would be a crap place to carry gear.




Returned to BUW[BNW?, bivi?] and looked at 04-25C, surveyed down to where it got small - is very easy to move rocks through. It looks like it connects with Loopy so probably easier to get through from the south.




Finally looked at 04-26B, scramble in (easily) [something] - the A+ pitch ledges into a narrow walking height passage followed this up to a T junction, L is low crawling and right a bit larger – both are C grade leads. The RH one may join 04-41C perhaps. Surveyed this and left, removing the radon detectors on route.




T/U: 7 1/4 hrs







===2007-08-04|81|Jenny & Olly===

Went back to 81 to survey the bew stuff. Not a heugely long cave but a lot of entrances (which we have put hiltis in for the tags (and for 82b tag). There is still a couple of leads to look at later as well. What we surveyed was mostly walking passage and quite pleasant.




T/U: 2hrs







===2007-07-19|Razor Dance|Dave, Andreas, James===




Our hopes of an early start were sabotaged by the realisation that the drill battery was (a) flat and (b) broken. Several hours of charging and some gaffer later, we got underground around noon.




At the pushing front, James + I cowered damply while Andreas rigged the pitch with a Y-hang + rebelay 2m further down. This landed in an elongated rift chamber, with a fairly narrow but ruler-straight slot leading off. Andreas went ahead with the bolting gear while we started surveying.




The slot widened out somewhat + a scramble up onto a ledge led to a keyhole – type phreatic tunnel + slot in the floor. Andreas rigged a traverse were the slot began to widen + reached a stance overlooking a deep, dark pool of water.




Andreas attempted to answer the question “is this a sump?” by traversing out along the ledge to see round a corner, but ran out of battery. So we headed out, leaving the depth certainly over 600m.




T/U: 15hrs




===2007-07-25|Random leads in Insig|Dave, Djuke, Frank===

We felt like a short trip so went to try & tick off some annoying QMs in the Insignificant area.

01-3C is clearly too tight

01-7C went to a short crawl & climb up into a tall passage. This went maybe 10m to a big pitch (probably Pleasuredome). Side passages high & low on the right led to the same pitch.

A window just before the pitch was some more crawls & a steep ramp down to a complex loopy junction. On the right is a nother big drop (Pleasuredomee again?). On the left various tubes lead off. ?C.

New passage is 'Swiss Cheese'.

At this point I gave up in disgust realising that my goal of making the survey easier to draw was clearly hopeless, & we exited via No Pain No Gain (modulo getting lost after turning left instead of right on hitting 110 A Day).

T/U: 6 Hours 45 Min

===2007-07-25|Trisselwand – the Ivth|2007-08-05 <u>Wookey</u>, Nial Peters, Andrew Atkinson===



===2007-08-03|'Quest to BS17'|Richard M===

The previous night I had been down to 'God Loves A Drunk' with George North. On the 3rd I therefore hurt and my caving gear was thoroughly soaked through. Given no sun to dry it, a day of top camp festering ensued. I erased the memories of prussiking through 2 deg C Razordance waterfalls ('the wettest I have ever seen it - Mark D') by going on a mission for Dave L; a quest to BS17.

BS17 is about a 1h10 walk away, with no heavy pack in ordinary clothes. One travels over the ridge behind the bivvy and over two subsequent hills, before coming scross a fairly low ridge, perhaps 500m long and running E-W. On the far (North) side of the ridge, the limestone takes the form of a series of 5m cliffs up the slope.

Organhoehle, BS17, is likely to be one of the many holes in these cliffs. The GPS point did not correspond to one exactly, but there were half a dozen possibilities within 50m. The area around the ridge appears very promising for caves. Ther limestone is not very broken-up and there are holes, big & small, everywhere. The side of the ridge is particularily nice in that it offers many horizontal entrances.

I took my photographs using Ollie S's camera before stumbling back in thick fog, hoping the GPS did not pack-up.

