UNSW Bushwalking & Mountaineering Club

Newsletter - August 2002

Our new president, Mark Worsfold, will be putting together the newsletter from now on. So, if you have some contributions, send them to him (mark.worsfold@bigpond.com).

AGM

The AGM was a great success - we now have a brand new exec! Thanks heaps to all the exec from last year, and a big welcome to the new exec. We really have some new blood this year. This means new ideas, new ways of doing things, and a move forward for the club. If you want to see the club run differently, get in touch with someone on the exec - we want to hear what you have to say.

The Return of the Boree Log

This years Boree Log was so successful, we are going to run another one. We did this last year, at Deep Pass, and as nice as that place is, its not really suited to big crowds, with difficult access and no working toilets. So, this year we will be going to one of the beaches in the Royal National Park. This means better access, and more swimming. Yes, swimming. We will run the event late in semester - put Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 November in your diaries. This is the end of week 14, and won't but suitable for everyone. But this date does allow you get a good break before you get down to your studies, and it does make for more enjoyable swimming. The area also offers great walking and mountain biking. And don't forget the reputation the Boree Log has built up over the years - its a great place to pick up!

More information will be available closer to the event.

Arrow 24 Hour Adventure Race

The full story of the adventure race is now here. Its so big, and has so many photos, we've decided to keep it as a seperate newsletter. Check it out here. There are a few problems with the formatting just now - the pictures might not display. We'll try and get this sorted asap.

Six Foot Track Post Mortem

So this was my first experience both with the BMC and Camping in general. Let me tell you I was in for a few surprises.

Look I gotta start by telling you about Sensei Gemma. After walking for nearly 6 hours one of the fellows was finally brave enough to challenge Gemma….”Hey Gemma, Do you think we could stop for a break…..I am really sore and thirsty?”
Gemma just responded by shouting “Where is there no Pain?”
Obediently we all responded (as we were now conditioned)…”There is no pain in this Dojo, Master Gemma” (Comical Reference ..see Karate Kid).

The guys had been trying to scare Morten, Lars and Johan with stories about drop bears - I thought they were kidding til the next morning when we couldn't find Ingrid. Sensei Gemma made us keep going without her cos we were 10 minutes behind schedule, but if any of you guys are out that way then maybe keep an eye out for her.

Some of the walkers were pretty inexperienced –and we all had a good laugh at Adam when he pulled out a suit. I think he was planning to pick up…But at this point he hadn’t met the competition (Gigolo Jarred). At Lunch Gigolo Jarred DID pick up. We were all just grateful for Gemma to let us stop for lunch, but Jarred wanted Desert too.

Keeping with the trend, Pete and Clare obviously had a different kind of exercise in mind when they signed up for this walk. It took them about five minutes to ditch the rest of us for the night. Sure, tent walls might be thin and all, but do you really need to be five kilometres away?

So we camped the first night in a Beef Pasture. During the many drinks that night someone someone questioned …”Farmboy Mike, haven’t you tipped some cows in your time???” This ultimately led to the lesson that Lumberjacks have known for years…Never turn your back on a falling tree (or Cow as the case may be).
We will miss FarmBoy Mike.

Things were seeming pretty bleak for me at this time. And then I got a blister. Man I wasn’t the only one, but I was complaining so much that they broke out the first aid. When they opened the case there was nothing inside but a two litre bottle of massage oil. I forgot about the blisters then as the good times finally started to roll my way.

Let me tell you I am going on every BMC (Mike Doran’s Fresh Air Experience) Trip from now on.

Word….

Caving and Squeezing in Bungonia

Abey Saied and Karl Umlauff have written this report. The caving weekend on August 17, 18 and 19 was organised by Shaun "I prefer to have a bbq than do the best cave in Bungonia" Lonergan and was attended by folks called James, Michael (known as Martin to Johanna), Joe and Johanna (both in the lopsided Landcruiser), John, Owain, Abey and Karl. The weekend was held on the same one as the Six Foot Track Walk and at the risk of offending the people who went on that walk, I must say I reckon we had a heaps better time and saw and went into a lot more holes than they did. What do you think Adam?

When the group arrived at Bungonia State Recreation Area Karl opened his boot (trunk for you US types) and realised his entire bag of clothes was still on the floor of his bedroom in Sydney. Shaun saved the day by donating a pair of PORNSTAR tracksuit pants for Karl to use for caving.

