Start reading here! You never know, you might find it profitable, if you can answer three questions …

On the Monnow

Whether you were there or missed this year’s gathering, you can catch up with every lecture, event and competition at Hidden Earth.

A Little Bit on the Side

Heading home, tired from a dig … what better than to consider adding another site to the list? This time, prior knowledge and a bit of thought produced a new cave in the Peak.

The Descent Caption Competition

As a new competition begins, this is your chance to win a Beaver oversuit. All it takes is a laugh!

Our Lady’s Cave

Joining the dots isn’t always easy – but when the hunt is on, anything can happen.

Tormenta Phone Home

The rain in Spain must have fallen – there’s caves galore, and Oxford’s team is heading ever deeper.

Gear Review

Aquapac Waterproof Cases

Carrying kit underground? Reckon it will arrive safe and sound? Perhaps you need an Aquapac to help keep it clean, dry and serviceable.

We’ve Got Extreme Ways

Pippikin has a reputation: it attracts explorers to its depths, but it challenges their attempts to find new passage. Now, at last, the pot has yielded another of its secrets – Extreme Ways for frustrated cavers.

Adopt-a-Cave’s 25th Anniversary

The Descent Adopt-a-Cave Scheme is 25 years old this month. How did it start; how does it fare?

Cover: Cova des pas de Vallgornera, Mallorca. Photo: Tony Merino

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

Petzl Duo 8-LED Module

The Petzl Duo headlight is well known – now there are three LED modules to join the Duo’s traditional halogen bulbs.

A Pot into Aquamole

Read how diving, climbing, radio-location, digging and sheer perseverance have opened up a new Yorkshire cave.

Gear Review

Testo 405 Digital Draught Meter

Cavers know where to dig; they follow the draught … But if the draught isnít obvious, try using a Testo.

Of Floods, Frogs and a Connection

Ting! Ting! Ting! went the hammer! Itís amazing what can be achieved by two cavers on expedition – China’s the place to be!

Once More unto the Sump

Fancy a classic Mendip round-trip? With some ingenious bailing, Swildon’s Mud Sump’s open once more – and for good.

The Descent Caption Competition

Who won the Otter Boxes? Check here, just for a laugh.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Raw sewage piped straight into a cave? Surely not, these days …

On the Edge

‘I somersaulted out of control and became tangled in the two diving lines; any subtle distinction between “serious” and “dangerous” became an immediate blur.’ Join Martyn Farr as he watches his diving bubbles go straight down.

Journey Beneath the Centre of the Universe

Tony Jarratt tells how Mendip gave up another of its secrets – and within easy reach of a bar, to boot!

The Saga of Ireby Fell

Three cavers lost on the moors – a tale of woe, in verse.

Cover: Steve Marsh in Ballymaglancy Cave. Photo: Martyn Farr

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

The Explorer 1 Harness

It seems that it’s time for a new generation of cave diving harness to appear on the market.
How good is Martyn Farr’s design?

‘Don’t Think It’s All That Deep …’

But, of course, it was! Losers become winners in our tale of digging the Dales.

The Descent Caption Competition

There is only one reminder, as time is running out: take up the challenge today and win yourself a set of Otter Boxes.

Serious Injury Underground

Accidents will happen – the cave rescue statistics prove that … Think seriously: how well would you manage if your friend suffered a fall and you were the only one there? Here is your essential reading on coping with a serious injury underground.

Tackling the Verneau Traverse

Do you have a couple of days free? Aspiring to undertake a really challenging trip that will create envy in your fellow cavers? What, you tackled the Verneau in France in a weekend?

Our Caving Capacity

You’ve probably never wondered how much cave passage has been explored in Great Britain. No, didn’t think so. Now that the idea’s been suggested, aren’t you interested in how many miles lie in our hollow land?

The Shortest Way to 10k

Finding a dry link between the Goyden and New Goyden systems has been on the agenda for many years. The Black Sheep Diggers reckon they have found a new approach to creating a 10km cave.

