Imperial College Caving Club [ICCC]

Sunny, summery weekend in Yorkshire. Brown Hill, Swinsto / Simpson Pot exchange, Brown Hill + Somewhere East (Bullpot?) on the Sunday. A few photos from Brown Hill and an extremely pleasant weekend out of London.

The sun was shining, term was ending... time to get back down the Pilgrim's Way and taste Penyghent pot's veritable delights!

Another year, another set of 1st years to introduce to the vertiable delights of the king of Kingsdale. For some peculiar reason (claiming work, illness, home renovations & etc.), most experienced cavers dropped out leaving a hardcore of bright eyed bushy tails and the very dregs of 'too far gone' leadership from the dusty bottom of stores to power their way down to Kokemono and back in a relaxing 10hr trip. Stunning stars and meteorites when we got out to the frozen yet crystal clear moor.

A long overdue return to Bullpot Farm. Weather was fantastic, deep freeze during the night, blue skies and beating sun during the day. The building works at the farm are all complete (underfloor heating in the changing room! working showers!), there's a new working oven in the kitchen & the wood stock is full!
Great trips down Easegill, Top-Lancs, and a Lancs-County via Manchester Bypass. Sunday saw a gentle bimble on the warm hills, and brief forays into Lanc and Top to derig.

Penyghent Pot - what a lovely cave! Perhaps not the best weather to do it in, what with the freezing hill fog, the melt-water from the snow plugs gurgling down the Pilgrim's Way and random sprigots of water entering the cave through every available orifice. Sell Gill was also encountered, and a completely inappropriately dressed walk to the pen-y-ghent peak itself, sliding on the refrozen snow in our city shoes.

Lovely little trip to the 'Dip. Two short round trips, a trip to Sump 4, two counter flow round trips, a full sniffing out of every last bit of GB and a little jolly to the Swildons upper series. Lovely roast at the Belfry, crumble is good!

The trip started, as all good things do, with a 5AM alpine start; we caught the first train out of Most Na Soci and through the Julian alps to Bohinjska Bistrica, then a bus to Hotel Zlatorog near Savica (the possible Black Sea resurgance for the Migovec systems). With ice axe and crampons a quick 1.2km of ascent saw us up on our beloved plateau, with Tolminski Kuk brooding in the cloud layer. Based at Dom na Komni, we spent the next day in poor viz logging 5 new blow holes and having a look at the N1-3 entrances.

White out! Yorkshire absolutely stunning looking with a good metre of snow up on the Dales. Beautiful caving once underground, but getting the transit up the snowed out roads was impossible.
Still, had a great day on Leck fell (walking from Leck) bottoming Notts I and getting some Lost Johns' action in. Monday expedition to Gaping saw a brilliant Bar-Stream-Dis meta exchange; a great day of caving for all involved, no matter what experience.
Greenclose was an absolute delight; warm fires, comfy beds, & ace showers.

Derbyshire! And naturally, it was rather chilly. As we approached Castleton we could see the snow up on the peaks. Winnats pass was open, and we abandoned the bus on the sodden verge as there were dozen cars festooning the road. We assumed it meant millions of maillons down the entrance pitch - but was actually just one exchange trip, with each person in a separate car! Storming trip down and out, shot home to the Orpheus as the snow closed in to the roaring coal fires and a truly stuffing curry. Sunday saw us investigate the legends of Derbyshire caves worth doing which were not in Castleton...

An aquatic but extremely fun weekend. Saturday saw three trips gently probing the mighty Easegill system, followed by a massive Chili at the NPC. Sunday saw us in Kingsdale (surprise!) experiencing the joys of underground waterfalls.

A wet weekend on the Llangattock escarpment! There were issues with capturing an Aggy key, so the Saturday was spent in the double whammy of Eglwys Faen (AKA Grafitti cave, or at least it should be...) and the short but sweet Ogof Pen Eryr. An inch of rain fell during Saturday night, so the path & caves were rather aquatic on the Sunday. Had a little explore down Aggy, but failed to find our way through the first choke.

A lovely start to the new year with a couple of adventurous trips down Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (Cave of the Black Spring) on the Saturday. The cute little WSG hut made for a great evening eating, drinking and playing silly caving games. Sunday saw everyone donning wetsuits, and setting out for DYO and Little Neath, where much swimming and gaping at the formations took place.

Just back from a stonking Yorkshire classic. Tim and James did not drown, Leo got someone to carry air for him, Magdalena tried the underground out, Aleeza back on the ropes, Dan and Nathan lost on the moors, Jarv got to the spiral staircase. Jana enjoyed a swing.

Just back from a great weekend at the BCRA 'Hidden Earth' Annual conference. Lots of interesting talks about some great caving going down over the last year - British interest in the ex-Jugoslavian countries is ever increasing. Not that surprising considering how much limestone there is!

Our talk seemed to be fairly well received, though I (Jarv) fluffed a lot of my lines + forgot some of the things I was meant to mention. Still, slides are here for reference:

I know, I know - we've been back two weeks and there's still very little info on the expo up on the web! Everyone's busy moving house / sorting accomodation / catching up with work, so please bear with us. We'll be presenting a lecture at the annual British caving conference, Hidden Earth 25-27th Sept 2009, so will hopefully have some kind of survey drawn up by then.

Wonderfully succesful expedition! Found just under a kilometre of cave, most of it in Vrtnarija and at depths from 250-550m. Found a stream below Dark Tranquility and followed it down to connect with Friendship gallery. Most stunning find of the year was the enormous 81m Happy Monday pitch - Digi Photo. It's the largest in Vrtnarija with an enormous 20m by 20m boulder choke chamber.

We gave a talk in the Tolmin library at the end of expo, all the subtitles are in Slovene, but it's mainly photos: Powerpoint File.
High Res Versions of the slideshow photos. All from this year, almost all new finds.