===2007-08-04|'Lead 03-75A'|Ollie S., Aaron C., Richard M.===

My caving gear still wet & cold, we set off to the 'Wot no Butcombe' end of the 'Rhino Rift' area of 204. We rigged pitch 03-79A; a phreatic pitch wead [sic] tackled nicely with a single backed-up bolt. The fortuitous bolt placement occurred purely by chance.

03-76B leads out from the opposite side of the pitch head, but would require a handful of bolts to access.

Aaron took some time rigging, at one point succeeding in incorporating his chest tape into the rig accidentally.

We descended the pitch, now named 'Hollow Sausage.' It is phreatic in character, with a shelf around halfway down before the shaft balloons out, then contracts again.

At the bottom of this 9m pitch, one finds one's body in a smll widening of a tall, narrow, and windy rift. This had a small stream at the bottom and had been named 'Dover's Last Stand.' The crawl to the pitchhead is likewise rocky.

A boulder choke prevents one travelling far downhill the rift. Uphill there are find mud formations on the left wall. A 4m climb leads to a narrowing of the rift. It gets too tight, but there seems to be a route above of B/C QM calibre. This is tough and may qualify as being a pitch. Would be better explored downhill.

===2007-08-05|'Chocolate Salty Balls'|Ollie S., Aaron C., Richard M.===




[to be typed]




===2007-08-03|VERMIN|Richard M.===




[to be typed]







===DATEMISSING| Gosser Streamway – Rig push, survey, derig| <u>Wookey</u>, AndrewA, JohnB.===

Needed an easy trip in order to walk down hill for Trisselwand, so picked a QM on the survey which was interestingly above the huge aven in Hippocratic Oath. QM 06-7A at the end of Goesser Streamway. Also took in a rope to replace 1996 traverse line in Cave Tree Chamber (9mm bit of 2006 red stuff ~15m).

Discovered that top of line was tied to 2 large but loose boulders. One moved 3 feet with a slight touch! Took opportunity to get [?vase] photos of large falling boulder. 2nd [?shot] (boulder) was great. Put in 2 bolts to make it safe, using opportunity to teach John B thow to put in drill bolts.

Rigged down -- cave is not quite like survey. Actually P3 & P6 after ~4m and then ~p8 after ~12m then ~30m of streamway to final p29. Got to end to find [?bury] bolt on far side of pitch but no back-up bolts / threads / anything. Someone had been very necky. Put in 2 bolts for traverse to pitch (drills are great) & dropped  to bottom. Nice winding passage sadle went nowhere solid rock at one end, deepish (0.6m) pool and impenetrable rift [?inuing king] stream, at the other end.

Surveyed (2 legs, ~38m) and derigged & went home with big fat bag of rope.

T/U: 4.5h

===2007-08-07|Dachstein Via Ferata|Dave + 2 guys from Reading Uni.===




[to be typed]




===2007-08-08|'Slippery Hole'|Richard M.===




[to be typed]







===2007-08-07|Walk to 204 via 161d|Wookey, John B.===




[to be typed]







===2007-08-08|Photo, Rig, Survey, Push in Tunnocks|<u>Wookey</u>, Becka, Andrew  (again!)===

Andrew took photo gear, Wook took tackle & rigging gear, Becka took survey gear. Went in to far end Went in to far end to rig traverse our '17s rattle,' via a couple of metres of entrance ice.

Andrew rigged traverse & we threw lots of big rocks, [rekaning?] was pitch to be rm with push another similar below. Traverse just led to other views down pitches. Not clear if all 3 holes are same pitch or not. Put in a couple more spits to tidy rig, surveyed & went back to lead below climb up to cobble pile. Pitch down but c3 into passage went about 50m to another large pitch.

Big draught.

