Ellie and I turned up to Whitewalls on Friday evening to find some of the Cardiff Club sat on the grass outside the hut. ‘Do you want to go to Spaderunner?’, ‘Where’s that?’, ‘The end of Daren – Ian & Traver did it in 10hrs’ ‘Sounds good’. Trip sorted.

The lack of food on the trip was my fault: the whole pack of Mars bars that should have been in my kit bag were either the pack in Sheffield or the ones in my work flat in Leeds; neither of which helped here but I scrounged some from various oversuit pockets and Chris had a good supply of Welsh Cakes and sweets.

Apart from the lack of food, the trip got off to a flying start, storming through the crawl and not hitting any problems until just before reaching The Time Machine. Chris had done the Prices’ Dig-Daren through-trip but never been further in than Big Chamber Nowhere Near the Entrance and I had never been past the first ladder. We took the wrong turn when we dropped down the free-climb and spent an hour searching through the wrong boulder choke and gloopy streamway before realising our mistake. Correction-made, we were off again and reached Hard Rock Cafe (HRC), the first permanent camp, after four hours.

A short food and drink break over, we belted through the sandy passages, interspersed with stoops and micro-crawls. This was great fun – and sweaty work – especially as the tacklesack was back in my posession. As the roof gradually came down and the going became more spiky and crawly, the frequency of humorous props left by the diggers increased: fake hands in the sand, toys, pictures, notes. We enjoyed finding these.

Rock Steady Cruise/Accupuncture Passage (sic) seemed to go on a long way and Chris certainly didn’t enjoy it, being the gangly-half of the pair and wasn’t too happy when I sent him down the wrong crawl temporarily. By the time we dropped down into Ankle-Grinder By-Pass, we took a well-earned water break as we were wearing most of the previous intake in the form of sweat.

We reached Restaurant at the End of the Universe (REU), the second and final permanent camp, at around the five hour mark. We dosed up on sweets, admired the surroundings and impressive mould-fungi and agreed our strategy: dump gear and turn around at six hours. The 10m ladder was impressive and we utilised minimalist belaying techniques (no-kit anymore). The novelty of big, smooth-walled passage was short-lived and quickly descended into sandy stooping and crawling again. After 1 3/4hrs (our turn-around time, passed) we finally reached the end: Spaderunner. We were tired, hungry and thirsty and had both been considering turning around for at least the last 15 minutes but it was done. Now for out.

We raced back to REU, driven by the need for water and food and got there three hours after we left. HRC was reached after another hour and we gobbled down Chris’ Christmas Belgian chocolate (it was very good). From here on the cycle of going from energy-crash to temporary reprieve continued; our progress buoyed-up by water and chocolate breaks. There is a long stretch of passage called Bonsai Streamway – a good half an hour of cave – and neither of us could remember it at all from the way in. We had a good giggle.

At the big ladder I was halfway down the top section when I puzzled over why the belay rope was pulling me down, ‘Chris, you’re pulling on the wrong rope’ ‘Sorry’. At the 45° (sideways) ladder section – the most dangerous bit – it was happening again: another shout, another apology. At the bottom Chris admitted he didn’t really know which rope was which. More giggling.

We were both very glad to get back to the entrance crawl: it was a known; the last hurdle and a lot less tiring than Rock Steady Cruise/Accupuncture Passage. In at 1030, out at 2330: 13 hours total – not bad considering we didn’t know the way.

At the hut we had single-malt whisky from wine glasses and Rosie had saved us not only dinner but swiss rolls & custard! Brillo.

When we arrived at the campsite we found two OUCC members and an UBSS member who had ended up in Matienzo, without transport, cooking facilities or much cash, after the OUCC trip to the Picos mountains had to be abandoned due to lack of permit.

They seemed to think this wasn’t a real expedition as there were toilets and running water.

For those of you who have been here before and met Sena, the bar’s guard dog, you’ll be pleased to know that she’s less interested in chasing feet now. She’s had puppies and is much more interested in sticks and just getting away from the kids.

Sena

Tiva

The first day saw a trip into Tiva to make sure we remembered how to cave and to continue the resurvey of the system that SUSS started last year. Various side passages were looked at until Tim dissapeared into a small tube above an even smaller meandering vadose trench. This was pushed past some formations until it got smaller. Luckily it then go bigger again and just as the trench and the floor came up to meet the roof tube, the passage intersected something larger. Leaving a trail of kit to remind him which way he’d gone, lead to a quick exploration of 100m+ of walking passage and features named “Carabiner Junction” and “glove junction”. Lots of side passages and oxbows and passages he just didn’t bother going down before turning back to tell everyone else.  Four more days of caving saw this new series surveyed, pushed (some leads still open) and linked into the main Tiva passage and the Tinto Series.

