Depth through thought

OUCC News l2th January 1994

Volume 4, Number 9

Editorial

I was lying in the bath at Harley road last weekend wondering to myself what novelties the new year would bring to my little world of caving when a strange thing happened. 12.30 in the afternoon and there was a knock at the door. It was Gavin, about to go on a caving trip. Gavin, caving trip, 12.30 start. Surely, I thought, these are not things that go together. I wonder what has happened.

We have finally managed to get links set up with our Hungarian Correspondents, though as you will notice there are still a few translation problems. Pivo has sent in an article on their trip to Austria, and Moha sent me a report on their trip to Italy. --- Pivo's report is printed in full, but I decided only to print an extract of Moha's until we manage to understand each other a little better. It goes as follows....
M~;X\\~ llK\~~\\\\\\~#2~)\~)PIII ttD\ )k@~S 1IH\OCI< 3D]234~o,+E460~M"~'·"""""""""` \\~\\\~~\\\~~~~\\\\\~\~\h~f \,,\,\\\,!. 140\\\11L\OI#OX= \ ,,\ \ \ $\ 2D` *O``` ''IT MO% "9690<F4@ MOVAR:'TIT; 6% S ('=E~ 1 E8 VED960@ ;VX@ 9V~ (&%R;W 5N9"!2;VUE(' 1 O(B~AM=FEN9RX@26X@2'5N9 V%R>2!I="!I<R!N;WO@;T;IR;6%L;'D@9F]R(&A=FsRM6i!B96A=7E(sr]F(%)0;64@:7,@82!E> '!E;GI=F4@<&QA8V4@9F]R('SSM(&%N9"!A( &QI='1L92!B :70@;&]N9R!W87D@9G)O;2!H;V UE("AM;W)E('1 HM86X@,3(P,"!K;2DN($)U="! F;W)T=6YA=B~SL>2! W92 !H879E('-0; 64@ 9G)I M96YD<R ! T:&5R92P@ 82 ! ~6YG87)I86X@ 9VE R;"P@ =VAO~ES(B~YO=R! A(~AM8GDM<VE T=&5R(' 1H97)E("AA;GEW87D@<VAE(&ES('1 H92!B~7T(&=I<FPMMsV~oV97)S(BrEN($AU;F A<GDL('H92 !H879E(6r)E96X@ ~ =&AE(& )0='10M;2!09B!S86UE(#$P,#\@;2!Dg65p(&A=FSS + " ! F;W~ 97AA;7 ! L92 !O;WIZ.

Sounds like they had fun, eh?

Two requests. If anyone has good ideas for speaker meetings this term, please could they let Jenny know ASAP because the first thrilling term card of 1994 will need to go out soon. Second, lets have lots of reports, news, gossip, reviews and opinion for DTT. E-mail submissions are easiest, but I can still read so plain pen and paper is fine if that's your lot.

Finally, don't forget that its the AGM this term: a time for fun, frivolity, and your chance to take part in OUCC's extraordinary version of the democratic process. If you want to get involved in running (snigger) the club, then think about it and start talking to people.

Caving at New Year

KMC
New Year in the Dales was a bit of a wash-out, literally. When I drove into York to pick up Will from the station on the 28th December, there were three cars in the ditch along the sixteen mile stretch of road between my parents house and York. Up in East Yorkshire it snowed on Christmas day, froze on boxing day and the day after, and on the night of the 27th and the day of the 28th, it poured with snow. Snow, snow and more snow. Consequently, the Dales looked beautiful, but were useless for caving. We couldn't do any half decent caving because, either, it might start thawing any minute (as the weather forecasters said it would) and we'd get trapped down by rising snow-melt, or else, it was melting anyway and the water levels were so high that half decent caves were not even enter-able.

