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CUCC Expo Prospecting Handbook
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<h2 id="tophead">CUCC Expedition Handbook</h2>
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<h1>Prospecting</h1>
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<p>Much of the area of the Loser Augst-Eck plateau is rough limestone
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pavement (<b>karren</b>), liberally covered with dense areas of dwarf pine,
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and interspersed with small cliffs, open shafts and snow patches. The latter,
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in particular, can change the appearance of the plateau from year to year,
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and even from week to week in the summer. Getting from one point to another
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may involve detours to avoid any of these obstacles, and the whole effect is
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very disorientating. There are few landmarks recognisable from a distance or
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from a variety of angles, and little chance to relate the ground to the
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1:25000 Austrian Alpine Club map. Prospecting is either a matter of searching
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for promising-looking caves with a draught, or shaft bashing many open holes
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in the hope that one will go. This latter approach is often a waste of time,
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but just a few of them lead to really significant finds!</p>
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<p><b>Shaft bashing:</b> <a href="../plateau/others/l/lrh0.htm">
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<img src="../plateau/others/t/lrh0.jpg" class="icon" width="143" height="173"
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alt="Lost Rucksack Hole 0" /></a>
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<a href="../plateau/others/l/lrh.htm"><img src="../plateau/others/t/lrh.jpg"
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class="icon" width="123" height="169"
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alt="Lost Rucksack Hole" /></a>
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<b>Bolt placing:</b> <a href="../plateau/others/l/lrh1.htm"> <img
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src="../plateau/others/t/lrh1.jpg" class="icon" width="143" height="170"
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alt="Lost Rucksack Hole 1" /></a></p>
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<p class="caption">(Typical shaft bashing, often easiest on ladders: Adam Cooper
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near Top Camp in 1993. Bolt placing usually easier on rope, but still in
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T-shirt & shorts!)</p>
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<p>All of this has made any systematic prospecting difficult, so there is
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still the chance of a significant discovery quite close to Top Camp or to
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other known caves. Life is made even more difficult through sloppy recording
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in previous years. Hence it is very important that any cave which has been
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looked at is marked and documented, to avoid duplication of effort. Very
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small caves are usually marked with a simple painted cross to indicate that
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they are worth no further effort, however, nowadays we are not allowed to
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mark things with paint. More significant caves get a number, and a written
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description. The aim is to link all such caves in to existing surface
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surveys, which in turn are tied to a number of <a
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href="survey/lasers.htm">fixed points</a> located by laser
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theodolite/rangefinder from local trig. points.</p>
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<p>The web pages contain as much description as we have of every cave we know
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about. To avoid any possibility of errors, this includes some info on caves
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not explored by CUCC, though for reasons of Austrian Kataster politics, these
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are not publicly accessible on the "live" web site.</p>
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<p>Clearly, descriptions of two hundred caves are too much to assimilate or
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carry about with you (unless, like Wookey, you carry this entire website
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in a Psion !). However, every prospecting party needs to be able to
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decide if what they have found needs exploring, marking, surveying, locating
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or ignoring. Some caves have been fully explored but are lost, others have
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been marked but not explored or vice versa. Hence there is a tabular summary
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of CUCC's knowledge of the caves of the Loser plateau. EVERY PROSPECTING
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PARTY SHOULD TAKE A (PRINTED) COPY OF THIS WITH THEM INTO THE FIELD. The
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caves are divided into five tables:</p>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="known.htm">Known</a></dt>
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<dd>Caves which are marked and the location of which is "well known" ie. very
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well described and surveyed, or known by someone on expo. The aim is to get
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all the caves into this table :-)</dd>
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<dt><a href="where.htm">Marked</a></dt>
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<dd>Caves which are marked but the location of which is not believed to be
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known by anyone on expo. Some may prove easy enough to find if someone looks,
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but most have been looked for without success. If found, they need to be
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surveyed to and the route to them described.</dd>
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<dt><a href="nomark.htm">Unmarked</a></dt>
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<dd>Caves which are believed unmarked, but are readily found or have been seen
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recently. These need at least to be marked, and may need surveying to.</dd>
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<dt><a href="unknow.htm">Unknown</a></dt>
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<dd>Caves whose location is uncertain, and which may not be marked. If they
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prove to be marked and are found, they should be written up - otherwise we need
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to trace someone who knows where they are, or abandon them.</dd>
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<dt><a href="plus.htm">Noted</a></dt>
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<dd> Caves which have been recorded in a log or survey book, but never given a
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number. They may be marked with a "+" or a "-". These are all caves which we