Liz and stals

Although this Series does link in to Tinto, it is very different in character. Rosé is in a brown limestone, with fossils, smooth walls, phreatic and vadose. Tinto is a sharper grey rock and feels more fault controlled.

Survey to come

The link from Tvia to Risca was investigated from both sides but found to be blocked. The entrance to Risca has historically been used as a rubbish tip and it seems the dry connection has been blocked by rubbish being washed through. From underneath it appears to be a fridge.

Peña Encaramada

This cave, close to Cow pot and Cave of the Wild Mares, was found at Easter. Various trips we done, some in conjuction with the OUCC/UBSS guys and a large amount of lead pushing and surveying was done.

Shaft Bashing

a couple of days were spent on the hill.

Dave entered a shaft that he claimed excitedly must be 40m deep. Sadly his rope was only 20m long.

Coventosa

A “day off” down Coventosa was planned. Unfortunately we forgot how far it was to the lakes and taking photos lead to a 4 hr caving trip which wasn’t much of a rest

Hole in the Road.

Last year’s  extensions in “Hole in the Road”/”Bollon” were explored to see if any way on could be found.  Water levels were higher than last year resulting in the awkward climb down at the beginning of the often sumped boulder choke, being thigh deep.

Several draughting holes in the boulder choke in ‘Vindication series’ were investigated until a climb down directly below one of the large stalagmites lead down to the water level. Some progress was made through the boulders, but the routes mostly led down stream back towards the old cave. Upstream progress was not possible even though the whole choke is draughting.

Chisel Cave
After Dave and Clare left, Brendan, Jenny and Tim had the plan of an easy day of caving just checking some entrances that had been found but not pushed. The first of these – site 1673 – is a small resurgence in a steep stream bed.

It was described as “passage (3m) that requires pushing at a sharp right hand bend”. So Brendan entered and soon passed the first right hand bend. This was immediately followed by an awkward left hand bend and then an intersection with a slightly larger (hand and knees) passage. Tim went in armed with the survey kit and joined Dr Sloan exploring to a small chamber with a cross rift and a soft choked continuation. Another trip back to the surface through the awkward bends to retrieve the only digging tools we had with us, a hammer and chisel.

The choke was soon cleared and the trio surveyed and photographed 50m of passage ending in a dig. This has airspace over the top of mud/ rock fill,  that would require a crowbar and a small shovel like the one we left in the tackle store at the beginning of the day.

All in all – an excellent trip in which SUSS members entered and surveyed about 1km. More to do next year.

Other members of SUSS joined the Matienzo expedition in Spain. Whilst there they found new cave in Tiva, Hole in the Road and extended a resurgence into 50m of new cave.

Currently another 4 members of SUSS are in Dachstein, Austria. One of the main aims of this expedition is to push “What have you got pot”…good luck guys!

Mission: to find the pretties in Aggy

On a lovely sunny morning me, Sema, Mike, Tom1, Pointy Tom and Chris went to Agen Allwedd. We crawled through the entrance and signed the log book. At the first boulder choke:

“have you got the laminated survey?” “no, I thought Mike had it” “no, I haven’t got it either, I thought Ellie had it”

Very well prepared we were. But luckily Mike had taken a picture of the survey on his camera so we had to use that. We managed to get through and eventually into the main streamway were we took some photos and then decided to go back and explore the mud flats.

On the way back we sopped at a food dump which was on top of a slope of mud to satisfy our stomachs. Using the welly water we made a slide going down which was very fun.

Walking to the end of the mud flats passage took about 20 minutes. There were some awesome crystals growing out of some of them.

Finally it was time to head back home, with tummys rumbling we were in need of food!

A very civilised supper took place, where we moved the tables and chairs and sat outside eating lovely pasta Rosie cooked. Conversation was funny- learning about Sema’s and Alisa’s school life, with no mention of caving! We walked to the end of the lane to catch the sunset but unfortunately it wasn’t as good as the one on Friday night which was stunning. The evening was entertaining, Rostam singing Queen and cave songs is not to be missed.

Craig A Ffynnon

After taking a wrong turn and ending up at someones house we got to the layby for Craig A Ffynnon. Just 5 minutes in, after going through the entrance crawl we came upon some amazing straws covering the ceiling. Through some mud and some water and up a few ladders we carried on walking between the tape and admiring how pretty the cave was.

