CUCC Austria Expedition 2024 Blog

BigTom · Jul 13, 2024

A rather interesting journey out. - Isaac Neale

Dearest jonty,

I hope this letter finds you well, as the circumstances I write to you from. Are most bleak indeed.
Closures of the main trade routes of the M5 and M6 delayed the arrival of my traveling companions from 21:00 to 00:30. This encoured a knock on effect of subsequently having to pack the car in a thunderstorm. Under usual circumstances this would not have been too dreadful, however on this occasion, upon arrival at my house, seatbelts had to be fitted to the middle front seat of the land rover. The tools being burried under a mountain of kit, plus the need to re pack internal items onto the roof regardless, ensured that when the thunderstorm began, every item of luggage we'd be taking with us was strewn, unprotected, across the pavement. The last hurrah of the bad luck bestowed on us was an uncooperative set of ratchet straps, which meant that by the time they finally yeilded to our desires and we set off at 2am, we were in a rather aqueous state.

There are also fears of infection, with one member of the group potentially still carrying an illness. Their symptoms had subsided the morning of the trip however, and decision was made that it was appropriate to continue. Only time will tell if we chose wisely.

Jonty I plead with you to join me on the plateau.
After the first aquaplane I fear my days grow shorter, and I have growing doubts I'll survive a return journey if I even survive this one.
God Speed, my lonely angel.

----------

Okay on reflection it wasn't that bad. The journey certainly had its moments, a personal favourite from the rain at the start was certainly trying to guide Jono through the roundabout lanes on the M4/M5 junction. From the middle seat of the land rover (from here on reffered to as 'Bertie') it certainly felt rather tank commander esque. Getting to the ferry at 6:30 when the sun had risen morale had certainly improved. It was shortly after arriving in France when Jono had at this point been awake for 24 hours that he came out with "everyone has replaced everyone, we are parasites in the bucket of life". Alas I cannot remember the context for this.

When going through Germany on the second day of our trip (after stopping off for camping the night before) and seeing it only added two hours to the journey we decided to take a route off the autobahn and venture to Austria via A roads. We were very impressed with ourselves doing this and had a lot of discussion about how good it was to 'be seeing the real Germany'. When we encountered a city along the way we were really really impressed with ourselves, que a long discussion about 'how cool it was that nobody would really see this city unless you lived here'. Our illusion was shattered however when we asked Lara to find out where we were. "I'm sorry to break it to you guys but this is Colone"... Oops.
Low and behold 10 minutes later we saw the cathedral, why couldn't we keep our ******* mouths shut.

Embarrassment felt, onwards we pushed to the next stop on our journey Ulm! Where we had a brief break to stretch our legs and see the largest church structure in the world. 161.5 meters. No comment unfortunately other than yes it is pretty big.

I feel this entry may be dragging on somewhat so I'll start wrapping it up, with the final major thing to address being the vehicle in question. The words "20 hour drive" and "1984 land rover" would not inspire confidence for some people, however on this occasion I must say Bertie rose to the occasion brilliantly. There was one issue that did consistently plague one of us throughout the journey though, Jonos driver side door kept dramatically swinging open at unideal moments! What made the fault even better is that upon slamming the door with enough force to get the catch to engage (all done whilst driving of course), the window would promptly fall out into Jonos lap. So that was a bit of a Pane!

So there you have it, our journey to Austria. We arrived at 02:00am the morning of the 8th. Moments not mentioned here include a very surreal liquid only shop, and Waze taking us on a very seinec trip past many open petrol stations in Salzburg just to deposit us in a lorry only one. I would elaborate but I still despair at the memory.

Yours to the final sump,
Isaac.

