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139 lines
7.3 KiB
HTML
Executable File
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<title>1995: BCRA Caves & Caving report</title>
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<font size=-1>BCRA Caves & Caving 73, Autumn 1996, pp n-n [ISSN 0142-1832]</font>
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<center><h1>EXPO 1994 - 1995 REPORT</h1>
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<h3>by Anthony Day and Steve Bellhouse</h3>
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<h2>1995</h2>
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</center>
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(continued from same article as <a href="../1994/bcracc.htm">1994 report</a>)
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<p>The expedition committee in 1995 was a little inexperienced, with the
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leader having been to Austria only once, and the treasurer and equipments
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officer both being new to expedition caving. Despite this, the organisation
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went quite smoothly, with only a few minor glitches, such as the leader
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opening the Sports Council interview with the phrase: "We were going to wear
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suits, but there's been a bit of an error." Not recommended in future.
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<p>So when July came around Expo was ready to go. It was around this time
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that Anthony Day and Nick Procter first laid eyes on the nice trailer which
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Wookey had found for us. The wheels were the size of tuppenny bits, and
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were attatched to the body by rust, the spare was flat, and one of the
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indicator bulbs had blown. They changed the bulb and, satisfied that the
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thing was now legal, attempted to tow it a thousand miles.
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<p>Two blowouts and hassles with National Breakdown meant it took 48hrs to
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get to Austria. However, on Tuesday 4th July we established Base Camp, and
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the laborious carries up to Top Camp began. Once established on the plateau,
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a team set off to rig into France and push some of the many good leads
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discovered in 94. However, they arrived in the area of France entrance to
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find a large, featureless snow field, due to unseasonal snow-fall in May.
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Much digging ensued over the next couple of days, accompanied by even more
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muttering and grumbling, but the entrance did not appear.
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<p>Eventually it was decided that we would have to forego the easy leads in
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France and try some of the scrotty small question marks in
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Kaninchenhöhle main entrance, which, over several trips yielded some
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worthwhile finds. The "Doubting Thomas" series descended 100m down tight
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rifts from Dreaming of Limo chamber. Also found was the "Oral" series,
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encompassing, amongst others, "throat" and "tonsils" pitches. It remains a
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mystery why cavers developed such an interest in head-and-neck anatomy while
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spending a month in the field.
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<p>Meanwhile some snow had melted and some cunning navigation and frantic
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digging had revealed France entrance. The first rigging trip was aborted as
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a novice caver got strung up, but the second trip was successful, and cavers
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swarmed into "Algeria" to grab the best leads. A new pitch into "Twin Tubs"
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was named "Daz Automatic", a chamber at the end of "Mohr im Hemd" was named
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"Regurgitation", and a hole in the floor in Hob Nob passage dropped into a
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promising 3m wide passage, which unfortunately choked after 100m.
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<p>A major disappointment was that once again our radios failed to work,
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especially after the effort of erecting the huge Base Camp aerial and
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carting the necessary gear up to Top Camp. However, our resident sparky,
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Julian Haines, redeemed himself by sawing up one of the aerial poles and
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creating a cave-proof drill battery which was both effective and practical.
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Armed with this, we finally bottomed "Sultans of Swing", the large pitch
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which we got off halfway down for most of the '94 finds. The pitch turns
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awkwardly back under Algeria, then drops 40m in two pitches, sumping at 320m
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depth.
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<p>Wookey and Andy Atkinson arrived for the latter part of the expedition,
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and soon afterwards went on the trip to end all trips. All lethargy about
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repeated KH trips was soon to disappear after the finds of the last week of
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the expedition. Going down France, they first checked out "The Forbidden
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Land", a truly appalling bit of cave at the end of Mississippi. This was
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the southern most part of Kaninchenhöhle and therefore worth a look. A
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tiny, muddy, wet thrutch came out at the bottom of an utterly desperate
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bolder-choke. Traversing this carefully, they found themselves in a huge
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rift running in the NNE/SSW direction. One wall was collapsed and the floor
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was strewn with huge boulders. At this point they heard a horrible rumbling
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noise from the hole they had just crawled through, and hurried back.
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Fortunately only a couple of rocks had fallen and they weren't trapped, but
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all present declared this the scaredest they had ever been and vowed never
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to return.
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<p>However, the stuff they had found had been huge, and was also in the
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direction of Stellerweg. They decided there must be another way in, and
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went looking...
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<p> ... and they soon found a trivial traverse over an
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undescended pitch, which led to a nasty squeeze. Pushing the 3m passage
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they found in both directions, Wookey found a 5m draughty choke climb which
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led into a totally huge space now named "Staudinwirt Palace" after our base
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camp Gasthof. From this led a windy, 10m wide passage containing bat
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droppings. Another entrance nearby perhaps? Following the breeze led to an
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even wider passage, "Triassic Park". Around 20m wide in places, this was
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all becoming a bit too much, so they surveyed out and returned gloating to
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Top Camp, making the less experienced members feel a little stupid that all
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this cave had been found down a lead that should really have been explored
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the year before but which hadn't even been included on the survey.
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<p>The next trip another 350m were surveyed and the passage was still left
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going strong. The survey data put us close to the side of the hill. If a
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new entrance could be found, we could effectively leave our SRT gear at home
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for the next expedition! Faced with this exciting prospect, a team went
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into France to try to find 161d from the inside. They went downwind,
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following the bat droppings, and went through a couple of ridiculous
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squeezes with gale force winds blowing through them (one named "Battle of
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the Bulge"). They found a skull, and some moths, and moments later they
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found daylight. 161d was promptly named Scarface due to a recent rockfall
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from the cliff above.
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<p>The easiest way to walk back to Top Camp from Scarface has yet to be
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discovered. All routes so far have involved difficult climbing on the
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limestone terrain, soan advance party is likely to head out early to Austria
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this year to search for a more feasible route.
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<p>To give an idea of the scope of the newest finds, in the last 9 days of
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the expedition we found and surveyed 1500m of cave, and there are 72 new
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question marks on the 1996 list. Kaninchenhöhle is now over 14km long
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in total.
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<hr />
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<!-- LINKS -->
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<ul id="links">
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<li>1995 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="excsrp.htm">Preliminary report</a> (exCS newsletter)</li>
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<li><a href="report.htm">Cambridge Underground report</a></li>
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<li>This year's <a href="sponsr.htm">Sponsors</a></li>
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<li><a href="exponl.htm">From Expo Novice to Expo Leader</a>:
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The tale of my Decline</li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1995">Published accounts</a></li>
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<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expedition intro page</a></li>
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<li><A href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home page</a></li>
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</ul>
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