expoweb/years/2006/logbook/logbook_06.txt

15/7/06 Dave travels out, absence-of-courtesy of Ryan Air

Up at 3.30am (ouch), night bus + coach to Stansted, flight to
Salzburg, train to Bad Aussee, total time about 11 hrs. (3 ½ getting
to airport + waiting for flight; 2 flight; 1h waiting at Salzburg;
rest trains + buses.)

Wet quite smoothly modulo getting on the wrong train at Salzburg +
ending up on an express that didn't stop at Attnang-Puchheim + having
to get out at Linz + pay E8 for a train back again.

T/U: N/A


16/7/06 Carrying lots of Stuff Dave, Mark, Aaron, Tom

Walked up the hill to find lots of snow lying around – snow in 204a,
snow at the front of the bridge, all over the shop. Tediously
shovelled snow for ages to clear a way into Traungold.  Found a very
pretty icestal; less pretty was the rest of the ice freezing half the
gear down.

On the way down, went slightly further downhill from usual route past
195, and found a new hole, not yet tagged but in the fullness of time
it will be <u>2006-01</u>. GPS: 36283 E 83223 N 1773 alt.


18/7/06 More carrying lots of stuff Dave, Aaron, Mark + Tom

Walked up again, with u**ber-heavy rucksacks this time, wasn't too bad
as we went in stages, stopping at <u>157</u> to take a photo of it +
one of nearby <u>Bogenh*ohle</u>.

Slightly further up, just before the slabs, are two holes that are
well-known but not documented:

-2006-02, no obvious markings: long rattle on dropping rocks. Photo
taken. GPS: 36086 82919 1707.

-2006-03, marked “CUCC 2987+”. GPS 36081 82911 1706. Photoed.

18/7/06 Carry to 76 Olly+Jenny

Arrived at basecamp early in the morning after driving out. It was
really hot, so spent the morning sorting stuff out and walked up in
the evening. Failed to find the 76 path several times and so took ages
to get there. The stuff stored in the bivi was fine – had obviously
been frozen in for most of the year, but was free (mostly) of ice now.
The camping spot had way less snow than last year, so loads of camping
space. The 76a entrance was full of snow (like last year) + will need
clearing, but 76main is draughting lots, therefore hopefully not
blocked lower down. Walked back much more quickly but it still got
dark too soon (especially for Olly who was wearing prescription
sunglasses).

148 was noted to be completely full of snow – if it wasn't for the
paint, you wouldn't know there was a cave there.

19/7/06 Carrying + first push of expo Dave + Aaron +Tom

Walked up the hill with another tediously heavy load. Arriving at the
bivvy, Mark opted to do some surface work + the rest of us went to rig
204e.

While waiting at the base of 204e for Tom+Aaron, I had a ferret in the
Qms in the chamber there.

<u>QM 01-12C</u> is too tight; higher level rift has sound of water
but would require capping.

<u>QM 01-13C</u> is also too tight, although it required Aaron to tell
this – I couldn't get round the first bend, but he did the 2nd and got
to a point where no normal person could go on.

<u>Also</u> at the base of the pitch is a low passage not marked on
the survey, on the left from the point you land, This goes by a short
crawl to a right-hand bend. A short gallery leads to a climb down into
a winding rift which goes on underneath Boulder Coaster; the limit of
it is a boulder choke at a high level, or a dodgy QMC climb down
(probably needing ghastly bolting).

T/U: 4hrs

20/7/06 Random Pitch Series in Great Oak Dave/Mark/Aaron/Tom

Plan was to go to Choc Salty Balls and bolt the pitches there. En
route we stopped at Great Oak Chamber. Mark descended to the bottom
(on a very dodgy rig) + announced it didn't go so 00-32C is dead. Mark
decided to take a look at 00-29D which is <u>not</u> a dig, a rift
going down a perfectly climbable pitch, a short sequence of cascades +
a second rather bigger pitch. At the bottom is an awkward S-bend
leading to a tight pitch head. I bashed in a bolt for half a Y-hang
while the others surveyed down.

T/U: 8 ½ hours


20/7/06 76 carry Jenny+Olly

Decided to drive up the the night before + sleep in the car at the
Bergresteraunt carpark in order to get an early start before it got to
hot. Met some very friendly German cavers in the carpark -> their area
is a 5-6hr walk away past Apelhaus. Swapped email addresses and
websites.