    The green crates are packed with a years food
    The Bivi mice sniff the cool air expectantly
    Our new rope soaks off its white soap
    After eleven months of darkness Dangermouse babbles peacefully

In 2008 we found over a kilometre of new cave, but failed to make the great connection. And now we go back, better prepared than ever, with the last year spent sharpening our chisels, fettling cordless hammerdrills, lathing steel, building battery packs and stitching bash proof cases out of old neoprene. A replenished stock of fleece, sleeping bags and rollmats, along with the most gracious sponsorship of ultrawarm microfleece bespoke garments from Beast will make for a most comfy underground base camp somewhere near the Dangermouse water.

If we don't find the connection, nor push Dark Tranquility to its end (quite possibly/probably 500m further down), it will not be through lack of trying.

Stonking + full up minibus trip! Stunning weather, barely a cloud in the sky. BBQ at the NPC on Saturday night, and entertaining caving games with the Reading lot. Sunday saw an escape to Easgill + an attempt at a Cow - Link exchange, plus a bit of swimming Cow Dubs (some unintentional!) for the sun lovers.

Taking advantage of the quieter of the two May long weekends, we zoomed up to Yorkshire in Tim's tiny Polo. Was a bit of a squeeze with 4 rather large cavers, and then we had to do the shopping! James and Andy came up via Nottingham. Threw Leo (our new crossover Diver-Caver) in at the deepend and raced across on a Top-Lancs trip (after first rigging Lancs, natch). Sunday saw a probing of the (newly P-bolted) King, and Monday found us descending Rowten in the rain. Probably the first time I've ever looked forward to getting down Rowten as a way of warming up!

A lovely little weekend freed from the yoke of the minibus. Did a great JH-Peak through trip via the White River series with Jim on the Saturday, popping back up on the Sunday for a speedy derig. The White River was stunning - 'like the fat from a billion sausages', poured off and congealed on the floor of the cave.

Speleo Sportive Dans Le Vercors! Just back from a stunning Eurostar/TVG powered trip down to the Vercors. Sticky melting snow kept us off the high peaks, but we nevertheless found a worthy adversory in the form of Scialet de Gay Bunny, enjoyed the Saints de Glace and paddled around in a boat in the De Grournier (sic).

Last minibus trip of the (main) academic calendar - and absolutely stonking it was! Elevan people exchanging via Maskhill Oxlow in an afternoon of efficiency and smooth action (last one out 5 1/2 hrs after first in). Comedy rescue spectacle in Peak on the Saturday night, followed by a trip into Peak for the motivated on the Sunday, and a trip up Victoria aven to look at the rigging for the truly mud-orientated.

Absolutely stunning trip to Slovenia over the long weekend. So much snow that Mala Boka wasn't doable, but had a great time winter mountaineering up to the top entrance of Poloska in the stunning mediterranean sun, before completing a speedy through trip. Sunday saw a day of snow sledging and warm jacuzzi over in Bocinj. Naturally, more injuries were sustained sledging into trees and racing each other through the water chutes than caving or mountaineering.

Ah, the delight of the NPC! This time we had plans for the Allotment, and with a good forecast set off for Juniper Gulf, Christmas Pot and Grange Rigg. Things started to immediately go wrong, most distressing of all being the 4m visibility after the fug descended on the barren and featureless moor. Safe return for all after a i) following a cunningly installed one quid fifty LED back to the gate ii) unintended descent to Clapham iii) GPS pick-me-up from JG. Sunday saw Yordas and Heron being slithered down in Kingsdale - everyone rather tired!

Nice to be back to the Belfry, this time with fewer unbooked university clubs turning up to vomit on our clothing and snuggle up to us at night! The more worked in set off on a Swildons Short-Round with the fine direction of El Tet, a bounce to the sump and a GB investigation (up the comedy climb - only took one spreader with them - oops!). Sunday saw a St Cuths trip courtesy of Mad Phil, before a Megabus return to London.

James KP has written up his experiences on winter tour with ICCC bolting up a chimney above a 30m pitch to shine light for the first time on some beautiful cave. Few photos, as this really is the limit of exploration - so you'll have to use your imagination!

Submitted to Felix, so keep your eyes peeled...

Our Winter tour to Yorkshire was a densely packed week of some of the best caving on offer in the UK. We had deep rope trips, novel exploration by the boys with the Bosch GBH aid climbing their way up a 10m chimney above a 35m pitch (alas, the chimney led not to Santa, but to a choked bedding plane), epic expeds through the might of the Easegill system, decadent consumption of roast dinners and the usual caving hut shenanigans.

Too much snow to get to BPF, so dumped bus on the ice floe that was the NPC carpark.
King (to King Henry hall + back) & Tatham Wife on Sat - sledged down off the fell by the light of the moon on the 20cm of snow.
Sunday saw a Simpson Pot pull through to Valley Entrance, and a spot of Inglesport-bag sledging up Chapel-le-Dale.

Stomping trip to Yorks. Had the NPC to ourself, and a permit for Lost Johns where we had an absolutely stellar trip on the Saturday with a badly planned arduous derig. Saturday saw a trip to Yordas in Kingsdale. Sub zero outside for most of the weekend, but that wouldn't stop us!

We've finally banged out a couple of thousand words on our extremely succesful 5-week summer expedition exploring Tolminski Migovec in Western Slovenia. We'll definitely be back in Summer 2009, with a concrete plan for Underground Camp in Captain Kangaroo now that we've found a faithful stream of drinking water in Dangermouse. Read to get acquainted...

Well, the 'fireworks' trip got off to a rather ignoble start when we wandered forgetfully past the cut-price fire sticks in Tescos on our quest for fried breakfast material. So we settled for an epic Saturday exchange trip down Gaping Gill (Flood + Bar), played frisbee & lit up the place with a 15'000 candela hand flare. Sunday saw the determined head down Valley Entrance to giggle at the sumps.

Great set of wet 'n' wild trips this weekend.
1) Went straight to the cave on Friday evening (1am) and caved through the night to avoid the crowds in Swildons (Hallo'ween party with real bats...).
2) Crawled out of bed midday on Saturday before zooming off for more underground rivers in Charterhouse.
3) Absolutely fantastic meal in the super comfy Belfry hut, before getting the bare necessary of shut-eye and then taking on some sump free-diving on Sunday to achieve the Black Hole.