BigTom · Jul 13, 2024

Balkonhoehle - Rigging Honeycomb - Becka Lawson (Taken from our Expo Log) 12/07/2024

Zero stoke for this trip and a crack of 11am start saw us heading down with the 2 bags of rope to rig Mongol Rally plus associated hardware and some kit to keep us warm, safe and happy. The 2024 rig of the entrance pitch felt unfamiliar - below the first ledge, the next rebelay had me stood under a drip on the right wall on a lower ledge with a tensioned traverse line that Anthony had rigged yesterday, heading over to the Y-hang for the main, long hang. I removed the rebelay, ignored the resultant mild rub (sorted later, no fear dear reader) and headed down. Soon enough we were at the head of Honeycomb. Ruaridh and Marie immediately settled into their bothy and I was left to start rigging. Two minutes later, at 13.22 I heard the taps turn on. "It's a flood pulse, Ruaridh". This meant there'd be no point trying to get out in the next few hours. I headed down, past the 2nd Y-hang to the first single bolt Hilti spit rebelay. Such things are usually hidden by a nice, big hanger. Seen naked, it's smashed-in, cratered surround looked disconcertingly bad. And the air rushing from the roaring waterfall immediately below had me shivering. I turned tail and prussiked back up to add a thermal in the toasty bothy bag and collected the drill. This was Anthony's brand new drill, and a thing of beauty. Hammer and drill tethers with delightful, dinky screwgates plus baby snaplinks to clip them up. Drill bits carefully taped up to the right length. A blowing tube and even a spare spanner in case you were numpty enough to drop your first. The drill itself wass nestled in foam padding then a dry bag that had, get this, no holes. It felt mean to him to be christening it. Having added a bolt to the first single bolt rebelay it seemed sensible to add another to the next single bolt rebelay then I headed on down. Marie followed me with the Hangman's rope bag but said that Ruaridh was sick with stomach pains and was staying at the top. She had been keen to rig but the next pitch and hand-line turned out to be still in situ. Instead, she put in a new through bolt for a traverse line to the initial short pitch leading to Hangman's. Having rigged down to the start of Hangman's we ferried our bags down then, unexpectedly, Ruaridh arrived. Despite a hacking cough and some strange smells he had managed to bring down one of the Mongol Rally bags which was impressive. I was, though, a bit less impressed that neither he or Marie had brought down any food, water, the stove, bothy or first aid kit so it seemed sensible to call the trip and head on out. Ruaridh was suffering on the exit but we plodded out a reasonable pace, Marie and I had noodles at the base of the entrance to give the water more time to recede then I offered to head up first, being the only one who'd brought a kagoule. The bottom third of the long drop (2nd one up) was the wettest where spray filled the shaft but it wasn't too bad so I whistled for the others then rigged the single bolt rebelay above the long drop Y-hang to remove the rub. We were all out by 10 so T/U 11 hours. Beautiful, moonlit and clear walk back to an empty Top Camp.

BigTom · Jul 13, 2024

Basecamp - Bread Making - Isaac Neale (Taken from our Expo Log) 10/07/2024
With an afternoon of festering well on the way after arriving back from our FF rope retrieving trip yesterday, it was decided that I should try my hand at bread making. Holding a degree in International Relations from Aberystwyth University, I was deemed the perfect candidate for checking if the instructions were indeed 'idiot proof'. Holding a Masters degree in International Relations from Aberystwyth University I was of course delighted to find the 'Numpty Dumpty makes a loaf of bread' edition of the instructions.

After initial faff with finding and setting up the equipment an opportunity was identified to time how long it would in fact take for me to wrap my head around the guide, and get a loaf of bread started in the machine. A stopwatch was started and I continued.

Regrettably the faff continued. Notable moments include setting 20ml of water out in the sun to warm enough to activate the yeast, and indeed going down an internet forum rabbit hole to try to decipher how much water to add to about a third of a packet of yeast in the first place. A heated debate also arose from the instructions regarding the stirring implement for the bread mixer. In absence of a wooden or plastic spoon I elected to use the *cleaned* plastic handle of a sharp knife. Before I could enact my plan however I was hurriedly halted by Phil, insisting I used the special tool which apparently exists to stir the bread. This tool takes the form of a plastic knife. A plastic knife is of course not the wooden or plastic spoon noted in the specification for the bread making machine, and despite my pleas that between the two they are so similar that stirring potential would not differ, I eventually yielded, trusting in the experienced guidance that the knife would produce the best results.

On to the results though, the bit you are all interested in. After dutifully waiting the three and a half hours, the bread was extracted. Slicing it up, samples were distributed. I'll leave it to the quotes to put together the picture of how it went.

