expoweb/handbook/expo-history-aerw.txt

It's at this point that I realise that there is a huge amount of written stuff,
but no good introduction in the archives. However ...

>  And what took you down to Austria in 1977?

The story goes back a long way. In the early seventies or maybe even late
sixties, there was a caver named Nick Reckert, who was British, but had an
American passport, and lived in France. He caved with the Spéléo Club de
Rouen, who visited the Gouffre de Pierre St. Martin area in the Pyrenees
every summer. Later, he became a member of the Cambridge University Caving
Club, who thus had a very good intro to the rather elaborate beaurocracy of
ARSIP, who control expeditions in the area. CUCC went to the Pyrenees for
several summers, but eventually found the 'organisation' sufficiently
oppressive that they felt they should look for their 'own' area.

Austria was just becoming known (in the UK) as a country with a huge amount
of limestone and comparatively few cavers to explore it. Apparently Austrian
cavers welcomed the help of experienced cavers from elsewhere to help them
in their own explorations. [It should be noted at this point that the attitude
is very different today]. Consequently, members of CUCC wrote to the Austrian
National caving organisation (in Vienna) asking for contacts. The National
organisation suggested about three areas, with appropriate contacts. One of
these areas was the Dachstein, where the caving was very expeditionary, with
a high camp set up by helicopter at the start of the expedition each year.
This seemed a little more serious than CUCC (used to heavy post-caving drinking)
had in mind. The deepest new exploration in the Pyrenees had been about -500m,
so they weren't looking for 1500m potential...

The area which seemed to hold most promise was the Loser-AugstEck plateau,
at that time the stomping ground of just three active cavers of the Sektion
Ausseerland of the Landesverein fur Höhlenkunde in Steiermark. None of these
cavers were macho vertical types, and all were quite keen to have outsiders
come and help explore the more vertical systems. A toll-road up to 1600m had
just been built, making the area much more accessible than previously. The
vertical potential looked like about 900m - perhaps more if you were
optimistic. Contact was made with Karl Gaisberger and Gunther Graf, and a
reconnaissance expedition went out in 1976. CUCC helped explore a cave found
the previous autumn by Karl, and this proved an interesting, though modest,
vertical system just on the edge of the plateau at 'The Col'. CUCC was also
invited into a few things out of the area, such as Nagelsteghöhle (a major
resurgence for caves to the NE of CUCC's area) and Hirlatzhöhle (a major
fossil cave at the bottom of the Dachstein massif).

Only a small amount of prospecting was done in 1976, but enough was seen to
be sure that a return was worthwhile. Maybe at this stage I had better point
out that expeditions in those days were essentially organised by graduates
who had been in CUCC as undergraduates, so they were really exCS
(ex-Cambridge Speleogists) rather than CUCC expos. In 1977, a return was
planned, and those CUCC undergraduates who had shown themselves competant
during the year were invited to join. This basically meant three of us at
the end of our second year in the club went out for three weeks. At that
time, Single Rope Technique was hardly used at all in the UK, and only
expedition veterans from the Pyrenees were really into it. Hence 'Team
Youth' were exploring on ladders.

That tells you how we started, and how I came to be there in 1977. In 1978,
the same three undergraduates, plus a few more, did all the organising for
the expedition. Our cave Eislufthöhle, which had reached -150m on ladders
in 1977, was pushed to c -350m on SRT, while another cave, Gamshöhle, was
explored mainly on ladders, but bottomed at -280m via a large SRT pitch.
As usual, many smaller caves were explored. 1979 saw a very small team
push Eislufthöhle to -506m (best estimate by some very minimalist surveying).
In 1980, we tried to change venue to the Tennengebirge, but by this time, the
permissions situation was much more difficult, most especially in this area,
which is a military reserve. We moved base back to Altaussee. It so happens
that the area I had picked out as the one to go to in the Tennengebirge,
produced a 1250m cave, which was already being explored in 1980. Having
done the walk in to this area, I can be very pleased that we didn't get
involved in it - it is like Loser without the road, and with some huge steep
snowfields.

Casting about for new things to do on Loser in 1980 (having not really
planned on going there at all), we decided to go and investigate
Stellerweghöhle, whose entrance had been shown to two of us the previous
year by Karl Gaisberger who was collecting cave fauna. This cave was
supposed to have 200m of horizontal passage ending in a 220m pitch. In fact,
because of the amount of snow in 1980, this known way on was almost blocked,
and two of us explored a new passage from c 10m inside the entrance. This
led to much more passage, up and down ramps to two series of pitches, down
to c 300m. The old route was also found and pushed, but the alleged 220m
pitch turned out to be a constricted shaft series of maybe 220 FEET before
it just got too scrofulous. An almost independent subgroup of the expo
explored Sonnenstrahlhöhle to -330m in about four trips - the easiest and
nicest deep cave CUCC has found.