Now next to horizontal QM N of cobble pile. This way [rivle &?] slab. Andrew left for 2nd photo trip of day in 82. Becka & Wookey surveyed over 250m of stonking passage 'Rhubarb crumbly" Exceptionally fine trip -- lots of QM's. Eventually gave up, [witherz soaked bg] too many QMs. Chamber with 2 going off E, NE, NW.

Laser surveying is the way forward -- but keep batts away from SAP.

TU:Becka, Wook 10h Andrew 6h

===2007-08-09| |Wookey, Becka, Andrew   + Ollie===

Back to bag some more horizontal cave, despite having to walk back down (Wook). All underground by 9.30. 1hr to pushing front. Off resolutely North, past some very fine pretties for Austria. Then chamber with pitch below and [chories?] of A-leads. Took

[giving up for now, too hard to read -[[User:Aaron|Aaron]] 16:40, 1 June 2008 (BST)]

===2007-08-08|Tunnockschacht South|Frank, Aaron, Ollie, Pete===

Got underground 1pm w/ intention to head South. After ticking off 06-11C and 06-20C, realized our progress was cut short w/o any rope to descend the p9. Aaron set off to find Andy, Wook & Becka in South Tunnocks to swipe some rope. Find them he did, and returned w/ more than he bargained for-Big Bertha complete with drill, misc gear & rope. After much to-ing and fro-ing S to N, following objectives accomplished: Surveyed & derigged 2 pitches Duncan had dropped in N off of big chamber (now called “Secret Squirrel” and “Fat Rat”). Frank & Pete left to go down hill at this point. Ollie & Aaron rigged p9 in Saurkraut—could only find one spit in wall & no naturals, so put another in as considered this a tad dodgy. Dropped 06-31A, to be surveyed next trip. Has another pitch and horiz QMB @ bottom & provisionally called the “Pantin Sales Pitch.” Also bolted pitch into big chamber in N (where Secret Squirrel begins) which had hung off impressive natural but was awkward to mount / dismount, now much better. Pete & Frank out ~ 7pm? Aaron & Ollie out 12pm.




Pete, Frank T/U: 7h

Aaron, Ollie T/U: 11h




===2007-08-05|CSB Thermistor & Treeumphant|Ollie, Richard, Aaron===




[to be typed]




===2007-08-07|Anemometer related quick useless trip|Ollie, Aaron===




[to be typed]

===2007-08-07|Gaffered -> Inconvenience Series|Nial, Andrew, Martin, Becka===

Down to tick off some leads & start the derig. Nial rigged his "worst ever pitch" -- For his sake, I hope it is true -- rope sling round a boulder at the pitch head, past a wriggle through loose choss & a few rub points & down to a spit he put in with a 20cm long vertical crack above it. This dropped us down to where the Engaged pitch landed & from there Martin attempted to outdo Nial by rigging the next pitch on even more choss. Got v cold waiting & I was mighty relived to find, after the first spit had gone in, that we'd run out of hangers (we accidnetally only had brought two in total!) & could go out.l Andrew took a few photos through the trip & he & I surveyed two shortish QM's whilst Nial & Martin headed out. We then derigged the rope in Convenience & Chalk & Cheese & then I took a tacklesack out leaving just a 55m pushing rope to fish out at the bottom of Gaffered. Overtook Martin & Nial before Gaffered & slowly we all trundled out. Super muddy Gaffered rope plus a heavy tacklesack is a crop combination.

T/U:14h

===2007-08-06|Tunnocks → Apfel Strudel|Jon, Becka, Morven===

My first ever cave in Austria—descended down very loose boulder slopes to large pile of snow at bottom of pitches—fun sledging down. First ever injury in Austria soon followed—jumping to avoid boulder fall & landed on lovely smooth icy floor—same effect as banana skin! A fun but painful trip followed. Found Apfelstrudel section of cave—best bit was a chute that looked like a bob sleigh run—great going down, tricky on the way out. Ended survey at exciting junction—pitch on one side, stomping passage on the other. Back up pitches & down to top camp for introduction to Holy Hand Grenade.




