Mudhand » caving

Back from Mongolia!

Johannes — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:17:36 +0000

Ha! I survived Mongolia! And the French cavers! No, just kidding, they were great company during the trip, all four weeks… So what happened? Well, the next few weeks I will try to decipher my travel diary, translate it to English, and publish it here for whoever is interested in the answer of that question… hmmm, I also need to select and edit a few of my 5000 photos I brought back… So please come back soon if you want to read my about my Mongolian (not-so-much-)caving trip!!!

Preparations

Johannes — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:06:06 +0000

The preparations for the Mongolian expedition are closing up! I have spent way more money than I planned, but I think most of it are well spent money – I even plan to earn back some of the money spent on my new business!

I started with something I have thought about for a long time, a new camera set:

Nikon D300, with two zooms (16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, and 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR), battery pack, remote controller, tripod (Velbon Sherpa 630 with a ball head), flash (Speedlight SB-800), UV-filters, polarization filter, and lastly a backup pocket camera (Olympus Mju 1030SW). To this must be added battery chargers, rechargable batteries en masse, solar panel… With the new camera the need for a new computer with larger screen (22″) and a pen tablet (Wacom Intuos3 A4-size) should perhaps not have surprised me, but I didn’t expect it that soon. I do get some angst over buying so much high-tech stuff…

…and I must admit it is much more fun to buy the out door equipment!

My old rucksack, a 110L The North Face Chamelion (everything but their new Chameleon!) that has served me well the last 18 or so years, is too heavy to bring to Mongolia, so I bought a lighter (but less sturdy) Bergans Rondane 85L with a flight bag. I also had to buy a pair of boots (Meindl Island PRO MFS) and (recommended by Manuela) some Smartwool socks. I also bought a sleeping bag, a Western Mountaineering Apache SMF, my first down filled (850+) bag. The rucksack and the sleeping bag was bought at Säck, the boots at Kängspecialisten, and the socks and some other minor stuff like the sunglasses (Julbo Race) and the BUFF (Visor buff Evo 2 Uphill) from Addnature (and no, I’m not sponsored – if you want to sponsor me, please just send me an e-mail and I’m sure we can work something out! :p)

(With a nodd to Manuela, who gave me the idea for this list on her blogg.)

Burfjellet 2007 again

Johannes — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:56:58 +0000

For those of you reading Polish, there is a short report on the STJ homepage, written by Karolina, on last summers exploration in Burfjellet. I’m not sure what it says though… For those of you who, like me, don’t read Polish, but still want to now what we did last summer during our (almost) two week at Burfjellet, I have written two small texts (one in Swedish, one in English). Oh, almost forgot, this years mountain camp will take place at Burfjellet August 2 to 9! More information on thit great event can soon be found on the web pages of Norsk grotteforbund and Sveriges speleologförbund!

Burfjellet 2007

Johannes — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:20:26 +0000

This years mountain-camp will be the perhaps most exiting area in Scandinavian caving right now, Burfjellet not far from Mo i Rana. It is an area known for many years, but it was not until the last few years that its potential became apparent! In 2006 the Polish cavers found a deep pitch, but lack of time forced them to turn at the top of pitch. Last year we returned for a 12 days stay on the mountain, and we manage making break-throughs in all three major caves (Edvardheimgrotta, Brattligrotta and Storligrotta), with the hundred meter deep pitch and waterfall in Edvardheimgrotta as the greatest discoveries. But we failed to connect the caves — so that remains to be done this summer! If you are interested in participating (first week of August), please feel free contact me, or check out the webpages of the Swedish Speleological Society or the Norwegian Speleological Society for news and information! Unfortunately I will not be there, I will go to Mongolia instead, but there will be cavers from Norway and Sweden and probably also Poland, UK, and perhaps also Hungary, and I’m sure it will be a great mountain camp! After last summer’s trip, I wrote a small travelogue for Norsk Grotteblad and Grottan, that I have translated to English. You can read it here!

caving love

Johannes — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:31:36 +0000

This video from speleologas has everything you want from a music video! The lone man, smoking his waterpipe, heartbroken and teared by his miserable love to two women, a betrayed love, but also a happy end symbolized by wood chopping. But all this would only have been your average, we-have-seen-it-before-love-story, if it wasn’t for the setting! See it, listen to it, enjoy it! And then see it again! And again! And then see karabi and Spider. And then do something more useful.

(Many thanks Rolf for the tip!)