Lovely start to the year down at the SWCC cottage next door to the mighty Ogof Fynnon Ddu system. Big Saturday trip with all the teams meeting up underground at the impressive Top Waterfall. Sunday saw the committed exploring OFD II off the beaten track, following our noses and finding little gems everywhere.

Having finally run out of excuses, a one-man team from ICCC set off on the train to Abergavenny to join the Daren diggers at their Hard Rock Cafe. An amazing weekend to join the Daren crew, a wonderful time had stumbling around the enormity of this complex cave.

Quickly quickly before all the undergraduates arrived, we shot off for a little weekend trip with the JN/EXSS group of the physics department to enjoy the pleasure of Top Entrance (OFD) and the perverse delights of evening games in the WSG hut. Major washout on the Saturday which prevented us from venturing to the streamway, rain had stopped by Sunday lunch in time for a beautiful walk up a hill in the Brecons.

Just in time for Hidden Earth, we have a 90% complete M2/GW survey.
Vrtnarija/M2 2008 [PDF]
Vrtnarija/M2 2008 [Inkscape SVG].
All photos are up on the website.
75-Slide BCRA Hidden Earth Talk [PDF]

How to explain expedition fever? The call of the unknown, the burning desire to stand once again on the pushing front... stumbling home from a caving trip over the moonscape of the plateau to greet the warm glow of the fire in the Bivvi... the ring of the hammer as you place the bolts to abseil down a new pit... the solitude of climbing in darkness, the warm glow of humanity when returned to your company... But such concerns do not convince your supervisor or bank manager to elope for 5 whole weeks.

So to speak objectively, we have the genuine possibility of connecting Vrtnarija to Sistem Migovec and forming the 2nd longest cave in Slovenia (Postojna, number 1 slot, can only be fully explored by cave diving). The distance between Vrtnarija and M2 (Sistem Migovec) was closed to 30m at closest approach by the end of 2007 (error guessed at circa. 50m). We have a mountain that sits on the watershed between the Adriatic and Black Sea, with possibily the most complicated alpine speleogenesis in the world, and a whole host of secrets to unlock. We have new caves descending into blank mountain, and deep leads near the bottom of Vrtnarija that must be pushed soon before the decay of the bolts puts them beyond reach.

But anyway, the controls are set for the heart of the hollow mountain, Andreja reports from Migovec that there is still some snow in the bivi, rope is washed and prepped, Lidl has been abused, and the days are counting down...

Amazing long weekend in Italy, hospitality by the Kirkpatrick family in the beautiful Asiago (a plateau surrounded by a ring of cavernous peaks), leadership courtesy of the Italian cavers Luca and Massimo (sic.). Was lovely to be back in the cool welcome of an alpine system! Bounced to ~300+m on the Saturday trip and an easy ~200m+ on the Sunday, before driving to Padova to be fed, watered and housed by the Kirkpatricks once more before an early morning flight home.

Lovely trip to Yorks, got down Avalanche via a speedy Bar Pot entrance and surveyed up to Rainbow in Avalanche with the clever new laser rangefinder. Midges were hungry when we came out. Had a lovely midnight walk back up to the gill when it transpired that the early exiters had (re)hidden the mobile a little too well!
Sunday... well, the weather was far too pleasent. A leisurely breakfast, then a big 12km loop walk up Pen-y-ghent sampling the finest artisan icecream I've ever tasted at Horton-in-ribblesdale post office. Sunburnt drive home.

An early return to Avalanche was demanded, this time with rather more conventional caving transport thanks to TomB's family car. Alas, illness turned the push trip into a photo trip, but a wonderful trip down Gaping Gill was had, via Flood. The three vegetarians pushed on to Avalanche for a 8 hour trip including the derig, the carnivores exited after a view of the way to Stream to get cooking.

Withnail: All right, this is the plan. We get in there and get wrecked. Then we'll eat a pork pie. Then we drop a couple of Surmontil 50s each; means we'll miss out Monday but come up smiling Tuesday morning.

24 hr Train-powered run on Gaping Gill was a success; inital probing into Avalanche inlet was made, bivi'ing next to Bar pot was perfectly pleasent until waking at dawn to a snow dusted dale, with the olive oil frozen solid.

Amazing trip to Croatia, organised by our excellent hosts Darko Baksic, Igor Jelenic, Teo Barisic and the Zadar caving club. Arrived in a blizzard, which thwarted our underground camp + exploration plans, but got to see an amazing variety of Croatian caves across the limestone backbone.

The Sibenik club report of being gatecrashed by the english at their Speleo Camp.

Your brand-spanking new-to-you committee is:
  President: Paul Hutton
  Treasurer: Ben Banfield
  Secretary: Jarvist Frost

  Tackle Meister: Tom Jenkins (Mentored by Jarv)
  Social Secretary: Jamie Perrelet
  Foreign Secretary: James Kirkpatrick

Awards:
  Herman Hertz: Jana Carga for her 'my-traverse-line-has-forsaken-me' freeclimbing near death moment in Prima Dona
  For Evans' Sake: TomB for his puppetry of the Penis in the Bivi, including the Tobasco incident.

A double-caving birthday was enjoyed at Bullpot Farm, taking in the usual Easegill classics as well as a slightly more off-the-beaten-track trudge to Cape Kennedy, admiring the impressive and very manly formations, while remembering the navigation to and fro the 88-pitch.
Birthday cake and Slovene pancakes enjoyed in the farm, with a Guitar / Fiddle Jazz Duo concert in front of the fire...

The threat of actually doing some serious caving was sufficent to put off the majority of ICCC cavers with complaints of course-work deadlines and relatives' birthdays. This left a hardened core to sweep up to the NPC and dive down King Pot in sodden conditions for a brilliant 10.5 hour trip to the bottom of the last pitch. Truly astounding cave!