Walked up to bivi and set lots of things up: water tarp, other tarp,
tent etc. Took photos of 97 and 148 cos they didn't have any photos
yet. Waited till it was less hot to walk back. Got distracted by a
“new” cave -> marked by a cairn, but no evidence of exploration (the
cairn may just be marking the path). this will be <u>2006-70</u> it is
a crawling/stooping horizontal entrance that draughts out. After ~10m
there is a restricted pitch head that appears to open out into a ~5m
pitch. Currently un-descended, but seems to land on a snow/rocky
slope. Having been distracted by this cave, we got back to the car too
late to do another carry back up, so slept in the car again.

GPS for 2006-70: 
Also surveyed the bivi cave 2004-01 T/U: ½ hr

21/7/06 Final Carry and 76 caving Jenny+Olly

Carry up the final bag in the morning. Took our time because our bags
were heavy and Olly was suffering with a cold or hayfever. By the time
we got to the bivi Olly wasn't feeling well + needed to patch his
oversuit, so I went down 76 to rig the first 30m rope. Initially more
snow than before – pretty ice round the walls in the entrance passage.
Had to clear snow out the way to find the 2nd bolt + worried that
things would become very tedious... Large snow slope to head of Draft
Bitter (which is nice cos it holds the loose rocks in place), but
below this considerably less snow. The top snow plug was only ~1/4
there and the second not at all. So the rigging spirals round the side
somewhat unnecessarily this year! Came back out when the rope ran out.

T/U: (Jenny) 1hr 30


21/7/06 More Pitches in Great Oak + Cave Tree Mark/Aaron/Tom/Dave

Decided to split into two partied. Tom + I went to the pitch series
off Great Oak (QM 00-29 D) now christened “Riverdance”, while Mrk +
Aaron went to Cave Tree Chamber to bolt the pitch there + see if it
goes anywhere.

In Riverdance, one more bolt gave a Y-hang down a 9m pitch, then
another Y-hang led to a 6m pitch. Here there is yet another pitch with
1 ¼ bolts in it at present.

After getting this far we opted to go back up to the last survey
marker + survey back down, as I couldn't work out how to survey
awkward pitches upwards. Five legs got us to the pushing front, but
when I got to a dry point + started to sketch I realised there were
some rather weird legs. Cursed loudly. While prussiking out we worked
out between us that the first two compass readings and been read from
the wrong scale and were effectively reversed. After checking Mark was
still alive I went back down to make a proper sketch + Tom headed out.
Got to surface to find it was raining slightly – yay! water to drink!

T/U Dave+Tom 9hrs


21/7/06 Go*sser Streamway Mark/Aaron

Mark started bolting+rigging the pitch out of Cave Tree Chamber (QM
00-39B) on 20/7/06, alone. We (Mark + I) returned in force the next
day, finding several pitches, a streamway and a particularly nice
chamber. Yorkshire-style meander. Headed back after many hours leaving
the next pitch for another time. Area dubbed Go*sser Streamway for
it's smooth character + tipsy trajectory. Surveyed back to cave Tree
but failed to locate point in chamber + so linked survey to point at
end of passage into Cave Tree from Great Oak.

22/7/06 76:Plugged Shaft/Strange Ways Jenny+Olly

After a record length change we finally got underground, with the plan
for Olly to rig on down Plugged Shaft, with me following with the
drill in case we wanted to add anything. Got as far as the
rock-bridge-rebelay, and Olly remembered the leads below this; firstly
QM 04-09C (on the snow slope, which was incidentally lots snowier this
year, and Olly spent a while kicking snow+rocks down). Anyway,
QM04-09C trivially doesn't go, and QM04-08C doesn't actually exist.
Next, rather than swinging across to the deviation and The ledge, Olly
went down to the rock bridge below. We briefly visited here in 2004,
and as it is easier to visit on the rigging or derigging trips, we
hadn't yet returned. Olly descended the side pitch while I drilled a
spit for a new deviation higher up. Olly's pitch led to QM04-06C and
QM 04-07C which turned out to connect at a short pitch down to a snow
slope which I rigged + descended. “Upstream” at the bottom leads after
a few meters to vertical oxbows leading back to the canyon above.
“Downstream” led to a junction, right oxbowed back to the pitch, left
quickly led out to a pop out in a big pitch, which pretty much has to
be Plugged Shaft. This is probably QM04-15B. We must have been looking
down at Yesterday's Terminus, which has way less snow this year.
Didn't have survey kit, so came out (leaving it rigged for future
survey trip) and went down the hill.