A rift climb led us to the second boulder choke, which, like the description (which we remembered this time) said, was very arduous. We walked through the passage past more pretty stuff and through some very squelchy deep mud to the Hall of the Mountain Kings. It was awesome. After looking round for a few minutes we carried on through the 250m crawl. A little way in Tom farted which wasn’t the most pleasant of smells!

After the crawl and going through a bit of passage we got to more massive boulder chokes and went down a little climb through a horrible tight crawl in order to try and find helictite passage. But everywhere we looked we couldn’t find the way on so we decided to start heading back and do some photogay on the way.

The second boulder choke was much easier coming down, as you just slid most of the way because of all the mud we were covered in. Coming out seemed much faster so before we knew it we were outside again. Shame it was raining.

Driving back we nearly ran over a squirrel. Chris in the front seat: “Oh no, shit, theres a squirrel! Nooo the squirrel” but fortunately it ran off into the verge after realising it probably couldn’t outrun the car on the road.

(Photos to follow when i can upload them, alternatively just look on facebook)

Adam in Croesor Rhosydd

Ride of the Valkyries

On a Thursday evening in February a few of us decided we all wanted to do Ride of the Valkyries… I had DCRO Whitewalls practice all of Saturday, so met people at the TSG that evening where the idea of a Castleton Pub Crawl was born! We all knew we would have a beasting of a trip the next day, so were up to improving the calibre of the trip with a hangover. The advanced trip of Lil’ Chris, Tom1 and H set off; whilst me and Peachey sat drinking tea, the third member of our team (Mike) was still snoozing away.

We gave them a good hour or so to get rigging, and then followed them up to JH. Just as we were about to set off down the entrance pitch, Peachey realised he had forgotten his helmet so ran off back to the car…giving the advanced team even more time. We bimbled down, and headed to the arranged meeting point…expecting to wait for a little bit. However, they were already there! But hadn’t quite found Ride of the Valkyries…H’s hangover was setting in!.We decided to have a look at major sump (Mike and Peachey took one of their best pees in history), and bimble some more…2hours later we found H coming down the ropes – yahoo!

It was time to head up the ropes, de-rigging on the way…Ride of the Valkyries had some stunning pitches and an airy traverse. JH was a pleasure to de-rig as always, and we headed out after an awesome trip…another tick on the Peak Survey.

Rift to Large Pot Exchange

I agreed last year to join Rob2 on his excursion for a Rift-Large exchange trip on the Annual Dinner Weekend…Rob2, Tom1 and Matt set off with lots of encouragement from me and H (”Remember…it’s all about speed”, “go, go, go!” etc) to rig Large Pot. Having organized the annual dinner – I really didn’t want to miss the food or speech and had fears that we may be in for a long trip!

The rift team (me, H, Glen and Scott) headed off a few hours later, and went down the pitches to the awaiting water of the 4m duck. I smelt jelly babies, and heard noises – the other team had made it to the other side, so perhaps I was going to enjoy the dinner afterall! The water seemed warmer and slightly lower than the previous trip, and thoroughly wetted we soon headed through the crawls and boulder chokes . The first up-pitch is a glorious straight prussick over some moonmilk and to the top. It all seemed too spacious; but this quickly changed as we encountered many, many awkward thrutchy constrictions to get the bags through. The top of the second pitch is extremely tight, and certainly gives you something to think about! All too soon, we popped out in the field and enjoyed the fine weather as we returned to the car…all in time for tea and medals at the hut.

Croesor rhosydd

This trip has been on my tick list since joining SUSS, and since the Dachstein Training Event was just a stone’s throw away, it was rude not to do it. After a morning spent in the Wetherspoons of Abergavenny whilst members of the group sobered up, we headed over to the car park. It was a glorious day and the walk up was very picturesque, but it was time to leave the sunshine behind. We headed into the depths of the slate mine – which certainly lives up to expectations. It was very eery in some of the large chambers, and you could hear the tinkling of rocks as the mine is settling down. The zipwires were great fun, and all was going especially swimmingly for some (Adam fell into the water). When we reached the large lake, the inflatables managed to come lose from the rope…not to worry…Dolphine was here to save us!

Dolphine to the rescue!

Unfortunately, Dolphine wouldn’t even take a Peachey-sized person; so we had to resort to the spare boat. All safely on the other side, and after a lot of faffing; we navigated our way out. The climb out of the quarry proved entertaining but we soon were off back down the hill, before it got too dark. The journey back to Sheffield was certainly interesting – with leaking petrol, lost keys and mang wrong turns – but Edd safely deposited back to our houses for some sleep by 3am!