Hålor som inte är grottor

Johannes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:49:30 +0000

Otroligt! DN har börjat kalla de hålorna medlemmar ur den numera vittkända ryska domedagssekten tänkte vänta ut jordens undergånd i för just det de är: hålor! Detta efter att länge ha skrivit grottor (tillsammans med till exempel Aftonbladet (medan Aftonbladet TV helt riktigt talar om en bunker och förstör lite av min indignation!), SvD, Metro, SVT och säkert flera). Men rekordet slår kanske Sveriges speleologförbunds ordförande som borde veta bättre än under att under en intervju i Magnusson i P1 (27 mars, ca tio min in i programmet) “för sakens skull” går med på att kalla hålorna för grottor! Hallå Thomaz, du missade just en jättechans att sprida upplysning om underjorden (om nu inte det är en motsägelse vill sägas…)! Däremot var fortifikationsverkets representant Karl-Martin Svärd noga med att kalla deras bergrum för just berganläggningar och inte grottor (och av exakt den rätta anledningen, att grottor är naturliga medan bunkrar, gruvor och berganläggningar är tillverkade). För övrigt kan tilläggas att Usama bin Ladin knappast gömmer sig i grottor, utan snarare i bunkrar! Även om ihopblandningen ledde till en omfattande bibliografi över grottor i Afghanistan…

OK, jag måste erkänna att också jag tycker att finns viktigare saker att ägna energi åt än att bli upprörd över att journalister och telegramförfattare inte hinner ägna mer tanke åt sina nyhetstexter än att de inte förstår vad de skriver om, eller att SSF:s ordförande väljer den lätta vägen, men ord och språkbruk är viktiga.

Knorr

Johannes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:16:40 +0000

Sometimes you find yourself in the most strange places… (the fun(niest) starts somewhere here)

Mongolia 2008

Johannes — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:50:30 +0000

I am going to Mongolia! It was with a lot of anxiety that I bought the tickets two days ago, but now I have the tickets! In paper even!

I will join a small French caving expedition to Mongolia, from July 21 to August 19. We will be a team of five persons in total, with diverse interests but the focus on caves. Caves in Mongolia? Well, honestly there are not many known caves there, but the very few earlier caving expeditions there have found some caves up to ca 300m in length, so there is at least some potential. It will be very exiting to take part in some of the first explorations in this nearly unknown land! And who knows, the reason only a few caves are known might be that only very few people have looked for them…!

…Now I will have to live on blodpudding and falukorv for the rest of the month. And I need a new camera…

American Caving Accidents 2006

Johannes — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:56:21 +0000

American Caving Accidents 2006 kom häromdagen. Jag har bara hunnit bläddra igenom den som hastigast, men jag blev inte särskilt förvånad av att se att fallolyckorna dominerade stort. Att döma av de korta fallbeskrivningarna verkar det också som om de allra flesta (om inte alla?) olyckorna hade gått att undvikas. Två kategorier framträder rätt snart: olyckor på grund av okunskap (framför allt folk som ger sig ner i grottor utan rätt utrustning) och olyckor på grund av “slarv” (ofta erfarna grottare som av oklara anledningar brister i rutinerna). Det är från den sista kategorin vi kan lära oss den viktigaste lärdomen: att vem som helst av oss kan slarva, slarv som i kombination med bara lite otur kan leda till dödsolyckor.

stop med rep, originally uploaded by JohannesLundberg.

De två viktigaste verkygen för att förhindra slarvet är rätt utrusning (t.ex. skruvkarbiner för att fästa repbromsen till selen) och rätt rutiner (t.ex. att alltid kolla att skruvkarbinerna är åtskruvade, eller att repet är rätt trätt genom repbromsen). Egentligen är det faktiskt inte svårare än så. Om alla som besöker/utforskar grottor alltid hade rätt utrustning och rätt rutiner så skulle antalet olyckor helt säkert minska till en bråkdel av vad de är nu. Tyvärr är nyckelordet här det lilla “alltid”; många av oss har säkert en eller annan gång slarvat med både utrustning och rutiner, och nästan alltid går det bra. Problemet är bara den gången det inte går bra…

Poland 2007

Johannes — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:21:47 +0000

A month after the Budapest trip it was time again to head south, this time to southern Poland and Kraków. And this time I was not alone from Scandinavia; I had company with Hans Øivind Aarstad from Norway that I learnt to know last year. We wanted to visit our friends from STJ Kraków as well as some of the cavers I met last year. Of course we also wanted to go caving, eat good food and drink warm beer! And so we did! Anyway, our trip to Kraków, two caves in the Tatras, and Speleokonfrontacje resulted in a short travelouge that can be read here!