Question Mark list conventions

For the current 21st century QM methods, where we store QMs in the survex files, see

Quality grades

A — A fine QM - go down there and look.

B — Not so promising, or requiring some effort (eg. a climb).

C — Pretty cruddy, or good but very hard to get to.

D — A dig only possible to continue if loose rocks or soil are removed.

X — A high, wet or unsafe-looking aven unlikely to be climbed

And we used to have (no longer used):
V — An aven which might be climbable, but not adequately assessed (use C or X instead, with comment)
? — Unknown - origin lost in history.
! — may not exist, or may be multiple - guess from sketches
* — allegedly pushed, but needs another look or survey

Note that the quality grades are assigned by the explorers at the time, and that subsequent discoveries may mean that the grade is optimistic, since the lead may now drop into passage which wasn't then explored. Also, different explorers have different ideas, or different waist sizes - one man's "A-lead" may be another's "C-lead" :-(

QM identifier formats

The format for question mark identifiers has changed over the years. We used to renumber all the QMs after expo, so a simple 200x-QMnn was unique. At some point, before 2015 when we started putting the QMs in survex files, the QM numbering was done per-cave rather than per-Expo.
e.g. C1992-161-08 » the 8th QM in 1988 in cave 1623-161. Discovered by Expo: ("C")
e.g. 234-2004-24B » the 24th QM in 2004 in cave 1623-234, grade B.

Currently we use the survex block name, the name of the *begin/*end section, as the thing to make QMs unique. We also show the year, the cave and the grade in all visible identifiers though these are not required for uniqueness. A separate sequence of identifier numbers is used for each survexfile:
e.g. 290-2018-1Ccoconu3 » The 1st QM, grade C, in survex-block 'coconutchamber3'
which was surveyed in 2018 in cave 1623-290

Archaic: Last-century's notes about QMs in 161

If you look at the html [the cave description page], you will find mentions, e.g. C1992-161-08 of QMs in the context of the passage description with a link to the 161 QM list page. A link to the nearest survey station (without its "<cavenumber>." prefix) is included in an html comment for almost all leads.

In general, an unpushed QM will have a link from its QM number in the cave description file to the HTML QM list file (generated by a perl script for caves 204, 234 and 258) [see QM scripts], and a link from the list to the relevant point in the description. If there is no link, it means that we can't yet work out where the QM is in the description, or the description doesn't yet exist :-).

Discoverer identifiers

In past years, we used to put a prefix on the QM identifier as an indication of who discovered it. This is no longer used.

A - ARGE.

B - Groupe Spéléo de Clerval - Baume les Dames.

C - Cambridge University Caving Club - Expo.

Go to Adding QMs to survex