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<title>1992: Cambridge Underground report</title>
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<center><p><font size=-1>Cambridge Underground 1994 pp 31-34</font>
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<h1>Austria 1992</h1>
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<blockquote><i>"They set off from Cambridge with cars full of shit,<br>
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All wondering how possibly they'd made it all fit"</i></blockquote></center>
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<p>The first car to leave was the Battlewagon, with the rear suspension on
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it's bumpstops. Within ten yards of setting off, the towbar had attacked
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the kerb during a 3 point turn. The reckless occupants were MarkM and Ali,
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who planned to do some climbing in the Alps first. Their high point was Mark
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waking up from a dream and yanking the handbrake on. Fortunately it
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didn't work.
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<p>Next off was Wookey's van, with a trailer which was extracted from a
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dung heap twelve hours before the ferry was due to leave. MarkF was so
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scared by the huge piles of gear lying in Spalding Way (in the front garden,
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living room, kitchen and back garden) that he helped repair the rotten
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boards. The poor idiots who had to drive this combination were JulianS and
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Clive. The towbar was bolted onto the bumper, and only grounded getting on
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and off the ferry. Their high point was trying to repeat last year's
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van rolling events.
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<p>And so once more the expo began.
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<p>It had been raining in the Alps so Mark, Ali, and JulianH (who had joined
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them by train) were the first to arrive, followed five days later by Matt,
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and they set to with ungodly vigour. Mark had already been busy in
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Cambridge, and had built a tent ("The Portable Palace") which
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could sleep four in comfort, and a drill battery ("Small Paul")
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which could drill at least forty holes but weighed more than a full
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Goldflash tacklesack.
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<p><blockquote><i>"The plateau and caves were covered in snow<br>
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They walked in ignorance of pitches below"</i></blockquote>
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<p>Puffball was found to be blocked, and while looking for
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Kaninchenhöhle, the three cavers wandered across a snow plug. After
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crossing it they looked behind and found a hole they could lob rocks down.
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Well, they found the cave, anyway.
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<p>Matt then arrived, and the caving began. A ladder placed next to the
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Puffball snow plug gave with some digging an entrance, and they went down to
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Piezo. There the rigging joy began, with the choice of a wet pitch or a
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hanging route off the far wall. With much use of skyhooks, power drills and
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bolts placed then removed, the Crows nest and Piezo were rigged, with an
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alternative, even drier route too! Maybe Julian's experience last year
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had something to do with this...
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<p>During these trips, the van arrived with the rest of the expo, and Glen
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followed closely. He started his expo well, trying out his new extra huge
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rucksack with an extra huge amount of gear, and staggered along regretting
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this move. Eventually the second wave set off caving, but Clive set the tone
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for the rest of the holiday by forgetting his welllies and hence being
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unable to go underground. This was fortunate, really, since his bottom
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exploded about an hour later. Expo food is so lovely. MarkS and Olly arrived
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that evening, and the potato hut filled with computers (2½ of them).
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<p>Puffball carried on until the hitchers arrived : first AndyA and Fran,
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then DaveF and Henri, with tales of fast cars and loud lorries. The
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exception was MarkM's trip down K-H to retrieve some co-ax for
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Julian's new hi-tech aerials. This started a new trend of solo trips :
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others were by Olly (surveying, too!), Tony, DaveF, MikeTA, JulianS and
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Clive. Most of the participants seemed to enjoy these trips, doing what they
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wanted to do and escaping the stresses of the expo. Mark's trip was an
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exception, caving wearing dry grots in an oversize harness off single dodgy
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spits not being his idea of fun.
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<p>Then it stopped : a large boulder in the Puffball entrance moved while
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MarkM and Julian climbed past it. This provided an opportunity for KH to be
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started properly, and for lots of new arguments - about gear split between
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the caves, and whether Puffball was actually safe. DaveF solved this latter
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one by the simple expedient of trying to put a tape round the offending
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boulder and sliding with it four feet down the slope, then gardening it for
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a couple of hours.
