The search for further links between caves comprising the Three Counties System is never far from the minds of cavers in the Dales. Previously discovered by diving, Notts II now has a new entrance which has raised expectations: with easier access, digs and climbs are already revealing new passage in the push onwards towards Lost John’s and beyond.

LED-ing the Way

LED lights are attracting a great deal of interest, particularly for their extended duration. Much has been written already on their potential for caving – but here is the real test: how did three lights fare under expedition conditions?

Of Wolves and the Search for String

Mad dogs and Englishmen … go out caving in Spain. What began as a family holiday ended with a frantic search and, if not caverns measureless, a major underwater push and discovery.

Images from the Past

Descent readers help once again in identifying yesteryear’s cavers and photographs.

Onward and Outward

Every year expeditions benefit from grants from a range of sources. In 2001, who is heading where in the world and how much will they receive?

Things Just Like They Used to Be

Caving has changed over the past sixty or so years! What was once a challenge may have become a novice trip. Passages now taken for granted were once severe digs. Just so the Peak District’s Giant’s Hole: join Peter Borthwick in his time machine as he returns to the trials of the 1940s.

Distorting Your Hangers

Ever since permanent anchors have been placed in caves, the slightest movement or distortion has come under scrutiny. The latest tests show how these resin-fixed hangers react under load.

The Descent Caption Competition

The normal range of cavers’ ingenuity has been surpassed: here are the final results of the Descent Caption Competition – who won the Lucido LED headtorch?

The Double Digger Dig

‘Just like the Time Team, we have just three days to find a cave.’ Using a mechanical digger when searching for passage has become almost blasé on Mendip. Using two seems extreme; were the cavers justified, or merely desperate?

Cover: Images of Notts II. Photos: Paul Deakin

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The latest Descent Caption Competition offers you a top-of-the-range LED light – here’s your last chance to enter.

The Fishmonger’s Bones

Let’s face it: cavers dig holes. They’re good at it. Very good. So when a surface shaft in an ‘unknown’ caving area breaks into a chamber, there’s cause for celebration – then the nature of the dig changes. Spoil is mixed with bones by the bucketload … easily enough to attract the Time Team.

Dead Racoons and He-man Lager

Meghalaya in north-east India continues to fascinate British teams and is very capable of leaving an everlasting impression: “I’m not sure I’ve ever had an experience that matches the sense of zeal for exploration as those few days in the caves.”

Tracking Down the Tram Tunnel

For years, cavers have been enticed by the bricked-up entrance to the old tram tunnel at Pwll Du in South Wales – the more so since the discovery of Ogof Draenen has caused so many to walk past it – and no less than three entrances offer the possibility of a way in. But gaining access hasn’t been plain sailing.

The Second-hand Sump

Sell Gill Holes: first explored some time before 1842 and now the site of many a novice trip. Even so, could there be more to the cave than the guidebook states? Ric Halliwell takes a look at a section of cave that was gained, then lost, then forgotten, then dug open … and all but forgotten again!

Images from the Past

This month Images from the Past presents some feedback and another question – how do cavers commemorate their own? One caver is interested as part of a project – can you help?

Cover: Dave Hardwick in Fishmonger’s Swallet (Background image – Crystal Pool, Ogof Ffynnon Taf). Photos: Chris Howes

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We’ve a top-of-the-range Lucido light to give away. Fancy a new, seven-LED headlight complete with variable output? You’ll have to enter the latest Descent Caption Competition.

The Far Side of Gaping Gill

‘I kit up; always the same order, like a ritual. Is it for luck, a safety routine, or just habit? I don’t know, but with each bit of gear I retreat more into myself … My head is pushed underwater and I can hear the grating of the torches on my head against the roof. The bedding is very low and wide – almost too low
– and I thrutch forwards, pressed between roof and floor.’ With radio-location pinpointing problem areas in the survey, it’s off to the sewer-like basement of Gaping Gill.

Images from the Past

There are three questions that need some answers in this month’s Images from the Past. Can you help with dates, names or faces?

The Future is not Orange

LED lights are all the rage: everyone, but everyone seems to want one. But are they as good as the manufacturers make out; what are the myths and realities of this new technology – what should you know before you buy?

Into Hidden Bristol

Hidden Earth 2000, the annual caving conference, appeared to be doomed in the face of travel difficulties. Cavers are, in the end, always versatile and it proved a well-attended, excellent event. Here is the full report on every lecture, recording the year’s successes and failures in British caving’s calendar.

Would I Mind Doing it Again?

