Dachstein Expedition 2024

[andrewmcleod]

Dear all,

We are planning the 2024 Dachstein Expedition. Our (provisional) dates are 18th August to the 7th September. For more information, click the link below which will also allow you to register your interest and be added to our list. We are limited to 20-25 people at any time this year, so getting your name in early may be advantageous...

https://forms.gle/odwd1RZZMttxHK8t9

Particularly important now is that we need to make our Ghar Parau application by the end of the month. This is also where we will make our Alex Pitcher applications. We can apply for up to two under-25 cavers who are UK citizens, and who would be on their first exploration-type expedition outside the UK. Filling in the form above will allow you to be considered for the Alex Pitcher award if eligible; last year we were given two awards of £100 each which went directly to the young cavers to help them with the costs of attending, buying kit etc.

Note that we don't split Alex Pitcher awards across multiple people (because we don't think this is permitted by the rules and it waters down the usefulness of the award) but last year we did partially match-fund two cavers (at around £50 each) who would have been eligible for the Alex Pitcher, so even if you don't get submitted for an award we may still give you a discount on the exped fee (on top of the £50 discount we give for U25 cavers or student generally).

 

[andrewmcleod]

If you are curious about the expedition, we will be running our usual open training event, probably in April (dates to be confirmed) and I've just posted three years worth of reports in another thread

 

[andrewmcleod]

“Cavers wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.”

Less than a month to go before the 2024 Dachstein expedition! This is an exciting year; as well as the usual prospecting on the surface, pushing the ongoing shallower caves (Ectoplasm, Goblinhöhle etc.) and last-minute discoveries (the Parallel Universe series in the WUG entrance), we are also setting up a second camp deep in WUG Pot to enable further exploration.

The first camp in WUG is around 700m down. The entrance is mostly nylon highway down to around -550m, then big stomping (but muddy) passage to camp 1. The planned location of camp 2 is around 4 hours caving from here (mostly horizontal with some up/down pitches), and as much mud as you can eat. This should allow much more convenient exploration of the area close to the (diver-only) connection with the rest of the 118km long Hirlatzhöhle.

We are almost running at capacity but have a few more spaces, particularly for any more experienced cavers who are familar with underground camping in Alpine caves (cold, muddy, far from home) as one of the people we were planning on sending to Camp 2 has had to pull out. If anyone is keen to join us, message me and sign up here which also has more information about the exped: https://forms.gle/cWge8bhUt1vVdXQw8

Exped fee is £160 (£110 for U25/students), with accommodation at €11/night.

PS if you sign up but don't message me, I may miss you filling in the form.

 

[i think it goes]

It is officially the start of the Dachstein Caving Expedition 2024. After a night spent in Obertraun, lots of cavers have headed up the hill and began exploring the plateau.

It is my first time at the Dachstein exped but was lucky enough to have a great start getting stuck into WUG with a 3 day camp, aiming to set up camp 2 deep into the system near Austrian Airspace (approx. -830m); the wet connection to the large Hirlatzhöhle system. Here is the trip report written by James, Wolfo and I.

James entering WUG

20/08/2024 - Ollie

After setting off with the team of porters and Alex and Oscar, we soon arrived at the entrance to WUG. This was to be my first trip both in Austria and of the exped. I was a mixture of apprehensive and excited upon seeing the amount of gear we would soon be ferrying underground. The first few pitches passed by quickly and I was greeted by the Tyrolean, the first of which I'd ever actually done underground. It was a fun zipline. The rest of the pitches passed by in a blur until the tight pitch head at approx. -130m. With a bit of teamwork with the bags this too was passed without much hassle. A short rest at the bottom of the 70 and soon the endless rebelays of the 110 had also passed us by. After reaching the start of the meander, I had a very eventful time using a particular electron ladder which decided to snap two of it's rungs whilst I was on it... Anyway the traverse line caught me fine and we soon found our way to the top of funny pitch in wet canyon. James had lots of fun wriggling with his two bags head first at the pitch head, followed by Wolfo and I with similar tackle. Once off the entrance pitches (-550m) we made a slight detour to PL2 Passage before realising our error and heading for the delightful Deep Sludge and camp 1 (-700m). Wolfo and James visited water pitch whilst I set up camp and the cave link. A nice evening in camp was spent and at approx. midnight Alex and Oscar returned, very tired from their adventures.

Packing gear at Camp 1

21/08/2024 - Wolfo

After a breakfast of ****** porridge and coffee we set off to establish camp 2 at the end of Exploration Fever around 11:30.
A bit of pig hassling in Chutney Mines followed by a mudfight in Not Ideal, it was decided to split because Alex and Oscar wanted to check some alternative camp sites. So the three mules continued on at an adjusted pace through all of the Frexit sufferfest.
After arriving at camp 2 site we dropped off all the camp gear and returned to camp 1 with the bags and surplus gear.
Had a meal, some tea and sleep.