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<p>The next day, JulianH, Richie and Aggy decided it was time to carry on
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with Puffball, so they sensibly laid 600 metres of cable for the radio, and
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carried 200 metres of rope to the pushing front. This waited for a few days
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until Ali, Clive, Fran and MarkM went on the next trip went down. They had
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double clicker failure (now where did that happen before in pb?), with
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'Kiss of Light' rift named due to the strange sight of two cavers
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nuzzling together, then found a small sump in the middle of a muddy rift -
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'Waste of Effort', with a small way on that Wookey-the-Stupid
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subsequently found to be another sump. It was a strange feeling -
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satisfaction at finding the end of the cave, disappointment at it not going
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that deep, and fear at the sight of lots of mud next to the sump - I've
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never seen MarkM prussik so fast as he came out of the last pitch! To
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commemorate the end, '<a href="182.htm">The twelve pitches of Puffball</a>'
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was written.
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<p>That was it, with the exception of a few surveying, derigging and general
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tidying up trips. Next cave, please.
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<p>Ah yes - Elchfalle/Moosehöhle. This was investigated since it was
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close enough to Puffball so you didn't need to move gear, and only so many
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people could go down Puffball. JulianH, Matt and Aggy started it, gardening
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and pitching as you do. The boulder slightly blocking the entrance was moved
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next with a huge pulley system, and the way was clear for the cave to go!
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Which, after a few pitches, it didn't. The crawl in the fault at the bottom
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was looked at by several people, the furthest being Clive on one of his solo
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trips, and was declared crap. While derigging Olly and Clive heard the sound
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of rushing water, and memories of Puffball tales came flooding back. Quick,
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brace yourselves ... here it comes ... ... trickle. What an anticlimax. The
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pitches were rigged well out of the water too - it wasn't even awful.
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<p>Wait! This is supposed to be a holiday, remember. Surely the club
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aren't as odd as the Austrians spotted wandering past the crapper at
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8am in pouring rain clutching umbrellas? Obviously there was some festering
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to be done...
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<p>Firstly there were bicycles to be played on. Some people cycled up the
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toll road, Justin being the fastest at 1¼hr. Others preferred to cycle
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down it, AndyA getting to 55 mph before the speedo went funny and Clive
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doing the 5¼ miles in ten minutes, including hairpins.
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<p>Then there were the Austrian cavers. They invited us to the festival at
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Bad Mittendorf, where the freshly geartaped van driven with a pair of
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Wookey's shreddies hanging off the waving windscreen wiper seemed to
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cause amusement to the locals, and the commentator said our presence made
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it a truly international festival!
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<p>Once more their portable mountain with a seemingly endless supply of beer
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inside provided amusement and lubrication for the subsequent gear and survey
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inspection in their hut. They then inspected our singing and tried to teach
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us to clap at the expo dinner, where Henri as best german speaker was
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volunteered to get us an invitation to their caves.
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<p>The day before this invitation was due to be honoured it was Clive's 21st
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birthday, and after the nice food we ate, as a change from the relentless
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veggie slop, and the nice beer we drank anyway, we went to sleep under the
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stars, having duly ignored the repeated warnings about what was to happen
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next. Which was being awoken by Henri who must have felt subconsciously
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guilty about arranging it all to begin at 6am in Bad Mittendorf. Half an hour
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later Richie was driving at 90mph, coffee and cigarette in two hands and
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steering wheel in the other, and we made it, closely followed by Wookey
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sliding into the car park. There then followed a long day of, for one party,
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walking lots, caving a little and walking back. This led to an awful scree
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slope with rocks being thrown by goats, an unlikely flat football field sized
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piece of grass on top which was their campsite and we were told they had to
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carry all their camping and caving gear including the over-the-top stainless
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steel entrance fixed ladder, and a helicopter brought them cakes and a barrel
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of beer. On the way back over the plateau we were shown lots of huge holes,
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including one with a huge memorial cross on the wromg side of the hole from
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the path, and the one which the others had gone down, so we stole their
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shorts (apart from Wookey's because there didn't seem any point). Their cave
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went quickly to -368m via 20,93,10,53,88,57 metre pitches, and at the bottom
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they went pushing, found 300m more of cave (Cambridge Corner) which they
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didn't even have to survey - oh happy cavers.
