mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-11-25 16:52:00 +00:00
243 lines
14 KiB
HTML
243 lines
14 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
<html lang="en">
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>1992: BCRA Caves & Caving report</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<center><font size=-1>CTS 94.2037: BCRA Caves & Caving 63, spring 1994, pp 18-22 [ISSN 0142-1832]</font>
|
|
|
|
<h1>The continuing saga of ... CUCC in Austria</h1></center>
|
|
|
|
<p>In 1991 the club had explored Puffball & Icing Sugar Cave (Bovist und
|
|
Puderzuckerhöhle) to -230m or so, and it was left going stonkingly in a
|
|
big rift. Meanwhile Kaninchenhöhle had been slowly giving up its
|
|
secrets, revealing extensive horizontal development at -250m, and the
|
|
extreme vertical complexity of its upper regions. Going deep in Puffball,
|
|
and going long in KH were our targets in 1992. The first of these objectives
|
|
was thwarted, the second largely fulfilled. In the meantime also had great
|
|
fun with our Austrian hosts.
|
|
|
|
<center><h2>1992</h2></center>
|
|
|
|
<p>Most of the expo was fitted into two vehicles. The Battlewagon, an
|
|
ancient, graffittied Princess, and the long-suffering WookMobile II, a
|
|
Citroen C15 van. Even after packing the battlewagon to the gunwales, it was
|
|
clear that the rest of expo wouldn't fit in the van. So CUCC was mobilised
|
|
and extracted a trailer from a dung heap twelve hours before the ferry was
|
|
due to leave, bolted a handy towbar to the bumper, filled the whole thing
|
|
with gear and set off. This bodge actually lasted until 20 miles from Calais
|
|
on the way back, when the bumber welding failed and the trailer had to be
|
|
Y-hung from the roof rack for the last 150 miles.
|
|
|
|
<p>Those who had gone to the Alps first were washed out, so expo started
|
|
early. The snow levels were so high that Puffball had to be dug into, and
|
|
the searchers for the Kaninchenhöhle entrance had a narrow escape; the
|
|
three cavers wandered across a snow plug. After crossing it they looked
|
|
behind and realised they had just walked over the top of the 37m deep, 4m
|
|
wide entrance shaft on 6 inches of snow!
|
|
|
|
<p>So the caving was underway, quickly rigging down the 1991 route as far as
|
|
the bottom of the second pitch. At this point a branch off to the right
|
|
('Piezo') was followed in the hope of a drier, safer rig. Two
|
|
washouts after thunderstorms in 1991 had given everyone a healthy fear of
|
|
water and much effort was put into keeping as far from the water as
|
|
possible. Mark 'Fixit' McLean had built a new drill battery
|
|
("Small Paul") which could drill at least fifty holes but weighed
|
|
more than a full Goldflash tacklesack. This masterpiece of over-engineering
|
|
came to be something of a liability as the expo went on. 25m down was a
|
|
choice of the obvious wet pitch or a dry route 5m up and across over a rib,
|
|
and down against the ceiling the far side. With much use of skyhooks, the
|
|
drill and bolts placed then removed, a remarkable bit of rigging across to
|
|
the appropriately named Crows Nest and down the roof of Chimney pitch was
|
|
achieved.
|
|
|
|
<p>All the caving was in Puffball (apart from one trip down KH to retrieve
|
|
some co-ax for our new hi-tech aerials) until a large boulder in the
|
|
Puffball entrance moved as one exiting trip climbed past it. It was at the
|
|
bottom of a steep, constricted boulder slope and people were very concerned
|
|
about the potential for death. This provided an opportunity for KH to be
|
|
started and for lots of new arguments - about gear split between the caves,
|
|
and whether Puffball was actually safe.
|
|
|
|
<p>The Puffball safety issue was eventually resolved as Dave Fearon was
|
|
trying to put a tape round the offending boulder and it rolled a few feet
|
|
down the slope with him nimbly 'treading rock' on top of it. He
|
|
survived, and after a few hours gardening, the route was declared safe
|
|
again.
|
|
|
|
<p>The next trip meant business, laying 600 metres of cable for the radio
|
|
(for communication in case of flooding), and carrying 200 metres of rope to
|
|
the pushing front, now at the 1991 limit of exploration. Unfortunately the
|
|
next trip added 40m to the cave before it ended in a nasty washing-up bowl
|
|
sized sump 'Waste of Effort'. The place was very oppressive with
|
|
mud-soaked walls rising 10m above the sump. The only lead was a horrible
|
|
tube just above the sump level which looked lethal if it rained. This was
|
|
eventually explored, merely leading to another sump. So that was the end of
|
|
Puffball, a rather disappointing 292m deep, and we had to fish all the gear
|
|
out, whilst checking the remaining leads. 'The Twelve Pitches of
|
|
Puffball' was written, to commemorate the end.
