mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-11-22 23:31:56 +00:00
147 lines
7.9 KiB
HTML
Executable File
147 lines
7.9 KiB
HTML
Executable File
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<!-- from Cambridge Underground 1988 pp 3-4 -->
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf8" />
|
|
<title>
|
|
1987: Cambridge Underground report
|
|
</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h1 align=center>1991 Expo</h1>
|
|
<center><font size=-1>Cambridge Underground 1988 pp 3-4</font>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Expedition to the Totes-Gebirge, Austria 1987<br>
|
|
Expedition Description</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p><b>Rebecca Lawson</b></center>
|
|
|
|
<p>We gathered at Hilda's Gasthof in Altaussee over the weekend: first the
|
|
suave 'team smoothies' consisting of Keith and Ian Millar, Mike Martin and
|
|
Jenny Moss coasting in the Sierra from Cambridge in 17 hours. Then the more
|
|
macho 'team momentum' (or team 'wet sponge' - a reflection on Rover's
|
|
steering rather than its occupants, who were Mike 'The Animal' Richardson,
|
|
Chris Densham and Jared West). The Landrover shamed itself by urinating
|
|
antifreeze over every garage forecourt, but brought over a phenomenal amount
|
|
of tackle. Finally the oddments - an inter-railer (Dave 'Stonker' Johnson), a
|
|
Eurotrainer (Juliette Nash) plus Becka Lawson and Andy Farrow, a
|
|
stench-ridden exhausted pair of hitchers who'd spent 10 hours, helpless, in
|
|
Munich's traffic jungle, before hijacking a gullible Austrialian (complete
|
|
with didgereedoo - "What's this exhaust pipe doing on your back seat,
|
|
then ?")
|
|
|
|
<p>And so enthusiastically up the 17 hairpins to the Loser Plateau of the
|
|
Totes Gebirge (the descent is more fun - after one long trip, we forgot to
|
|
keep talking to Animal, and he dropped off at the wheel). We merrily set to
|
|
cave hunting - the place is littered with entrances, but any obvious holes
|
|
have been slithered through before, and the rest are lurking in the vicious
|
|
"bunde" (overgrown, spiky gorse bushes which scratch your arms and legs). The
|
|
limestone isn't the kindly weathered English variety - it cuts skin and takes
|
|
lumps from boots. Ten yards from a landmark and you are totally lost, out of
|
|
earshot and trapped in a hollow or gully by the impenetrable bunde.
|
|
|
|
<p>On the first day Jenny misplaced her glasses beside an "obvious" entrance
|
|
- more wo/man hours were put in finding them than some of us spent
|
|
underground, which varied from 12 to 64 hours.
|
|
|
|
<p>So on to the proper caving - but before we started there was the 1-2 hours
|
|
stomping over the Plateau, shoulders mangled by the tacklesack, sweat soaking
|
|
your furry suit, ogling tourists... though returning in the early hours could
|
|
be beautiful - cool exhaustion, following the paint daubs over the limestone
|
|
with the starlight, or in a storm with sheet lightning over the mountains and
|
|
streaks forking down on you as the moon rose in clouds ringed in colours like
|
|
a rainbow.
|
|
|
|
<p>Entrances 113 and 87 were explored simultaneously. 87 was notorious for
|
|
the bitter gale at the pitch head, and the first trip was all but
|
|
hypothermic, waiting for the bolts to be driven in. Entrance 113 was rambling
|
|
and confusing. Andrew free-climbed down one interesting 60ft ramp, returned
|
|
virtually to the top to say a passage continued on, then avalanched back down
|
|
again on a fall of loose boulders, badly gashing his hand. So up he crawled
|
|
once more, splattering his blood (Ian was delighted to find it still fresh
|
|
and red, days later!). He was very lucky, just having stitches to one hand.
|
|
Loose rocks seemed the worst danger - there's no water to dislodge them, and
|
|
with most of the cave unstable, it's impossible to check every step.
|
|
|
|
<p><a name="helmet">Further into 113</a>, we found a helmet encased in ice -
|
|
complete with stinky and head torch, dropped on an expedition several years
|
|
ago. This was returned to its original owner, Andy Waddington, at the annual
|
|
dinner, still entombed in ice. The new section of 113 was surveyed up to
|
|
bolts left from a previous expedition. Becka spent hours whining about
|
|
feeling sickly, managing to hold off until she'd stuffed down a Marathon,
|
|
which she promptly smeared down the pitch, nearly plastering Chris.