Day 1 was taken up with abseiling and prussiking practice near Drum Cave entrance. Later that afternoon Shaun attempted to get into cave b124 but plonked his arse on a stinging nettle at the entrance and was hence thwarted in his attempt to work out how to get past the drop a few metres into the cave. We moved onto cave b123 next door and through what looked like a Wombat hole, Shaun and John squeezed through and started setting up anchor points for the abseil inside. This cave was very dusty and was the one that Abey did a reverse worm squirm out of when the dust and constriction got a bit much. Owain's reassurance and cool headedness got him back in the cave. Abey completed the cave and describes his experience further on in the report. When we got out of the cave, the non-dusty crisp air was very refreshing (just like a Junior Mint). It was well past dark now so we bailed to the campsite for the night.

Day 2 and it was past six o'clock in the evening now and getting chilly and dark. "Are you guys still keen on caving?" Owain asked. "Hell yes!" Karl and I responded. The others had already given up and had decided to head back to camp to start the barbecue. It had been a long day. We had hiked along the Red track that day, down the western side of Mt. Ayre and climbing up the creek to the Gorge, first descending 300 metres and following Bungonia Creek over boulders the size of houses, only to begin our 300 metre hike up the gorge for the return. We finished our hike at about 3pm and most of us were pretty tired. Still, we had looked for a few caves to finish up the day with, but somehow hadn't been able to locate them. So we decided to try out Acoustic Pot.

It was already dark when John, Owain, Karl and I got geared up and ready to enter the cave. John and Owain were the two experts and thus went in first to get a head start on all the setup. I asked Karl if I could go next, considering that if I went last I might just panic and not go in the cave at all. I had only had my first caving experience the day before and this would be the second cave I attempted that weekend. I remembered getting ready to enter B-123 the day before and how I just froze while trying to claw my way through the entrance described as "an awkward squeeze." I belatedly realized I was more claustrophobic than I had realized, and I had been gripped with terror as I felt the cave walls choke my body from all sides, almost asphyxiating me. There was no room to move my head and I couldn't see the end of the tunnel. I felt I was trapped and buried alive, face down, in a rock-solid coffin. 'What the hell am I doing here?' I thought, 'Fuck this! This caving shit is just not for me.' I quickly shimmied the few metres backwards to safety. I composed myself and Owain had talked to me long enough to get me to relax. I was able to crawl through the squeeze on my second attempt, still in relative anxiety, but as the chambers opened a bit more, I had felt less claustrophobic. Still, I never forgot that I was surrounded by solid rock, many metres below the earth, and that the eight of us were compressed into tight, uncomfortable spaces usually reserved for creatures such as snakes and bats. But I never quite beat my fear of going into "squeezes" and "flatners" which I saw as no more than very shallow graves for the living.

Back to the Acoustic cave description. Karl agreed to go last, and when Owain gave me the go from inside the cave I went in. The beginning was a bit of a crawl after which there was more room to maneuver for the next turn. I called out to Karl to come in, but he didn't answer. I called out his name for over a minute, with no answer. What the fuck? Did he panic and just leave? I heard Owain tell me from somewhere below in the cave that maybe Karl was taking a piss in the woods and couldn't hear me. I waited a couple of minutes when I finally heard Karl scrambling by the entrance of the cave. "Hey, where the hell have you been?" I asked as he crawled in. "What's one plus one and add the word 'number' in front of it?", Karl answered. (These weren't the actual words said).

We crawled and descended down several narrow passages into the cave, until we finally entered a larger chamber where John and Owain were already busy rigging up the ropes and anchors. Owain was very excited about this cave and called out "HELLO!" I heard the echo of 'HELLO, HELLO, HELLO' resonate all around me. "That's why it's called Acoustic," he explained, beaming. Karl and I watched them work for about an hour, both paying careful attention to safety and redundancy until the setup was finished. When everything was set to go, Owain went down first, rappelling down the line and screaming "Wow, this is awesome!" as he descended down the rope. It took him about 5 minutes to complete the abseil, when I heard his voice from somewhere down below say "This is beautiful guys!" Next was Karl, and he looked a bit jumpy strapping himself in and climbing over the ledge. He was good though, and abseiled comfortably down, by far more quiet than Owain. (Karl's comments: I was quiet so I could soak up the experience of the cylindrical shaped shaft I was abseiling into and because I was a bit nervous.) I waited patiently, not really knowing what to expect. I knew from the map that this was a 30-metre drop: in scuba diving terms, I would be nearing the maximum allowable depth, close to the absolute limit.