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believe can be found again, and which need revisiting to document them and give
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them a number. In some cases they are completely unexplored, but looked like
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good prospects when first found.</dd>
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</dl>
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<p>In the tables (and the cave descriptions), bearings are quoted with a
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series of standard <a href="abbrev.htm">abbreviations for landmarks</a>,
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which gives a good indication of which ones are most useful.</p>
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<p>There is also a table of which numbers are CUCC ones and of numbers which
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appear on entrances which are wholly misleading, the
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<a href="cockup.htm">Cock-Ups</a>.</p>
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<p><i>Note that there is still much missing information about many caves
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which appear in the "known" and "marked" lists. Though marked, this may not
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be correctly with their Austrian Kataster number. The aim is to mark all of
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these correctly with a metal tag bearing their 'official' number over the
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next few years. Also, many known caves do not have surface surveys to their
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entrances.</i></p>
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<p>In the lists, caves marked with an asterisk are those which
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should be refound as a matter of priority, or for which the missing
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information can be obtained with relative ease (eg. those which are close
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enough to a known point to make a surface survey to the entrance easy to
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achieve).</p>
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<h4>Numbering Convention</h4>
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<p>One problem that has recently arisen is a prohibition on painting numbers
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on entrances within the Naturschutzgebiet (Nature Reserve) area. The
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Austrians have for a while been marking caves with a numbered alloy
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tag bolted to the cave entrance. This also has the advantage of a definite
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fixed point to take the survey to.</p>
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<p>From 1996, we have also had to abandon the system (which we believed
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worked pretty well) whereby we had a block of numbers allocated from the
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Austrian Kataster, which we could use to number newly found caves. Nowadays
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we have to produce documentation before we get an 'official' number, which
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usually means an extra visit with someone who knows the cave's location in
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the year following exploration. Such a someone will not necessarily exist,
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which is a recipe for the number of "missing" caves increasing rather than
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decreasing. However, it is the Austrians' kataster, and we have to work with
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their system.</p>
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<div class="onleft">
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<img alt="Example tag" src="i/9602tg.jpg" width="340" height="286" />
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<p class="caption">An example tag - CUCC 96/02</p>
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</div>
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<p>To overcome this limitation, and try to stop losing caves in which we have
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invested effort, CUCC now applies its own unique number to each new cave,
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ideally at the time of discovery, using a rock anchor and a tag which can be
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replaced when an 'official' number tag is available. As of 2000, the standard
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practice has been to allocate initial numbers of the form "year-nn", e.g.
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2003-01. This means that the cave can be identified when refound, even if
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no-one who knew where it was came out in subsequent years. Clearly, a good
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surface location is also pretty essential.</p>
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<p>Anything longer than 10m needs a number, a survey of appropriate accuracy,
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and location information (<a href="findit.htm">bearings from entrance to known
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points</a> and description of route to entrance as a minimum - <a
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href="survey/ontop.htm">surface surveys</a> are really required for caves
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within a reasonable distance of existing known points, a <a href="survey/gps.htm">GPS fix</a> is probably a
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convenient compromise in the short term). If a cave is not readily apparent
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from the immediate area, bearings or a GPS fix will be found to be inadequate
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to refind it, and a good sketch or photographs of the entrance and its
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surroundings will be necessary as well.</p>
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<p>Caves which require further exploration should be marked "-". Caves which
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have been fully explored and surveyed marked "|+|". This includes minor
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holes less than 10m in length. (Note that prior to 1996, completely explored
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caves were marked "+". Any un-numbered caves found so marked need to be
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explored again and documented (in the "Noted" list, as a start). A number as
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above should be allocated if they exceed 10m in length).</p>
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<p>There are <b>many</b> other caves marked just with a "+" symbol and a few
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which just have bolts and no numbers. In the past, any cave which could not
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be seen not to go just from a surface look has been marked with a "+" to show
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that it has been looked at but didn't go anywhere significant. We are
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supposed to record these for the Austrians, so if you find one, please mark
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it with a unique identifier and record where it is, <b>even if you don't have
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time to re-explore it at the time</b>. This will help us to assess how many
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of these caves there are, and to target areas where there are lots first.