Will and I went down KMC, taking one of the Germans with us. It wasn't particularly wet, although we managed to get wet enough by going as far upstream as we could. (Crawling on tummies in the stream to reach Swinsto main chamber gets you wet even in low water). Peter, the German, was dead keen on the sump near the ladder pitch. On the way back he stopped, put on a wetsuit hood, mask and diving light, and tied himself onto the end of the rope used for lining the ladder pitch, then proceeded to hold his breath and swim around under water in the sump. Will and I looked at each other in disbelief, and asked each other "How long shall we give him before we decide to start pulling him out?"

Not the most inspiring caving trip I've been on, but I think people enjoyed themselves nevertheless.
Jenny Vernon

Caving in Europe

The First Hungarian Taubenloch Expedition
Moha and another guy, called Tiszeker Zoli organized a cave trip to Austria. They could get enough cars, ropes, and members. The members were from six caver groups! This group consisted of eleven members. Our aim was the Taubenloch, which is a 4043 m long and +50 m high and -456 m deep cave. Near the entrance of Taubenloch there is the entrance of Geldloch, which is another big cave. It's 8194 m long and +146 m high and -434 m deep. Our map was a bit old, so may be these caves are one system since the map was made. Austrian cavers look for the them. The entrances are at an altitude of about 1500 m.

We left Budapest last Thursday (2nd of December). It was a difficult start, because we waited for a guy who brought us a snow-chain. When he arrived most of the people were already sitting in a pub. After all we left three hours later. Kutya's passport -was invalid, so he had to come back home from the border. We arrived to Hagen at 3· o'clock. Hagen is the last village on the road. We setted our tents and slept.

In the morning Moha woke me up as he was quarrelling with a man who was writing dog down the numbers of our cars. His problem was that we slept at the car park. Fortunately he went away and we didn't have more problems. We packed up our rucksucks and we started to go up to the cave.

Our way was very nice. First the road was very easy, because we went down. A bit later the road changed straight. Along the road there was a very nice river and we saw a beautiful waterfall. It was very icy. After this part we had to go up and it was much harder. The snow was deeper and we could hardly walk. Zoli, who knew this road once told us: "It's the last part and it will take maximum two hours. That was three and a half hours. We arrived at the entrance of the cave after it got dark. Here we made our biwak. We were very tired and we just went to our sleeping bags. I bought a biwak sack and it was entirely unnecessary. From the top of the chamber water was dropping down and in addition I was sweating inside my sleeping bag which was inside the biwak sack. In the morning I was wet.

On Saturday was the cave trip. We didn't organise it well, so the trip wasn't the best. The cave is interesting but not too nice. First of all we had to go up about 20 metres. After that there is a 35 m deep pit which is a part of an enormous chamber. Its name is Melkerdom. Melk is a little town in this area. Melk has a very big church. Here we had to find the good way. We knew it is somewhere under this chamber. The map is not only old, it is unexact, too. So, we looked for it over two hours. When we found it on the passage we arrived to a pit. It was about 30 m deep. The bottom of this pit was a top of a big rift chamber. On the wall of this chamber we could climb down but a few men were worried and we put a rope there. At the bottom we found a traverse with line. It was over the "Hermelin pit" which is the main passage. We didn't know where we were exactly, so we didn't climb down. We found another traverse and so we entered new part. It wasn't on the map. At the end of a nice corridor we found a chamber. On this corridor we found a biwak of Austrian cavers. From this chamber we could go up and down. The first way was a muddy slope and the second way went into the top of a big chamber. There we needed ropes but we didn't have any. The other guys brought it behind us, but we didn't want to wait for them, so we went down on the muddy slope. It was dangerous, so we waited for the others at half way. We went to the bottom on the rope. From here some guys could go into that chamber. We were tired, so three other guys and me went out. The others made a trip in this part of the cave, and they came out two hours later.

The night was wetter, so in the morning I was totally wet . Fortunately I didn't get cold. We left, the cave Sunday morning. The weather rainy and foggy. A lot of snow melted (and we went down...) so our way down was much easier. The beautiful waterfall was much less icy. We arrived to the cars about 2 o'clock and we started back home. We would like to go back in spring.
Pivo (DTT's Hungarian Correspondent)