Trying the bread first, Phil came out with "It's not mixed very well, there are dense lumps of salt in it". Under usual circumstances this would not be too bad, however the quote was accompanied with a deliberate journey to the door of the tatty hut and beyond. The bread's final resting place we can only guess at, but it is alluded to being the bush outside.

Upon Mr. Waite trying the bread second he ended up lying on the floor, claiming the bread was "so dense I had to lie down". When I made a move to pretend to kick James on the way past he responded "please don't make it come up, I don't want to taste it twice!" It was at this point when Jacob chimed in with the tactful comment "I couldn't even finish mine", adding "I feel nauseous" for good measure.

I do not know how it says more about (my bread, the others or Charlotte) but her comment was "I thought it was actually quite nice". So there you go, idiosyncratic taste buds or an unwavering commitment to politeness? I'll let you decide.

In the end I took this episode as an omen, deciding to call off my trip up the plateau early tomorrow morning. I was on the edge and this certainly seemed like the universe sending me a message. There is a silver lining though, and that is that I'll certainly never be asked to make bread again. Another afternoon drinking beer for me!
Yours to the final Sump,
Isaac.

The oil king · Jul 13, 2024

BigTom said:
A rather interesting journey out. - Isaac Neale

Dearest jonty,

I hope this letter finds you well, as the circumstances I write to you from. Are most bleak indeed.
Closures of the main trade routes of the M5 and M6 delayed the arrival of my traveling companions from 21:00 to 00:30. This encoured a knock on effect of subsequently having to pack the car in a thunderstorm. Under usual circumstances this would not have been too dreadful, however on this occasion, upon arrival at my house, seatbelts had to be fitted to the middle front seat of the land rover. The tools being burried under a mountain of kit, plus the need to re pack internal items onto the roof regardless, ensured that when the thunderstorm began, every item of luggage we'd be taking with us was strewn, unprotected, across the pavement. The last hurrah of the bad luck bestowed on us was an uncooperative set of ratchet straps, which meant that by the time they finally yeilded to our desires and we set off at 2am, we were in a rather aqueous state.

There are also fears of infection, with one member of the group potentially still carrying an illness. Their symptoms had subsided the morning of the trip however, and decision was made that it was appropriate to continue. Only time will tell if we chose wisely.

Jonty I plead with you to join me on the plateau.
After the first aquaplane I fear my days grow shorter, and I have growing doubts I'll survive a return journey if I even survive this one.
God Speed, my lonely angel.

----------

Okay on reflection it wasn't that bad. The journey certainly had its moments, a personal favourite from the rain at the start was certainly trying to guide Jono through the roundabout lanes on the M4/M5 junction. From the middle seat of the land rover (from here on reffered to as 'Bertie') it certainly felt rather tank commander esque. Getting to the ferry at 6:30 when the sun had risen morale had certainly improved. It was shortly after arriving in France when Jono had at this point been awake for 24 hours that he came out with "everyone has replaced everyone, we are parasites in the bucket of life". Alas I cannot remember the context for this.

When going through Germany on the second day of our trip (after stopping off for camping the night before) and seeing it only added two hours to the journey we decided to take a route off the autobahn and venture to Austria via A roads. We were very impressed with ourselves doing this and had a lot of discussion about how good it was to 'be seeing the real Germany'. When we encountered a city along the way we were really really impressed with ourselves, que a long discussion about 'how cool it was that nobody would really see this city unless you lived here'. Our illusion was shattered however when we asked Lara to find out where we were. "I'm sorry to break it to you guys but this is Colone"... Oops.
Low and behold 10 minutes later we saw the cathedral, why couldn't we keep our ******* mouths shut.

Embarrassment felt, onwards we pushed to the next stop on our journey Ulm! Where we had a brief break to stretch our legs and see the largest church structure in the world. 161.5 meters. No comment unfortunately other than yes it is pretty big.