T/U: 6.5hrs




===2007-08-09|Tunnocks|Jon, Morven (Ollie brief cameo appearance)===

Surveying trip down 'great, draughty lead'--left after Wikinki Beach boulders, then second left along passage. Phreatic tube leads down & W. Becoming increasing boulder-filled & uninspiring towards end--[illegible] of large avens though, mabe where –---nght comes down. Named 'Dubious Pleaseure.' Morven's back was playing up in cold, so left after few hrs.




T/U: 5 hrs


===2007-7-21|Flooding in England|Frank Tully, Phil Underwood, George North, Pete.===




[to be typed]







===2007-8-8| |Jon, Morven, Martin===

Went to surface shaft Frank & I found a few days ago- a phreatic tube ending a big bowl of choss, above quarries uphill of bivvy site. [Voed?] ladder & lifeline to survey, only small, loose cave, [blasted?]. Boulders, ah well. Named Pink Wafer Biscuit Cave as it was really only worth looking at after looking at all the other entrances.

T/U (Jon, Martin):0.5h

===2007-08-06|81|Jenny + Olly===

Went to 81 for an easy day to tick off the crap lead near the RH route from 81b. To me it looked like a tight, loose & awkward route through a boulder choke that obviously didn't go. Only went in cos Olly thought it was 'interesting.' Having moved the loosest rocks out of the way I wriggled through and it opened up into a rift. THe boulders looked less bad from below, so Olly came through as well. Got into a rift with various holes in the floor to a lower passage in the same rift. I traversed right to the end to where it was easy to climb downl This got us down to the top of a lot of ice which formed a floor to the rift chamber.

Walked carefully around on the ice we saw some cool curved ice formations. At the end of the ice there appeared to be a pitch down between the ice and rock, we were without gear so steered clear, but hypothesized it might drop into the ice castle passage in 148. Surveyed out (checking that the outer lead didn't do anything interesting).

T/U:

===2007-08-07|Surface Stuff|Jenny + Olly===

Walked up to Laser 0/5 and had a look for 1987-02. Scrambled up the hill for a way and didn't see any horizontal entrances. Got fairly near the crest of the ridge, so headed back down by a different route. Olly spotted a draughting out shaft which we numbered 2007-7[MISSING], GPS[MISSING]. Carried on down and got to a hidden valley with a low horizontal entrance with a HUGE out draft. Walked inside and got some big passage going straight on and right, both of which led to pitches. Reading the old logbook suggests this must be 1987-02 (from the U/G and entrance location descriptions).

Surface surveyed this to Laser 0/5/

Oh, in the morning had a look at another new entrance (that has probably been seen before). Collapsed valley entrance with a couple of leads, one might go but not without an oversuit & kneepads. Second lead is a crawling / stooping phreatic passage for ~10m till it chokes. This is 2007-7[MISSING] GPS[MISSING]

===2007-08-07|81-148 connection|Jenny + Olly===

Olly looked down the surface shaft near 148 first-down to the snow plug then the ledge to where a narrow rift heads down presumably into the aven in 148. Didn't push down this yet as we have the other route rigged.

We were going to push the pitch shaft in 148 but I was feeling sick so we went back to 81 to tie up a surveying lose and. Olly concocted a plan whereby I sat at the entrance and felt ill, and Olly went down the rift shaft and bolted the hypothesized 148 connection. I figured he would have a hard time with the rope, drill & survey left on his own through the rift & climbs, so I came too & felt ill & whinged a lot. Olly bolted down the pitch at the end of the ice and sadly it didn't go far. We surveyed it and while I derigged Olly looked for other pitches we had missed.

Back at the other end a tight grovel through ice led to a small rift and a pitch. This dropped into 148! Right where we built a cairn which was cool. Surveyed out passing Nial & Andrew photoing ice and raisins.