T/U: 4 ¼ hours

P.S. The new section of cave is called <u>Strange Ways</u> cos the way
everything connected back was confusing. On the survey trip we will
consider its merits as the main route in (asaposed to Plugged Shaft).


23/7/06 Failed Attempt on Bivi	Dave and Sandeep

Decided to go up to walk even though the weather looked exciting but
we wanted to try anyway. We got as far as the col. It had started
raining about 20 mins in but we kept going for another half hour till
we realised it just wasn't going to get better. Just after we turned
round it really started to piss down.

Once we got back to the car park we realised the at the car wasn't at
the car park to pick us up we went into the restaurant to wait and for
a drink. Eventually they shut and by now we were wondering where the
cavalry was.

We ended up resorting to hitch-hiking down the hill with a rather
unconvinced German couple. Many thanks whoever you are.

It turned out we had the number wrong for basecamp and that's why
no-one came to pick us up.

[in a different handwritting] M U P P E T S LUV THE PHANTOM ARSHOLE


24/7/06 Stuff in Near End	Dave+Deep

Much staring at the survey over the last year had left me convinced
that the right place to look for the connection from the Near End to
the Colonnade was Kidney Bean.

So me and Deep got up ridiculously early (for expo) + got the 9:25 bus
up the hill, rig

[Mao break]

going down 204a + wandering thru the Near End. Snow plug was lower
than I've ever seen it before which is odd as all the surface snow
plugs are actually higher than usual.

Kidney Bean turns out to be <u>shite</u>. The route to it involves an
upward crawl over loose boulders, a contortion through a body-sized
tube, and finally a turn downwards head-first into a muddy puddle.

So Deep + I decided we'd tick off the QM's in ascending order of
promisingness. Deep climbed down into a scrofulous hole in the floor –
00-71C – and announced it didn't go. I crawled up 00-70B until I was
sure it connected to 00-69A. Finally we checked out 00-69A, which went
– crawling for a while, squeeze under an arch, then a shitty
boulderous chimney. I shifter boulders until I could poke my head in,
at which point one about the size of two breeze blocks decided to toll
over my shoulder. ouch.

Meanwhile Deep was looking around a bit and found a chimney which
landed just the other side of the boulder pile, in a chamber with a
waterfall. I was a bit confused, but Deep pointed out that there was a
tube leading up with a really strong draught. This emerged in big
trunk passage, and not far beyond I located a boot print. A large
column established that this was indeed the colonnade.

Returned to Kidney Bean to fetch survey gear, transpired that neither
of us could really read them, so we fucked off out instead.

T/U: 4 ½ hrs

[THIS SPACE ACCIDENTALLY LEFT BLANK]


28/7/06 (Dave, Pete, Chantalle, John

After surveying a random side passage of Treeumphent as a surveying
lesson under the tutorage of Dave (cleaning up leads 16-22 inc) we
moved onto looking at Sucker. Pete was in a feretting mood and the
following was concluded: fereting is not that much fun. Also 01-26C
goes 6.5m straight ahead to a dig. 01-28X and 01-27X are one and the
same – 28X was climbed and joins at a higher level. 01-31C and 30C are
bloody tight and unlikely to proceed far beyond visible range without
stopping to undress! Pete also crawled down 01-54C and the way is
semi-blocked by a small rock bridge (i.e. it is probably physically
possible to get past but you wont find me doing it!)

FRIDAY 28th JULY
OOPS!


24,25,26 July Tunnocks Trips Tom, Mark, Aaron

Three days efforts in the face of loose boulders and inconvenient
walls – requiring rebelay after rebelay after rebelay landed us at the
bottom of the very impressive Tunnocks Schact. On the 25th, we reached
“The Col”, a spot between two large steep boulders/snow slopes where
one can cower in relative safety from falling rocks. Looking down the
second slope, I could just barely make out a dark area in the distance
where the monolithic roof slab meets the end of the second snow slope,
pronouncing it either a continuation or a “dirty patch of snow”.