Massive JH-Titan exchange trip on the Saturday with 12 cavers in total. Late start of ~circa 3pm, but everyone out by a relatively early 11pm. Less motivation on the Sunday - people with cars had gone home, James KP + Jan did a little rigging practice and the rest walked up Mam Tor or fettled in the hut with uni work!

A long overdue return to the farm! Excitement fettling in Easegill on Saturday, smearing blood around a shaft and checking out the foam on the ceiling. Sunday saw a main party go to Aygill while an insane duo set off to King to swap a snickers bar and a maillon for a 20m rope and a broken Casio watch.

ICCC Proteus 2008.1

A new paper newsletter in 2008? Are we mad? No - its Retro!

Dive in for hyperlinks galore & something to finally explain to Aunt Edna exactly what it is you do at the weekend.

There will come a time during the next week when you will ask yourself:
     "Just what have I done in these last few days before Christmas?"

The answer: Rat Hole <-> Stream (GG), County Pot <-> Lancaster Hole (EG), Lost Johns', Ireby Fell (ladders), Notts I (Anderson's route + Acrobat series?), Swinstow / Valley Ent

Last trip of the Autumn term was a stonker, horrifically wet weekend trip to Yorkshire with killer roads, a leaking roof in the NPC and flooded caves. But we endured and had a damn nice time. Boxhead, Rumbling, Lost Johns' & Rowten all successfully probed, an ULSA birthday party gatecrashed and vast quantities of cake consumed.

The second driver, alas, fell ill and so we diverted from the glory of Yorkshire to the homely comforts of the Mendips, and broke into the Belfry. Deep frost during the night, was pretty scary on the roads with the moonlight bouncing off the white bearded fields! Due to the cold we investigated Easterwater Caverns on the Saturday, a cave only a 5 minute stumble from the enormous fire, and found it to be a nice mixture of crawls, clambers and climbs.
Sunday found us with some Charterhouse keys thanks to the kind hut warden, and a splendid photogenic session down GB and a 'sporting' (to the point of drowning) trip down Longwood in furries.
Maybe there are some caves in the 'Dip other than Swildons...

The Orpheus hut was as lovely as ever, Kenny being quite the welcoming hut warden. Fires were stoked, cheese-on-toast was prepared with the cattle-prod assisted stove and we were all tucked up against the wind and rain outside. Of course, eventually we would have to go out and go caving... Shed's car had spewed all of its oil into the ground overnight so we had to quickly replan trips and regroup in the minibus. Giants & Oxlow were succesfully probed, whereas Maskhill was called off due to a bit of a log jam in the entrance series! Saturday night saw an amazing Chilli with the secret ingredient of dark chocolate, and an evening in front of the fire including new research into indoor carbide displays. Sunday was less faffy, and saw trips down Oxlow, Maskhill & Eldon's Hole (which really was just a hole), and a pleasent return to London.

Massive minibus + two cars trip to Yorkshire, four different (rope) trips on both days, a delicious curry and an extra hours caving on Sunday thanks to British Summer Time. What more could you want?

Trips: Lower Long Churn / Alum Pot, Aquamole (twice), Heron Pot, Bull Pot, County Pot, Jingling, Rowten. Whoah!

While the more conscientious of us were at Hidden Earth, telling the world about our finds in Slovenia during the summer, a crack [pot] team of Jan, Colm & Le Rik set off to canyon the long-weekend away in Switzerland. Have a gander at the photos - its pretty damn impressive!

Fantastic trip down South Wales, doing Ogof Fynnon Ddu and Cwm Dwr based at the enormous SWCC hut. Saturday saw long trips down to the Top Waterfall, and a loop via Edward's Shortcut to have a look at the climb down to Maypole Inlet and then back via sightseeing up Salubrius. Delicious pasta meal in the evening, followed by dubious games vs. Nottingham (my ribs, my poor ribs!) and a good long card session. Next day, rather stiff from the previous days antics, half the team made it down Cwm Dwr for a high speed explore, while the others went for a walk up over the hill...

Absolutely brilliant expedition: pity it had to end after 4 weeks! The elusive connection to form the second-longest cave in Slovenia is still being sought, though we're down to 28m separation (with a survey error of ~40m) in an absolute maze of corridors and drops.
Surveys will be drawn and some sort of report written in due time - after such a packed expedition, I think all of us could do with a holiday to relax...

We presented our findings at the Hidden Earth 2007 BCRA conference this September. Jana wrote a quick Report. I intend to have our new surveys uploaded this coming weekend...

Another year, another haul of fresh faced converts to the underground ways! With any luck, some of you out there reading this website will be here after reading our entry in the ICU clubs+socs guide.
We've all gone off on expedition to Tolminski Migovec, where we're discovering caves by the kilometre, and deep frying mars bars by the gross.

So, nobody's home: but the lights are still on, so have a good poke around our humble web presence, and see you at Freshers' Fayre!

Caving: more exciting than you can possibly imagine, adrenalin filled but not macho, an all-year round outdoor sport that gets you really fit and cheaply out of London, with a friendly group of laid back but extremely competent cavers, the closest you will come to walking on the moon.

Just ~140 squid for four weeks camping at 1880m on top of a mountain in a national park while finding some of the deepest caves in Europe. Over the last decade we have explored two caves out there to depths of -880 & -970m respectively. This year there's a serious chance that we can interconnect these caves into one enormous system that will be the longest in Slovenia.
Its never too late to join the best student caving expedition this year - get in touch!

Our friends from the Slovenian JSPDT were at long last coming to see us in the UK! Picking them up from Stansted, we wound our way across the country to Bull Pot Farm deep in the Yorkshire Dales, and set upon a most enjoyable long weekend of caving criss-crossing the extensive Ease Gill system. The Slovs, being Mountain People, had no problem keeping up...
Overground, the action was similarly non stop - a British Vs. Slovenian cook-off took place with much consumption of Rhubarb Crumble and Jota (though thankfully not together), much Zganja (home distilled double strength brandy) was consumed and the farm itself was the usual mad flame-thrower of a party till dawn every night.
Sleep deprived we may have been - but bloody hell, it was a good weekend!

