mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-11-27 01:32:03 +00:00
149 lines
7.6 KiB
HTML
149 lines
7.6 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
|
|
<title>CUCC Expedition Rigging Handbook: Introduction</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h2 id="tophead">CUCC Expo Rigging Handbook</h2>
|
|
<h1>Introduction</h1>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Prerequisites:</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>This section of the Expo handbook assumes that you are familiar with all
|
|
the usual manoeuvres, such as passing knots, rebelays and deviations,
|
|
changing from abseil to prusik and vice versa. "Familiar" means you can do it
|
|
in the dark with cold hands, with complete confidence in your safety and with
|
|
reasonable efficiency. Choice of ropes is not covered, as by the time you are
|
|
on the expedition it will be too late ! Neither is this guide concerned with
|
|
personal SRT equipment except where the demands of caving in Austria require
|
|
gear in addition to that you would normally use on a typical Yorkshire
|
|
weekend.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Self-rescue may also be important in Austria - this should be covered in
|
|
the rescue guide (but isn't - yet). It is recommended that you should
|
|
practice all these techniques somewhere safe and warm - preferably in the UK
|
|
before departure rather than up a tree behind the potato hut in a
|
|
thunderstorm!</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Differences from Yorkshire.</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>This is new exploration, so you cannot rely on belays to have been tested
|
|
by previous generations of cavers. Similarly, loose rocks will not have been
|
|
cleared or dislodged by earlier parties. Natural belays may not be available,
|
|
so you will have to place bolts, rather than look for the shiny P-hangers
|
|
placed by CNCC parties. You won't know in advance how long pitches are going
|
|
to be, so the ropes you have with you may need to be cut or knotted. Party
|
|
size is usually small - everyone needs to be able to make a contribution to
|
|
safe rigging. The first one down may be rigging a new rope to replace a
|
|
damaged one, or one of less than ideal length. The second may have to remove
|
|
the old rope on his descent.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Conversely, the caves are deeper, longer and colder than Yorkshire, so
|
|
parties need to move safely and efficiently to avoid exhaustion and exposure.
|
|
Flooding on pitches can be sudden and severe, water very cold, and the
|
|
location of flood inlets not always obvious - rigging for security in flood
|
|
is often critical. Ropes remain in place over several trips, and rock may be
|
|
very sharp - every party must be alert to the danger of abrasion and be
|
|
prepared to rerig if necessary. Finally, rigging points placed on exploration
|
|
may need to be used on expeditions for years to come, so maintenance of bolts
|
|
on the final derigging trips is important.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3>A New Pitch !</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>So your cave goes, and you have reached a large black space. Whether your
|
|
reaction is joy or terror, there are a few things to consider before
|
|
leaping, lemming-like, into the void on a handy piece of string, or running
|
|
back to top camp to announce that the cave is "bottomless".</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>How deep is the pitch ? Where would be the ideal line of descent, avoiding
|
|
rub points, loose rock, mud and/or water ? Is there an obvious traverse
|
|
level across the top of the pitch, or a short way down ? Can you actually
|
|
<b><i>see</i></b> any of this without starting to rig ? Look across the
|
|
pitch as well as down it - there may be accessible passage still to
|
|
explore and always a chance that the pitch can be climbed or bypassed
|
|
entirely. Look up too: if there is an aven it may give a clue as to where
|
|
flood inlets might appear, or there may be loose rock or ice formations
|
|
up there to be considered.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The traditional method of judging the depth of a pitch is to lob a rock
|
|
down. <span lang="fr">Casteret</span> always used to wrap his rock in a copy
|
|
of "<i lang="fr">Le Monde</i>" and set it alight before casting it into the
|
|
void. Before chucking <b>anything</b> down a pitch, consider whether there
|
|
could be another party down there, perhaps having come by an entirely
|
|
different route. In <span lang="de">Kaninchenhöhle</span> in
|
|
particular, this is a very real possibility.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>A traverse/security line is often useful to approach the edge of a new
|
|
pitch. This may or may not become a permanent part of the rigging, but
|
|
until the safety of the pitch head has been assessed, it is better to be
|
|
safe than sorry. Such a rope will often enable you to reach a better
|
|
viewpoint (or rock-chucking point :-) to assess the pitch, and certainly
|
|
confers a greater degree of confidence when scrambling about looking for
|
|
potential rig points.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>When throwing your rock, only the time to the first bounce is really
|
|
relevant, unless it continues to rattle on for <b>very much</b> longer. If
|
|
you can drop it in a "free hang" then this will give you a good idea of the
|
|
minimum length of rope needed before a rebelay is required.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Rigging it</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are two two obvious tactical errors you can make when rigging a new
|
|
pitch. On the one hand, you can spend ages bolting a perfect hang, only
|
|
for the first person to find the pitch ends blind. On the other hand, you
|
|
can bodge up a rig to check that it goes, then fail to rig properly before
|
|
it takes a lot of traffic. The first error is frustrating and limits your
|
|
finding of new stuff. The second error can be terminal at worst and at best
|
|
can waste a lot more time than would have been needed to rig properly.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>If a pitch is roomy, draughts strongly or is in an immensely promising
|
|
location, it is probably worth taking the time to rig it properly from the
|
|
start. If the pitch is small, has no draught or is likely to drop back into a
|
|
known part of the cave, it is probably better to send someone down before
|
|
investing too much effort. You can make it safe pretty quickly with rope
|
|
protectors and perhaps deviations off naturals, without taking the time to
|
|
place bolts which you will need for a more permanent rig.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Experience in the UK should have given you a good feel for when a pitch
|
|
is well-rigged. It won't take too long in Austria to get a feel for how
|
|
it can go wrong. If you find a pitch badly rigged by someone else, don't
|
|
assume it must be OK because they survived. If you can improve the rig,
|
|
do so; if not, consider carefully whether you should go down at all.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>A well-rigged pitch should not be overly gymnastic, nor, ideally, should
|
|
it have either very long or very short sections, which result in a lot of
|
|
waiting around for the other person(s) in a group. Loops at rebelays should
|
|
not disappear when the rope is unloaded, and should be long enough to allow
|
|
the removal of any type of descender. They do not need to be long enough to
|
|
stand in - especially if the pitch above is short. Overmuch slack at a
|
|
rebelay will result in a high fall-factor if the belay fails.</p>
|
|
|
|
<hr />
|
|
|
|
<ul id="links">
|
|
<li><a href="../index.htm">Expedition Handbook</a> – Contents
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="../look4.htm">Prospecting guide</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../survey/index.htm">Surveying guide</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../rescue.htm">Rescue guide</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../photo.htm">Photography guide</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="index.htm">Rigging guide</a> – Contents
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Introduction</li>
|
|
<li><a href="boltin.htm">Bolt belays</a> - placing and using</li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../infodx.htm">Index to info/topics pages</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../indxal.htm">Full Index to area 1623</a>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="../../areas.htm">Area/subarea descriptions</a></li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expedition Intro page</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">Back to CUCC Home page</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|