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<title>CUCC's Austria expeditions: Primer</title>
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<h1>CUCC Austria Expeditions: Primer</h1>
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<table class="trad"><tbody><tr><td style="padding:0 30px">
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<p>The annual CUCC expedition to Austria lasts around five weeks each summer
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and concentrates mainly on new exploration in the high alpine karst of the
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<span lang="de-at">Loser</span> plateau (about 80km E of <span
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lang="de-at">Salzburg).</span> Recent large projects are:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><b>Schwarzmooskogel</b> system formed from the linkage of several caves into one system, 150km or so long, and 1033m deep,
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of which around nine tenths of the length (and the highest and deepest points) were explored by CUCC. This now includes connections
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with Kaninchenhöhle) and Steinbrückenhöhle.</li>
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<li><b>Tunnocksschaht</b> and <b>Balkonhöhle</b> the focus of exploration since 2016.
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</li>
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<li><b>Steinbrückenhöhle</b> the most major cave in the area and the principal focus of CUCC's work 2000-2008.
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</li>
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<li><b>Eislufthöhle</b> originally explored in the very early days of CUCC expeditions in the late seventies, to a depth estimated at 506m. The original explorers simply concentrated on getting to the bottom and were not unduly concerned with
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exploring side passages or with accurate surveying; hence a return and
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reexploration was began in 2004, and continued in 2005, 2006 and 2007.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Over two hundred shorter caves have also been explored and
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recorded over the forty year history of expo, and prospecting for new
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entrances is still an important activity. Every year we discover more new entrances than we can explore.</p>
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</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>So much for the executive summary, but what does that mean for the new
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expo member? What is actually involved in going on expo?</p>
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<p>Very few people, whether undergraduate or old lag, can afford the time
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to go on expo for the full period. People come and go, and people pursue
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their own particular interests within the larger context. But there has
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to be some overall strategy and some degree of planning. It is no good
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putting more resources into rigging than we have manpower to use, nor
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concentrating on so few goals that the cave is always crowded. So it is
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important that those doing the organising have a pretty good idea a few
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weeks before expo of who is going, for how long, and how hard they expect
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to cave.</p>
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<p>But don't expect too much from that word "organising" – expedition is not a
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boot camp! No one will kick you out of your pit and make you go caving (except
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perhaps in an emergency, such as a call-out). Nor is it entirely a holiday -
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once the effort has been put in to rig things, it is important that people get
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in there and do the work exploring, surveying, photographing and eventually
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derigging. The "organisation" is essentially a matter of pre-expo
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behind-the-scenes things like getting grants and sponsorship, buying tackle,
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coordinating transport and the like. On expo itself, it is a matter of judging
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which projects can reasonably be tackled by the number of people present, and
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suggesting the best lines of attack. This avoids rigging things which no one
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has the time or will-power to push, and ensures that there is enough gear to
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tackle the things which folk <em>are</em> keen to explore.</p>
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<p>There are important differences between expedition caving and a typical
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Yorkshire weekend. On a tourist trip in the UK, a party will rig in, bottom the
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cave and rig out (or, at most, there may be a separate rigging in and rigging
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out trip on the same day). In Austria, a project cave will be rigged at the
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start of expo, and then numerous working trips will use that rigging until
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either the cave or the expedition finishes, and derigging takes place. This
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clearly places a lot more wear and tear on the ropes, which also tend to get
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muddier, so quality rigging is essential. Of course, some of this rigging is
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new exploration, not just "follow the P-hangers", so it is an exciting and
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challenging activity. Also, unlike a Yorkshire tourist trip, you must survey
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and describe what you find – logbook write-ups form part of a long-term record
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of what has been done so are rather more important than on weekend meets at
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home. Surveying may be an entirely new activity for first-time expo members,
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but it is also a very important one, and one which it is worth making the
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effort to get right from the start.</p>
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<p>The caves in Austria are as different from Yorkshire and Mendip as those two
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areas are from each other. There are few sporting streamways and few
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formations. The caves are colder (often not much above freezing, and sometimes
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below). They are often much deeper than Yorkshire trips, though the entrances
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we are currently using mean that even the remotest places are not at vast
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depths. However, pitches may be big, and close together in deep shafts of up to
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a couple of hundred metres. Though often dry in good weather, run-off is rapid
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and a damp pitch can rapidly become a serious proposition with near-freezing
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water pouring down it. Rigging will sometimes seem unnecessarily gymnastic
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until you have seen the pitch after a thunderstorm! Set against this is a large
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amount of huge stomping horizontal passage found in the last few years, with
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many leads still to push not needing a lot of vertical work at all.</p>
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<p>In Austria, expo is effectively split into "<a href="bcamps.htm">Base
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Camp</a>" and various "<a href="tcamps.htm">plateau camps</a>". Base camp is in
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the valley, near the pub, shops, lake and other "R&R" facilities. It is
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here that we have the bulk of the documentation, computers, lamp charging, log
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book and survey book. The plateau camps are right outside the cave entrances, and
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are reached by a toll road (on which we have a deal which avoids paying each
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time) which ascends 900m to a tourist car park from where it is around a 30
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minute walk (on good paths) to the edge of the plateau. From here it is a
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one-and-a-half-hour slog across rough limestone pavements to the main <span
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lang="de-at">Steinbrückenhöhle</span> bivvy site.