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Overall, this should reduce the amount of work needed to "catch up".</p>
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<h4>Previously explored caves</h4>
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<p>Having come upon a known cave, and decided on the action needed from the
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tables, you can find out more about the cave by looking at the database of
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cave descriptions (links from the tables or from the
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<a href="../indxal.htm">Index</a> to all caves). This exists mainly to ensure
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that <b>anyone</b> (not just CUCC) finding a cave marked or previously
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explored by CUCC can find out all we know about it.</p>
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<p>For CUCC's caves, we must supply at least a certain minimum of information
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to the Austrians, which includes an accurate location, state of exploration,
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name/marking, description and some sort of survey. Obviously for significant
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caves, we will want a proper drawn up survey, and the aim should be to do a
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survey right from the first exploration - if the cave ends, this saves having
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to go back again later ! If you find a cave for which adequate information
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is not in the database, then at worst document the lack, and at best, go
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out and create the missing documentation!</p>
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<p>As other groups also work in adjacent areas to ours, it is clearly
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important that the information is widely available, to avoid clashes of
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interest or duplication of effort. All CUCC's finds are documented here,
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together with any other caves which we have information on, which we are
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permitted to publish. We will be very pleased to receive any information on
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other caves in the area, to make this more complete. It is in no-one's
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interest to reexplore known cave, or to intrude on someone else's ongoing
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project ! There is a limited amount of information in the database on caves
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not explored by CUCC, for which we are not permitted to make the data
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publicly available - none of this information has been checked in the field
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and is likely to be out of date, if not just plain wrong. The data are
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included for completeness and should help CUCC during expeditions. We may be
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able to make the data available (through password-protected access to those
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net pages) to other groups with a bona fide need.</p>
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<hr />
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<!-- LINKS -->
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<ul id="links">
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<li><a href="index.htm">Expedition Handbook</a> - Intro
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<ul>
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<li><a href="survey/index.htm">Surveying guide</a> - Overview
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<li><a href="rescue.htm">Rescue guide</a></li>
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<li><a href="rigit.htm">Rigging guide</a></li>
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<li><a href="photo.htm">Photography guide</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../infodx.htm">Index to info/topics pages</a></li>
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<li><a href="../indxal.htm">Full Index to area 1623</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="../areas.htm">Area/subarea descriptions</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../index.htm">Back to Expedition Intro page</a></li>
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<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to CUCC Home page</a></li>
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</ul>
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<hr />
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<h3>Revision history</h3>
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<p>(but only revisions to content, not typos and link bugs...)</p>
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<dl>
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<dt>1996.04.23</dt>
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<dd>AJD: First attempt, missing most of the +/- and surface survey info. Also,
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haven't marked any caves with asterisks yet AJD</dd>
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<dt>1996.06.11</dt>
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<dd>AERW: Integrated existing prospecting page with Anthony's "what to do if
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you find..." tables from his RTF file. Formatting is currently crap. Links need
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putting in to save using the index.</dd>
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<dt>1996.07.25</dt>
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<dd>AERW: Added section on taking bearings - more views identifying peaks still
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needed.</dd>
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<dt>1996.11.28</dt>
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<dd>AERW: split file up, so tables are in separate pages. Added more info (and
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picture) on numbering/tagging scheme. Some rewrite of politically sensitive
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points.</dd>
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<dt>1997.01.01</dt>
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<dd>AERW: finished tidying and linking tables, split off section on taking
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bearings, with its pictures of peaks - linked with surveying document.</dd>
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<dt>2004.04.21</dt>
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<dd>DL: Fiddled formatting slightly, and also updated the section on
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provisional tagging of caves in accordance with current practice (those who
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disagree with current practice are asked not to shoot the messenger).</dd>
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</dl>
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