expoweb/years/2025/log_entries/2025-07-11a.json

{
 "date": "2025-07-11",
 "title": "1623-245 - It's a long way to 204g",
 "place": "1623-245",
 "other_people": "",
 "text": "Our third day up the mountain in Baltic conditions saw most people go to KH, leaving Hamish and myself the unenviable task of killing off more leads in the Valley of Death vicinity (west of Tunnocks). With our plan being to rendezvous with Shinwell for a lift down from the Loseralm at 5ish (this was changed several times through the day), we planned for a relatively short mission \u2013 namely exploring a lead a short distance into 204g, a Steinbruckenh\u00f6hle entrance a little way off the Balcony path. This proved to be more difficult than we had thought.\n<p>\nWe soon discovered that both of our navigational facilities were leaving much to be required on this particular day \u2013 as Hamish gleefully reminded me about 15 times, \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as a shortcut to 204g\u201d. After two hours of bunde bashing, climbing up and down limestone escarpments and generally suffering, we had not managed to get any closer than 100 metres to 204g despite attacking it from several directions. After a final valiant effort which was met with yet another sheer cliff of rock and bunde, we decided to cut our losses and try something else. The weather was predictably miserable \u2013 the wind had dropped a bit, but we were frequently assailed by heavy downpours of rain, sleet and hail and the temperature can\u2019t have risen much above 4 degrees. After a sizeable cloud decided to snuggle onto the plateau, presumably for warmth, visibility dropped to around 20 metres and remained there until late afternoon. After extensive sampling, I can confirm that being repeatedly slapped in the face and balls by large truncheons of recalcitrant bunde does little to endear one to the joys of prospecting!\n<p>\nDuring our navigational circumlocutions, we stumbled across another entrance which didn\u2019t appear to have a GPS blob directly associated with it. Our initial explorations were very exciting, an excitement which was swiftly extinguished when we discovered a fat survey station pasted onto the wall. It turned out that we had rediscovered p245, a short cave first explored in 2003. The website entry suggested that there may be leads left to explore, so after abandoning 204g we suited up and went for a poke. Sadly no further passage was found, though the ice seemed to have receded considerably since the first entry was written. After a comprehensive sweep we retreated to decide on our next move.\n<p>\nWith time ticking on we thought it best to begin our return journey, especially given the lengthy duration of our outwards voyage. However, before too long Hamish had discovered another promising entrance, this time definitively lacking any associated GPS blob. We whacked some bolts in and Hamish started off down the 45 degree snow slope which formed the passage floor. By the time he had confirmed its termination a short 10 metres later he was approaching hypothermia, so once he was out I fired some splays down for a rough survey and then we made our escape. (Frosty Bear was consequently born). After a remarkably short bunde bash we popped out onto the Fishface path just above Nadia\u2019s Demise, reconfirming that this is the superior route for exploring the southern flank of the Valley of Death. Following some swift noodlage at top camp we scampered back to the car park, as the weather pulled an uno reverse and switched to 20 degrees blinding heat. A frustrating day which offered far fewer returns than we would have liked, but more achieved than had we not set out at all (just).",
 "slug": "2025-07-11a",
 "time_underground": 1.0,
 "author": {
  "slug": "joel-stobbart",
  "nickname": "Joel",
  "tu": 1.0
 },
 "trippersons": [
  {
   "slug": "joel-stobbart",
   "nickname": "Joel",
   "tu": 1.0
  },
  {
   "slug": "hamish-weir",
   "nickname": "Hamish",
   "tu": 1.0
  }
 ],
 "expedition": {
  "year": "2025",
  "name": "CUCC expo 2025"
 },
 "cave": {
  "areacode": "1623",
  "kataster_number": "245",
  "unofficial_number": "2003-09"
 }
}