John was on bellee and looked at me and asked me if I was nervous. "Should I be?" I asked. "Maybe" he answered, with a sinister chuckle in his voice. "Off rope" Karl called out from below and that was my cue. I crawled over the large rocks that separated the chamber from the ledge and allowed my helmet light to survey the huge chamber. It was impressive. I couldn't get near enough to the ledge to look over, though, until I actually began my descent. Under John's watchful eye I secured my descender into the rope, and he tied in another loop just to slow down my abseil even further. I carefully edged back towards the ledge, still not knowing what lay below. I realized I would have to lean all my weight back into the void, and extend my legs, until I was horizontal over a 30m drop. Fuck! I got a bit rattled, but edged closer to the precipice, then leaned nervously out. I barely heard John tell me to extend my legs further with feet flat and just trust the equipment. I looked behind me and partly lit up the huge drop, a black awesome chute that disappeared into nothing. What seemed like miles down below I could make out a very small glowing light stick that was strapped to Karl's helmet. It was a huge drop, just an enormous black hole. "Abseiling" I said, and I leaned back as much as I dared to, and felt the descender slide through the rope. I held the rope behind my back with my right hand, the way I'd been taught, not quiet knowing where to place the other hand. Instinctively I tried holding the lead rope with it, but it would just burn. I slowly slid down, with my feet having no grip on the smooth walls at all. I looked around me and surveyed this eerie gigantic vault as I continued to descend into the void. I felt like I was rappelling into the Mother Ship of Aliens. Stalagmites, stalagmites and all sorts of tree roots dangled from the ceiling. Down below Owain asked me how I was going. It seemed like I'd been abseiling for an eternity when in reality I'd only covered about 10-metres. My hips were hurting from the immense strain of the harness and slowly the descender seemed to pick up more speed as I neared the bottom. About 5metres from the bottom the walls disappeared and I was abseiling in limbo past the overhang. I twirled around to get bearings and I could see Owain and Karl's lights until I hit the bottom. Wow! Amazing. I looked up and could barely see where the chute disappeared into the blackness of the ceiling. "Off rope" I yelled to John above and with shaking hands removed the Figure 8 from my harness. It was baking hot, and Owain placed it in the dust to cool off. "Incredible, isn't it?" he said. "Yeah", but how the fuck are we supposed to get back up? I wondered, knowing the answer all too well.

John yelled "Abseiling" from somewhere above and started his descent. He did it fairly fast, while I seemed to have spent ages doing mine. It was an amazing sight to see him just hanging in the massive void, as if suspended weightless in space. He touched down gracefully and unhooked himself. "Awesome" he said. We explored the rest of the cave, going further down into something like Batman's underground chute to the Bat-mobile. We came upon smaller and smaller tunnels until we were crawling and slithering on our stomachs, backs or sides to 67 metres below. We finally came to a three-way intersection where we were facing each other on our stomachs like four slugs, barely able to turn around. Owain tried different routes and squeezes and finally we decided to turn around. At the other end, John tried one last squeeze, a top-level nook that first required his helmet coming off (now, if you ask me, if the squeeze requires the removal of the helmet, maybe you shouldn't squeeze into them). He slid his arms in first in order to streamline his body and squirmed and kicked his way into the opening, which measured about 0.4m by 0.5m. His feet were still dangling out awkwardly as he moaned and groaned and struggled to wriggle his body through the hole. 'Fuck, how does he do it?' I thought. "It's not that tight" he said between gasps, "I just think I might need to exhale to get through it." The guy has no fear of getting stuck in any of these crevices. He pushed his way through and found an opening on the other side large enough to allow him to turn back. But as he squeezed back through arms first, he did get stuck. "Er, guys. I think I might need some help here." Karl and Owain each grabbed a hand and pulled him, but still didn't get him through. "I think I might have to undo my overalls" John said. Somehow he managed to slip off his top and with the guys pulling him out, he eventually crawled out of the hole, albeit in his underwear. His overalls were around his ankles from the squeeze. "That wasn't so much as Squeeze as a Flatner" he said. We headed back to the rope and John started his prussikking up at about 8:30pm. It would take us about 30 minutes on average per person, to prussik the 30-metres up the rope. I thought to myself how I'd only prussikked for about 5 minutes the day before, for a complete distance of perhaps 2metres. I got a bit nervous at the thought of not being able to ever get out of this cave. However, as John and Karl both made their way up in turn, both breathing heavily from the exercise as they neared the halfway point, I became more confident that I could also do it. The hour-long interval allowed me to relax, and I was already pretty tired from such a long day, that I think my brain just switched itself off and I went into autopilot. I started to forget I was in a cave, over 30 metres below ground. It was now past 9:30pm. "Off rope" yelled Karl and I began attaching my three prussiks to the rope. Owain didn't like one of my knots and re-attached it again. He told me in a comforting manner to just take it slowly, enjoy the scenery and take as many breaks as I needed. He also advised me to try different prussikking techniques, such as using one foot or both feet in the stirrup. I began my ascent and found the prussiks relatively easy to move up. I got into a good rhythm, and before long I had covered 5m with no huge effort. I decided to just double-time it to the top, while I had the energy and the pace. I was groaning a bit, but thoroughly enjoying the workout and the feeling of being suspended 15-metres above ground in this cave. I kept going and reached the top in less than 25 minutes, breaking John's time (I know it wasn't a race, but I felt I had something to prove to these guys, especially after yesterday). But when I reached the ledge, I realized it would be a nightmare to pull myself over. My right foot was still in the prussik, and my harness was attached to the rope as well, everything flat against the rock and very hard to pry up with my fingers (without scraping a decent amount of skin and flesh off of them). There was no visible rock to use as leverage to hoist myself over the ledge. I inched further up, trying to use a safety rope that John threw down, but I realized getting to safety would require a bit of maneuvering. "Any ideas guys?" I asked John and Karl. While they were trying to guide me up, I heard someone yell from outside the cave (it was Shaun) "Are you guys okay down there? Is everything alright?" He was obviously worried that we had been in this cave for so long, almost four hours now. "Hang on, we're busy" Karl yelled back (he later told me it was the first thing that had come to his mind, because he was worried about helping me over the ledge).