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<p>Around all these frolics, the slogan on the T-Shirt (Kaninchenhöhle
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V The Final Frontier) was busy being unfulfilled. The initial rig to Knossos
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prompted major ranting about the amount of rope in Puffball, but fortunately
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this was finished, just in time for France to go deep after Tony started it
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with a solo rig that he enjoyed so much he ran back from the cave. AndyA and
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DaveF started the silly pushing at Repton, finding Pipeless and Satanás
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Sitting Room. MikeTA and Tina preferred to begin closer to the surface at
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an old question mark of theirs at the end of Gnome. Mike continued Deep
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Sleep on a solo trip and was really surprised when it stopped - this is
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supposed to be 161 and hence infinite!
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<p>Having learned from their previous experience of the distance to Pipeless,
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and being encumbered by the newly released drill battery AndyA and DaveF,
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accompanied by Henri and Tony, went down Garden Party and swiftly discovered
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it led to Niflheim. Sam worked the other way round, first being on two
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Dungeon trips, then deciding that since he was only in Austria for a week he
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had better go and do something silly, went off to stop AndyA and Wookey
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rigging a tyrolean across Hyper Gamma Spaces by stealing the gear, and
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accidentally found Mostly Mud with MikeTA. After this his next trip was a
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photo trip in Big Sainsburys, with tea, so maybe he'd had enough of being
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hard. He did find a zoom (Dokertees from '88?) in Dungeon, so maybe he was
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trying to be lucky again.
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<p>Meanwhile the club was producing its normal level of casualties. The vomit
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tally was started by the normal means of people drinking too much, but Wookey
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doesn't drink beer so he was forced to chuck all over Puffball due to
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dehydration. Jerry eventually won, and also helped Richie on the way. Gill
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tried to string herself up on Snot while fetching a drill battery for
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Dungeon, and her ensuing whistle call was swiftly answered, so no damage was
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done. Matt's whistle call while failing to find top camp from a couple of
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hundred yards away was however ignored.
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<p>Down France Tony tried to kill AndyA. "Below" he cried, so Andy
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tensed up to receive a blow. Which arrived on his head just after he
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relaxed. There goes one carbon fibre helmet, and one Andy down the pitch.
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"Aha", he went, "If I let go of the handle my stop will
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work". STOP. Throw up. Carry on caving. Push a bit. Oops, falling
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again, where has that 6ft by 1 ft shelf gone. Put a bolt in using 3 spits.
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Better leave. A tad psyched then!
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<p>Slightly more serious were Glen and JulianS. Glen fell down a shakehole
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and dislocated his shoulder, to which Olly's comment was "Does it
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go?". The injury was aggravated by getting washed down the river at the
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back of Hilde's. Julian was slightly more cunning - he waited until
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derigging had just begun, and fell off a small cliff on the way back from
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the cave, bruising his back. Oops - better fester and watch all these big
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strong men carry gear.
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<p>JulianH had appointed himself radio man, and spent several hundred pounds
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on CB gear, including a portable to go caving inside an ammo box. His amazing
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triple inverted-v aerials (3 big posts with lots of wire and guys) were a
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sight to behold, his repeaters were so complicated he had to change the
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design while on expo to make them work and the portable was completely
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reengineered. After 3 weeks fettling, the portable didn't work even slightly,
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but top camp to base camp did, which meant he could escape to the French Alps
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for a proper holiday without getting too much strife. Unfortunately, just
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after he had gone, a huge thunderstorm came and blew the aerials down (and
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some of base camp), and nobody knew which direction to put them up in. Oh
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well, maybe next time...