Lovely bank hols w'end up in a very dry Yorkshire; did Meregill via the mere itself, the Magic Roundabout (including a rerigging fettle of Arson shaft) in Ease Gill via Lancs, and Alum Pot before heading for home.

Another group of poor souls was collected to be sacrificed to the god of Ogof Fynnon Ddu, or more particularly - my horrific navigation therein! Actually turned out to be a nice trip on the Saturday - tourist route via Ed's Shortcut & the Frozen River, down the streamway to where Cwm Dwr drops in, then back via the corkscrew. Yes - we found it this time!
Sunday saw the fester set in. Beautiful weather and delicious breakfast outside was followed by a walk up into the nationalpark, sunbathing in the long grass before driving away to see Wales highest waterfall...

Escaping from the drudgery of revision (Anne), and from an overheated lab (Joe & Jarv), we zoomed off to the Brecon Beacons, staying at the SWCC for an intense Ogof Fynnon Ddu session.
Friday saw us diving down OFD I - led by the generous Ian T (SWCC). Lovely trip - up the Waterfall and all around to check the formations, then back via the flood escape route.
Saturday saw Joe & Jarv lost in the depths of Top Entrance - stumbling around the rather aptly named 'Labyrinth' after having missed the Corkscrew climb up. Eventually admitting defeat, they returned via Edward's in time for a beautiful sunset.
Sunday saw an early escape from the SWCC, and a return to Bristol via Ogof Rhyd Sych, which was well tight.

Brilliant tour to Sardinia. Weather was distinctly cold, but it kept us off the beaches and in the caves!
Amazing formations; 16km and 10km long caves pushed pretty much to their end.

Photos | Trip Report

Your brand-spanking new-to-you committee is:
  President: Jarvist Frost
  Treasurer: Ben Banfield
  Secretary: Paul Hutton

Awards:
  Herman Hertz: Marc Labuhn for his "STOP! My descender's in two pieces!"
  For Evans' Sake: Sandeep Mavadia for his "My Bowels have forsaken me" Marble Steps deposit.

Hard(er) Core Trips this weekend: Large (Marble Steps), Marble Steps and Rowten on the Saturday, Aquamole and Heron squeezed in on the Sunday.

Excellent set of trips over the weekend: Notts I & Lost Johns'. Fantastic food, amazing weather with no wind and sun glorious sun. Truly epic amounts of Stew, Soup & Dumplings consumed.

Lovely trip down to the Mendips - with some keen first-years getting in three trips over the weekend! Bouncy castle for Anne's Birthday party on the Saturday night, perfect weather with a lovely full moon, still air and no rain whatsoever.
Caves: Swildon's Short-Round, Eastwater, GBs, Longwood

Weather was increasingly horrid over the weekend; lovely to get underground - where it's always 15 degrees & it never rains!
Stonking Trips: Swinsto, Valley Ent, Jingling, Rumbling, Notts II & Lancaster Hole all powered by some serious curry action on the Saturday night, boosted by great speleo balderdash around the coal fire of the NPC in the evenings.

Back from the Yorks winter tour, just in time for Crimbo!
Highlight was a great exchange trip down Lost Johns' (Centipede / Dome), with Tuetonic duets while we waited to enjoy the lovely rigging and amazing pitches. Other caves include Aquamole, Rowten, County (to Holbeck Jnct), Lancaster (to Waterfall Chamber), Yordas Pot and Jingling.
A few lucky boys and girls got to stay up in Yorks over Christmas, whereupon they found themselves in the middle of a Christmas Day rescue!
Read all about it in the 5000 word epic of a report...

Hail, rain and gales couldn't keep us above ground. The main Saturday trips were down JH (slightly shorter sister cave to Titan) and Maskhill/Oxlowe, with a novice trip down Giants. Obscene amounts of Chilli eaten that evening to replace the lost calories...

A slightly more relaxed start to Sunday, but everyone managing a good trip underground, except for the few tempted away by the fabled 'tea-shop' cave of Castleton.

And the rain came down!
Atrocious weather, but with a triple-trip down OFD to generally get lost, stumble upon some amazing formations, then bimble out again. Rik lead his way to have a peer at the streamway, swollen to impassable levels by vast quantities of water. Sandeep found a mud chamber filled with elegant subterranean sculptures, some of which were even suitable for minors. Hungarian dish for supper in front of the wood stove at the hut, followed by a jam session of the all new caving Jazz Trio (Guitar, Violin & Viola!). Sunday was similarly wet; exploration of some (dry) silicate mines once located in a rather large wilderness.

A huge trip this weekend, with 19 people underground on Saturday and two slap up curries afterwards. Sunday was an Easegill bonanza with three parallel trips.

The evolution of underground food has gone from chocolate to malt loaf and Christmas pudding to chocolate pudding, a definite improvement.

Photos | Trip Report

The best aspect of being unemployed is the time one gets to go caving. So while waiting for his PhD to start in January 2007, Jarv has disappeared to Slovenia to lay the groundwork for the 2007 summer expedition.

Read his rough & ready caving diary reported directly from the pushing front (or rather, the free WiFi in the ground floor of the Tolmin library), and marvel at the Photos.

Felix Article

The first trip of the year proved to be a stunning success, 9 freshers down two different caves, enjoying the varied environments possible underground.

Saturday night ended in a super-duper game of Presidents & Arseholes in the pub.

A slide show cum cheese and wine night will be in the prayer room in Beit East basement from 8pm.

Come for the stories of exotic places we been to over the years on tours. Come for the tales of kilometres of newly discovered cave passage. Come for the free cheese and wine, we don't care, just come and have a look at our cool photos.

We'll also be showing the Planet Earth episode about caves, you ready to be awed?

This summer a few of us went to Austria to do some expedition caving and gawp at the locals wearing traditional Dimdl and Lederhosen. On another level to caving in Britain: longer, deeper and harder, but all possible with just a year of caving experience.