How would it feel if you had a trip into your favourite cave, resurveying an area to bring the records up to date, and found open passage that wasn’t on your list? Open passage to push, only an hour from an entrance into Poulnagollum, Ireland’s longest cave …

Looking Forward

For the past twenty-odd years and more, cavers have talked about forming a new national body. Once there was the BSA and CRG; now the NCA and BCRA and the key players. Following an independent report on the future of British caving, where is it heading and what needs to be done?

The Last Remnants

Charcoal drawings have been found in caves in Kalimantan, the last remnants of a lost civilisation. Eight expeditions later, Rolex aids their exploration.

Cover: Guiem Mulet, Cova del Pas de Vallgornera, Mallorca. Photo: Tony Merino

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Descent is printed to the highest quality in the UK, as it has been since its inception in 1969.

Once again, Descent readers have come forward to help solve a mystery and to offer their reminiscences.

The Pot of the Crocks

‘Like all clubs, we actively encourage a certain type of undernourished individual seemingly bred to enter crevices no wider than a family bible.’ Genetics paid off for Masson CG with a significant Peak District breakthrough.

Caving and the Media:
The Unveiling

The media – be it radio, television or newspapers – has long misunderstood caving and mine exploration as a sport: what can be done to change attitudes, and would we want to do so? Descent (155) presented an introduction to the subject; in this issue, the debate continues.

The Health Farm on Newby Moss

Dales exploration was taken one step further when three cavers formed the nucleus of the Newby Moss Health Farm, dedicated to the discovery of passages unknown. Long Kin West beckoned them ever onward …

Vale

Harold ‘Budge’ Burgess

Jack Myers offers a tribute to his friend and northern caver, ‘Budge’ Burgess.

A Piece of Unparalleled Daring

How many of today’s cavers were influenced by the derring-do exploits of Norbert Casteret? His books offered real-life thrills in a world of adventure fiction, the first of which is one of the most famous ever written: Ten Years Under the Earth. Yet how far does Casteret’s fame rest upon his exploration of Montespan … and how real was his description of daring to dive, lightless and alone, an unpushed sump?

A Cornish Coming of Age

Now 21 years old, the National Association of Mining History Organisations held its latest meeting in Cornwall this year. It proved to be a stunning event, with underground visits, surface walks, explosive demonstrations … and even free cream teas!

Gear Review

The Petzl Mini Traxion

A versatile jammer and hauling device undergoes a full review.

Cover: Carol Vesely in Santa Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo: Ron Simmons

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Descent is printed to the highest quality in the UK, as it has been since its inception in 1969.

The controversial character of Eli Simpson features in this month’s Images from the Past.

The Last Bolt

Ting! ting! ting! ting! ting! It’s so close now, the bolt half done. The last bolt, I think. I hope. I can hardly hear myself hammering against the thunder of the water. It’s three in the morning, hanging in triers high on a water-flooded pitch.

Breaking the Black Keld Barrier

It is fifty years since the first dives were made into Black Keld, an enormous resurgence in the Yorkshire Dales. Nearly thirty years have passed since the last major breakthrough – but now Brian Judd is through the barrier and heading into the unknown.

The Descent Caption Competition

There are three winners in the caption competition; Dark Life is their prize.

With Sun and Enthusiasm

The Forest of Dean’s caving symposium has justly gained a reputation for an excellent weekend’s blend of caving and lectures. Jules Carter reports on the 2000 event.

Caving and the Media: The Plot

We’ve all heard it: ‘Cavers, are you? Mad!’ The problem is, attitudes such as these spill over into the media – newspapers, magazines, television, radio, films … We and our sport are frequently portrayed as the lunatic fringe; where there is no sun, there can be no understanding. But how much of this is our own fault, brought on by our attitudes – and what can we do to bring about change?

Gear Review

LED Lights

Light Emitting Diodes are heralding the next generation of caving lamps. Two options are tested: a ready-made headlight and replacement LED bulbs to adapt your own rig.

Jade Green Water

Sixty-five years ago the first dives were made in Wookey Hole. Using cumbersome hard hats, a base-fed hose and hand-pumped air, three divers took turns to walk into the unknown. On 14 July cavers gathered in the Third Chamber to commemorate the event; to look into the jade-green water and think what it must have been like, all those years ago.

Cover: Andy King in Torca del Regalom, Picas de Europa. Photo: Tim Guilford

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‘… first a solo descent with heavy baggage, nine hours – a night below – a day with jumper and sledge – the arrival of a companion – a shot while dining under the poised blocks since fallen – exit – trousers freezing in the cold night air – a wild career over the misty flats to Taunton and bed …’ Graham Balcombe writes here of blasting Sump 1 in Swildon’s Hole; he died on 19 March. Widely loved and respected, here is caving’s tribute to this cave diving pioneer.

