For the last 15 years or so the Dachstein Expedition regulars has been running an annual Expedition Training Workshop aimed at passing on vital skills to the next generation of cave explorers. It is organised on an at-cost basis by volunteers with a wealth of experience aimed at potential Dachstein attendees and anyone else who is keen. This year was no exception and we had 53 attendees from all over the UK. The advisors this year included: Matt St Clair, Joel Corrigan, Ian Holmes, Tom Chapman, Rich Smith, Jim Leigh, Ruth Allen, Rob Harper, Tom Foord, Sam Deeley, Dan Workman, Tony Seddon, Dave Powlesland, Andy Harp, Nicky Harp, Ian Peachy, Chris Jewell. All of them gave up their weekend & paid the same amount as everyone else. The core of these workshops is SRT (basic and advanced), SRT rescue, rigging, cave surveying, first aid, emergency procedures (flooding, shelters etc), kit, rescue, photography etc.. Typically we?ve always organised a cave rescue practice on the Sunday but this time we made the most of the facility and stayed at the wall. Over the years we have seen hundreds and hundreds of ladies and gents benefit from the weekends and our model has been adopted by some of the other expedition crews; we don?t mind as imitation is the most sincere form of flattery ;-) And we?d like to win the 300m of rope because our needs are greater than most & we?ll put it to good use!!!
The article below was written by Tania Rose Esteban, a student at Leeds Uni, and formed part of her online blog. I?ve done a bit of factual tweaking & cut out some of the in-jokes but it?s essentially unaltered in scope. Please bear in mind that her?s is a snapshot view of the weekend written by someone who is relatively new to the caving scene. Tania took plenty of decent pics of the weekend but I'm too much of a technophobe to work out how to glue them onto the write-up ;-(
Joel Corrigan
This weekend was all about SRT, caves, sheep and the industrial valleys of the wonderful country that is Wales! I went down with the Leeds University Speleological society to the Rock UK/Summit Centre (Merthyr Tydfil) to further enhance my caving expedition skills. This is all in preparation for the rather excitingly named ?Dachstein Expedition? which will be going ahead this summer, as well as how YOU can join Matt St Clair, Joel Corrigan & Ian Holmes on a caving expedition. More of that later but first our trip down south began 10:30am, Friday 27th March?
We arrived at a rather late time of 7:30pm, but earlier than the rest. Joel (one of the event organisers), was suspended 12m in the air rigging the equipment for the following day, and so we decided a nice dinner would suffice until he was within audible shouting distance. When we returned from the small village, the car park seemed rather more packed than before, so we made our way to the meet and greet hallway areas, bumping into a few budding cavers. I met another fellow Zoologist, Kieran, and he told me that he was studying at Cardiff Uni? a brilliant place for research as is Leeds. His research was fascinating! Victoria was a very funky archaeologist and Raphael a smiley German student, both at Cardiff again. Meg, a French exchange student, was telling me all about the trip to Austria, and what a great time it is for students to get involved with expeditions now. We then popped into the climbing centre where we were astonished by the size of the walls? I mean this really does beat the Leeds wall and Edge!
Later after a brief meeting and hearty salad for dinner, a furious networking session with a group of lovely cavers was had! We chatted about our research (how sad?), hopes for the summer, and the thought of what lay ahead the next day. By the time we got to bed my contact lenses were peeling off my eyeballs (it was that long a day)?but I fell fast asleep to the sniffling and constant rotations of my top bunk bed partner?
Day 1
Morning came rather soon whilst everyone was slightly hungover and reluctant to emerge from their roosts. I couldn?t stay in bed any longer, so I quietly snuck out to have a shower and sniff out some wifi (no luck with the internet I?m afraid). Despite the long drawn-out morning, an energetic meeting was had about the plans and details of our training.
First up, basic SRT training! The basics of kitting up with your descender, hand jammer, chest jammer, cows tails, D-ring, friction karabiner (don?t ask me where these names come from!), chest harness and of course the sit harness from which you attach all these marvellous metallic pieces of kit.
The others did the more advanced SRT and Joel swanned around cursing at the ineptitude and lack of safety of the various uni caving club tackle masters with their incompetent uni SRT kits? scary times. He did have a good point however, as many of the cowstail knot-tails were terrifyingly short! And he was very knowledgeable about ALL aspects of caving; I don?t think I?ve met anyone who is generally that cave keen.
Everyone also had a go at some easy rope access-style ropework, tight re-belays, tension lines, rope to rope transfers, knot bypasses, etc as well as cave surveying (attended by Rachael and Luke from my club using clinometers, compasses and DistoX?s).
A bit more swinging around on ropes, rock climbing, and bouldering rounded off the day nicely and brought us to the evening where we learnt all about the kit we?d need & watched Joel?s rather insightful home videos (Erm, these were NOT my home movies!!) which left us feeling inspired about the trip this summer. Dinner was a bit of a brawl over the last morsel of lemon tart piece. Luckily I didn?t want pudding?just as well, the guys went back for more! We all went to bed buzzing with butt-ache and the clinking sound of our SRT kit ringing in our ears.
Day 2:
The next day we went to a first aid workshop given by Rob Harper (a vet), involving getting wrapped up in tinfoil (like our chicken counterparts), how to prevent hypothermia, blood loss, broken limbs, painkillers, rock fall, etc? Also a cave rescue session in the Wall was executed ? a very brief intro to French style cave rescue with their system of counter-balance vertical hauling. That rescue dummy looked awfully heavy!