A brand new cave was found and explored to 150 metres deep, twice the height of Queens Tower, and is still going strong, with a 50 metre pitch at the end waiting to be dropped...

While most people in the caving club did something sensible this summer, such as caving, or caravan'ing in Hull, Tetley & Jarv decided to go for a jaunt around the Atlantic in a stupidly small 26 foot sailboat. And after having survived the crossings, fought with the dolphins & endured each other's fine company in a telephone-box sized living space, what did they do at the paradise islands they visited?
Why, they went underground of course!

Our last minibus-full trip of the year was an absolutely lovely jaunt down to Devon. Caves were short but great muddy fun, ideal BBQ weather and a pleasent campsite up on a hill above a beautiful abbey. Also truly the Mecca of cream teas.
Why can't it always be June?

Trip Report, Photos.

We've just finished the final draft for our 1994-2005 report on our summer expeditions to Western Slovenia. With One-Hundred and Ninety-Nine pages covering over a decade - its a story of nearly a man-century of effort by IC cavers and Slovenian cohorts overcoming challenges to find and explore caves deeper than the tallest buildings in the world..

Join this club, learn a crack collection of skills during the weekend trips and then you too could be joining us in summer 2007 to explore these "caverns measureless to man".

This is the last edit before producing a bound-copy sometime in late 2006. And corrections, improvements, cartoons & etc. gratefully received.

Enjoy!

A long weekend up at the NPC hut in the Yorkshire Dales. The two freshers were introduced to SRT on a tree on Saturday and were doing a 100m+ cave on the Sunday, now that's rapid improvement!

An Easegill exchange, a trip to West Kingsdale and a stop in the inglesport cafe, what more could you want from a weekend? A slowly accumulating pile of trip reports and a few choice photos

Dave is currently in Harvard working out how to add numbers together (or whatever number theory is) but that doesn't mean that he can't go caving. He met up with cavers from the Boston grotto and headed over to Franklin for some classic debauchery.

Sounds like an interesting tale, 700mile drive to get his trainers frozen and left without any pants. Read the report, goggle at the photos.

A brief interruption to drudgery of Easter revision, with a day-trip to some subterranean WWII fortifications in Kent. Amazing preservation & complexity, these catacombs stretched from the eroding cliff face, to blocked-off stone staircases that would appear to end up just below the wine-cellars of some rather well-to-do houses. Cream tea enjoyed on the cliff-top, fossils hunted on the flint beach, and a rather pleasant time had by all. A few Photos, more to come.

Your new, bonny-eyed, 2006/2007 committee are:
President: Sandeep Mavadia
Treasurer: David Loefler
Secretary: Daniel Greenwald

For Evans' Sake Award (Creative Use of a Bodily Fluid): Rik Venn for his horrific Washing-up-glove hi jinx down Maskhill mine.
Herman Hertz Award (Close Shave Caving Experience): David Wilson for the lucky escape that was 'Coach Crash' Dig, Area K, Tolminski Migovec, Slovenia.

With the threat of finals looming, and the realisation of just how much time helping to run this club has taken over the last two years, I am pretty much standing down this week. So long, and thanks for all the mud! Jarv

Lovely little run up to Derbyshire, a good 4 trips run in the Castleton area, Orpheus hut & people were as lovely as ever.

Trip report, a few Photos.

Trip Tag-line: 'Rattle Rattle Rattle' goes the boulder choke of doom

Stonking weekend up in Yorks. Three trips down Gaping on Saturday; two trips up on Kingsdale on the Sunday & an almighty kit fest in Bernies.

The Report, some Photos.

Trip went with an absolute bang. Weather atrocious - Tolminski Migovec spent the entire time inside a cloud! One patch of good seeing, as the clouds briefly sunk below the 1490m altitude we were staying at, just in time for the nearly-full moon to rise behind the peak of Migovec (see photo on right). U-Bend was duly pushed, but the too-tight rift is still too-tight! Ropes have been left rigged for our winter return...
Enigmatic Photos, all by Jarvist currently.

Lovely weekend away in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales. Early start on Saturday followed by two enormous trips down the Ogof Flynnon Ddu cave system, followed by an exciting scramble through the Little Neath river cave on Sunday.

Trip Report, Photos [mainly Cwm Dwr].

Storming day trip to the Mendips, 18 people down Swildons hole. Most of the freshers did sump 1 & explored beyond, everyone out by 6pm in time for tea!

Trip Report, a few Photos by Sandeep.

With the help of the National Express & B.Ogbourne's Tardis golf, six of us made it down to the national caving conference being held in a school Churchill, Somerset. Rik gave a light-hearted talk about our discoveries in Slovenia this summer; many other presentations & videos were viewed, and some truly awful dancing enjoyed.

Check out Jan's Report

For those that missed out on the true joy of exploring Captain Kangaroo deep within mountain Migovec this summer; Richard Venn has recorded his pushin' song, set to the tune of Flowers on the wall by the mighty Statler Brothers. You may have come across it on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, or on the Underground Camp 2004 mix-tapes...

Pushing Captain Kangaroo

Hardcore trip to Yorkshire with the Clew-mobile. Successful Rift / Large (Marble Steps) exchange... just.
GI Jo + The Clewster zoomed down the rather inaptly/ineptly named Large, appearing out of the tiny slot in the main Rift chamber just as Tall + Deep prepared to leave at their allotted fail safe time, after a romantic candlelit dinner. Jo & Co zoomed out Rift into a cloud of midges, slow taxing escape from Large was rather more sordid - bursting into the moonlight at 23:20, absolutely caked in mud...

Sunday saw Jo rig Jingling by throwing Maillons down the pitch, and an obscene quantity of both Tea and Gear bought from Bernie's in order to equip the summer expedition.
Trip Report, Photos.