Otter Hole

Myself and Jeff met the recently appointed Dr Mike (slightly allebriated) at Tom1’s where we messily packed the car and headed down South to the Forest of Dean. Peachey had recommended a  place and with a 10min walk-in, we expected it to be slightly different – little did we know! We were staying at a restored 18thcentury farm house, with an outdoor toilet, water well, candle light and fire! Quality!

A tasty breakfast at Greenbanks

After being sniffed at for using petrol stoves to cook our bacon and banger butties, we headed off to meet Niki Bailey – our guide for the trip. We had a 10min walk through woodland and along the river to the entrance – which was very beautiful. All of us were pretty quietly apprehensive as we started on the entrance series towards the tidal sump; but this was unfounded – the sump was open! Yahoo – we were the first trip in this season.

I cursed my short legs and lack of sleep as we trundled through many boulder chokes and muddy climbs – but it was all soon forgotten as we entered the main passage. I have never seen so many beautiful formations in my life! Each time you went round another corner – there were more! We got to the end of the cave with plenty of time to spare, and on the way back we took many photos. Each team going to Otter Hole are asked to contribute with some cave conservation – we participated by making a small pond and doing some cleaning. This involved using a scrubbing brush and a weed sprayer to scrub the stals…probably one of the more random experiences of my life.

Stal cleaning

Thankfully the way back out was all on a downhill gradient, and it was far less arduous than on the way in. By 10pm it was time for a pint in the pub that we had just caved underneath! Boy did that pint taste good!

The future…

These are just a few of the awesome trips I’ve been on this term…others included Cliff Cavern trip, Priddy Green Sink,  NCC shafts and Long Kin East. Still on the tick list is finishing Megatron, Draenen, Daren Cilau overnight camp…so if you are interested – let me know!

Me, Ali, Mike, Tim and James went down JH today and it was awesome. James and Mike went to their dig while ali me and tim went down leviathan and then into Speedwell to look at the Miner’s graffiti. After pottering around for a bit we ate sweets and headed back out which was a bit knackering.

All in all a very good trip me thinks : )

Chris

After a long train journey from Delhi, Bridget Hall and I arrived in the Indian city of Shillong, in order to meet with the other members of the 2010 Meghalayan expedition. Two days were spent amassing gear, supplies and musical instruments for the camp in the Jaintia hills. This was followed by an 4 hour jeep journey which finally clocked in at 9 hours, after problems with suspension failure on one of the jeeps.

We eventually arrived at the campsite, pitched tents and began planning the caving to be done over the next three weeks.

Next morning, Tom Chapman (Wessex) and myself (Father and adopted son!!) decided to push Pala shaft in order to connect it to the river system, Krem Diengjem. A team of myself, Tom, Erfan (Iran), Leila (Both Iranian cavers) and Cookie (Wessex) were assembled to push the system and set off on the back of a jeep to the cave entrance. 3 hours later, we arrived at the depression where Pala shaft is located. However, after looking at the map, it was found that the camp lay around about an hours walk away and we could have saved ourselves a number of bruises caused by being thrown around in the back of a jeep.

We pushed Pala shaft through a particularly dubious boulder choke, reminiscent of Eastwater, leading on to a 15 metre pitch. After sitting at the top, waiting for the team, I eventually decided it could be free climbed and set off downclimbing, on slightly dubious footholds, eventually managing to get to the bottom unharmed. Tom followed and we climbed through a hole into a large passage, which continued on. Tom and I decided to leave it for tomorrow and both freeclimbed up the pitch, stopping to quickly rig a rope for faster and safer descent. Whilst Tom and I rigged, Cookie, Leila and Erfan surveyed the cave to the continuing passage using a DistoX and notebook.

The day after, Tom, myself, Erfan and Leila decided to push Pala shaft further. We followed the continuing passage until we hit 3 large shafts. After closer inspection, it was decided to rig the final shaft. We descended and discovered a short duck which surfaced in the Diengjem streamway. As no-one was wearing wetsuits, the team backed off and headed out for beer and curry back at camp.

Tom and I decided to head back to the streamway on the next trip, so suitably clad in wetsuits, we went through the duck, donned buoyancy aids and floated off downstream using Tom’s ‘force’ to find the way on  into the mainstream passage leading to the Diengjem entrance. Whilst finding the way, Tom and I found a large amount of unsurveyed passage, which we made a mental note of and decided to return to.

