Expo 2005: mission statement

In the summer of 2005, Cambridge University Caving Club is off to Austria for the 29th time on its annual summer expedition. As ever, there are many promising unexplored cave areas remaining, less major side passages to be ticked, and uncountably many caves waiting to be found. This document introduces the major work areas and the current state of exploration, and lists several specific projects on which it is hoped effort will be expended. Note that numbers given by cave names are those of the Austrian Kataster for our area.

General

For nearly thirty years CUCC has worked on exploring the Loser plateau, a vast expanse of limestone riddled with caves in the Totes Gebirge area of the Austrian Alps, roughly 80km ESE of Salzburg. Over this time CUCC has explored such notable caves as Kaninchenhöhle (161), Stellerweghöhle (41) and Schwarzmooskogel Eishöhle (40), caves now connected to form a system 56km long and over a kilometre deep; more than half of this length was contributed by CUCC.

More recently, exploration of Steinbrückenhöhle (204) has been the main focus of expedition work. Since 1999 it has yielded 9.1km of passage and is over 500m deep. It is anticipated that it will eventually connect to the Schwarzmooskogelhöhlensystem. Along the line between Steinbrückenhöhle and Kaninchenhöhle lies Hauchhöhle (234), the scene of significant exploration in 2004; its length was quadrupled to 619m, and there is still much to be done in it.

Eislufthöhle was found on the second ever CUCC expedition to the area in 1977, when the explorers got to -150m with the way on wide open. They pushed again in 1978, then in 1979 finally reached a sump at approximately -506m. They derigged and nobody returned for a quarter of a century, until we took another look last year. Starting with a list of 8 QMs gathered from old log books, the cave now has 73 QMs and a surveyed length of 1180m (making it the third longest cave system CUCC has explored in Austria!)

On the NW slopes of the Vord lies Wolfhöhle (145), a potentially similarly underexplored cave, in which a week-long joint re-exploration with Arge Grabenstetten (a German caving group) has been arranged, to investigate any horizontal development which may be found near the surface.

Steinbrückenhöhle

The bottom of the pitch series of Gaffered to the Walls, was explored last summer to reveal a lot of deep horizontal development. Further exploration anticipated
The passage discovered in 2004 Cresta Run, located at the far end of Swings passage, ended at a pitch and a large amount of black void
The Unconformity in Rhino Rift
There are a number of other leads in Steinbrückenhöhle which might merit exploration, including an undescended pitch (QM 01-38A) in the Chocolate Salty Balls area, known as 'The Eleven Second Rattle' - named after the sound heard on dropping rocks down it; another undescended pitch (01-68A) at the end of the Merry F***ing Christmas crawl; and many others (cf. the Steinbrückenhöhle question mark list)
Pitch in Merry-Go-Round with plausible connection to the Underworld

Hauchhöhle

Continuation of the Pie series, where rope, time and drill ran out last year. A climb of dubious reversibility lead to a further climb, followed by a pitch, dropping to a chamberette with a rifty looking continuation

Eislufthöhle

The original 1970s route below The Taproom (at -140m) is still to be revisited
There are 2 good QMs just by the Taproom (a pitch noted on the 1979 survey and a passage continuing across this pitch, which could easily be bolted to with a drill).
The Keg Series is still going at -189m, having just broken through a band of harder cherty rock
Many horizontal and vertical leads exist in Brave New World, and require pushing
It seems highly likely we can establish at least a vocal connection with 99, and quite likely a visual/survey link. A through trip might even be possible!

Wolfhöhle

The main aim will be to concentrate on the upper levels of Wolfhöhle to try to find horizontal development with the long-term goal of linking in to other known caves (in particular the Schwarzmooskogelhöhlensystem)

Odds 'n' Sods

Rock'n'Roll Höhle (239): Open lead over blind pit leading 204-wards
Schneewindschacht (97) probably deserves a revisit, due to its proximity to 76 and a phreatic level known to have a continuing traverse - we should at least check how bad the entrance squeeze actually is!
Prospecting for more cave. Recently acquired aerial photographs can lead one to believe that there are holes to the northwest of our current field of operations, heading towards the large systems Raucherkarhöhle (1626:55) and Feuertalsystem (1626:120)...