Absolutely Brillo weekend down Bullpot. Shed was woken up at 4am by a poor CUCC lass dry retching in her sleeping bag after drinking a mite too much Absinthe. Fresher bimble from County to Wretched Rabbit in Easegill, big exchange up on the Allotment and then shopping at Bernie's and pull throughs in Swinstow/Simpsons on the Sunday. Shed had a little difficulty passing the Letterbox, allowing time for the two parties to meet up in the main chamber below and entertain themselves with camera flashes; before a storming zoom out of Valley Entrance to achieve our call-out.
Changing in the afternoon sun was lovely; anyone who says that caving is better in the winter should be taken outside and shot in the snow!

Good stuff, some fantastic Photos and a Trip Report to boot!

The anonymous Geeks against Revision subsection of the caving club have been successfully misdirecting their efforts into playing with our Slovenia surveys & some Digital Elevation Model data of the Mountain range where we have our yearly summer expedition to. See a few pretty pictures here. By 2006, we hope to have a fully immersive VR model of the mountains filled in from Low Earth Orbit using ground penetrating radar, allowing us to conduct our expeditions from the safety, comfort and convenience of our armchairs. Note the two comparative photos on the left, comparing the inferior 2004 photo by the Tents to what is possible with the latest in 1980's video game technology! No more smelly cavers working at the limit of endurance, battling abrasive rock and unthinkable heights with Nylon rope & tiny slivers of Steel, gazing keenly in the dim unknown; just a cool, melodious stream of bits floating in over the ether...

Snow, flooded caves & a meeting with ICCC stalwart Dave 'Efficient' Wilson. A mini five person trip powered by the Clew Mobile.

Trip Report, Photos.

Three old lags, capsule hotels & caving in the snow - Report and Photos by Jan.

We're back, and Mallorca was absolutely brilliant! Lovely weather, great villa [minus the pond scum on the pool], fantastic caving, fresh oranges + lemons from the trees in our garden, a day of sailing and sunburning. Clouded over on the last day, but other than that - a strictly t-shirt + shorts affair.

Trip Reports & Photos

Your all-new [yet somehow startling familiar...] bonny eyed committee has been selected with due process [i.e. Tetley got pissed, we listened to his monologues & then voted our agreement]

President / defacto dictator: Jarvist Frost [the incompetent incumbent]
Vice President / Buxom Secretary: Sandeep 'So Cold' Mavadia
Treasurer / Chief Extortion Officer: Dan 'Pure-of-Heart-and-Mind' Greenwald

Social Secretary / Chief Piss Head / Fresher Persuader: Richard 'iPork' Venn
Expedition Secretary: Chris 'Still Cruel' Rogers

It should be a good year!

Where? Mendips, Somerset
When? Sunday 13th March
What? Strap-on-the-nitro Day Trip
How many? With just day-sacks + no ropes, we should be able to take the full minibus load... so 15-17
Experience Required? Eager Fresher to Old Hand; multiple trips at multiple levels...
Cost? 10-15 pounds [the more people come, the cheaper :)], plus pocket money for lunch + drink [from admittedly shaky memory; the extremely filling veggie pasta at the Hunters is 2.25]

Low cost, just a single day of your time + some fantastic sporting caving. From Fresher to Old Lag, you really do want to be on this trip! A few spaces left [managed to bag a 17 seater...], email address on the left to sign up!

Day trip flew; slightly problem when the pub it was planned to have lunch in turned out to be closed [Note to self - Hunters + New Inn open for Noon!]. Clewin, Sandeep, Adriel + Two Chinese hopped down Swildons to Sump 1 - Ad & the Deepester sump dived. Jan, Lee, Rishi, Michelle, Allison and Lyndon did a 4-cave epic in the Sidcot Swallet area.

Trip report by Sandeep; enjoy Lyndon's photos!

Just back from a stonking stomp down Somerset; Swildons, Longwood and Goatchurch [failed to find key for Charterhouse] were all enjoyed by a motley crew of 15 ICCC'ers. All trips bar one exited before daylight, weather gloriously sunny but bitter with the occasional dusting of snow; tables were duly traversed, Veggie nosh greedily gobbled, bottles walked and a generally good time endured! Having gone away for the weekend and had such a consistently pleasant experience is most discombobulating, I fear that ICCC is softening! I may have to pour a bucket of snow-melt over my head and sit for a few hours in the fridge to convince myself otherwise...

Photos [More to come...], Barely-Started trip reports.

Just flown in from our action-packed long-weekend to Grenoble, France.

Epic 10hr trip on the Friday in Sasenage; stretching the club FX3 lighting rigs to their very limit. Climbed 250m+ on a series of undulating pitches, stream way, storming passageway and a FANTASTIC tight-rope traverse over a deep pool of icy water.

Saturday saw three serious trips go out, all involving long walks through the snow before even getting to the cave, and amazing ice-formations in the entrance series once inside - so pretty BUT SO COLD! Sunday was spent sleeping, packing, eating and faffing.

Obscenely warm, pleasant + enjoyable weekend - couldn't quite believe we were in Derbyshire!

Four stonkingly good trips, a mountainous curry to consume on Saturday and pints of tea with Jaffa Cakes all round; an IC trip to Derbyshire that didn't go horribly wrong! In some way I'm shocked and appalled...

Trip reports to come once the logbook is typed up + I blackmail freshers into writing the other ones...

Photos, Soon-to-be trip report

[Dear Doctor, I did not go caving at the weekend against your instructions. Especially not in walking boots and a Duffel coat, like this. Caving without proper safety equipment, lighting or a hard hat would be dangerous and just plain silly. Yours, Jarvist.]

We're in the processing of making designs for our ICCC Hoodies - cost will be around 18 pounds, if you fancy one - email with your required size...

However, first we've got to design something for the front + back [single colour silkscreen] - if you have any artistic talent or are just bored and have a copy of Photoshop, please throw something together + email us!

All the possible designs are being put Here. We'll have a vote on which to go with one Tuesday this term...

We're back, and everyone survived unscathed more or less... See HERE for a gathering collection of trip reports and other such fluff...

Dive into the Photos.

Jarvist has written a short article for Felix describing a tiny portion of the summer expedition.