Karl's comments: Shaun apparently heard what I said as "Fuck off, we're busy". Shaun came looking for us and he was quite annoyed at hearing this from me since he had to leave the comfort of his fire and had had a shower. I didn't mean to be rude, it was just that John was talking to Abey who was stuck over a 30m drop and I couldn't concentrate on two things at one at this time.'Oh, well, here goes nothing' I thought and just reached out to the rock above, releasing the rope, and hoping not to slip. When I had my hand around something I reached up with the other one quickly and kicked up with both feet, hoping one of them would find the wall behind me to my right and support me. I managed to huff and puff over the ledge unfashionably clumsy, but safely. "Well done" the others said. My fingers were shaking and I tried to untie all the knots around my harness that still attached me to the rope. I could still slip and fall off this treacherous ledge, just needed to get all this stuff off so I could climb over the rock to safety. After about 5 minutes of tying and untying ropes and knots (I had made a bit of a mess), I finally freed myself and crawled to the other side. "Off rope" I finally yelled down to Owain.

"Holy Shit!" I exclaimed finally, glad that it was over. "Excellent, huh?" Karl said. While Owain worked on his ascent, John, Karl and I sat in complete darkness analyzing the cave and how cool this whole experience had been. "So what did you do last weekend?" we joked around. "This will be thelongest and most interesting email I write in a long time" I said. "My mum doesn't even want to know what I do on weekends anymore" John commented. We heard Owain puffing his way up as he neared the top, about 25 minutes later, really fast despite the fact that he was pulling up a backpack with gear and pulling in the rope at the same time. He reached over the same side of the ledge as I had, and was completely excited once he reached safety. "That was awesome!" he said. It took John and Owain another half hour to gather up all the gear, before we headed out of the cave. When we finally got out, we high-fived each other, completely exhausted yet exhilarated from the experience. It was now almost 11pm and pretty cold out. We were dirty, hungry, and very, very tired. But what a day! See the attached photo of Acoustic Cave 30m drop.Michael hitched a ride on Sunday evening with some elderly folks as he had to get back to Sydney for an exam on Monday. On Monday the remaining Sensational 7 had to call in SouthCare rescue helicopter from Canberra as Shaun needed emergency CPR to get over the fact that he hadn't worn his PORNSTAR pants all weekend. The cost of this callout was a wallet burning $250 000 which will be billed to the miscellaneous student fund that you pay with your HECS. When Shaun's heart rate returned back down to about 150 he felt up to attacking College Cave. This was one hell of a cave. And I think that
this report is long enough already so I won't describe it. But in this cave was a frog!

Abey and Karl

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