Oxford University Cave Club

Club Caving Meetings, Trinity term 2013

 Accommodation:
BEC: Bristol Exploration Club; Blackwalls: Tim's luxury chalet, Pwll Du; BPF: Bull Pot Farm;
Chez Gregson: The Gregson's cottage in Bradwell; MCG: Mendip Caving Group; NPC: Northern Pennine Club;
Orpheus: Orpheus Caving Club; SMCC: Shepton Mallet Caving Club; SWCC:  South Wales Caving Club;
TSG: Technical Speleo Group; UBSS: University of Bristol Speleological Society;  Wessex: Wessex Caving Club;
WSG: Westminster Speleo Group; YSS: Yorkshire Subterranean Society.

Cost covers: loan of equipment, transport, accommodation, food on site; but not food in transit or what you spend in the pub! See here for more information.

Your first caving trip? Read this important information and complete this online OUCC Pre-Trip information form

Going to the Dales? Going to Spain? Don't know the ropes ? - try SRT Training.

PLEASE help and volunteer to organise a weekend. If no-one organises the weekends they won't happen.
There is a detailed crib sheet on the website telling you exactly how to organise a weekend. TAKE A LOOK.

Other meets may be organised - please check at Wednesday meetings or via the OUCC mailing lists.

As usual details of the trips will be advertised closer in time. As a reminder: They will mostly be advertised on the oucc-all mailing list. So if you want to stay up to date, please sign up following the instructions on the website: http://www.oucc.org.uk/current/mailists.htm

27-28 April (1st week) Yorkshire - Expedition Training

Location: YSS hut Caves: Easegill & The SRT Barn
The training will be coordinated by Steph, our lovely expedition leader for this year, and Thomas Ka Leung already volunteered as meet leader and told you how to sign up for this weekend.

As you may know, OUCC is going on an expedition to Spain every summer, and to be well prepared for that (or to learn some advanced caving techniques of general usefulness) we'll have an Expedition Training Weekend at the end of first week. This includes some basic first aid training - what to do if someone gets cold or injured? - some SRT hauling practice - how to get someone up a pitch if they can't do it themselves? - and hopefully also some surveying - what to do if you find new cave? These are generally useful skills and even some advanced cavers will benefit from a refresher. Otherwise it's always great fun to see jammers, stops and other bits of SRT kits used in some very alternative ways to what you'll usually see.

11-12 May (3rd week) Royal Forest of Dean

Location: Camping at Miss Grace's Lane Caves: Otter Hole, Miss Grace's Lane, Slaughter Stream, Draenen
The Meet Leader for this trip hasn't stepped forward and volunteered yet, but will send around a reminder in time.

A rare trip to one of the less frequently visited caving areas of Britain - The Royal Forest of Dean, just at the border of England and Wales! The caves there are smaller than their friends a bit further west in Wales, but no less interesting. And, depending on who you ask, it is also the home of the best decorated cave of Britain: Otter Hole. The entrance to this cave is right next to a tidal river and only open in low tide. And we'll have a leader who will take us in between two high tides. Apparently the cave entrance is still very much dependent on the water levels and in the whole of last year only two successful trips could be made. We'll see, whether we get a chance to see this pearl of a cave, otherwise there are other good places to visit all around. And should people really get bored, it's also not far to go to the big caves of Wales.

Note that there are no caving huts in the area and we'll be *camping*. If the weather is halfway as it should be in May, it will be absolutely gorgeous, otherwise... well... we might find some shelter underground...

18-19 May (4th week) Peak District - Caving & Climbing Weekend

Location: Camping Caves: Giant's, Peak, JH Crags: Any you like
Meet Leader, unless anyone else wants to do it, will probably be Olaf.

Following up on the success of last term's joint caving and climbing weekend we have another one planned in 4th week. This time it'll be in the Derbyshire Peak District, where the climbing is less tidal and apparently really great. We'll see what OUMC will have on offer for us and make sure that they'll get a good taste of the caves in the area. We'll *not* re-visit Titan, as we've only just been there, but probably go to the nearby James Hall Engine Shaft (JH). This is equally deep but broken into four shorter vertical sections of about 50m each and joins in with the magnificent Peak-Speedwell-System. If you're still terrified of heights, we can also do easier trips to the horizontal parts of Peak Cavern or to Giant's - in fact that's the plan for what we'll do with the climbers who have never been underground before.

As we'll probably be a crowd of 30 or so people again we'll not fit in any of the bunkhouses I tried and have to go camping again.

1-2 June (6th week) Yorkshire at the Farm *

Location: Bull Pot Farm Caves: Easegill, Kingsdale (Simpson's/Swinsto), ...
Meet Leader will be Rosa Clements.

The last trip of the term will take us to Yorkshire again - because the caves there are so lovely and offer a great training ground for SRT. We'll be staying at the farm, right on top of Easegill, and there'll certainly be trips to various parts of the system. Anyone up for "The Great Easegill Traverse"? That's a long and arduous trip from the topmost entrance Top Sink to the very other end of the huge system at Pippikin Pot. Certainly one of the longest and most rewarding caving trips of the UK. But there'll be other, shorter trips as well, that's for sure. Unfortunately the great caves of Leck Fell will be closed at that time of year, but Kingsdale has some classic pull-through trips and there are so many more caves to discover in the area...

[*Ed this is acually in Lancashire, so party like it's 1485...]