It won't be published till Spring 2005, but thanks to the Wonder of the Information Super Stream Way, you may read it here and now!

CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS OF DRIVER; SORRY EVERYONE, BUT THERE'S NOT MUCH THAT CAN BE DONE WHEN THE PLAGUE STRIKES...

An... interesting weekend!

Most of the group got involved with a large Cave Rescue operation - a caver had abseiled off the end of a rope [never forget to tie stop knots!] + had to be stretchered out after falling 5m onto his shoulder. Luckily, his injuries were relatively minor all things considered + is ok.

Tasty late-night curry [rescue continued till about midnight, with the other cavers stranded in their furies in a pub in Castleton], Sunday trips were short but taxing; Tom, Steph + Dan went for a walk up a big hill followed by a perversely pleasant cream tea.

Well, we didn't quite make it to the Seminar; but had an epic series of interlocking trips down Easegill on the Saturday, with a serendipitous meet up of three different groups underground. Got lost in the fog + driving rain on the boggish moors, but everybody made it back in the end to consume a gallon or so of pasta 'n' sauce. Sunday was more sedate for the majority, quaffing vast flagons of coffee and gnawing on house bricks of chocolate cake at Inglesport cafe. The zealous freshers [Jack, Nicholas, Lester, Alvin] followed Jesus down Agill + seemed to have a pleasant enough trip.

Photos by:- Jarvist, Jan. Trip report here!

Stonking weekend in South Wales - woke on the Saturday to a pristine white carpet of snow, thank god for the wood-stove + teas maid at the hut, otherwise we may well have spent the entire weekend huddled in our sleeping bags!

Pics by: Jarv , Lester and Alvin Ang. Slowly developing report...

Fantastic weekend in Yorkshire; bangs, bombs, fights with mythical beasts, epic trips, Chili + SRT :- what more could you want from a weekend?

Enormous crowd approaching 20-odd, three Epics on Saturday; an easy bimble that turned rather wet + depraved and a hardcore SRT session that turned far too pleasant + pretty on Sunday.

Report in progress here, and photos by Jan, Jarvist and Lyndon!

The dregs of the house party from the night before managed to pour themselves onto the tube + eventually make it to PADDOCK, the Alternative Cabinet War Room in NW2.

There is a nice bit of background to the site here.

After getting lost + arriving late, we managed to liaise with Sub-Brit, who had a guy to give us a guided tour of the complex. Was a very interesting mix of caving skills + history, some bits of the bunker had been converted to other uses since the war, some rooms were almost untouched - the air filters were still present into the ventilation system.

Pics of the trip Jarv's, Lyndon's, edited highlights of the party + clues as to why Clewin is wearing someone's elses clothes Jarv's, Lyndon's.

Sign up now to avoid disappointment!

We'll try and do both ladder + SRT [single rope technique - using climbing harnesses] trips; so this trip is suitable for complete beginners through to the very experienced...

We'll have the usual assortment of Fireworks + Explosive Devices that befits the occasional [plus a few caving club specials], and will probably get a keg of beer from the local brewery...

We're having a Caving Slideshow in the East Wing of Beit, at 7:30pm on Monday October 18th. We'll be giving a fairly complete view of caving with ICCC, both of the weekend trips and the many expeditions. If you're unsure about committing to caving - come along, its only 90minutes of your time + you get free wine + cheese! No need to book, just follow the signs in the Beit Quad on Monday evening.

Ran a wet 'n' wild trip down Swildon's hole on the Saturday; followed by a game of Sofa Ruby Vs. the Cardiff caving club - we lost, the sofa [or, more accurately, its splintered remains] got burnt.

Had a more sedate, but still epic trip on the Sunday - wandering 5km around a disused Limestone mine, and playing with the old cranes + winches. The roof was held up by decidedly dodgy + rotting wooden props; had to spend a good deal of the time clambering over previously-collapsed sections!

Jarvist's photos here!. Jan's photos here. Trip report here.

Tree-climbing was shocking successfully; considering the amount that it rained! Kudos to all the freshers that stuck it out + learnt some ladder work / SRT! Hopefully better weather next week, but tree climbing will continue regardless - so turn up + have fun in the canopy!

Check out the Pictures!

The expedition has returned from the fleshpots of Tolmin. The cave and bivvy are derigged for another year. About 1.5 km of new cave this year - mostly below -700m, damned impressive in my book. Loads more to do next year though....
Migovec 2004

Weekend in the Vercors, had to go canyoning to escape from the 34° heat.

Report and Photos here

Vie Ferrate are the biz!
We had an excellent weekend in the Dolomiti, managed to pack everything in:

• Easy warm-up jolly in perfect sunshine.
• More hard-core trip on Brigata Tridentina, an excellent, steep VF
• Thunder + Lightning - no lark when you're stuck to a lightning conductor!
• Pizza + Pivo aplenty
• All topped off by nearly missing the flight back to London!

Report and Photos here

One of the best Yorkshire weekends ever. Pull-throughs, pirates and canyons.

Report.

Pippikin to Wretched Rabbit
Attempt at the ultimate Pip-Top trip, bailed at WR.
Not everyone enjoyed the trip as much as they should have......

Report.

Knocked Meregill off over the weekend. Quite tiring, though a worthwhile trip.
Report.

Jan's written a report. of our Belgian drinking caving weekend.

I've pilfered Andy Jurd's write-up of the Fireworks trip.
Read it here. Photos by Lyndon here.

We've now returned from our summer expedition.
Report, Photos and surveys available here.
Rik's written a report of this year's Slovenia expedition.
Read it here.

Back from our epic weekend. Reports, photos and cursing of French air traffic control here.
There are also some canyoning and caving photos here.

Moritz has written a trip report for our Mallorca Easter tour. Click here to read it.

Just back from an excellent weekend of caving (with a little bit of drinking on the side). I've uploaded a few photos while we wait for the report. Click here to see them.

There's now a report of what we got up to in Russia this year with no planning, a brilliant guide and a small amount of vodka. Check out the photos too.