I feel this entry may be dragging on somewhat so I'll start wrapping it up, with the final major thing to address being the vehicle in question. The words "20 hour drive" and "1984 land rover" would not inspire confidence for some people, however on this occasion I must say Bertie rose to the occasion brilliantly. There was one issue that did consistently plague one of us throughout the journey though, Jonos driver side door kept dramatically swinging open at unideal moments! What made the fault even better is that upon slamming the door with enough force to get the catch to engage (all done whilst driving of course), the window would promptly fall out into Jonos lap. So that was a bit of a Pane!

So there you have it, our journey to Austria. We arrived at 02:00am the morning of the 8th. Moments not mentioned here include a very surreal liquid only shop, and Waze taking us on a very seinec trip past many open petrol stations in Salzburg just to deposit us in a lorry only one. I would elaborate but I still despair at the memory.

Yours to the final sump,
Isaac.

Bring me back my boy😭

NatD · Jul 21, 2024

An update for week 2 from Marie:

Homecoming:

Team Charlotte, James and Lara (at times accompanied by Isaac or Jacob) have been busily up and down from Garlic Camp, making much progress on the alpine showers front. Hopefully trip reports soon to come with more details!

Wassil and Sieds recently returned from an “epic” 19 hour trip. They were able to drop and survey a 70m shaft past Salamander Queen after finishing the rebolting they had started with Wookey the previous day on the Second Coming route (actually, I started the rebolting back on Saturday - I’ll have it on the record that we actually achieved something on that trip even if it was only a couple bolts).

Balcony:

The rigging for Balcony is a bit behind schedule but Mongol Rally should be rigged by Jono and Wookey today allowing for fronts to be pushed over the next couple days on a camping trip, weather permitting. Much rain is forecast and and an incredibly drippy pitch near the entrance must first be surpassed.

Anthony and I hope to head up to top camp today to get back in on the action.

Isaac, a self described plateau-plodder is contemplating turning expo into a business opportunity and is offering delivery services to top camp of anything our hearts could desire, with a 2-3 day delivery time.

Base camp activities for the week have included a festering by the lake and a canyoning trip which I partook in along with Jono, Charlotte, Wookey and Isaac.

ILoveCaves · Jul 22, 2024

FIRST & SECOND WEEK UPDATE

Hey y’all, here’s a bit of an update.

We have a new tarp and rigging system up at our main camp, which has provided us with much more space and airflow. It’s overall just amazing! Along with some serious cleaning and organising, Garlic Camp (more info HERE) has now been improved and expanded, which was one of my main aims for 2024. To manage two cave camps and a base camp, logistics and communication needed to be drastically improved. Last week, Balister and I successfully installed and completed the first trial of our text communications and live tracking systems. These systems enable connectivity across the entire plateau, which is an incredible feat and will significantly enhance the expedition moving forward. I will do another post about this later this week, and a talk at Hidden Earth on this!

Unfortunately, the Expo has been hit with a nasty viral flu, which has delayed our rigging plans. Additionally, there's the usual issue of people preferring the mid/end of the expo over the tedious rigging at the beginning. Despite these setbacks, and with all the new developments, we are now fully engaged in exploration on all fronts and will be for the next two weeks! To deal with this, there have also been a few additions to the cave diets at our two camps with fresh fruit and vegetables, and of course, cheese! Further, Nutarian supplements and additional enhancements to our First Aid kits are in motion.

Homecoming: Our progress is now advancing on two fronts. Initially, there was hope that horizontal phreatic passages would be found at these fronts. However, this hope has diminished with the discovery of more rifts and increasingly larger pitches. The cave is now extending down to 400 meters, adding complications to both trip bounce times, logistics and gear, with the location for a new underground camp to deal with this issue not being ideally found, we will have to precede with caution on the resources we allocate Homecoming, which on this expo to date has nearly taken 500m of rope.

Balkonhohle: Exploration here is in full swing. The first camping trip is expected to emerge into the Austrian daylight today, with a keen and eager second team ready to delve deeper. Balkonhohle is extremely important due to its geographical location and the direction of the deep-pushing fronts, which may lead us to more cave systems up the hill and possibly one day connect to the SMK!

Surface: This year, we’ve also focused significantly on examining the landscape of our expo and identifying potential entrances into Balkonhohle. This has been achieved through treks from our main camp deep into the plateau, complemented by LiDAR technology to pinpoint the next possible shafts.