BCRC Incident Report 1999

Here are the full details of all the accidents, incidents and analysis from the rescues of 1999 – as prepared by the British Cave Rescue Council.

The Abseiling Experience

An SRT trip where everything is doomed – have you been here?

Pitch after Pitch after Pitch

The Dales’ discovery of Trapdoor Pot plunges deep beneath the fells, pitch after pitch after pitch punctuated by squeezes. With names like The Ripper, The Gripper and The Stripper, are you tempted to tackle what lies below: Megatron pitch?

Crewe Caps it All

Not content with having opened up the Climbing Shaft in Derbyshire’s Whalf Mine, members of Crewe CPC tackled the nearby Engine Shaft – and discovered another, unsuspected shaft alongside. Fancy a superb free-hang and a new through-trip?

One Hundred Years of Exploration

In 1895 it was a Frenchman, Martel, who finally bottomed Gaping Gill. One hundred years later Sid Perou, with plenty of cavers to help, filmed a re-enactment of the descent. Now, after suitable editing and splicing new images into the sequence, a video is on sale courtesy of Bradford PC; it is reviewed here by Steve Warren.

Images from the Past

Your replies have identified last month’s image; can you help with details on ‘ballooning’ in Eldon Hole?

Gear Review

Crusader Wetsuit

Crusader Wetsuits are new to the sport – how did the range of longjohns, shorts, wetsocks and more stand up to an underground test?

The Descent Caption Competition

Your last chance to enter the latest Descent Caption Competition has arrived – win yourself one of three books, but be quick off the mark.

Cover: Hugh St Lawrence in The Stripper, the crux of Trapdoor Pot. Photo: Pete Hall

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Descent is printed to the highest quality in the UK, as it has been since its inception in 1969.

How many times have you read in the media, or been told by your non-caving friends, that taking part in our sport is a risky business? ‘No, no,’ you reply, ‘it is really quite safe.’ But in the cold light of analysis, how right are they – or you?

Images from the Past

Images from the Past returns with feedback from Descent (152) and another picture to puzzle over. Can you help?

Goyden’s Divine Escape Route

‘I was puzzled: here was a dry river bed – but only minutes before I had seen a large river flowing past Goyden, which lay less than 200m away. Then we heard the roar of the river, and saw a frothing flood rushing downstream – but instead of reaching us the water was sinking in a wild frenzy into a new sink.’

The Descent Caption Competition

Another Descent Caption Competition opens with no fewer than three prizes to win. Can you apply the funniest, stupidest, most ridiculous caption to our pair of illustrations?

Gear Review

Dragon Tropical Oversuit

The lightweight Dragon Tropical Oversuit receives a testing – and comes out shining.

The Man of Pen and Ink

Malcolm Newton, who died in November 1999, was renowned for his superb drawings of mining relics. His club, the Shropshire CMC, pays its tribute with a selection of Malcolm’s work.

Know Your Boundaries …

‘We were eventually rewarded with an immense high-level passage, nearly 50m wide and littered with house-sized boulders. Chattering bats circled overhead, disturbed by our lights. We reeled out the survey tape …’ But in Vietnam, you must also deal with bureaucracy.

A Thundering Gale on Pant Mawr

‘Breathing’ caves are well known; differences between barometric pressure can cause draughts to blow inwards or outwards. Sometimes the movement is ferocious – one cave on Pant Mawr moor is such a place. Now, why not use the strength of the draught to calculate the volume of unknown cave?

The Adventures of Conon

The identity of Conon Fraser, who wrote caving fiction stories, was queried in Descent (151). Following some detective work, here are the answers.

Cover: Maoaotou Yan, Guilin, China. Photo: Andy Eavis

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Descent is printed to the highest quality in the UK, as it has been since its inception in 1969.

Have you got an old cave photograph that you know little about? Who is the caver, where was it taken, by whom and when? Images from the Past introduces a new feature to Descent : can you help with information?

A Century of British Caving

As we enter the year 2000, Ric Halliwell takes a look back across the last century of British caving – the digs and breakthroughs, the highs and lows that have helped to shape our sport.

Days Under Pressure

The pressure was on with seven French cavers trapped by floods. It was not even known if they were alive or dead, as one of the largest rescue attempts – and almost certainly the most expensive – of the millennium was set into motion. Meanwhile, the victims were under a different form of pressure.