On the 26th, we put in the final spit, descended to the end of the
rope, walked down the remaining few meters, and my “dirty patch of
snow” resolved itself into a beautiful pool of ice with a 2-3m ice
column and a horizontal passage. This became a mammoth trip, with Tom
jotting 10 pages of survey (~160m), the discovery of Three Fried Mice
chamber, Bauernknoppen passage, and an as of yet unnamed phreatic
tube. A good deal of photography was also accomplished. Speculation:
tube probably connects to Hilde's beer cellar.

Our return, though triumphant, met mixed reception; Dave seemed
slightly miffed by the proximity of our 2344 appearance to our 2400
callout. 


24th/25th July 06 Death and Glory Dave and Deep

There were high hopes of a connection between the near end and the
colonnade, they were a mere 10m apart and there were several QM's that
could go.

On Monday (24th) we got to the pushing front via 204a and checked out
(00-70) “B” and (00-71) “C” grade leads both of which didn't go. We
backed up a bit and tried out a ”A” lead. It went! Crawling flat out
on mud and loose stones wasn't pleasant but we were making progress.
Dave was the first there finding a dodgy looking boulder choke he
slowly started to pull out rocks, it was almost wide enough but not
quite, then, one of them, the size of a basketball <i>(it was bigger
than that - DL)</i> fell on his shoulder. Things weren't going well
but he seemed OK after about 15 minutes.

I tried the small rift above the dodgy looking boulders, a few metres
in there was a steep chimney into a chamber bypassing the hanging
death. We were now in the chamber about the size of a small classroom.
Dave was puzzled there wasn't meant to be water here in 204.
<strike>We decided that the previous survey was shite. </strike> We
thought we were still in new territory, we named it unimaginatively,
Waterfall.

We tested out all the leads that we could find but no connection. We
had almost given up and were on our way out when I spied a small 7/8m
crawl sloping upwards.

Dave went up first and I followed. Half way up I heard screams of
excitment, we had found the colonnade and the connection!!

We had to return through Death and Glory (Note: Death is the boulder
choke/hanging death and glory is the chimney into waterfall chamber)
to retrieve our survey instruments which we had left in Kidney Bean.
But disaster struck once again, it was here, after we had discovered
the connection that we found out that neither of us could read the
compass or clino.

T/U: 4 ½ hours

We returned the next day with a different set of instruments to survey
the passage in a slightly quicker/less excitign trip.

T/U: 5 ½ hours
Deep


25th/7/06 Surface Wander Dave+Sandeep

After emerging from the Death or Glory survey we still had some light
left, so we opted for a surface retagging walk. Armed with the marking
board, a camera, the pile of pre-made tags, a spanner, we set out from
the bridge towards <u>2003-X14</u>. Did an ent photo + a sketch
survey.

Then we slogged up the Hinter. View from the top is amazing. Looked at
<u>2003-X15</u>; looks obviously choked. Stupidly didn't get an
altitude fix, but got a photo.

Descended towards <u>214</u>. This had a tag “2000-03” as expected so
replaced it with a proper tag + took a photo. Cave is a fairly jolly
bit of tube going ~20m, stooping size, to a second skylight exit
(probably too tight to be passable).

Then we went in search of <u>222,3+4</u>. Walked to where the GPS said
223 should be, but no evidence of a tag; same happened at 222 so we
gave up + walked home. Oddly enough the original survey claims
unambiguously that the survey points are tag bolts, so either I was
being useless or my GPS was foxed by the steep hillside.

T/U: maybe 5 minutes in 214


26/7 Bolting in Riverdance Dave+Sandeep

Tedious long cold trip. Hand bolting is very slow and all the rock in
Riverdance is shite. Got to top of 9th pitch – loads bigger than the
previous few but that's not saying a lot.

T/U: 9 hrs

27/7 Surveying in Riverdance Dave + Sandeep

Surveying went impressively smoothly modulo the usual crap instrument
problems; took ~3h to get to pushing front! I wanted to do more
bolting but I wasn't hyper keen + Deep was less keen still so we
decided to turn round.

At 2nd pitch met Mark's team doing photos – I posed on the pitch, came
out rather well I think. We were informed that thunder was audible in
Cave Tree, so rather than go out we went to Choc Salty Balls for a
look at the dig <u>01-35 D</u>.