Great Guns Over Mendip

With the excitement of a gun carriage race and the delight of chemically persuading a cave to yield, live on a bar-room monitor courtesy of DigCam, Mendip Caving 2002 was an event for every caver.

Cover: The new bypass in the Reseau du Vermeau, France. Photo: Peter Goosens

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

It was a quiet year for the British cave rescue teams, but there’s still plenty to learn by reading what went wrong.

Aven Climbing in Carno

They thought it would be an easy, fast climb. Only one bolt, they thought. How wrong can you be – and not only wrong, but trapped by floodwater to boot!

So How Did You Start Caving?

Alan Jeffreys returns with another in his occasional series, The Bottom Line.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As cavers, we do our best to protect our underground heritage from the ravages of pollution and overuse, but what of showcaves? Are they education resources that help the public to understand the beauty of caves, or a blight on the environment?

The Descent Caption Competition

A new competition kicks off this month, with a stack of Otter Boxes as a prize.

It’s Sedimentary, My Dear Warren

With ‘polluted’ water entering a farmer’s storage tank, it’s a chance for caving technology and techniques to clean up on Birks Fell.

Being the Very Best of Friends

On 5 April the caving world lost Dave Yeandle in a paragliding accident. Fellow cave diver Geoff Yeadon tells some of the many tales gleaned from the life of the man they call Pooh.

Cover: Claire McElwain in a recently discovered part of Pozu del Xitu, Spain. Photo: Ben Lovett

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

Well, we told you so! If you build on karst, you really should know what to expect.

The Descent Caption Competition

With four prizes to give away, who has the best captions this month?

Beyond The Eye

A breakthrough in Llygad Llwchwr has been long sought after. In part two of his article, Martyn Farr explores this latest discovery in South Wales.

As Far as you Kango

Clapham Bottoms Pot – ignored for so long, but not forgotten. What awaited the White Rose, beyond Kango Crawl?

Desperate to Dig

Prevented from caving by foot-and-mouth restrictions, Forest cavers utterly desperate to dig … find a new cave!

The First Ingleborough Cave Survey

In 1838, the year after the gour dam was broken down to enter what became Ingleborough showcave, a superb professional survey was produced.

Gear Review

Otter Boxes

Does your gear need protection? Look no further than an Otter Box.

Take Some More Tea

An expedition with a difference, having an arduous time surveying Ghar Alisadr: Iran’s longest cave.

Images from the Past

There’s a picture with a query and another to amuse, in this month’s Images from the Past.

Coccyx Down, Blue Underpants Onwards!

Brian Judd’s life is nothing if not spectacularly unusual – at least, his caving trips seem always to yield the unexpected. This time he’s in China, dealing with a downed SRT novice and being led underground by … well, read it for yourself!

Cover: Peter Bolt in Llygad Llwchwr, South Wales. Photo: Chris Howes

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

Llygad Llwchwr in South Wales was explored and surveyed in the 1840s – yet, despite advances in equipment and techniques, with years of searching for the way on, no significant passage has been found since then. That is, until now.

Images from the Past

There are answers to questions past and questions for the future; this is the page where cavers help their fellow cavers with information.

Tales of Mulu

Oft enough, we’ve heard stories of derring-do and caverns measureless from the hollow mountains of Mulu. When a British team returned from Gunung Benarat, they brought with them tales of what an expedition is really like.

The Jug Holes Restoration

There have been some changes at Jug Holes, that most popular Derbyshire novice’s cave. Courtesy of a multi-club effort, it now sports a new and safer entrance.

The Descent Caption Competition

Let this be your reminder that there are four prizes to give away this month – with only a short time left to enter the competition.

Game On!

Tiring of pushing Trapdoor Pot on Dowlass Moss, attention was turned to the nearby and wonderfully named Boggarts Roaring Holes. The old passages choked and defeat seemed near … then success, with a going pitch. Then another … and yet another. Game on!