|
|
|
|
<p>So: next cave please:<br> Ah yes - Elchfalle/Moosehöhle. This was
|
|
investigated as it was close to Puffball, and only so many people could go
|
|
down Puffball at once. The boulder slightly blocking the entrance was moved
|
|
with a huge pulley system, and the way was clear for the cave to go! Which,
|
|
after a few pitches, it didn't, ending in a scrofulous tight crawl. While
|
|
derigging Olly and Clive heard the sound of rushing water, and memories of
|
|
Puffball tales came flooding back. Quick, brace yourselves ... here it comes
|
|
... ... trickle. What an anticlimax. The pitches were rigged well out of the
|
|
water too - it wasn't even awful.
|
|
|
|
<p>Then there were the Austrian cavers. They invited us to the festival at
|
|
Bad Mittendorf, where the freshly geartaped van driven with a pair of
|
|
shreddies hanging off the waving windscreen wiper seemed to amuse the
|
|
locals, and the commentator said our presence made it a truly international
|
|
festival! Once more their portable mountain with a seemingly endless supply
|
|
of beer inside provided amusement and lubrication for the subsequent gear
|
|
and survey inspection in their hut.
|
|
|
|
<p>It seems that Austrians get up earlier than Englishmen: we arranged a
|
|
trip down a couple of their caves and they agreed to meet us 15km from
|
|
Basecamp at 6am! The night before was Clive's birthday so getting up in
|
|
time was a harrowing experience, leaping into the car coffee in hand and
|
|
driving like looneys to get there. Most people went on a pleasant trip down
|
|
Grubstein Eishöhle, a complex system with 27 entrances, and a very long
|
|
walk to all of them. The other group went down Sonnenleiterschacht, which is
|
|
basically a 368m pitch (in 20, 93, 10, 53, 88, 57m sections) down to lots of
|
|
horizontal cave. Even though this was a tourist trip a traverse over a pitch
|
|
was made to find another 300m of cave leading to a huge rift - duly named
|
|
'Cambridge Corner'.
|
|
|
|
<p>Kaninchenhöhle was finally rigged to the pushing front and the first
|
|
trip found 150m of very windy 3m diameter phreas 'Pipeless',
|
|
doubling back down-dip to a big chamber 'Satan's Sitting
|
|
Room'. Also France was rigged down to the 1991 limit at -120m in one
|
|
solo trip, and a trip back to an old question mark in Gnome Passage found
|
|
'Deep Sleep' instead on the way. This (uncharacteristically for
|
|
161) stopped after three pitches of 20m, 5m, and 17m. Gnome passage was also
|
|
extended through a very tight squeeze to a small pitch.
|
|
|
|
<p>The next trip was also sidetracked. Not far down, on their way to the far
|
|
end they started gardening a couple of loose rocks in the floor, soon having
|
|
a pitch requiring a traverse line, where before there had been a perfectly
|
|
good trade route! With the aid of the newly released (from Puffball) drill
|
|
battery AndyA and DaveF, variously accompanied, pushed down through a maze
|
|
of parallel shafts for three trips, eventually coming out at -250m in
|
|
Niflheim. This route passed right through two other routes, without
|
|
apparently sharing any shafts with either of them, despite them all being
|
|
enormous. Quite how is not clear!
|
|
|
|
<p>A couple of trips explored The Dungeon, a question mark left since the
|
|
very first trip into KH in 1988, and found the editor's molten zoom
|
|
where it had been dropped when it caught fire. This connected to the new
|
|
(1991) 'S'not Pitch' quick route into the system, showing
|
|
that it could have been found the first year had the circumstances been
|
|
different, and the squeeze route wouldn't have been necessary. Meanwhile
|
|
trips to the end rigged into Satan's Sitting Room finding 'Silent
|
|
Fellow' chamber at the bottom, and another 150m of passage
|
|
('Mostly Mud') beyond, leading to the base of a big aven.
|
|
|
|
<p>Mishaps. There were a few. We had to start a vomit tally, as it was so
|
|
prevalent, although a surprising number of the entries were due to
|
|
over-exertion/dehydration, and illness, rather than the more usual
|
|
over-drinking. One unfortunate got strung up with the battery, spending an
|
|
hour and half hanging around before her whistle was heard. The next France
|
|
trip involved two severe cases of 'BELOW!'. The first was a rock
|
|
landing squarely on AndyA's head, doing his helmet significant damage,
|
|
and making him throw up. The second was a whole ledge which disappeared down
|
|
the pitch just as he clipped in having traversed all the way across the
|
|
pitchhead and back on it. After these warnings of impending doom they
|
|
retreated.
|
|
|
|
<p>Slightly more serious were Glen and JulianS. Glen fell through the snow
|
|
down a shakehole and dislocated his shoulder, his companion helpfully
|
|
enquiring "Does it go?". The injury was later aggravated by
|
|
getting washed down the river at the back of Hilde's. JulianS was
|
|
slightly more cunning - he waited until derigging had just begun, and fell
|
|
off a small cliff on the way back from the cave, bruising his back enough so
|
|
that he couldn't carry anything.