If at First You Don’t Succeed …

When it comes to digs, cavers in the Forest of Dean are renowned for stopping at nothing. If a shaft fails, you dig another. If that fails, how about a tunnel? But aren’t nine shafts pushing it a bit? Not if you break through in Big Sink.

A Kilometre a Day

A six-day camp in the depths of Tecolote, Mexico … Four days pushing, surveying, finding lead after lead … Four kilometres of passage, and still there’s more to do …

Gear Review

Zecom Waterproof Paper

The cave environment is not kind to equipment – so tear-proof, waterproof paper sounds useful for surveying. Zecom is under test.

War Underground

What does this remind you of? Digging in darkness and oxygen-poor air, setting off explosives … No, it isn’t a cave dig, but the extraordinary exploits of tunnellers during the First World War.

The Descent Caption Competition

At last, a winner. Are you the owner of a new helmet, courtesy of Inglesport, or will you simply sit back and laugh at this month’s entries?

The Importance of Being Earnest

More irregular observations on life, the universe and caving from Alan Jeffreys.

Cover: Swildon’s Hole, 1927 and the rescue from the Vitarelles, France. Photos: Harry Savory / SSF/FFS

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Descent is printed to the highest quality in the UK, as it has been since its inception in 1969.

More than one caver has the need to thank cave rescue teams for bringing them out safely; we all cave easier for knowing that they are there. Each year the rescue statistics are published; each year we look to see what misfortunes (or stupidity) has led to a callout. Now, as we near the end of the decade (let alone the millennium), Pete Allwright looks back across ten years of facts to determine the overall trends.

Choose the Cover You Require

Insurance! Ho, hum, boring! Yet we live with it every day: car, house, life, access for caving, cover for expeditions … We pay dearly for something we hope we never need, but what can we do? David Judson wonders if developing a better policy is the way to go … but at what price? A single national caving body? Here’s the pros and cons of what could arise from the current discussions.

Fifty Years of Aggy Aggy

Fifty years ago, Christmas and New Year spent on a bleak limestone escarpment in South Wales led to a major find: Agen Allwedd. Aggy’s discoverer, Brian Price, recounts how he and two schoolboy Scouts dug their way in.

Gear Review

Inglesport’s new helmet is given the once-over.

Leeds Underground

The annual National Caving Conference, Hidden Earth, was a resounding success. Here are more than mere reports on every lecture and competition results – here is the distillation of what British cavers have been doing for the past year.

The Descent Caption Competition

Your last chance to win one of Inglesport’s new helmets.

Cover: Lathkill Head Cave, Derbyshire. Photos: Paul Deakin

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VAT is not charged on UK publications. Orders to the EU are posted without tax paid and you are responsible for VAT and any other charges on delivery.

Descent is printed to the highest quality in the UK, as it has been since its inception in 1969.

As conservationists we fight to preserve our dwindling wilderness areas, from the Arctic wilds to tropical forest and vibrant reefs. Everywhere travellers bemoan the way in which tourism is so destructive: ‘see it now, before it’s too late,’ they cry, as they help destroy. What is so different about our caving heritage that we can choose to ignore the effects of our actions?

Just Itching to be Discovered

Jordan might not be everybody’s first choice of caving destination; indeed, for Tony Howard it was the lure of climbing that led him to explore the country and, in doing so, he ended up finding caves that were just itching to be discovered.

Eldon’s Explorers

A comparison of a descent of Eldon Hole using modern equipment and that of 100 years ago was begun in the last edition of your favourite magazine. The story now reaches its conclusion with the return to the surface and a second descent using a bosun’s chair.

Hanging in the Peak

British cavers benefit from well-placed, permanent Eco-hangers in many of our popular caves, thanks to grants and money-raising schemes, and volunteers to place these anchors. The NCA trains cavers how to install these hangers properly: what are the criteria, and how did the latest training day go?

Gear Review

The CC Trek Light and Peli Products Heads Up Light are under caver’s scrutiny.

Going Dutch

We seem to have a natural reluctance when it comes to caver training: do we leave it to the clubs, pay a professional to impart the necessary expertise, or just muddle along? Heaven forbid, what if controls were introduced that gave us an exam before we could take out club tackle? Fiction, or fact?

To Be Continued …

Join Alan Jeffreys with his latest observations on life, the universe and caving.

The Descent Caption Competition

Inglesport has a new helmet on the market. Here’s your chance to win one, if you can think up the funniest caption.

Cover: Ogof Govan, South Wales. Photo: Martyn Farr

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VAT is not charged on UK publications. Orders to the EU are posted without tax paid and you are responsible for VAT and any other charges on delivery.

Descent is printed to the highest quality in the UK, as it has been since its inception in 1969.