mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-12-22 08:22:22 +00:00
170 lines
8.3 KiB
HTML
170 lines
8.3 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf8" />
|
|
<title>2004 Expo: Mission Statement</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/main2.css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h1 align="center">CUCC Expo 2004: Mission Statement</h1>
|
|
|
|
<p>This summer, Cambridge University Caving Club will be continuing
|
|
its highly successful series of expeditions to the Loser plateau in
|
|
Austria. This document sets out the principal goals of the 2004
|
|
expedition.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Background</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>This summer sees CUCC's 28th expedition to the Loser plateau, which lies in
|
|
the Totes Gebirge area of the Austrian Alps, about 80km east of Salzburg. CUCC
|
|
is the principal group exploring in the area, which continues to yield new
|
|
discoveries.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The principal known cave system in the area is the Schwarzmooskogel
|
|
system, which comprises a number of connected caves including <a
|
|
href="/1623/161/161.html">Kaninchenhöhle</a>, <a
|
|
href="/1623/41/41.htm">Stellerweghöhle</a> and the stunningly
|
|
beautiful <a href="/1623/40/cucc.htm">Schwarzmooskogel
|
|
Eishöhle</a>. Altogether the system is 55.1 kilometres long and 1030m
|
|
deep, putting it among both the world's <a
|
|
href="http://www.caverbob.com/wlong.htm">longest</a> and <a
|
|
href="http://www.caverbob.com/wdeep.htm">deepest</a> caves; over
|
|
half of the length, and the highest and deepest points, were explored by
|
|
CUCC.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Over the last few years the principal focus of CUCC's work has been <a
|
|
href="/1623/204/204.html">Steinbrückenhöhle</a>, a cave
|
|
lying to the north of the main Schwarzmooskogel system, beneath the Nieder
|
|
Augst-Eck mountain. Since its discovery in 1999, 7.2 km of passage has been
|
|
discovered, reaching a maximum depth of 510m.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Principal Goals for 2004</h2>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Steinbrückenhöhle</h3>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li />The deepest point in Steinbrückenhöhle is in the tight and
|
|
arduous stream passage of Razordance, which appears to continue downwards
|
|
beyond the limit of exploration in 2003. It slopes down in a south-westerly
|
|
direction, towards the nearest points of Kaninchenhöhle, so there is a
|
|
possiblity of a connection, although the present gradient of the passage is
|
|
sufficiently steep that it seems likely to pass right underneath. <!--
|
|
Personnel: Dour, Mark, Dave, ?OllyM, ?Frank -->
|
|
|
|
<li />The main find of last summer was a new series of horizontal passages in
|
|
the north-west of Steinbrückenhöhle, known as 'Rhino Rift'. There was
|
|
insufficient time to explore this fully in the five weeks of last summer's
|
|
expedition, so there is much still to be found. <!-- Personnel: Lots of
|
|
people: Earl, Becka, Martin etc -->
|
|
|
|
<li />The pitch series of Gaffered to the Walls, in the Swings and Roundabouts
|
|
area, was explored last summer to reveal a new horizontal level at around
|
|
-250m, known as the Underworld. This is considerably deeper than any other
|
|
horizontal phreatic development yet found in Steinbrücken, and it is hoped
|
|
that there is much more yet to be discovered; there are certainly many leads to
|
|
explore in this area. <!-- Personnel: Principally Martin + Earl. I'm also
|
|
interested (Dave) -->
|
|
|
|
<li />There are a number of other leads in Steinbrückenhöhle which might merit exploration, including an undescended pitch (QM 01-38A) in the Chocolate Salty Balls area, known as 'The Eleven Second Rattle' after the sound heard on dropping rocks down it; another undescended pitch (01-68A) at the end of the Merry F***ing Christmas crawl; and many others (cf. the Steinbrückenhöhle <a href="/1623/204/qm.html">question mark list</a>).
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Eislufthöhle (1623/76)</h3>
|
|
|
|
<a href="/1623/76/76.html">Eislufthöhle</a> was found on the second
|
|
ever CUCC expedition to the Loser area in 1977. That year the explorers got
|
|
to -150m with the way on wide open. They pushed again in 1978, and in 1979
|
|
finally reached a sump at approximately -506m. They derigged and nobody has
|
|
been back in the intervening quarter of a century. The area is
|
|
<a href="76why.html">interesting</a>, so it's about time we had another
|
|
look.