Team photo at camp 2 with all our kit

22/08/2024 - James

After having my Welly torn off my foot by the squelchy mud of Frexit I was amazed to find the mud of Deep Sludge 'not that bad' in comparison!! (Never thought I'd say that). The morning of day 3 was spent packing up our section of camp and trying as best as we could to remove as much mud as possible from our gear and bags to save weight.
After ascending deep sludge we began the slow and steady ascent up the pitches at about 13:00. This began a long and arduous journey out of WUG. Several stops were made especially at the pool of water at the top of the Final Pitches to thoroughly clean and restore proper functionality to other gear. I had almost forgotten that snapgates 'snap' closed! Good progress was then made up through the meander where we replaced the broken ladder with a length of rope with several alpines tied into it to form a set of foot loops. There was then plain sailing for the next 4 or so hours until we exited WUG to a beautiful warm starry night. We then made a triumphant return to Camelot before taking a well deserved evening meal and heading to bed.

Time underground: 60 Hours

The Mules after exiting WUG

 

[AlexR]

The above is the perspective of the poor souls I coerced who readily volunteered to be the essential porters for establishing Camp 2, below is the perspective if the person responsible for their suffering.

The limit of exploration is currently 4-5h from Camp 1, and it's been clear for a while that a second camp would be needed to support exploration at the far end. To this end Oscar & I spend a recon trip last year to ascertain where to put this camp. Then followed a good half year of discussion and planning to make sure Camp 2 would be as good as possible. A lot of lessons learned from Camp 1 went into this, plus a lot of testing by myself (water system, stove, box tent sewing). Then sorting logistical questions as minimum number of tackle sacks it could be packed into, how big a tackle sack would fit through the tight sections, etc.



The Dynamic Duo Tour: Establishing Camp 2
20.08.24-24.08.24, Alex Ried & Oscar Doyle

Tuesday 20.08 Surface to Camp 1 via Forbidden Aven
Keen to go underground and having a last minute substitution on the porter team, 5 of us (see above) plus additional volunteers to get stuff to the cave entrance headed up the hill on what was only Day 2 of the exped - the advantage of lots of prior planning. Oscar and I went in ahead of Team 2, checking ropes on the familiar journey down and tightening the odd bolt. I slightly regretted having made an extra large tackle sack which held full bolting & bolt climbing kit in addition to camping stuff, whereas Oscar opted for additional suffering with 200m of 8mm rope we hadn't managed to quite dry (in addition to his camp kit). Especially wholesome in the Meander.

At the bottom of the 600m or so of pitches we trundled to our old friend Left Fork. Here the way to Camp 1 is straight on, but we had a prior engagement with Forbidden Aven about 45min or so down the main upstream paleophreas. We'd been climbing this over the last two years, and cleary developed Stockholm syndrome as we'd always returned absolutely exhausted, caked in mud and promising never to return. This year finally saw us reach the top, not without the great fun of digging through 15cm of clay to place bolts into presumably solid rock underneath where the aven started levelling off. Gratifyingly there was a continuation at the top, ca. 25m of slightly rising, mud-floored passage reached a draughting boulder choke (Forbidden Fruit). At this point Oscar had lost feeling in his hands and I still needed to bolt the not entirely trivial way down, so we left the choke for another day. Like the mug I am I'd forgotten to record what we'd left in the aven last year, this turned out to be sweet f-a, so I was distinctly short on bolts. A drilled Dyneema thread at the top and very large threads around the calcite fall left me with enough bolts for the rest.

Having rammed the various pieces of mud which used to be distinguishable climbing kit into a bag we headed back to the junction, picked up the rest of our kit and trundled towards Camp 1. There was a small amount of worry that Team 2 hadn't made it down as it was suspiciously quiet, but the others had just gotten to bed. It's absolutely amazing return with camp fully set up, I was particularly thankful that Team 2 had gotten water as the water pitch is a proper pain in the backside. Cleaned off mud, had food, went to bed.

Wednesday 21.08 Camp 1 to Camp 2
Team 2 helped us clean the copious mud off my aid climbing kit which was much appreciated. Some gear shuffling later the 5 of us set off towards Exploration Fever; pretty much immediately hitting the first obstacle of the Chutney Mines. What would otherwise be a pretty short easy crawl was made fairly unpleasant by several large tackle bags. Wolfo and I attempted to take 3 bags through between the two of us, which really only resulted in us getting mildly stuck and taking an age to get through. Rather than repeat this we ferried the rest of the bags through individually, though I lazily escaped the fate of having to do the crawl twice.
Shortly after Oscar and I went ahead to check we hadn't missed a potentially better campsite, which it turns out we hadn't. Back at the original planned site we busied ourselves with levelling the floor until Wolfo, James and Ollie arrived. Conscious that they'd still have the entire return journey to Camp 1 we quickly took a picture together, unpacked their bags and split up again. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent sorting the tent, water system, kitchen area inc. benches, drying lines and of course digging a latrine. The toilet at Camp 1 isn't too bad, but very regrettably between boulders which makes the smell difficult to contain. So we opted for a reasonably deep hole dug into clay with a proper throne of rocks, all sealed off with clay.
For a bit of luxury I modified some fairy lights to run off my headtorch batteries, which makes for quite a nice atmosphere.

