expoweb/years/2006/logbook/logbook_06.txt

===15/7/06 | Journey - Dave travels out, absence-of-courtesy of Ryan Air | <u>Dave</u>===

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 | Loser Plateau - 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 | Loser Plateau - 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 | Loser Plateau - 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 | 204 - 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 | 204 - 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 | Loser Plateau - 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 | 76 - Loser Plateau - 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 | 204 - 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 | 204 - 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 | Loser Plateau - 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 | 204 - 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 | 204 - 204  | 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!


===24/7/06 | Tunnocks Trips | Tom, Mark, Aaron ===

<p> BECKA - actually three dates given: 24,25,26 July

<p>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. 


===24/7/06 | 204 - Death and Glory | Dave and Deep ===

<p> BECKA - actually two dates given here: 24th/25th July 06

<p>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


===25/7/06 | Loser Plateau - 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


===26/7/06 | 204 - 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

===27/7/06 | 204 - 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


===28/7/06 | 204 - Surveying QM's in Treeumphant | <u>Dave</u>, Pete, Chantalle, John ===

Team novice had managed to arrive at the bivvy at exactly the same
time team old-lag were planning 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 | Loser Plateau - 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	| Loser Plateau - 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