As well as this, we attended a fascinating talk by an amazing cave photographer (Andy Harp with his wife Nicky; what talented individuals). To our delight a 12 month old puppy chewed at our feet whilst we sat staring in amazement at his incredible shots.
A final bit of SRT and rock climbing rounded off the trip, and we headed back to our dark van and journeyed through the Brecon Beacons back to Leeds. Such fun!
And a bit of information about the expedition itself.
A motley crew of 40+ cavers, with a range of ages, will descend upon the Austrian Alps for the Dachstein summer Caving Expedition 2015 from mid August to the end of the first week of September. It is as well-renowned for its deep, tortuous and hard alpine cave systems, as the Austrians are for lederhosen and beer. A staggeringly high peak of 3000m dominates the landscape and below that the possibility of a 1,500m deep cave system is tantalisingly closer than ever before.
The Winter project requires dry, frozen, stable conditions to explore the further reaches of the105km long, 1.1km deep single-entrance monster cave, but unfortunately the snow can make the approach hike a 2-6 hour slog. This trip is not for the faint-hearted, as after the walk/climb to the entrance a 10-18 hour caving trip in extremely cold conditions is the likely scenario, followed by almost a week of climbing and diving whilst living far inside the cave. The team are pushing the Wild West area & camp in a gigantic chamber called Sahara. Trust me when I say these cavers are literally rock hard and (sorry), rather insane!
But nevertheless, it?s a most exciting trip to be had if you?re fed up of a gentle walk up Ilkley Moor, and if your local Hyde Park snowball fight isn?t quite giving you enough frost nip?get your crampons and ice axes at the ready and sign up to this winter?s expedition! For more info head to their Facebook page and have a chat with them; they?re a really friendly bunch once you get past the grimy remarks and jokes about your incompetence (I kid of course).
As for THIS summer, the project involves attempting to connect the hysterically named ?Wot-Have-U-Got-Pot? (or Schmelzwasser as the Austrians call it) and the Hirlatz Hole. So for the fit and keen there will be the opportunity to take part in the exploration of the mighty WUG Pot (800m+ deep and 6km long) which requires camping underground for 4 days at a time. But do be warned: this is a dangerous, cold, flood-prone pothole that demands skill, ability, bloody-mindedness & a twisted sense of humour which I must say was provided by the bucket load this weekend (I can?t remember or understand most of it, but do join us if you want to hear some).
It is this cave that gives Matt, Joel, Ian and his team the best hope of breaking into and connecting to the massive Hirlatz Hole; then it will become a 1.5km deep monster system. Over the past few years teams have shortened the distance between these two mega caves to under 400m horizontal and 100m vertical. If the connection is made the journey from top to bottom could well be the ultimate adventure challenge involving winter mountaineering, caving and cave diving taking several days to complete.
This is the main project but there are plenty of others: trying to connect PL2 to WUG to create a higher entrance; day trips into the Hirlatz Hole to take equipment for the winter project, prospecting in the mountains to discover unknown caves, investigating previously explored caves to see if the ice plugs have melted. Many of these are suitable for cavers of all abilities.
SO just think of all the mud, sweat, darkness, smelly feet, lack of sleep? I mean- ADVENTURE, EXCITEMENT, HEROIC APTITUDE, SWANKY CV BOOSTER (a ?what scenario shows teamwork skills? drill), and most of all FUN 3 weeks of caving during one of the most exciting times in caving exploration history in Europe. The price really is fantastic too (?250 for 3 weeks). Here?s a little break down courtesy of Joel:
? Expedition fees (to go towards metalwork/hardware, ropes, communal food, etc) ?60 for the duration;
? Weekly allowance (fresh veg, fuel, etc) ?10 (so ?30 for the duration);
? Accommodation of approx ?3.50 or ?4 a night = approx ?80 total;
? Travel: very rough guide but maybe ?100
The team are insistent that it?s not necessary to be a pro but the willingness to have a go! I think I may be going to simply take the photographs, document the expedition and have a nice hike and climb until I feel ready to undertake the caving trips- so if you fancy a nice sight-seeing holiday, come along! It?s not just all about that hard-core exploring, there?s plenty of other activities to do and get involved with: rock climbing (trad, sport and aid, apparently), via ferratas, glaciers, mountaineering, Alpine pub crawls). And if deep dark caves aren?t your thing, there?s even an ice cave nearby that makes for a stunning tourist trip, just so you can pose with those new ice axes you?ve bought (lads).
For all you animal lovers out there, Joel tells me there are marmot colonies nearby, gams in the hills at dawn (similar to chamois), foxes, snakes, etc? Where you?ll be based in the Wiesberghaus at 1850m is about 100m below the transition from the superlative carpeted green slopes to more bare alpine karst scenery- a haven for wildlife, and wild ADVENTURE!
This is the greatest cave exploration project in the world: no discussion!! Matt, Joel & Ian will be organising & will appoint key people to the role of ?Dachstein Reps? as some of the lifers cannot commit 100% these days. If you feel you would like to assist in the organisation then please make yourself known. Dates are 14th August - 7th September & go to their dedicated Facebook page for more information: info.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1490999744511831/
Tania Rose Esteban