2024 has also yielded a great opportunity to sort out some of our backlog and modernise the expedition to provide better communication, safety, and logistics. On top of new gear and improving camps, all this work, however, sits on the shoulders of all the previous expos, and these changes will, I hope, push the CUCC expedition in a new direction.

Thank you for keeping up with our progress. Stay tuned for more updates!

Yours in caving
Jono

CUCC Austria Expedition · Aug 2, 2024

Basecamp - Cheese banned from expo shopping?

A breach of our human rights!

I feel I speak for all when I say we are flabbergasted, dismayed and in some cases angered by the decision to bar cheese from further expedition shopping...

The simple coagulated dairy product has been a mainstay of our expedition goers diet since we first arrived. The morale boost acquired by placing a luscious, creamy strip of Gouda into one's mouth cannot be overstated.

By relegating cheese to being a so-called "personal item" it forces expedition goers to balance their own need for a morale boost with their personal financial circumstances, creating potentially, a delicate class divide between those on the frontier. It also calls into question if the expedition command truly have the attendees best interests at heart.

An army marches on it's stomach. Expedition caving is no different. Happy cavers are effective cavers and by removing access to our most favourite food I believe the expedition command has actively damaged the lengths and depth prospects for exploration going forward.

I implore expedition command to reconsider their decision. I sympathize that it may be awkward in the short term, however I hope they would agree with me that it is better to lose face than to lose life.

In the event of inaction on this issue, I am afraid we will be forced to consider further action.

Signed: The people of the plateau.

T/U: 0.0 hours

sjt · Aug 3, 2024

Balkonhöhle - Happy Campers (eventually!)

Present: Sam T, Ellie D, Chris H, Becka, Jono

Time Underground: 68 Hours

After 2 hot trips ferrying kit up the plateau, a late start, and a great deal of faff, motivation to get underground was low. This resulted in a (very necessary!) talking-to from the drill sergeant (Becka), before we bucked our ideas up, and kit was assembled for inspection on the rocks at top camp and packed into bags.
The prospect of a 3 night camp as my first expo caving trip was quite daunting, and at the top of the entrance pitch we waited as Nat's team emerged one by one, filthy and exhausted from a similar trip, which didn't do much to allay my fears! We eventually headed underground around 21:00 on the 29th July, steadily making our way to camp whilst trying to commit the route to memory, making it to bed around 02:00, not thrilled by the impending alarm.
Upon waking, the inevitable morning faff ensued, accompanied by the perpetual roar of the gas stove. Bags packed & plans made, we left camp just before 11:00 on the 30th.

We split into 2 teams, with Chris & Jono going to bolt a pitch near camp, and Ellie, Becka & myself heading for Tartarus, where the previous team had stashed the second drill, along with the promise of draughting leads.

Making good time through Northern Powerhouse & Medusa's Maze, we arrived at an unnamed 4 way junction, where Becka said "There's some QMBs around here, maybe we should take a look in case we don't fancy the Tartarus leads" It turned out we were in the wrong place, so after a bit of a mooch about, we continued down the passage, passing through the bottom of a big chamber and down a short handline to a very different passage type, interconnected parallel ramps with a Swiss-Cheesy nature. This was the location of the leads Becka had mentioned, and she & Ellie soon disappeared up a rift to the North to investigate a QMB. Whilst stood at this junction, I noticed some definite air movement, which was quickly attributed to an upwards ramp with a distinctive 'frog spawn' texture to the floor.

We followed the ramp, reaching a slippery step over an intersecting rift, with a climb down marked as a QMA on the left, and the ramp still continuing in front of us with a QMA marked at the top. The far side of a second, more precarious step-over brought the exciting sight of untrodden mud, at the foot of a large boulder choke with the draught still beckoning.

A careful shimmy to the edge and & bridge across put me in uncharted territory, and after ducking under an arch I was in much bigger passage, 2 huge blocks looming over me blocking the way on, with an enticing black void above. This presented an obvious barrier to further exploration, but after the echo coming back from a couple of shouts it was immediately clear we needed to investigate further. I wriggled around under the choke for a while, finding a chimney narrow enough to bridge across, which I thrutched my way up, gaining the top of the first large block. The further into the chamber I got, the bigger it seemed to grow (along with my excitement), whilst Becka & Ellie watched proceedings somewhat apprehensively from the floor below.