Thursday 22.08 Bolt/ mud climbing in Austrian Airspace
Close to Camp 2 lies Austrian Airspace where the connection to the rest of the Hirlatz system was made in 2018. This enormous chamber has been scaled to some height by Joel (diving through from Sahara/ Wadiland), but he didn't quite reach the top. Fortunatel this lies only half an hour or so away from Camp 2 and made for a good first objective. This ca. 45 degree slope consists of dry clay for the bottom section which could fairly easily be scaled with ice climbing equipment which the porters had also ferried down. Regrettably this dry clay turned into slop shortly above Joel's highest point and I had a not entirely enjoyable time reaching the to some 15-20m higher. The wet clay layer also became very thin in sections, making the ice axes useless and forcing me to squirm my way up a mud chimney for relative safety.
The top showed no real way on, directly above me was a small bouldery aven, but I made a belay and brought Oscar up. I then continued traversing along the top, passing another unpromising alcove all the way to the other end where there appeared to me more passage heading up. Here I found a calcite fall, but the cavity above was nothing to write home about and the classic immature small alcove often seen at the top of blind avens formed by dissolution from below. There could have been passage just around the corner, but I'd reached the end of our 50m rope and it didn't look very promising at any rate.
Nothing left but to bolt the way back along the aven and retreat down. After taking 15min to find our way back last year, we'd placed additional reflective markers, making it much easier to regain the small passage back towards Camp 2. On the way back I slipped on a short downclimb, smacking my chest into a protruding rock with an accompanying cracking sound. I'd broken my rib twice before, so had a pretty good idea what had happened. After quickly checking for symmetry & lack of free floating ribs I judged myself in no immediate threat of lung puncture and we continued back to Camp 2.

Friday 23.08 Journey back to Camp 1
Didn't have a great night with me only being able to lie on my back, and given my state we elected not to pursue any further leads but make our way back to Camp 1. Spent the morning finishing camp setup inc. a detailed inventory and then set off back via Deep Impact. Here there are future leads we wanted to have a look at, which was quite helpful. Found some old gear, mostly inoperable, made an inventory and continued out; Oscar pushed another lead on the way which turned out terminally blocked a short way in. The crawl in particular made my condition quite a bit worse, with Ibuprofen doing relatively little for the pain which made me pretty apprehensive about the journey out tomorrow.


Saturday 24.08 The exit, sponsored by Codeine
After getting a favourable weather forecast via cavelink Oscar & I headed off in the morning, enjoying the mud-sucking delight of Deep Sludge before hitting the pitches. It quickly became obvious that I'd have real trouble as every prussik caused considerable pain with chest harness compression. By the time we reached the start of The Meander 150m up I could no longer lift my left arm above my shoulder and had to stop every 5 prussiks or so to deal with general pain and nausea. I'd already taken the dose of Ibuprofen I considered wise to take and judged this a good time to swap to something more helpful. Or as Oscar put it after quickly conferring: "Take however much won't kill you." I'd been prescribed Codeine several years earlier but never ended up taking it, which came in very useful at this point; I think there would have been little to no chance of me getting out under my own steam without it. Got to the surface in the evening and walked down to the hut. I knew the underground part of the exped was over for me, but I was very happy with what we had achieved and even happier to see daylight.

 

[AlexR]

Unfortunately the internet on top of the mountain wasn’t good enough for pictures, got WiFi now but editing timeframe has passed.
If a kind admin could integrate the below pictures into the post above I’d be very grateful

Pictures:
Day 1:
The crew about to leave for WUG
Preparing for bolt climbing
Bolting Forbidden Aven

Day 2:
Teams 1 & 2 at the site of Camp 2
Tent set up
Digging the latrine

Day 3:
About to set off in Austrian Airspace
At the top of Austrian Airspace
Back at camp

Day 5:
Codeine snack on the way up

 

[Badlad]

I've had a go at moving your photos around. The captions and photos didn't always seem to match up. In a rush so hope that is about right. Cheers

 

[LiamW]

Dachstein 2024: Hyperthermic Caver vs Hypothermic Caves

As a caver that considers a walk from SWCC cottage 3 to cottage 10 to be a day well spent, I was fairly convinced that a visit to the Dachstein would be the most traumatic event of my life. Despite this I was convinced to sign up, and eight months later I found myself being packed into the back of an impressive game of Tetris and exported to the distant and mysterious Austria. Having effectively never seen a real mountain before, by the time we arrived in Obertraun I was already in awe of the local scenery. I’d like to say that the Dachstein towered over us, but in reality several thousand foot of cloud towered over us, and we received a thorough soaking on the way to the pizzeria. The following morning the sun failed to rise, and we set off into the remarkably British-adjacent weather to begin the 2024 Expedition.

19/08/2024 – The First Day

The walk up the mountain was broadly uneventful, but as an alpine newcomer every fifty metres climbed was a new and exciting experience. The thundering waterfalls and towering cliffs are quite unlike anything I’d ever seen before, so the continuous wonder acted as a fine distraction from my pitiful fitness.

The Waldbach offered a particularly impressive display for us on this drizzly Monday.

Unfortunately, as we passed the 900m mark, we entered thick drizzly clouds, in which we remained for the rest of the journey. From this point on, it became less of a sightseeing tour and more of an inelegant plod upwards into the atmospheric alpine forests. This was the first time I had passed 900m on foot, but unfortunately due to the visibility the only indication of this was my achy feet, rather than any glorious vistas. A respectable four hours later, we arrived at Camelot, a pleasant sight for weary travellers.