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li />The 76 description says "There are a number of going leads in this cave
|
|
and you're welcome to them". We've <a href="76qms.html">collated 8 of them</a>
|
|
from information in the log book writeups, published accounts, and surveys.
|
|
All but one of these are in Hall of the Green King (-260m) or above - the
|
|
proposal is to allocate enough tackle to 76 to enable us to get to this level.
|
|
Judging from CUCC's experience reexploring
|
|
<a href="/1623/161/136.htm">Steinschlagschacht</a> and Arge's
|
|
looking at old CUCC finds in the Stellerweg area, there are likely to also
|
|
be a number of undocumented or previously unnoticed leads.
|
|
|
|
<li />Eislufthöhle was surveyed to about -150m in 1976 (Waddington: <i>"I
|
|
would not claim more than grade 2, in the light of subsequent surveying
|
|
experience"</i>). The survey below -150m is almost entirely based on rope
|
|
and ladder lengths. Perhaps unsuprisingly, the published surveys are
|
|
missing horizontal passages in places where they're described in write-ups!
|
|
None of the original data survives anyway, so we should try to produce a decent
|
|
survey of the known cave as well as mapping new finds.
|
|
|
|
<li /><a href="/1623/99/99.html">99</a> is a strongly draughting entrance
|
|
about 35m from 76 which was explored to a <i>"ledge with a 1m diameter shaft
|
|
dropping in a corkscrew at least 20m."</i> (at perhaps -40m).
|
|
<a href="../1979/report.htm#id89">Contemporary reports</a> suggest
|
|
<i>"It is not clear how [99] relates to 106, but if it does come into 106 then
|
|
it must do so fairly far down."</i> (106 was another number allocated to 76
|
|
initially).
|
|
|
|
<li />If we exhaust 76, <a href="/1623/97.htm">Schneewindschacht</a>
|
|
is in the same area. Waddington: <i>"if you want a cave with some real
|
|
potential to go in a big way, I'd suggest a return to 97 - Schneewindschacht.
|
|
This has a wide open phreatic tunnel in it, which could be easily gained with
|
|
the aid of a rock drill. A rock drill might also be of use in making the Nun's
|
|
C*nt a bit more amenable"</i>.
|
|
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Miscellaneous</h3>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li />One of the most interesting of the many smaller caves in the area near
|
|
Steinbrückenhöhle is Hauchhöhle, a prominent entrance near the
|
|
walk-in route which draughts very strongly, suggesting that the cave behind is
|
|
extensive. Exploration so far has revealed some 128m of horizontal passage,
|
|
with the main lead being an undescended pitch. This was not explored last
|
|
summer due to lack of time and manpower, but is an interesting lead and might
|
|
well repay some effort. <!-- Personnel: Julia, Mark, Dave -->
|
|
|
|
<li />The area of plateau to the north and west of Steinbrückenhöhle
|
|
has never been studied in detail: there are likely to be many new, unexplored
|
|
cave entrances in this area, which lies between the known caves in CUCC's area
|
|
(1623) and the boundary with the adjacent area 1626. <!-- Personnel: Brian,
|
|
Tony, other people when feeling slack -->
|
|
|
|
<!-- Not this year...
|
|
<li />Some suggestions have been made for a return to Kaninchenhöhle,
|
|
which was the primary site of exploration by CUCC for most of the 1990s. There
|
|
are a number of open leads in the Far North, the area closest to
|
|
Steinbrückenhöhle; it is not entirely inconceivable that one of these
|
|
may lead to a connection between the two, although it seems unlikely.
|
|
-->
|
|
<!-- Personnel: This is Wookey's pet project -->
|
|
|
|
<li />There is also much documentation and surveying work to be done, which
|
|
although less glamorous than original exploration is vitally necessary
|
|
considering the extent of CUCC's discoveries in the area so far; a
|
|
<a href="thingstodo.html">list of tasks for the summer</a> is already being
|
|
assembled.
|
|
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Expedition Committee</h2>
|
|
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt>Expedition Leader:</dt><dd>Olly Madge (Caius)</dd>
|
|
<dt>Treasurer:</dt><dd>David Loeffler (Trinity)</dd>
|
|
<dt>Transport Organiser:</dt><dd>Mark Shinwell (Queens')</dd>
|
|
<dt>Sponsorship:</dt><dd>Nial Peters (St Catharine's)</dd>
|
|
<dt>Other committee members:</dt><dd>Martin Green (Corpus)</dd>
|
|
<dd> <i>[plus others yet to be appointed]</i></dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
|
|
<hr />
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
|
<ul id="links">
|
|
<li><a href="index.html">Back to 2004 Index</a> </li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../pubs.htm">Index</a> to all publications</li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</body></html>
|