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We also have other shorter-lived high camps such as <span
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lang="de-at">Organhöhle</span> (from 2017).</p>
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<p>The plateau camps and and Base camp are linked by mobile phone, which are much
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better for coordinating and reporting activities than the radios we used
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previously. However they should still be used sparingly to ensure that there is
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plenty of battery power in an emergency. The result of this is that trips are
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mostly organised by the people in top camp, and it is usual to spend periods of
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three or four days or so at top camp, alternating with festering at base.</p>
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<p>On the other hand, the plateau a nature reserve where camping is
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theoretically not allowed at all, so we need to keep it as low-profile and
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undamaging as possible to avoid being banned. Camping is essential, not only
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for caving convenience and efficiency, but also for safety. Meeting these needs
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consistent with local politics is something of a balancing act which needs
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everyone's cooperation.</p>
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<p>If we have a spell of truly awful weather, usually everyone will come
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down to Base Camp, and this is a good time for getting surveys drawn up,
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passage descriptions written, log books up to date etc. It's also not
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unknown for a certain amount of beer consumption to occur. This is also
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the case at "expedition dinner" which is usually organised somewhere in
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the middle of expo, when the greatest number of people can attend.</p>
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<h3>What to read next?</h3>
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<p>Obviously, those coming on expedition will have a better and more
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productive time if they know more about what goes on, what has been done
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previously and what our particular caves are like. I'd love to think that
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everyone would find time to read everything on the website. In reality,
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however, not everyone wants to effectively memorise the guidebook, and
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devour several books on the history, culture, geography, geology, food,
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weather and other <span lang="la">minutiæ</span> of their holiday area.
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Even if you are that sort of person, it helps to have some idea of where to
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start – there's about three long novels' worth of stuff on the site and much
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of it is of mainly historical interest, concerned with caves whose
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exploration is considered complete.</p>
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<p>We have attempted to condense the "how to do it" material into an
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<a href="handbook/index.htm">Expedition Handbook</a>, which covers topics
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such as Surveying, Prospecting, Rigging and Rescue. There is also a rather
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embryonic section on photography, and some smaller sections that are also worth
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reading. This is still a fairly big chunk of stuff to read, so an effort has
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been made this year to provide a "primer" page for each section, which should
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be read by <b>everyone</b> new to expo. It is particularly important that you
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understand the aims of each activity, since a job done badly is actually worse
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than a job not done at all. This is especially true of cave survey and passage
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description, or, for prospecting, the recording of locations.</p>
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<p>To get a feel for what trips are like, it is perhaps worth dipping into
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one of the <a href="years/2018/logbook.html">logbooks</a>
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<a href="years/2001/log.htm">for</a> <a href="years/2003/logbook.html">recent
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</a> <a href="years/2017/logbook.html">years</a>. To
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get an idea of what expo will be trying to achieve, there is a "<a
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href="years/2018/index.html">mission statement</a>" for the current year. And
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to see how much potential there is, a glance at a recent <span
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lang="de">Steinbrückenhöhle</span> <a
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href="1623/204/qm.html">Question Mark list</a> is a revelation. Leads are
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numbered by year, with the oldest first. Following links from any of these
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leads will get you into the relevant section of the <a
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href="1623/204/204.html">cave description</a>, which gives an idea of the
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sort of caving.</p>
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<p>For the ambitious, there is a complete description of <a
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href="1623/161/top.htm"><span lang="de-at">Kaninchenhöhle</span></a>,
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which absorbed almost all of CUCC's expedition effort from 1989 to 1999 and now
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forms the largest single component of the <span
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lang="de-at">Schwarzmooskogel</span> system. The description runs to about 90 A4
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pages when printed, so is rather too much to digest in one go! We recommend
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looking at the printed survey to get an overall idea of the cave and which
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parts have the most potential. However, as this is too big for a web page,
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there are now useful survey fragments incorporated throughout the main
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descriptions.</p>
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<p>If you want to delve deeper into the site, <!--it's worth a quick look
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at the site <a href="../rdmap.htm">road map</a>. This gives you an idea
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of the structure of the site and where you can expect the graphical links
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to lead. There are also plenty of textual links, as exemplified by the
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expo --> use the <a href="infodx.htm">site index</a>.</p>
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<hr />
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