|
|
|
|
<p>The next trip down France found old bolts, apparently having re-joined
|
|
the route the French had taken down here, although we couldn't work out how
|
|
they had done the last 100m without going the way we had. These allowed some
|
|
high-speed rigging down to a stupendous chamber 'Algeria' at
|
|
-240m, which had several leads, including a stonking 60m freehang at one
|
|
end, 'Orient Express'.
|
|
|
|
<p>This year we spent several hundred pounds on CB radio gear for camp to
|
|
camp and cave to camp communication. We had a repeater on top of the hill
|
|
between the camps, which after a great deal of fettling worked for one day,
|
|
two weeks into the expedition - just long enough to allow its creator to
|
|
escape without being lynched! The cave to camp stuff was postponed till next
|
|
year.
|
|
|
|
<p>Robert the Wonder Caver (a super-hard Austrian caver) came and gave us an
|
|
excellent outdoor slideshow, showing some of his remarkable exploratory
|
|
efforts. He invited us to the beer festival (where a number of people got
|
|
thoroughly 'Schnappered'). We retaliated by inviting him to visit
|
|
the end of KH.
|
|
|
|
<p>A few lags then turned up, intending to climb the Trisselwand. Yet again
|
|
an epic was had. They roped in a volunteer to make two ropes of two and set
|
|
off, getting within two pitches of the top of the 700m face, before Jeremy
|
|
decided he had sunstroke and could climb no further. That was 5pm. They
|
|
descended to within 2 pitches of the bottom before a thunderstorm hit and
|
|
the rope tangled simultaneously. They were out of the lethal main gully but
|
|
the one they were in soon turned into a small torrent containing a lot a
|
|
rocks. They could do nothing but cower, especially MarkF, hanging on the
|
|
rope in the waterfall, trying to untangle it. They eventually escaped with
|
|
the worst injury being a severely bruised shoulder, and another damaged
|
|
helmet. They were just in time to meet the mountain rescue who had been
|
|
alerted when someone saw their lights.
|
|
|
|
<p>Robert TWC, when taken to the end of the cave, performed a remarkable
|
|
traverse to the other side of Satan's Sitting Room allowing Aggy to do a
|
|
stunning bolt traverse (see photo) and climb to a big window beyond SSR. He
|
|
made the last move with both cowstails in the last bolt, and so was unable
|
|
to get off at the top, having to hang there for several minutes until he was
|
|
unhooked. He refused to move again for the next two hours! This was named
|
|
'Three Wise Men' after those who sat around proffering advice and taking
|
|
photos. Beyond this window another chasm had to be crossed by penduluming to
|
|
rig a tyrolean into genuine new passage. Here we found another 250m of
|
|
passage: 'Tinkle Rift', 'Black Velvet', 'Far too Far' and 'Wellie Scraper'.
|
|
There were also 5 big pitches to be dropped, but there was only time for a
|
|
long survey trip before derigging.
|
|
|
|
<p>DaveF soloed down 'The Hole Below The Pitch Below The Squeeze',
|
|
now called 'Bladerunner' rigging down 120m to yet more complex big
|
|
vertical stuff.
|
|
|
|
<p>So we derigged, having found and surveyed another 2.0km of cave, finished
|
|
off Puffball & Elchfalle, whilst increasing the number of question marks
|
|
in KH to 41.
|
|
|
|
<p>Cast of thousands :<br> Aggy Finn, Ali Morris, Andy Atkinson, Clive
|
|
George, Chris Leveridge, Dave Fearon, Dave Howes, Fran Lane, Gill Lindsey,
|
|
Glen Long, Henri Welbourne, Jane Herries, Jeremy Rodgers, Jerry Williams,
|
|
Julian Haines, Julian Shilton, Justin Powell, Lone, Mark Fearon, Mark
|
|
Mclean, Mark Scott, Matt Keeling, Mike Richardson, Olly Betts, Richie
|
|
Perotton, Ruth, Sam Lieberman, Tina White, Tony Rooke, Wookey.
|
|
|
|
<hr>
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
1992 Expedition info:<br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="index.htm">Index</a> (more detail than in this list)<br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="report.htm">Cambridge Underground Report</a><br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="log.htm">Logbook</a><br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="182.htm">"The Twelve Pitches of Puffball"</a> (expedition song).<br>
|
|
<img alt="--->" src="../../../icons/lists/1.png">
|
|
<a href="sponsr.htm">This year's</a> sponsors<br><hr>
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
<a href="../../pubs.htm#1992">Index</a> to all publications<br>
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
<a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a><br>
|
|
<img alt=">" src="../../../icons/lists/0.png">
|
|
<a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|