|
|
|
|
<p>Entrance 153 was pushed to and beyond its reasonable limits by Chris
|
|
ferreting into the very narrow rift. He and Jared were left, supposedly on
|
|
their way out, the rest returned. The pair didn't come back, so a rescue was
|
|
organised. Unfortunately, the search party dwindled to four, as poor Rover
|
|
ran dry when the last dregs of petrol swilled to the bottom of its tank round
|
|
a hairpin. However, two sheepish cavers were just coming down the path as we
|
|
reached the car park. Chris, not content with one tight squeeze, had oozed
|
|
himself through a tighter one. Unfortunately, this bit was helped by gravity,
|
|
and his SRT gear got jammed in the rock as he tried to get back up. Jared
|
|
heroically forced himself through the first squeeze, then hauled Chris out of
|
|
his slot.
|
|
|
|
<p>On one day too good to go caving, we made the trip to the toboggan runs.
|
|
After the first go, the brakes were ignored. Those with a sense of balance
|
|
and some skill survived, the rest collected some impressive friction burns,
|
|
with bare skin sticking well to the metal sides. Rover went topless, with
|
|
blinking hands for indicators, and cavers in swimsuits driking beer and
|
|
cavorting in the back for photos - and sod the caving!
|
|
|
|
<p>We found Donner und Blitzen Hohle in the last week, the most promising
|
|
cave of the expedition, but unfortunately it ended in a large boulder choke
|
|
with only one impossibly tight rift leading out at 130m depth. Marilyn Monroe
|
|
Höhle contained some beautifully sculpted ice formations, hardly melting
|
|
even in the late summer. The compass decided not to play while this was being
|
|
surveyed, so a survey could not be produced. Probably the most important work
|
|
of this expedition was the surface surveying between previously known
|
|
entrances, and one day the Austrian cavers invited Mike Martin to survey with
|
|
them using their hi-tech laser rangefinder. A complete survey of the area has
|
|
now been produced.
|
|
|
|
<p>Cavers obviously survive on their stomachs, and food probably caused the
|
|
most agro over the expedition. Ignoring the incredible excesses of methane
|
|
production (yet another male failing) we had a feud between blood thirsty
|
|
carnivores ranged against the soft soggy veggies. Flesh eaters were for once
|
|
outnumbered and although weakened by the sheer bulk of muesli and curried
|
|
beans, Ian led a desperate comeback by hunting down plastic sausages in the
|
|
local supermarket. Despite the piggery, the beer tent stayed unnaturally
|
|
hygienic - even the mouse which fled from Animal's wetsuit as he unpacked it
|
|
didn't stay around. This was almost entirely due to Jenny; for her efforts
|
|
she was warded a signed scrubbing bruch at teh end of expedition dinner, and
|
|
when she left after the second week a swarm of wasps carried on with the
|
|
cleaning up!
|
|
|
|
<p>The last few stalwarts (gregs?) at the end were invited to the local
|
|
potato club's fortnightly meet in Hilda's woodshed for some serious yodelling
|
|
and schnapps drinking, a relief after all the hassles of detackling and a
|
|
change from the mulled wine of previous weeks.
|
|
|
|
<p>Animal added interest to the return trip at a German border post.
|
|
Attempting to look more like his passport photo (and unable to regrow that
|
|
horrible moustache) he took his glasses off, which unfortunately meant that
|
|
he couldn't see where he was driving. Rover mounted the kerb and lurched
|
|
toward the nervous guard, who emerged gibbering and waving a pistol at
|
|
Jared's head, convinced of a terrorist attack. One glance at the mounds of
|
|
smelly caving gear soon convinced him otherwise, and he eventually allowed
|
|
Rover to continue to Britain without further ado.
|
|
|
|
<hr />
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="../../1623/113.htm">Sonnenstrahlhöhle</a>
|
|
Guidebook page</li>
|
|
<li><a href="ent113.htm">Extensions to 113</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="158gd.htm">Donner-und-Blitzen Höhle</a>, Mike Richardson</li>
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li><a href="geolog.htm">Geology of the Totengebirge</a>, Jared West<br>
|
|
<!-- <li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a><br> -->
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<hr />
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|