Wolfhöhle - The Rescue (or the day Wadders almost had to go caving)
Wed 25 Jul 1984
Phil Wigglesworth
Having decided who was going on the projected rescue, the next task was to put off doing anything for as long as possible, in the hope that it would prove unnecessary. Hence we auctioned off Pete's and Andy's gear before retireing to the cafe to mull over how to drag two very large dead bodies out of Wolfhöeler.
In the cafe, opinions diverged as to the probable state of our intrepid duo. The three states we oscillated between were:
(1) Crazy sods, rigging into the abyss and now cut off by rising water.
(2) Shattered bodies lying at the bottom of a pile of broken tackle.
(3) Still rigging after 28 hours (Pete was on the trip).
Opinions also varied as to which of these states was prefereable. By now the possible confusion of two independent rescue parties was judge dangerous, so a third party was formed. We returned to the camp at 1pm and sent Andy and Mike off with almost all the first aid kit (2 bandages and a lot of morphine derivative), lots and lots of food and a whistle (see later).
At 3pm, wave 2 set out. Discovering the Loser restaurant shut, we had to set out. Heading straight for Wolfhöhle in the mist, carrying enough tackle to haul out an entire troop of dead boy scouts, we heard whistles through the impenetrable miasma. "Thank god they're safe" we thought, but no ...
Instead of rescuing Pete andDobbers * Andy Dolby, we had instead
* Dobbers objects to being called DOBBERS
rescued Wadders and Mike Martin. <-- incorrect - we heard voices so blew whistle to attract their attention (assuming Andy and Pete only to find party 2). NB We were _not_ lost. We _had_ been.
We decided that rescue seemed so easy that we set off to the cave again. Indeed rescue was so easy that the moment we got to the cave Pete and Andy appeared.
We marked the way to Wolfhohle with twine to stop people getting lost.
Time underground 0 hours.
Case for the defence:
Well, OK, so we got lost. Found 101 though ! No-one's been there for seven years ! And we _weren't_ rescued. We had just got ourselves back to col and were setting off back to Wolfhöhle again when Wiggy arrived and told us we were in the wrong place (We weren't - and it took some while to convince him). Only then did Team B lead (almost) faultlessly to Wolfhöhle - the timing perfect. A.
Phil Wigglesworth
It was wet. Team Boy Sprout had been performing various rain-dances for several days, and they finally succeeded. They timed the thunderstorm so it caught 2/3rds of team exploding sweetcorn underground down Wolfhöhle.
The morning dawned (or rather 10:30am dawned) to find Mike (unwashed) Thomas muttering dire things about rescues and how his gear was still on the SchwarzmoosKergle [KÖGEL Pratt !!] and so someone else would have to go. This was met with a suitable lack of enthusiasm. Eventually four volunteers (?) were found to form the first 2 waves of the rescue:
/ Wadders - Qualified by having not been caving yet
Team A | + hence had dry gear.
| Also knew where Wolfhole was.
The only { Mike M - Was stupid enough to bring a wetsuit
volunteer ----> (uninformed burk !! Left westuit at campsite +
\ took furry gear !!)
/ Brian - Had his gear at the camp
Team B {
\ Wiggy - Knew the cave
Having decided who was going on the projected rescue, the next task was to put off doing anything for as long as possible, in the hope that it would prove unnecessary. Hence we auctioned off Pete's and Andy's gear before retireing to the cafe to mull over how to drag two very large dead bodies out of Wolfhöeler.
In the cafe, opinions diverged as to the probable state of our intrepid duo. The three states we oscillated between were:
(1) Crazy sods, rigging into the abyss and now cut off by rising water.
(2) Shattered bodies lying at the bottom of a pile of broken tackle.
(3) Still rigging after 28 hours (Pete was on the trip).
Opinions also varied as to which of these states was prefereable. By now the possible confusion of two independent rescue parties was judge dangerous, so a third party was formed. We returned to the camp at 1pm and sent Andy and Mike off with almost all the first aid kit (2 bandages and a lot of morphine derivative), lots and lots of food and a whistle (see later).
At 3pm, wave 2 set out. Discovering the Loser restaurant shut, we had to set out. Heading straight for Wolfhöhle in the mist, carrying enough tackle to haul out an entire troop of dead boy scouts, we heard whistles through the impenetrable miasma. "Thank god they're safe" we thought, but no ...
Instead of rescuing Pete and
* Dobbers objects to being called DOBBERS
rescued Wadders and Mike Martin. <-- incorrect - we heard voices so blew whistle to attract their attention (assuming Andy and Pete only to find party 2). NB We were _not_ lost. We _had_ been.
We decided that rescue seemed so easy that we set off to the cave again. Indeed rescue was so easy that the moment we got to the cave Pete and Andy appeared.
We marked the way to Wolfhohle with twine to stop people getting lost.
Time underground 0 hours.
Case for the defence:
Well, OK, so we got lost. Found 101 though ! No-one's been there for seven years ! And we _weren't_ rescued. We had just got ourselves back to col and were setting off back to Wolfhöhle again when Wiggy arrived and told us we were in the wrong place (We weren't - and it took some while to convince him). Only then did Team B lead (almost) faultlessly to Wolfhöhle - the timing perfect. A.