A second, much safer climb onto another jammed boulder entered the chamber properly, where I began to take in the scale of the place, trying (failing) to light it up, and bouncing echos off the walls. I returned to the deck completely buzzing, trying to communicate what I'd just seen, and insisting we must return with a drill & rope asap!
This meant somewhat reluctantly slogging off to Tartarus to retrieve the drill, where we decided we'd make the most of the day checking out some leads in Ichthyes. We spent a while trying to work out the way to the pushing front, clambering up and down in the rift, before deciding we were liable to run out of time to do anything useful. We then returned to a QMB we had passed on the way, resulting in a very quick and satisfying loop closure between 2 leads, finding a hole down and the continuation of a draughting rift behind a pillar, before returning to camp.

A planned early start the next day was stalled slightly by Jono's alarm failing to go off, but we made up time with some much more direct route finding back to the foot of the boulder choke. Becka & Ellie started surveying the connection, whilst I climbed back onto the large boulder and set about bolting a route up for them to follow. I took my time with this, knowing I would be shortly marked on my work by Becka, arriving on the deck at the same time as Ellie came round the corner armed with nail varnish.

We headed into the chamber, celebrating with snacks whilst deciding how to tackle the surveying. We chose convenient stations on top of the Tatty-Hut sized boulders, sending legs as far as the SAP could manage. A large downwards rift forms the Western continuation of the chamber, but the rock of both walls at the would-be pitch head is fairly crap, so this will require some thought.

Back at the entry point, heading East across more boulders revealed more promising leads; a "black hole" downwards spotted by Becka whilst surveying, and a mouth-like opening with a strong draught in the Northern corner which captured my attention as soon as I found it. Grabbing the drill & our last scraps of rope, I rigged and descended the awkward pitch head, sliding between the waterworn 'teeth' into the (horizontal!) passage below, naming this the Dental Floss pitch.

There were 2 ways on from here; the continuation of the main passage straight on , and a small hole choked with mud to the right, which I promptly dug out to reveal a short drop to a second pitch, and some audible water dripping somewhere ahead.

Heading along the main passage, we reached a junction with a pillar; left leading down a steep slope covered with a thick layer of virgin mud, & right upslope leading to another junction with a switchback connecting to the small hole with dripping water described earlier. Here there were some interesting mud formations which we duly protected with the scrap of conservation tape we had remaining, before turning left up a short scramble to another right hand bend.

Upon turning this corner, we were immediately hit with the strongest draught I have felt in any cave, setting the tone for the next few steps across a pristine white traverse, the passage rapidly enlarging as we went...

This spat us out on a ledge overlooking a hole which left me totally lost for words; a pitch plunging away below, and an aven towering above. Much whooping and revelling in the echos followed, before taking some photos and surveying as far as we could reach (very little!).

Underequipped and running out of time, we returned downslope, following the ramp back past the junction we'd entered from, for some very slippery surveying on the thick mud. Reaching the bottom, I spotted what looked like freshly gardened rocks, and Becka then noticed the climb up on the right, which was the QMA we'd left immediately before entering the boulder choke that morning! This resulted in a very satisfying loop closure to finish the day, at which point I deployed the tactical miniature cave whisky, which I'd been saving in my oversuit for exactly such a moment.

Returning to camp in good spirits, we passed the evening with many noodles and the remainder of the hot chocolate, setting an alarm for 6:30 for the trip out. In the morning, Becka & Jono raced ahead, whilst Chris, Ellie & I plodded up, arriving at the surface around 17:00, just in time to get stuck in a thunder storm at top camp.

Having vowed I was done with deep caving for this expo after the prussik up, it took all of 12 hours for the rose tinted glasses to go on, and back at base camp planning began for a return to the newly discovered shaft...

Above: Ellie in the northern end of the newly discovered chamber.
Below: Looking out across the shaft.

CUCC Austria Expedition 2024 Blog

BigTom

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The oil king

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NatD

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