20/08/2024 – Learning the ropes

The morning broke with slightly clearer air than Monday, but the looming threat of more rain. I spent the early morning soaking up the glorious vistas that had revealed themselves overnight, and after breakfast we were all shipped off to the training cave for boot camp with Joel and Tom. The training cave is an ex-meat locker with more bolts than the average gentle incline in Yorkshire, and it was here that we were sized up for our existing ability, and otherwise whipped into shape ready for the unforgiving cave environments to come. The day came and went without drama, and much was learned by all (probably).

21/08/2024 – M54

This particular Wednesday presented with the most extraordinary amount of pre-cave faff I have ever known. So much so in fact that I have absolutely no recollection of the morning whatsoever, and would have forgotten that the day even happened were it not for the fact that the prospecting photos are labelled one day later than I thought they would be. This is not to say that the day was wasted; in the afternoon we made our way to M54, a small cave a stone’s throw from the Wiesberghaus. Here, the party split into two, with one group taking the Disto for a test drive and the other getting some experience dragging a load of guff that we didn’t use through a load of sharp passages. It was here that I first became acquainted with my new best friend, the cordless drill, and my new worst enemy, gravity. Putting bolts in the wall: great fun. Putting bolts in the ceiling: pocket sandstorm. This was also my first real encounter with alpine cave conditions, which I found (to the disgust of Andy) most pleasant compared to the comparatively tropical temperatures of UK caves.

22/08/2024 – Man vs Mountain

Thursday awoke with bright skies and warm air. Armed with several ropes (but no SRT kit) and an ill-fitting backpack, I set off with the group for the first day of prospecting. At 2200m, just above the Simonyhütte, lies a swathe of - until now - largely un-probed limestone, which most certainly conceals the next big connection (come on guys I’m sure of it, my prospecting area is way better than yours).

Armed with boundless enthusiasm and several drills, the party split up and set about meticulously ruining the peace for any nearby hikers. A fairly narrow but appealingly deep series of rifts and faults works its way across the side of the mountain here, so a select few set about getting into them, while the rest of us probed the mountain for further leads. A large number of interesting prospects presented themselves, and a few (dozen) thrown rocks helped to down-select the deepest and most potentially exciting of the bunch.

No major breakthroughs were made on this first day. However, fun was had by most, and we retired back to base for the evening. Enthusiasm remained high for continuing to prospect the following day.

23/08/2024 – Indiana Joe and the Raiders of the Lost Bumripper-Hirlatzhohle

I returned to the plateau with one particular hole in mind – an open fault just below the Schöberl with enticing fossil-passage features, found by Ellis the previous day. However, we first took the attack to some large faults to the North. Dropping into a number of initially interesting wide faults gave us nought but choss and hanging death, and by the early afternoon it was finally time to turn my attention to Ellis’ cave.

A couple of bolts later I found myself on untouched ground.

At this point I felt like the first man on the moon. It is takes much longer to wait for a glacier to melt and reveal a cave than it does to get to the moon, so I consider this to be a much greater achievement. Unlike all of the other prospects from the previous 24 hours, this one was actually exciting for it presented us with nothing less than an actual, bona-fide, certified, infinitely dark and unmistakably draughty entrance to a cavern measureless to man. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, this is surely the one. We had a quick poke, and after Bente made a solid effort to crush herself under a big pile of boulders we returned back to the surface. At this point I was sold on expedition caving, filled with delusions of grandeur and visions of the big one.

24/08/2024 – The Hardest Day

These visions were not enough to get me out of bed early, and on this Friday I was struck down with a case of “can’t be arsed”. I spent the day with Sophie enjoying the glorious mountain air, and equally glorious apple strudel at the Wiesberghaus. We had a most excellent walk to look at some flowers, and had a grand of time doing absolutely FA.

The day was not without any activity, however. In the afternoon, we set off with Jo on a bunda-bashing adventure to locate a historic water source of the Wiesberghaus, a hypothetical cave that a series of water pipes would lead us to. For those lucky enough to have experienced it, Botch’s botany walk from the SWCC Cave Science Weekend comes to mind when looking back on this particular treasure hunt. An amusing, ankle-breaking session of arboreal combat kept us occupied for the afternoon, leading rather frustratingly to a point five yards from one of the main trails, where we were no longer able to trace the pipes. While fruitless, this gentle prospect kept us out of trouble for the afternoon, and the easygoing day was a much-welcomed recharge.

25/08/2024 – To the Abyss!

Sunday opened with a fairly ominous forecast, one that we had become used to at this stage despite the weather so far being excellent. For this reason, rather than risk a soggy trip up the mountain, I opted to take a stroll to the Tiergartenloch. For the unfamiliar, Tiergartenloch is a really big hole.

The thing that particularly struck me about this big hole is that it’s really big. Never before have I encountered a hole with a tree in the bottom. Amongst this forest of the abyss, some careful poking revealed a pathway down to an ice-slide, where a most helpful rope give safe passage to a frozen underground lake.