I missed 1981 (away caving in Mexico and at the Int. Speleological Congress),
but CUCC returned with some members of the University of Bristol Speleological
Society, found a new entrance to Stellerweg, and pushed a series of large
phreatic passages at c -500m.

1982 saw Stellerweg pushed (via the Schnellzughöhle entrance) to an apparent
sump, which was pushed for form's sake, and went, as a low airspace duck, to
more streamway, and a deep shaft, 'Orgasm Chasm', leading to a deep vertical
sump at -898m from the Stellerweg entrance.

1983 saw a new cave, Wolfhöhle, pushed to c -300m, and two new entrances
above Stellerweghöhle pushed to reasonable depths. These were not connected
to the main system, though both seemed close, promising to increase its
depth to 971m. The bigger one went to a big pitch, below which ways on
closed down, but beyond which was an inaccessible big passage which would
merit further attention. Steinschlagschacht went in a big loose shaft to -194m.

1984 saw Wolfhöhle (actually, the skeleton after which it was named proved
to be a bear) pushed to a rather dismal conclusion just below -400m. One of
the high entrances above Stellerweghöhle proved to have a vocal connection
to the main cave but much hammering failed to widen the final squeeze.
Steinschlagschacht finished at c -240m but was so horrid that it wasn't
surveyed. The expo suffered a lot from the weather and not a great deal else
was done, other than pushing side passages in the upper parts of
Stellerweghöhle.

1985 was successful in that the continuation of the high entrance found in
1983 was reached by a sneaky bouldery bypass to the pitch. New passage then
led into the known part of Stellerweghöhle. This entrance was 1m lower than
the one with the vocal connection so the new depth was 970m. A new entrance
was found which led into Sonnenstrahlhöhle about half way down, but added no
new depth.

Interest had by now waned to such an extent that the 1986 expo did not
happen. 1987 was staffed by members with little experience of the area, and
though many new entrances were looked at and a few old caves reexplored, not
much new was found. It was, however, enough to inspire a new generation to
return. French and German cavers in the area linked their system into
Stellerweghöhle, and also to the Schwarzmooskogeleishöhle, a mile-long cave
known for many years. We believe that this raises the depth past 1000m, but
as we have never been able to obtain a survey of their work, we are not
sure.

By 1988, I hadn't been for four years, so I'm getting out of touch - also I
don't have the reports on disc. However, the 1989 report claims that the 88
expo was the biggest ever. Kaninchenhöhle was discovered and pushed to
-300m. New blood was obviously important here, since 161 has the sort of
entrance we oldies had learnt to ignore, as big open shafts are 'always'
choked.

I was back in Austria in 1989, though not caving much. As well as the major
exploration of Kaninchenhöhle, when the major outlines of the system were
defined and depths of c -500m achieved, we also had four cave divers trying
to locate a resurgence in the lake. They found it - it wasn't penetrable.
They also found human remains from someone who had drowned in the late
fifties. This was the year of two rescues from falls in 'The Squeeze' (now
avoidable) in Kaninchenhöhle. Becka broke a leg, which was a serious rescue,
with lots of helicopter rides. The day she came out of hospital, Chris, her
boyfriend, fell in the same place, and cracked his pelvis (though only bad
bruising was diagnosed at the time). To avoid major embarassment, CUCC
carried out this rescue entirely on their own, hauling Chris across the
plateau at night in a torrential downpour.

1990 was almost all exploration of Kaninchenhöhle, which really needs writing
up as a whole adventure in itself. The Trisselwand was climbed again (real
outdoor rockclimbing) by myself (who had done it before), Wookey, Joe and
Juliette. We had to walk down in the dark, same as the first time, so this is
now traditional. This was the first year with radios, which seemed a good idea
after last year's rescues, and they were very effective posh ones on loan,
which we have striven to match (unsuccessfully) ever since.

1991 saw everyone studiously avoid Kaninchenhöhle to explore
Bovisundpudzuckerhöhle (Puffball), which soon proved sufficiently unpleasant
to get 161 going again. 161 started to have bits a very long way from the
entrance, so 161c was invented to push France. By now 161 was so complex
that I won't attempt to describe the finds in this (supposedly brief) intro.

In 1992, there was so much snow, that three cavers walked right over the top
of the 161 entrance on a snowplug, and lived. Puffball was finished and
Kaninchenhöhle certainly wasn't.

In 1993 Kaninchenhöhle still wasn't finished, but nearly all the leads
sensibly near the entrance were pushed.

1994: you know more than me !

The general style of expeditions you will now be familiar with, though this
has changed quite a bit over the years.