T/U ~5h

===2008-08-09|148 – pitch stuff|Jenny + Olly===

Headed into 148 with way too much gear, but not enough crabs or mallions. Got to the [saw?] pitch and the water levels rose considerably making it very nasty & wet. Oh well, at least the rigging will be good in high water... Olly rigged a backup & bolt to get down the narrow bit then got to a ledge where he rigged a nice Y-hang and went down through a tight bit and then opened up lots to a deviation. This carried on down to a big blackness with sadly no routes to drop down. It was quite [no word here] by this point (especially for the power drill) so we came back up -- next time we need to rig it further out I guess.

Came out of the cave surveying a poxy side bit on the way. Came out in the dark and clag -- reflective markers are ace.

T/U:6.25h

===2007-08-10|1987-02|Jenny + Olly===

Went to survey & explore 1987-02, headed to the RH pitch first it had a bolt, which combined with a couple of naturals & fending off from the wall got us down. Pitch lands at a junction, left (as you look down the pitch) is BIG phreas with another way in from a little vertical oxbow. This goes for a while then gets smaller and lower (but still 5m wide), eventually the gap between the rubble and roof becomes too low. Would be diggable but doesn't draught. Back at the base of the pitch a daylight aven comes in from straight on. To the right soon becomes a rift, climbing high ends up choking, low down gets to a narrow meandering rift turning left through which a howling draught blows out. We both went a few meters in and noted that it echoes & is a bit tight -- the most promising a tight rift could be I guess. Again, back at the pitch, kind of back underneath is a phreatic passage that ends in a hanging death choke that again draughts. Back at the entrance the other way on drops into the same passage as the other one. Daylight comes in from another shaft. Very interesting to get big phreas here ~1/2 way between 76 and 161... Worth prospecting in the area next year I think.

T/U 5h

===2007-08-13|South Tunnocks (Pantin Sales Pitch)|Aaron & Ollie===

Another trip involving ping-ponging to and fro from the North & South of Tunnocks. Went North to derig traverse past scree slope & commandeer rope. Returned through Saurkraut, surveyed 06-31A which turned out to be an exceptionally smooth p30 duly named the Pantin Sales Pitch. Checked out little horizontal passage to left which didn’t go, and then dropped the next pitch, yet unnamed, which surveyed to about 45m. Exciting to find that we had been standing on a wedged pile of boulders suspended above an airy rift. Single hang & backup got us to bottom where it choked. Very likely way on (marked QMB) by traversing around to right into spacious rift ~15m down the p45. Ollie suffered a bout of the keenness so we went bck north to meet Becka & Martin who were on their way out and survey continuation of Flying High. Didn’t manage v much (~30m) before Aaron had had about enough. Avoiding stals / prettied while maintaining out precarious position high in the rift while surveying involved a form of Vedic Levitation. Rift got smoother & wider—looks like next trip will need to drop down to (easily walkable) rift floor & climb up again shortly. Blows a gale in there though.

===2007-08-11|Gaffered -> The wares + Derig|Becka, Aaron + Martin===

Pootled to the Wares & headed off for a QM I'd been hankering after checking. QM 04-49A. We'd left it as a steep ramp needing a handline in 2004. I rigged a handline up (needs ~25m rope) using 2 naturals then hand bolted a spit on the left wall then a <u>very fine</u> thread on the left wall then tied off on dodgy naturals at the top. Surveyed up to find an extensive horizontal level -- yippee. Sadly this was a derig trip so we surveyed as much as we could, as far as a complex chamber with several pitches, & we had to run out leaving lots of QMA's. Aaron's light played up then fell apart & he couldn't find his spare batteries, "I think I've learnt a lesson about redundancy today" says he... Then slog, slog, slog, up the derig. Martin set off first with a tacklesack & then pulled a second sack up gaffered, I derigged & Aaron did a tacklesack shuffle. We ended up getting 3 tacklesacks all the way out, one at the bottom of E entrance pitch & one tied to the bottom of Gaffered pitch so a pretty good job.

