mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-11-27 09:42:02 +00:00
169 lines
9.5 KiB
HTML
169 lines
9.5 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
|
|
<title>1994: BCRA Caves & Caving report</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<font size=-1>BCRA Caves & Caving 73, Autumn 1996, pp n-n [ISSN 0142-1832]</font>
|
|
|
|
<center><h1>EXPO 1994 - 1995 REPORT</h1>
|
|
<h3>by Anthony Day and Steve Bellhouse</h3>
|
|
<h2>1994</h2>
|
|
</center>
|
|
|
|
<p>In July 1994, Cambridge University Caving Club mounted an expedition to
|
|
explore caves beneath the Loser plateau in the Totes Gebirge of Austria -
|
|
not for the first time. The principal focus of the expedition was the
|
|
complicated Kaninchenhöhle system - not for the first time. We found
|
|
some more cave (1.8 km) and still have enough leads to entice us to return
|
|
next year at least - not for the first time.
|
|
|
|
<p>For the umpteenth year out of umpteen, a motley collection of 18 cavers, 5
|
|
cars and 1.4km of rope installed themselves outside the Gasthof Staud'nwirt
|
|
near Bad Aussee to amuse and entertain the local population for another
|
|
Summer. Amongst our number were four cavers from the University of London
|
|
Caving Club (ULCC), founded by CUCC member Alistair Morris and others in
|
|
September 1993. They made a full contribution to the expedition, providing
|
|
both money and equipment in addition to cavers. We hope to continue
|
|
welcoming ULCC members as guests over the next few years.
|
|
|
|
<p>There were times when it seemed doubtful that the 1994 expedition would
|
|
get off the ground. The expedition leader for the previous three years,
|
|
Wookey, decided to go somewhere nicer this Summer, and so the reluctant Nick
|
|
Procter took over the reigns. However, a month before departure, he
|
|
contracted glandular fever - one of the more watertight excuses for
|
|
abdicating all responsibility for the expo - and so the title of expo leader
|
|
was bestowed upon a committee consisting of Anthony Day, Pete Lord, Ali
|
|
Morris, and Mike Pigram. Despite this setback, and a chronic transport
|
|
shortage which was only fully resolved two weeks in, the expo got underway
|
|
only a week late.
|
|
|
|
<p>The first wave of intrepid adventurers arrived on Sunday 3rd July. That
|
|
all three car loads arrived on schedule without a major incident owes more
|
|
to the inherent good fortune which follows these cavers around than the
|
|
mechanical soundness of their vehicles. There then followed two days of
|
|
supreme efficiency, so that by the time the fourth car arrived on Tuesday
|
|
evening, we had set up top camp (though it was later to be moved 200m down
|
|
the hill because the grass was in a poor state) and rigged in the cave as
|
|
for as Knossos from 161a entrance and Algeria from 161c entrance ("France.")
|
|
|
|
<p>The scene was set for a big effort to find lots of cave... So we festered
|
|
in the sunshine for two weeks. Some people did spend rather too long
|
|
pratting around on a big pitch in France which everyone knew was going to
|
|
link into Twin Tubs from 1993 (it did, and was duly named "Top Loader") and
|
|
there were a few abortive attempts to reach the far end. It had been planned
|
|
to camp at the far end this year, but to nobody's great surprise it was
|
|
decided that since the proposed campsite was only a four hour round trip from
|
|
the surface and was in a cold draughty part of the cave, underground camping
|
|
would be both unnecessary and too unpleasant. Unfortunately, we only worked
|
|
this out after all the camping gear and food had been taken underground.
|
|
|
|
<p>Most of the caving during the first half of expo concentrated on a lead at
|
|
the end of Gnome Passage. This was mainly investigated by Andrew Atkinson
|
|
and Mike Richardson with a variety of partners, for few other people made
|
|
more than one trip to this part of the cave. Maybe this was due to the
|
|
squeeze at the beginning, which must have come as a surprise to the novices
|
|
who had been fed stories about unexplored passages big enough to drive a bus
|
|
through during the year. Andrew and Mike had a nice time dragging our
|
|
electric drill and it's cumbersome heavy battery through the squeeze and the
|
|
rift passage beyond it to the top of an undescended pitch only to find that
|
|
it didn't want to drill any holes: Thus the pitch was named "Driller Killer."
|
|
(On a later trip, Andrew spent 40 minutes upside down in this rift whilst
|
|
attempting to rescue the drill power lead.) This section of cave was
|
|
eventually found to link into Vestabule.