​

One of the eagle-eyed amongst us spotted the sad corpse of a mobile-phone in an icy hole, slightly too deep for anyone to grab. Much discussion ensued about the likelihood of dying a horrible, cold death in the potentially unstable, icicle-filled crevice in which it lay. Eventually, as the group ferret I was coerced into squishing myself inside to reach it, and to much elation I returned shortly with the booty. Not quite the same as finding a frozen caveman, but treasure nonetheless. Ultiamtely, however, nobody was especially keen on holding on to the bulging explosion-era Samsung for too long, so in the Tiergartenloch the phone remains, to be discovered by the next visiting party as some sort of monument to butterfingers.

26/08/2024 – Monday

I have absolutely no recollection of what happened on this day. I think it was supposed to storm, so we loitered around Camelot and did some more training.

It did not actually storm. This was a common theme for the expedition.

 

[LiamW]

27/08/2024 – The Biggest New Cave Discovery of Dachstein 2024 (really)

This was the day – time to push our new cave. Part of the initial exploration team had already returned a few days prior, where they widened the entrance and made it less lethal. We arrived at the recently christened “Big Prid” fairly early, keen to get surveying and exploring further. The cave is named after Pridhamsleigh Cavern, the Devon cave much-loved by the University of Exeter Speleology Society. As a cave entered only by current or former members of the club, it seemed fitting to name it in tribute.

Big Prid has some things in common with its UK-based namesake. It is narrow, there is nowhere to stand up, and it has a load of mud in it. Spurred on by the draught, I eagerly pressed into the dark, undeterred by the characteristic sharpness of the Dachstein limestone. No more than 2 minutes later, I attempted to kill myself with a rock the size of a fridge. Having survived this, I climbed upwards into a very steeply ascending passage, taking slightly more care to not succumb to a Newtonian fate. Suddenly, I found myself face to face with Jo, who most certainly was not in Big Prid. This was a most exciting result, because in doing so I’d just completed the first Big Prid through trip. Satisfied with this, I returned back to the deeps, and turned my attention to the draught.

I proceeded to wedge myself into this narrow cold slot in the wall, and push on into the cool air beyond. It quickly tightened, and I began to question my usually unrivalled squeezing capability. Unfortunately, having already executed one of my parallel universe counterparts with a large boulder twenty minutes prior, I was not particularly ready to find out if there are any more parallel Liam’s ready to take the fall for me if I got stuck. Most disappointingly, I had to back out. With the surveying finished, it was time to leave Big Prid.

Sadly Big Prid is nought but a red “+” on a wall in the eyes of the expedition now. But remember, if it blows it goes, so there is a real opportunity here for someone to spend their life on a 15 year dig to gain at least 7m of passage. It works in the UK after all, so no reason not to do it here.

All in all, Andy and Bente managed to scrape out 41m of length and 12m of depth. This amusingly makes (at the time of writing) Big Prid the largest new cave discovered on the Dachstein in 2024, an absolute win for the Devon-based caving community. Additionally, with one pitch and a through trip, Big Prid makes for an excellent Mendip cave.

With this juggernaut of a cave conquered, we moved on to another chilly prospect further round the mountain, but were met with only questionable bolting and a snowy choked rift. This marked the conclusion of a fine day on the mountain.

28/08/2024 – Finding out Wot I Got

On this day, the inevitable arrived and it was time for my first trip to WUG. For me, this was a somewhat intimidating prospect, having never descended much further than 100m on any trip, and certainly not in excess of 200m. We set off with the bottom of the 70 as a goal, entering concurrently with a party headed for the 110, and just in advance of the Parallel Universe party.

The entrance series is a brown blur in my mind. I have no recollection of any discernible features beyond the tight pitch head, as I spent an undefined length of time simply dropping into the bowels of the Earth seemingly endlessly. I’d like to say I was impressed, but really the feeling I felt was primarily shock and slight horror at the speed we seemed to be descending. Upon reaching the short series of pitches before the 70, the Parallel Universe group suddenly made themselves known, hanging from the sky some short distance away. After much unintelligible back-and-forth, continued on, eventually reaching the refuge near the bottom of the 70.

It was at this point I had thoroughly spooked myself with the distance, and decided to call it quits. I was sure I’d make it out from here, although I wasn’t particularly sure that I was sure, and I was sure that I didn’t want to find out the hard way that I couldn’t. So began the unfortunate necessary evil that follows all descent: ascent.

By the time we had made it to the bottom of the Entrance Series, we found that the Parallel Universe pitches had been connected as an alternative to the old faithful nylon highway. We traded places with the riggers, and set off across Wolfo’s new free-hanging traverse. I had never been on a free-hanging traverse before, so this snapgate masterpiece was an exciting way to cut my teeth on a new skill. The remaining pitches are remarkable in that they are unremarkable, offering a most inoffensive bypass to the entrance series that will most certainly be the favoured route from now on.

Congratulations to the Parallel Universe team for an excellent job in making the connection.

The evening stayed fair to us on the mountain, but in the distance a big storm rumbled away, providing us with an exciting light show to end the day.

29/08/2024 – The Benjamin Franklin Experience

My time in the Dachstein was unfortunately coming to an end, and I had yet to actually climb a mountain. With this in mind, I set my sights on the Hoher Trog. This is not a significant summit, but at around 2350m it would be the highest I’d ever been, and a nice easy-going hike with some spectacular views. Sandwich in bag, I set off past WUG to the first of several peaks on my journey, the Niederer Ochsenkogl. This was actually the hardest leg of the walk, a steep and unstable scramble in which I lost the trail and did some guerrilla prospecting, before eventually regaining the trail at the summit and stopping for a photo break.