The next trip, a team of myself, Simon (Brooks), Tom and Rashan (Indian Navy) returned to survey the new passage. A long day was spent surveying, floating in very cold water. A tired but happy team surfaced at 10pm, having surveyed some very complicated passage way.

Further trips revealed more side passages but other teams pushed the main passage while we concentrated on other cave systems in and around the Jaintia Hills for the rest of the expedition.

A successful expedition was concluded by an excellent party for Simon’s 50^th Birthday, held on a beach by a river in a nearby village.

Meghalaya 2010 discovered over 25km of passage in numerous cave systems, with going leads being left for next year, so it is hoped the 2011 expedition will be equally as successful.

Good Housekeeping Award -  Dave Harley& Clare Youens

Pissing up leads Award – Tim Webber

Picked up by Poles Award – Chris Playfoot

Hole in one Award – Chris Chapman

Vomit Girl Award – Denise Chandler

Complete State Award – Jane Rigby

Sharking Award – Dave Mothersole

Sharkbait Award – Ellie Sharples

Idiot Leap Award – Liz Harding

The Lost Trousers Award – Squirrel

Pindale Pusher Award – Dan Sullivan

Wrist Reocovery Award – Mel Lambert

Navigational Numpty Award – Hannah Moulton

How not to wear a helmet Award – Tom Smith

Its a white van, honest Award- Rob Middleton

Bearded Caver Award – Chris Busu

Ninja ‘Nitter Award – Alisa Duncan

Matlock Miner Award – Sally Allsop

Motormouth Award – Edd Willatts

Tremendous Tractor Award – Jeff Wade + Rary

Too much morph, too little caving Award – Rostam Namaghi

Member Mutilation Award – Martyn Grayson

Dr Sloan I – Brendan Sloan

Dr Sloan II – Jen Sloan

Give me a good tug Award – Glen Sankey

BCA (Best Caving Animal) Award – Rob Eavis, Katie Dent & Bounce

Golden P-bolt Award – The Turbary Pot Team

CAM you put it up here Award – Samuel Stringer

Ask for explanations….

SUSS Annual Dinner 2010

Another year gone another rare opportunity to see cavers all poshed up. or at least some of them. This years annual dinner went off without a hitch, or a rescue. We can all thank the no longer secretary Rosie for a truly wonderful weekend. With the majority of the student SUSS plus a few others going up on the friday night this gave us the opportunity to get some good caving in on the saturday with several trips going to some exciting places. A wet swim and wander down White scar for some or a tough but rewarding Large-Rift through trip for others (didn’t even need directions to find the entrance, thankfully. my fault.). By the evening we were all nice and hungry and eventually got up the motivation to get properly dressed and head off to the Masons Arms for the meal…

On getting to the pub we had our free first drink, nothing quite like a free beer, and started to rearrange the tables like we owned the place. After much talking and merriment the starters arrived and we dug in. When it was discovered that there was an entire extra meal on offer as someone hadn’t been able to come and it was to be auctioned off in parts I didn’t hesitate to put a bid in for seconds. The rest of the meal went down easily despite everything seeming to be served with fruit salad, must have been on offer.

Following further beers and jabbering it was time for the talk curtsey of Mad Phil. It took a little longer than expected to work out how to turn on the projector, probably due to the beer. A few of the pictures probably left Jeff feeling a little embarrassed but I’m sure he got over it quite quickly. Then before heading back to the hut for the gear auction it was time for the condiment race…

Those taking part were any of the students who hadn’t done it before. This included me, damn. the selected items were: Ketchup, brown sauce, mayo, mustard, salad cream and tartar sauce. I can tell you for a fact that although you may think the mustard sounds the worst, the tartar sauce was far far worse, lumpy and leaving an after taste for an unpleasant amount of time.  Squirrel emerged as champion, I was foiled by an unexpectedly tough mayo sachet and well this is what Chris Playfoot did.

We returned to the hut and proceeded with the awards and gear auction. much was bought helped along by Mad Phil making bids for people, especialy Martyn. more than £250 was raised for the crete expedition which is awesome. the evening then descended into the usual antics and silly games some of which I will never be trying again.

Eventually Sunday happened and some more caving. before it was time to return to the real world once again. A few of us went via the curry house in Bradford which rounded off the weekend quite nicely. Although not as rowdy as the previous year, I would say that was entirely because of the sheer quantity and quality of the meal, it has left a lot to be lived up to by the new committee. A tall order but I’m sure we’ll make it something as memorable as this one.