Sandeep crawled in first + after rearranging some boulders we squeezed
out into a little chamber. I climbed up into the ceiling where the
draught whistles out of a boulderous chimney. I moved more rocks + got
into a horrendously loose chamber – floor is a critical angle boulder
slope. Draught comes down from the top but I'm not going up there, it
looks bloody lethal.

Went back out for survey gear + surveyed in, amid much ranting at the
extreme crapness of the pencil I was using. Couldn't find a good point
to link to so the link is a bit of a bodge.

T/U: 9h


28/7 Surveying QM's in Treeumphant Dave, Pete, Chantalle, John

Team novice had managed to arrive at the bivvy at exactly the same
time team old-lag were plannign to leave it, so I stayed up a few more
hours to show them how to push new cave.

We attacked QM 00-21C, a tube on the left-hand wall of Treeumpant.
Chantalle climbed in + determined that it went, at which point I
realised I'd forgotten the survey notebook.

Got back ½ an hour later to find that P+J+C had found a parallel
horizontal gallery linking together 00-21, 00-22, and 00-17, which
were duly surveyed.  00-19C doesn't go, and 00-16 and 00-18 join up in
another parallel gallery on the other side. All now thoroughly ticked
off and not going anywhere. Unfortunatly we linked the survey to the
wrong point (my fault – oops).

At this point I buggered off to drink G*osser down the hill + left the
other to check out Sucker.

(See Pete's writeup).
T/U: 4 ½ hours (Dave)


26/7/06 76:Strangeways Jenny+Olly

Drove up the night before again to sleep in the car at the Bergrestuarant. Worked less well than last time 'cos there was a group of people collecting bugs or moths or something using a really bright light. Olly needed to wait for the Bergrestaurant to open to go to the loo, so I set off to carry my bag to the bivi, then returned to meet Ol at the col. Collected the 150m of rope we left there a week ago and went to the bivi. Caught up on sleep for a couple of hours in the tent, then went caving. Took survey kit to survey Strangeways. Started at the lower end and progressively made our way back out. Due to the small + wiggly nature of the passage + the oxbows we got cold before we had surveyed it all, despite draughting less than Plugged Shaft it was still distinctly cold. Came out to find the bivi had become moth city, lots worse than last year.
T/U: 3 ½ hours

27/7/06	Surface Stuff (near 76)	Jenny+Olly

Planned to continue down 76, initially Olly wasn't keen, shortly after i had infected him with sufficient keen-ness I felt ill and was sick, decided that whilst being sick on the surface wasn't much fun, it was a dam sight better than being ill underground. So we changed plans.
Headed towards 2004-08 to tag it, en-route I realised we had everything required except the drill battery (we don't have a hand bolting kit). I returned to the bivi to retrieve it and returned to find an Olly who had located an entrance that seemed to fit the description of 177. Sadly after descending it, it did't match the survey, so it is <u>2006-71</u>. Olly placed a bolt to descend on (we used this for the tag). Apparently it draughted out, was quite tight, but did continue. Olly ascended and we phototed, gps-ed, tagged and Olly surveyed it.
Moved on to <u>2004-08</u>, Olly descended while I took photos, it is basically a large chamber with most of it's roof missing. Olly abseiled in the largest entrance, used his trekking pole to walk around the snow plug, and climbed out of the other two smaller entrances (both ~5m shafts). Despite being full of promise, the cave barely went further than you could see. Olly surveyed it and we tagged, photoed + GPSed.
Moved on to tag and photo 2004-07 (which was surveyed in 2004). Also surface surveyed 99 -> 2004-01, to close a loop and improve loop closures in 99.
T/U: Olly:

28/7/06	76:Strangeways	Jenny+Olly

Went to Strangeways with the aim of finishing the top half of the survey, derigging and rigging down plugged shaft. Got to the top of the 1st pitch head in Strangeways and decided that moving some rocks might well improve it enough to make it the trade route for this year. Surveyed from where we ended before up through the top of Strangeways to the rubble shaft below the Plugged Shaft rock bridge.
I went out to get the drill while Olly moved loads of rocks out the way, both to make it safer and bigger. By careful aiming he was able to throw the rocks down the pitch in such a way as to smash off the worst protrusions on the way through. Once I had returned with a drill we put a bolt in the boulder near the pitch head, and with the aid of a stop, a pulley, me prussiking on the rope, and Olly directing the rock, we managed to relocate it along with a few other rocks. Having made the pitch head considerably more passable, we proceeded to rig down to Yesterday's Terminus in a suitable-for-lots-of-use kind of a way, rather than a pushing-only way. Got to Yesterday's Terminus and returned, on the way out I added a bolt for the little  climb in Strangeways and discovered that placing bolts in the ceiling is crap. Attempted to add another bolt near the rock bridge but the drill was flat after only 15 ¼ holes :( so exited the cave.
T/U: 9 hours