From here, the route continued without any complications up the Mittlerer Ochsenkogl, and along the spine to the Hoher Trog. The walk thus far had been incredibly scenic and surprisingly easy, so I was not especially keen to start heading down. I decided that I’d continue up the path to 2400m, where I would stop for lunch, then head down, as the weather looked shaky and I was off my callout.

Over the course of my short lunch, I had managed to convince myself that actually the weather wasn’t that bad, and those clouds were all the way over there anyway, and why should I turn around when the Hoher Ochsenkogl was right there? And so, with a quick WhatsApp message I updated my callout, and pressed on to the next peak.

The Hoher Ochsenkogl is just over 2500m, which is a nice round number. At the summit, the view was awesome. From here you can see the mountain ranges all around, interrupted only by the looming summits of the big boys of the range, like the Hoher Dachstein itself. In the quiet breeze, colossal rockfalls boom out over the valley, ominous and threatening like nothing I’ve ever heard. The summit is peaceful, but oppressive. Clouds loom over the Dachstein.

Looking around, it occurs to me that I must be one of the highest people in the entire area. A thunderclap explodes across the mountain. Looking around again, it occurs to me that I must be one of the highest people in the area. And so, after a most enjoyable four minutes at my well-earned summit, I begin a rapid scramble back down the mountain, feeling admittedly quite frightened. Thunder continues to roll across the limestone, and the descent takes only a fraction of the ascent time. It is remarkable how fast you can move when you are carrying two lightning rods in a storm.

I continued to panic my way down towards the Simonyhutte, eventually finding a suitable bowl in which to unpack my survival shelter and batten down the hatches. Dramatically launching my hiking poles away, I prepared to weather the storm, sitting in my neon palace waiting for the lighting to strike. Naturally, by the time I unpacked the shelter and got in it, the storm passed.

Feeling rather silly, I stopped at the Simonyhutte for cake, and then made a more leisurely return to Camelot, entirely unharmed.

 

[LiamW]

30/08/2024 – The Final Day

It was with great sadness that the final day of my time on the expedition rolled around, far faster than I would have liked. Ellis, Sophie and I took a gentle walk up the path to some hopeful prospects that they had been rudely interrupted from exploring the day before by the storm.

The first hole opened to a nice chamber, but sadly no route on. We moved on up the mountain to the second prospect, a series of interlocking faults with a number of options for exploration. I was led to a remarkably draughty slot in the wall, which I ultimately refused to enter on behalf of it being a Venus Flytrap for cavers, but agreed that suitable application of a chisel was most definitely required next year to gain entry. The other rifts unfortunately proved to be a no-go, on account of being unpleasantly tight and sharp, with no promising way forward that could justify the misery. We returned to base, fruitless but satisfied for having ticked a few more off.

Closing Thoughts

On that final day, while we walked up the path towards the Simonyhutte for the last time, I reflected on the last two weeks. I had sore feet, sore shoulders, and a permanently sunburned face. The caving was mediocre, the walking was hard, and everything smelled terrible. I was constantly out of my comfort zone, stranger in a strange land, surrounded by new faces and new experiences. I absolutely loved it. I really didn’t want it to end. Being up in the mountains, learning new stuff, doing things I’d never be able to do in the UK, it’s all totally unbeatable. I’ve met amazing people, walked on untouched ground, and seen views like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Every day I saw the Earth sprawled out for a hundred miles, and every night I saw the universe splattered across the sky. Whether you’re walking over new landscapes to find new holes, smacking in bolts to drop new pitches, or arguing about who has the best Scheißehöhle that’s totally going to be the one, it’s pure freedom and it’s unbeatable. I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back, but there’s no doubt in my mind that I will.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the expedition the experience it was.

 

[andrewmcleod]

Finally got back (after a couple of days holiday) yesterday. Thanks to everyone who came and caved, washed up, cooked, carried gear, cleaned, got water, and helped unpack and pack the hut etc. Apologies if I was grumpy at any points due to catching the plague (only put an undersuit on twice in the end ). Lots of exciting things for next year though...

Now I have to write a Hidden Earth talk :O

 

[JBarty]

Chronicles of the bumripper:

It all started during the expedition training weekend, where I'd signed up to get some much needed SRT practice. I'd initially thought to shelve it and wait until 2025 to consider doing an expedition. Maybe it was my reputable impulsivity, but on my way back to London, I'd decided, f*** it, lets sign up; what do I have to lose? And there, precious few months later, I was on the plane, racing away from my beloved blighty on my first ever trip abroad. Little did I know what would be in store for me over the expedition.


Day one:
I rocked up to Obertraun on the 17th, carrying enough kit on my back to start a small war. After a nervous sleep, squashed into the beds like sardines, we were off up the hill. During the walk and despite the poor weather, I vividly recall my amazement. How could such beauty be tucked away in these hills of Austria? Where was it all back home!? Cliffs that towered over us like great watchers, rivers which danced their way down in unceasing quantity. We reached the top in no time, the others entertained by my deafening flow of questions. Before us sat camelot, our home for the next few weeks, nestled within the low lying pine, and further saddled by the striking white limestone of the greater plateau. This was by far the highest I'd ever been and seeing the bare, void scarred rock above us was tantalising - so many new caves to find! The Wiesberghaus sat just across the way from us. They were a warm neighbour who would fill us with treats and beer for the coming weeks. After unpacking and settling, we found our beds, which were of surprisingly good quality (pillows too!). I slept very little that night, excited by what I'd got myself into.

