Expo - End of Expo update
Mon 21 Aug 2017
Becka Lawson
Here's some photos (all by me, Becka Lawson) from the second half of expo and derigging and packing up at the end, written as I'm trying to distract myself from a scarily fast drive back to the UK on the German Autobahn.
Adam Aldridge (AKA the Hoofed Animal) holding his "mended" hand-bolting driver after he unaccountably managed to shear the head off it. My favourite Adam story: late, after a drunken session at Base Camp, he swayed his way into the Tatie Hut and asked whether anybody knew if the Hilti SDS drill-bit grease was toxic because in the dark he'd mistaken the tube for toothpaste and it'd taken him a while to realise his mistake.
The rest of the underground derig went smoothly at the start of this week and the weather was mostly kind for packing up the Top Camp and Organhoehle Camp on the Plateau, for bringing gear down the hill and for washing and drying.
Hilde Wilpernig, from the Gasthaus Staud'n'wirt, where she and her family have hosted our base camp for over thirty years now. When we said we'd got an excess of eggs and milk Hilde offered to make us Kaiserschmarren (Emperor's pancakes) and homemade apple sauce. She even braved our mess tent to cook it.
I spent my last day on Expo cracking the whip for data entry, drawing up surveys and scanning and uploading data. We've ended up with two floating surveys, arghhhhhh. Survey pocket 24, labelled "SHIT", was the low point - appropriately it was in passage called "Nothing to See". Jacob and Mike both did five hour shifts on the scanner - please can we upgrade to one that takes less than a minute to scan a single sheet of A4 for next year?
Blog Author: Becka
Becka Lawson
End of Expo update
Here's some photos (all by me, Becka Lawson) from the second half of expo and derigging and packing up at the end, written as I'm trying to distract myself from a scarily fast drive back to the UK on the German Autobahn.
Admiring a spectacular sunset from Top Camp.
Adam Aldridge (AKA the Hoofed Animal) holding his "mended" hand-bolting driver after he unaccountably managed to shear the head off it. My favourite Adam story: late, after a drunken session at Base Camp, he swayed his way into the Tatie Hut and asked whether anybody knew if the Hilti SDS drill-bit grease was toxic because in the dark he'd mistaken the tube for toothpaste and it'd taken him a while to realise his mistake.
Adam's hand after an accumulation of mishaps.
Rob and Jacob having just got out from our last underground camp of 2017 with the first of the rope and gear from the derig. We're hydrating at Top Camp before the two hour walk off the Plateau.
The rest of the underground derig went smoothly at the start of this week and the weather was mostly kind for packing up the Top Camp and Organhoehle Camp on the Plateau, for bringing gear down the hill and for washing and drying.
Sitting at base camp with piles of freshly river-washed rope, checking for damage like rubs and glazing before measuring and relabelling.
Hilde Wilpernig, from the Gasthaus Staud'n'wirt, where she and her family have hosted our base camp for over thirty years now. When we said we'd got an excess of eggs and milk Hilde offered to make us Kaiserschmarren (Emperor's pancakes) and homemade apple sauce. She even braved our mess tent to cook it.
Here's Hilde, on the left, cooking
and then everyone eating Kaiserschmarren
Kristian Brook in fine form, about to drive back to Leeds. In amongst many distinctive characters on Expo, this man still effortlessly stood out from the crowd.
Spectator sport as Rob Watson attempts to bring my SRT kit into the 21st century. This led to stressfully slippy knots whilst I was deep in Wildbader Hoehle, with my long cowstail creeping to what, to my alarm, seemed like two metres long as I dangled way beneath it.
Typical Tatie Hut scene with, oh, at least one person hard at work on the survey (interim print-outs of the survey on the wall).
I spent my last day on Expo cracking the whip for data entry, drawing up surveys and scanning and uploading data. We've ended up with two floating surveys, arghhhhhh. Survey pocket 24, labelled "SHIT", was the low point - appropriately it was in passage called "Nothing to See". Jacob and Mike both did five hour shifts on the scanner - please can we upgrade to one that takes less than a minute to scan a single sheet of A4 for next year?
Here's a shot of one of four cover sheets logging progress along the ten steps towards survey perfection (as yet only Phil Withnall has achieved enlightenment; whilst only Adam has contributed to more than one survey officially categorised as "shit").