|
|
|
|
<p>By the time of the expo dinner, halfway through expo, we had found the
|
|
unimpressive total of 600m of cave. Clearly we would have to make a more
|
|
concerted effort during the last two weeks. At this point Julian Haines
|
|
arrived, which was good news since his car had a tow bar and we now had a
|
|
realistic means of getting the trailer load of gear back to Britain. He took
|
|
a party down France the day after the dinner to investigate a pitch leading
|
|
off Algeria called Sultans of Swing. In one trip, they found and surveyed
|
|
250m of cave with several promising leads. This proved to be the major find
|
|
of the expo and revived interest in caving. A long boulder strewn passage
|
|
became "Mississippi" because it resembled a dried up river bed, and the
|
|
muddy side passage was named "Mississippi Mud Pie." This started a trend for
|
|
naming bits of cave after items of food as subsequent trips explored and
|
|
surveyed "Fudge Brownie," and a series of pitches passages and chambers
|
|
named after biscuits which reflected the quality of the rock for bolting.
|
|
|
|
<p>One trip discovered a long phreatic passageway ("Infinite Improbability
|
|
Drive") which contained footprints and emerged in the middle of a big wet
|
|
pitch with spits in about 30m above the floor. This led to much speculation
|
|
about what we had broken into: Was it the main part of Kaninchenhöhle?
|
|
Was it another French discovery on the far side of the ridge that we knew
|
|
nothing about? Was this the rumoured and much bullshitted about connection
|
|
with Stellerweg, the longest and deepest CUCC find to date? When the survey
|
|
was completed and linked in, it was found that we had in fact broken into an
|
|
active shaft which runs parallel to Fat Not Fruity - another part of France.
|
|
The spits had been placed by the French, so there must be a way into the top
|
|
of this big pitch. Although there are many theories as to where it may be,
|
|
the connection has yet to be found.
|
|
|
|
<p>Further trips down France discovered a rift passage at the end of Fudge
|
|
Brownie, the roof of which was made of loose boulders and earth supported
|
|
(in typical Austrian fashion) by thin air. It was called "Rocky Horror."
|
|
This linked in a nice loop to a pitch at the end of Mississippi, which was
|
|
named "Black Suspender." On one trip to this area, one of our novii learned
|
|
a valuable lesson: In Austria, where thunderstorms are common, it is not a
|
|
good idea to leave your dry clothes strewn about the cave entrance open to
|
|
the elements. In total, we found another 1150m of cave in this area of
|
|
France, with many promising leads remaining.
|
|
|
|
<p>Two individuals still managed to work up enough enthusiasm for a trip to
|
|
push Exhaustion Pitch, in the depths of the main part of
|
|
Kaninchenhöhle. They found and surveyed another 140m of passageway
|
|
culminating in a pitch with a wet landing. So remote, cold and draughty was
|
|
this part of the cave that it was named "Siberia."
|
|
|
|
<p>Despite all this industry, we did find time for a little relaxation, which
|
|
usually meant sitting in the river warding off the local population of
|
|
biting insects. We paid a visit to nearby Halstatt and re-enacted some of
|
|
the great naval battles in history in a pair of pedaloes on the adjacent
|
|
lake. On one day when some lucky individuals got the chance to take
|
|
photographs of Vestas and Duracells in the depths of Kaninchenhöhle,
|
|
some of us went to play on an artificial toboggan run. The regular clientele
|
|
probably suspected there were some reckless nutters in their midst when we
|
|
showed up on a swelteringly hot day wearing long trousers and long sleeved
|
|
shirts.
|
|
|
|
<p>All too soon it was time to derig the cave, which was completed in three
|
|
trips. Then came the annual sight of waves of cavers staggering down the
|
|
hill with overfull rucksacks, and standing in the river washing all the
|
|
rope. We then packed most of the expo into one car and a trailer, and bade
|
|
farewell to Austria on Friday 29th July. Roll on Expo '95.
|
|
|
|
<p>Despite a slow start, and considering the many difficulties encountered
|
|
before leaving Britain, the 1994 CUCC expedition must be regarded as a
|
|
success, with another 1866m of cave found, bringing the total length of the
|
|
Kaninchenhöhle system to 12009m. There were still enough leads
|
|
remaining in Kaninchenhöhle to keep us going for another year. However,
|
|
there are almost certainly many more holes in the plateau waiting to be
|
|
walked into. Given that Kaninchenhöhle had been the main focus of our
|
|
expeditions since 1989, it was considered that in 1995 a concerted effort
|
|
should be made to find some of them.
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="../1995/bcracc.htm">1995 report</a> from same article...
|
|
|
|
<hr />
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>1994 Expedition info:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="index.htm">Index</a> (more complete than this list)</li>
|
|
<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
|
|
<li>Expedition <a href="report.htm">Report</a> 1994</li>
|
|
<li><a href="ustour.htm">American Wrinklie on Tour</a>
|
|
(an independent view of the expo)</li>
|
|
<li>Index to <a href="161.htm">Kaninchenhöhle trips</a> in the log</li>
|
|
<li>This year's <a href="sponsr.htm">sponsors</a></li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
<li>(Index of) <a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1994">Published accounts</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|