Halstatt as seen from the walk up


The subtle art of faffing:
Our first proper look into alpine caves started with M54, and in character, this cave stuck out substantially from pretty much anything we later would discover, aside from Bumripper of course. After an extensive amount of faff, the day began with Tom and I leaving ahead to locate the cave, hidden inside low-lying pine just off the path. I had foolishly decided to don my wellies early, and while carrying a comically oversized drill, tripped and sprained my ankle (we weren't even off the path yet!). Tom gave me a ribbing for this, but the substantial swelling later indicated it was a pretty decent injury. I opted to ignore it since it was going to be a slow day anyway, and we arrived at the cave, were provided with another helping of faff and a lecture about the conditions underground. I was then given a chance to practice bolting, something totally new to me, followed by Liam bolting and re-rigging the rather shaggy looking sun-damaged rope into the cave.

Within M54, our goal would be to familiarise ourselves with three aspects of alpine-caving: surveying, rigging, and general warmth preserving practices. The group split into two: The survey team led by Andrew and the intrepid non-survey group (me included), who stood around whilst the second team practiced with their devices. We became so bored while waiting that we started scouring the walls for any sign of formation, finding some laughably tiny crystals in a small alcove. After a time, it was decided we duck ahead of the other team and we made our way down the gently declining cave to a pitch. Liam bolted and re-rigged from the ceiling, and we dropped down once again. Half of the group opted at this point to turn around , while Peter, Levente and I continued on for another two pitches. Aside from the temperature, this cave had a pretty British character - tight, wet and with actual formations! After dropping the final pitch we continued to a chamber which abruptly ended in a small streamway filled bedding plane. The water seemed to well up spontaneously at some point in the chamber, which, as from later prospecting would seem to be quite a common occurance (possibly extremely young glacial meltwater invading older stuff?). We decided to turn around here saving hypothermic wetness for future days.


The Bumripper:
During our first day prospecting, Andrew and Jo had us off up the hill, shooting distance from the Simonyhütte, a James Bond villain-esque mountain resort. The Simonyhütte would become another friend to us cavers, with many afternoons spent here performing "long-distance prospecting", an advanced technique which utilised on-site binoculars. Many tens of caves (or are they shrubs?) were found through this highly efficient process, and one which totally outsourced caving to idle speculation whilst eating apple strudel.

The glacier and summit as seen from the Simonyhütte


The first day was primarily spent at the bottom of a large boulder-catching slope which hosted many faults leading to large rifts. I was completely floored by the number of leads very few of which had ever been dropped, let alone looked at. We started off after a quick prospecting tutorial from the experienced lot by dropping two pitches, which after a short finished in snow-plugs. While this was happening I continued to look for caves and found an interesting fault leading into a meander. I had found The Bumripper. This had to be it! The long saught after connection to the Hirlatz was here. The cave itself was a promisingly tight series meanders, four of which split off in eccentric directions (it is TECHNICALLY still going!), while the main fault continued down the hill revealing itself occasionally to the sun. This could be accessed via a laughably technical vertical squeeze. It was quite clear at this stage I needed to learn the important lesson of lead viability. To me ANY cave was worth it. Shortly after dropping in to examine the top of the squeeze, I dropped my cap (very important PPE, alongside safety sandles) and it fell into the passage below. I walked back to get Sophie's helmet and Andrew for supervision to begin cap recovery. Andrew watched over while I gardened the passage above and began to squeeze into this ridiculously tight passage. Here I learned another lesson, alongside the disreputability of razor-sharp limestone which greeted me by agressively ripping the back of my trousers. The rip was so large both of my bumcheeks were visible, and thus was born the legendary Bumripper, which surely connects to the Hirlatz. I passed the squeeze after about a minute, and dropped into the passage, realising that merely ~5m on there was another much wider entrance from above. After renegotiating the squeeze, I triumphantly re-emerged to the sun-baked limestone, cap in hand. I think Andrew was quite pleased that I learned a lesson. Nonetheless, I did continue to prospect in my regular clothes, earning quite a few more bumrippers before finishing this expedition.

Maxim dropping into a rift.


While the group began to drop another series of holes, I decided to go on a big walk, and a number of faults, while attempting to decipher the morphology of this region. From much prospecting over the expedition, I came to understand the typical lead - old boulder-choked or snowplugged shafts which had been lifted up as the Dachstein had risen, often intersected by very young (spiky!) meanders formed by glacial meltwater. In a sense, through invasion, this is how the WUG/Hirlatz connection was made. It seemed to me that to prospect here, one must look for the ancient, and then hope that new passage, free of the debris brought down by the glacier, intersects once again with the old. Many enormous and ancient caves here are totally snowplugged, possibly to great depth. In the coming years however I am sure that these plugs will continue to receed and large cave will be uncovered.

Typical example of snowplugged cave in Dachstein. This one is yet to be dropped!


More to come!