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<p>Time to do something else again, isn't it. The Austrians were still
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around (not surprisingly). Robert the Wonder Caver came and gave us an
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excellent slideshow, with much oohing at the tight bits of cave, and
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jealousy at the amazing lightning photographs. (A few days later we had the
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privilege of watching a thunderstorm from base camp for half an hour before
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it started raining.) Robert then invited us to go to a beer festival, at
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which the term "Schnappered" was coined, meaning having drunk far
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too much of the different sorts of nice schnapps they served there. Richie,
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while trying his best to avoid it, nearly started a fight, and we eventually
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found him asleep under a fairground lorry. After this Jerry generously stuck
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his fingers down Richie's throat and ensured his place on the vomit tally.
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Meanwhile Aggy Finn (his real name) was consolidating his place on the
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sharking tally, but Robert TWC spoke Austrian better so he did better that
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night.
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<p>Team lag turned up to catch the embers of the expo, but left before
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derigging. Jeremy, Chris and MarkF arrived, drank some beer and declared
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their intention of climbing the Trisselwand. Roping in one of DaveH's
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festering women, off they set, ridiculously early (according to Mark's
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writeup). After eventually finding the correct starting point, four hours
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later (11am), off they climbed. Climb they went, with some more getting lost,
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until 5pm when Jeremy decided he had sunstroke, and that they ought to go
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down again. So they did, and got to the 2nd pitch without problem.
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Unfortunately, a thunderstorm decided to happen, at the same time as people
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were having problems going down. All this led to rope tangle, which delayed
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their crossing of the small gulley sufficiently that by then it was full of
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water with rocks and ice in it. This was epic, and Jeremy has subsequently
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claimed it was the most scared he has ever been. Eventually they all reached
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the bottom with only minor injuries (a badly bruised shoulder was the worst)
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logbook etc etc.
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<p>Of course the expo would not be complete without its quota of car
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failures. However they were remarkably good this year. The Wookvan waited
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till Slovakia to break properly, the only minor damage being a pissed and fat
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JulianH pulling the roofrack apart. Even the battle wagon survived with only
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a few improvements, a bit of oil system fettling, and new rear brake shoes.
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These were so tight the van had to tow the wagon out of the campsite (a four
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wheel drive princess) and Ali had to sit in the boot for a while to give the
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rear wheels enough grip to stop sliding.
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<p>So back they went to caving. DaveF, after avoiding the end with Garden
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Party, decided it was time to go solo caving and went down The Hole Below
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The Pitch Below The Squeeze (hooray for descriptive names), now called
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Bladerunner. Everyone else (well, those sufficiently hard/stupid) went to
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the end. Aggy was sent to climb round a pitch, while Wookey, AndyA and Jerry
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stood around making helpful comments like "Put your cowstails in and
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get on with it", hence the 3 Wise Men. So he did, but unfortunately
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went too far and had to be destrung by Andy. This made him all scared, so he
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left Wookey and Andy to find Far Too Far, via phreatic passage with jet
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black floor they didn't want to put footprints in, and the question marks
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multiplied. On the next trip, Wookey and Andy surveyed their finds, and it
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was time to derig.
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<p>Yawn derig carry they went. Ruth and Jane (DaveH's friends) were impressed
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with the amount of shit we all carried, but DaveH was the star, carrying far
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too much inside and outside the cave. It didn't even rain too much, only
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thunderstorming at night. Time to go away - Slovakia for some, trains and
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cars for others, and poor DaveF left to cycle home (900 miles in 9 days - not
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bad)
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<p>The End
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<hr />
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<!-- LINKS -->
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<ul id="links">
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<li><a href="../../../jnl/1994/index.htm">Table of Contents</a>
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for Cambridge Underground 1994</li>
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<li>1992 Expedition info:
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<ul>
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<li><a href="index.htm">Index</a> (more detail than in this list)</li>
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<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
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<li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a></li>
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<li><a href="182.htm">"The Twelve Pitches of Puffball"</a> (expedition song).</li>
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<li><a href="sponsr.htm">This year's</a> sponsors<br><hr />
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1992">Index</a> to all publications</li>
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<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
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<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
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</ul>
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