T/U: 13hrs

===2007-08-12|Gaffered derig + Thermistors|Becka, Aaron + Martin===

I got to the lowest rebelay on Gaffered & hauled up the tacklesack tied to the bottom then derigged & Martin & I took out a tacklesack each whilst Aaron switched his data loggers.

T/U: 2.5 hrs

===2007-08-12|Tunnockschacht - Stone Monkey|Becka, Aaron, Martin===

Second trip of the day: our reward for finishing the Gaffered derig. Hadn’t much time (set off from camp at 4pm) so we headed for a nearby lead—the drafting hole halfway along the traverse down Ribs with Knödel. This quickly opened into a steeply sloping, sizeable passage heading steeply up (Stone Monkey). We surveyed until I was cold and it was teatime, leaving QMA’s and B’s en route and find large ongoing passage




Becka T/U: 4 hours

Martin, Aaron 5 hours


===2007-08-13|Maximum Pleasure leads in Tunnockschacht|Martin, Becka===

Off down to the MP/Flying High junction & surveyed the walking passage on the right (after ticking off a QM just before Dubious Pleasure). This was fine, roomy walking passage. A large passage underneath linked back to the main Maximum Pleasure passage. Our passage went in fine style to a large aven with a smallish passage … with snow … and pine cones and leaves … I got really excited by the potential of an entrance which Martin was perplexed by, since I’d been unimpressed by all the old stal that he’d been getting excited about. We kept surveying past the aven & then it headed up a ramp & gradually became smaller & less exciting before we left it at a C2 in a drippy aven. I checked the snowy passage at the aven—it was small & headed up steeply but the snow was rotten with holes in and it looked a bit dodgy so we left it. We then went back to the MP/Flying High junction & did a QMA near to it, on the left. This headed down steeply to a chamber with large lumps of flowstone. It was really drafty and we were too cold to face more so we headed out.




T/U: 10hrs







===2007-08-14|Maximum Pleasure survey in Tunnockschacht|Becka, Julian===

A fine, sunny morning so we hung around until all our gear was dry in an attempt to have a warmish survey trip in Tunnockschacht. We started by doing the left lead just after the traverse in Ribs with Knödel. This was extremely drafty & rapidly led to a large pitch. We then headed to Maximum pleasure, taking some snaps en route. We surveyed from where Martin & I had left off yesterday, in the flowstone chamber. We went past a large pitch & down to another, smaller pitch then surveyed a small passage on the left and then did a couple of legs up smaller passages to reconnect to the flowstone chamber, making us feel virtuous. Martin & Olly turned up & we pointed them to the remaining horizontal lead (which turned out to stop after only ~30m). I then dragged Julian to the far end of Maximum Pleasure to double check that there were no other good leads to the North. Nothing looked very tempting but I persuaded Julian to continue the passage on the right where Wookey, Andrew & I had left off. This headed up into awkward crawls & ceiling tubles & leads of 2-3m legs. Unfortunately there was no good reason to stop so we just plodded on until, thanks be, it finally, gradually lost the draft & fizzled out to too-tight ceiling tubes.




T/U: 10.5hrs

===2007-08-14|81b and 82|Jenny + Olly===




[to be typed]







===DATEMISSING|Rigging Guide for Tunnockshacht entrance|Duncan===




[struck in diag – needs scanning]







===2007-08-13|76 derig|Jenny + Olly===




[to be typed]







===2007-08-15|148 - “Some Like it Pot” + derig|Jenny +Olly===




[to be typed]




[148 rigging diag – needs scanning]







===2007-08-14|Final CSB thermistor trip|Aaron & Pete===

[to be typed]

===2007-08-15|Packing Steinbruckenh&ouml;hle Bivvy|Becka===

[to be typed]

===2007-08-16|Rope Washing|Becka===

[to be typed]

===2007-08-17|Sketching + Packing|Becka===

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