 

[JBarty]

The mouse hole:

Next on the radar was the vertical area to the north on the Hoher Trog/Ochsenkogel. It has been theorized that the best chance we have at making a connection is in sheer, high quality limestone, where any cave will have been sheltered from the glaciers outwash sediment (I really just wanted to use that term) and the mountains slow decay. And so, at the crack of midday under the fierce sun we raced off up the Ochsenkogel. The inevitable result - Levente and I ending up with varying degrees of sunburn (take sunblock seriously people!).

Our route up was another fantastic reminder at the number of leads still untouched by cavers grubby hands, as many were passed on our walk TO the prospect. Firstly, a small and sharp cavity leading to a wide pitch behind a squeeze (undescended), secondly, an Eglwys faen-esque cave, mouth gaping wide to the world, which choked rather suddenly after approximately 25 meters, and finally (most tragically) the Maus Höhle.

Here lay the resting place of a small rodent, up top on the Ochsenkogel. It was said rodents unfortunate luck to come to face my mug, as I rounded a small bank, first seeing a hole in the ground, and then said rodent. I would like to think it must have been quite relatably enjoying the gentle breeze emanating from the cave in such a hot day. Unfortunately this would be it's undoing, as in shock, it turned to face me, and in what I can only assume was sheer panic leapt straight into the hole. I walked up to the hole, looked down, remarking it's depth ~8m, and paid short solace to the creature. If the passage were any bigger, I would have attempted to rescue it.

Hell, maybe this mouse was actually a spelunker, destined to make the connection? That's about 200 extra meters of elevation up for grabs!

The tragic Maus Höhle.


We stopped for lunch in a pleasant, shaded sinkhole and while the others ate I spent time clambering around, finding yet ANOTHER cool prospect! This began in an 8m "free climb" (it turned out later that my idea of a free climb is relatively extreme) down into a small chamber, leading in a few directions, including a cool triangular passage for a total of ~15m. This ended very suddenly in a fault running perpendicular, and a relatively tight rift continued on down, blocked by a single large boulder.

Start of Triangular passage


Following lunch, we next moved to the base of the Hoher Trog. At this point we came across a ridiculously large feature. This was in the form of twin rifts which had been previously dropped, but with no record of exploration from previous years found in archives. The base of this twin rift was a large snowplug, but given the last few years of melt it had to be re-investigated. This was a fantastic opportunity to practice my bolting and rigging skills, dropping down the southern rift, to find that the two connected again at the bottom - forming a bridge. After descending on my back/sideways into a cavity at the edge of the snow plug, no passage was found. However, a number of large melt-holes had clearly opened up since the season here had begun, one of which was directly below the rebelay I had put in. A chamber could be seen below, another 8m down through the snow hole, but unfortunately due to lack of time, this lead was not pushed. howeve but will be worth a revisit next year, possibly with some digging tools.

Large twin rifts


Is this gambling, with extra steps?:

The next day, Tom, Levente, and I were off again up to the same prospect zone, this time from the other side on the saddle of the Hoher Trog. From the walk up to this area via the Simonyhütte, large voids are visible on the northern side of the Hoher Trog. To this day they likely have not been prospected, possibly due to the massive band of choss between any caver and their prize. I am hoping that next year this region can be prospected, as it is nearly directly above WUG and may connect to passages such as Parallel Universe. It also fits the bill of a potential jackpot (steeper surface, protected from debris).

We reached our prospecting area in good time, and immediately found a heavily drafting phreatic tube at the base of a cliff. This was on a fault which hosted a number of collapsed features along it's length. Unfortunately, the tube was too tight, but a very large undropped pitch was found behind it. It was a pretty substantial feature, and I think it must have been missed in the past due to past snow cover (thanks climate change!) It was at this point that we realised I'd forgotten to pack the bolting hammer, and spent the rest of the day cursing as I clumsily hammered in bolts with the head of a small chisel, 10 minutes per bolt. (I won't be forgetting the hammer again any time soon!). Fortunately, there was a very high quality patch of limestone directly above the drop, and a single Y hang could be dropped straight to the bottom of the visible space below following a short traverse.

Me as I shamefully hammer in bolts with a chisel head


Following this epic, I dropped down a 30m pitch, noting a (very common) presence of loose rock in the cave. In this case, a large shelf had developed filled with glacial till and extremely precarious boulders. Unfortunately, as is also common, the shaft ended in a snow plug. However, in this case a further drop could be seen via a gap which had formed between the snowplug and rock wall. This was possibly up to an additional 30 meters and drafting was substantial. I exited the cave, noting again to return in future years when the snow will have further receeded.

The day prospecting with Tom and Levente ended with much excitement after Tom found an extremely wide and old rift that had not been recorded, yet once again was merely off the path. Levente and I climbed down into the rift through a small window at the bottom where the hill had eroded into it, and we circled the base. I took note of a number of beautiful fossil beds in the surface of the rock, but notably a small void in the rock to the east was visible. In retrospect this must have merely been formed by meltwater from a small snowplug which had taken up residence inside the rift, but at the time it looked enormous, especially given it's location within an ancient feature. We noted to return, revisiting it later in the trip, after Phillip and Ollie were able to remove the boulders.

The big rift!


Next up - Does Joe actually go underground on this trip? (Yes, promise!)