29/07/06	76: Strangeways/Plugged Shaft	Jenny+Olly

Returned to 76, and Ol rigged on down Plugged Shaft. Discovered the rope was too short to reach the bottom, so had to use the rope intended for Boulder Chamber. Therefore Strangeways uses ~10m more rope than Plugged Shaft which is a shame. Rigged to Boulder Chamber, took some photos and surveyed out. Finally tieing in the Strangeways survey at both ends which made me happy. The new route in seems drippy but no worse even after lots of rain which is good.
T/U: 5 ½ hours

30/07/06	Surface Stuff	Jenny+Olly

It finally stopped raining so we could dry all our gear on the slabs + do some useful surface jobs. I went over to 2006-71 to retrieve the blanking plate for the drill battery. Then we tagged 2005-99 (Coatless), and phototed 2005-9*7 (Fluted). Packed stuff to go down the hill and walked on the old via Top Camp path so that we could tag + survey <u>2004-03</u>. I went in first and found that the cave didn't stop where Olly thought it did in 2004. But we didn't have any caving gear, even lights. The disto provided enough light from the laser to suggest the passage was small, but not impassable, and I could get a ~10m reading through it. tagged the entrance + surveyed what we could – need to return with gear.

Next went to photo 186 (on the col side of the Vord), shortly before 186, and slightly off the path we found a stooping sized horizontal entrance that draughted out. This is marked with a red painted “+” of unknown origin. GPS-ed + photoed the entrance and I surveyed what I could without a light (discovered that the disto is enough to light the compass enough to read it!). It seemed to continue some distance, though presumably is relatively trivial to have a “+”, we will call this <u>2006-72</u> though it is not yet tagged as there was no drill battery left. Continued the short way to 186 and photoed the entrances. Then Olly suggested we might climb the Vord as we were “halfway already”. We were going to leave our bags at 186 and collect on the return, but then Olly took his to be able to carry his camera and GPS. Followed a path for a short while, then lots of scrambling up rocks and fighting through bunde which was rather tedious. We got near what Ol thought was the summit, then Olly caught his foot on when a rock moved and hurt his toe. We decided it was worth carrying on to the summit in the hope of a better path down. Got to what we thought was the top but it wasn't at all. Lots of bunde continuing on into the distance... About half way to the top we hit a path and things improved.
After signing the book + taking pics we decided to follow the path down, me hoping it would lead to vaguely near 186 so I could retrieve my bag...
The path was very good, and went down the north-ish side of the Vord, past 199, 156 and 201 which we photoed, then met the highlevel old Top Camp to 161 path. which was surprisingly easy to follow given its limited use in recent years. Got to the col + got my bag back. The 161 path and forking off it the Vord is way better than going via 186. But Olly's foot hurt so I tried not to complain too much :)
T/U: ¾ hour



Expo 2007
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]


2007-07-22		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 Duks 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 oen 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 suspision that the inlet contained water from the
Midnight in Moscow seriers. 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 faliure
to go very deep.

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


24/07/07	Razoedance -> The forbidden City	Andrea, 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


28/07/07	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


29/7/07		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

31/07/07		Razoedance -> 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 ofr 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 unfeasible 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 nonesense. 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 sine 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 disn'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


2-3/08/07		Razor Dance derigging teip	John Billings, Aaron Curtis, Jon Telling (+ Duncan, MarkD, Richard + George)

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>damm</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, courtey 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


3/08/07 Razordance – Finish derigging Wookey, Andrew + Becka (plus
OllieS for last third)

Down 10am. Wookey + I fetched the tacklesack 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 himslef... 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 deriged
in 2.5 trips – not bad.

T/U: Wookey, Andrew + Becka: 11 hrs
Ollie S: 5hrs


19/07/07		Razor Dance	Dave, Andrea, 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