An Underground Adventure

Arthur Gemmell will perhaps be best remembered for his joint authorship of Underground Adventure,
a classic tale of caving in the Dales. Here is caving’s tribute to Arthur, who died in 2001.

Speleology in the Third Millennium

The 13th International Congress of Speleology was held in Brazil. Was it a quiet affair, was it worth making the effort to attend?

Childish Things

Do you remember your first caving story book? Did the imagination of a children’s author spark you into following your dreams underground? Alan Jeffreys muses on such influences with a passion for childish literature.

Cover: Pam Fogg in Easter Cave, Western Australia. Photo: Tim Fogg

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

Cavers have a rough-and-ready approach to survival bags, normally based on a poly bag inside a tackle sack, if that. The Blizzard Pack might change your mind.

The Buxton Diamonds

With the Hidden Earth conference making full use of Buxton’s show-cave, Poole’s Cavern, it seemed an appropriate time to present this moral tale of caving in the 1600s.

Heading into Hensler’s

The Born Again Losers are on the move, this time discovering the delights of Hensler’s Pot while other cavers were intent on enjoying the more spacious Gaping Gill. Read how they made out – and how Monica went down on them!

Ah, There’s the Rub

It’s not often that a small team can make not one but a series of major discoveries in a far-flung land, but three cavers have done just that, finding a massive pitch and immense chamber. Mind you, some of their rigging techniques were … original!

Images from the Past

Most queries concern images about which little is known; this month the emphasis is on the person and what else Emily Lloyd might have drawn underground during the 19th century.

The Descent Caption Competition

A new Descent Caption Competition begins this month, with four prizes to be won. If you fancy an LED headlight, it’s time to take a look at how cavers of yesteryear tackled a pitch.

Hidden in the Peak

The annual National Caving Conference always offers cavers a good time. This year’s was exceptional with double the numbers expected. We report on every lecture, every event …

It’s a Republican Plot

How many times have you heard diggers cry, ‘It’ll only take five minutes to clear these boulders’? In this case, though it took longer, there was a just reward with another extension to Ogof Draenen.

Cover: An entrance in Dashiwei doline and lotus flower formations, Leye River System, China. Photo: James Alker

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

‘Having a thoroughly Foul time. Wish you were here!’ Join Batty, Eski and Walker as they challenge a skull’s impetus under gravity and find a use for biscuit wrappers with a 50,000 year half-life.

Building on Karst

The fear was there: a huge building project – including railways and an airport – within an internationally famous karst area could do untold damage to its caves. As the project gets underway and cavers line up in opposition, an unrelated environmental disaster proves how wrong the developers can be.

More Pain with Little Gain

There’s the euphoria of exploration, of making that elusive breakthrough and finding new passage. Then there’s the squalor that cavers suffer in order to make it happen. Read how determined you have to be, to delve beneath Austrian mountains.

Images from the Past

Back when Bar Pot was explored, mysterious marks on the wall were noted by many and photographed by Jack Myers. Can anyone explain their providence?

An English Cave Diver

Jack Sheppard, who died this summer, is renowned for passing the first ‘trap’ in Swildon’s Hole using home-made equipment. This is his tribute.

Swildon’s: the first hundred

‘Further progress seemed barred by a combination of a deep and low archway over a pool, but Mr. H. Hiley, regardless of a waterfall down his back, and the icy coldness of the water, crawled through.’ Modern exploration in furries and oversuit? No – pushing into Swildon’s Hole, one hundred years ago.

The HeyPhone Story

For many years cave rescue organisations have used the Molefone to communicate with the surface. Time moves on, and with it technology – enter a new cave radio: the HeyPhone.

Taking Sight of Entropy

Could the signs and symbols found in palaeolithic drawings be a window into the artist’s mind?

The Descent Caption Competition

At last, the winner! Laugh at the captions and wonder where the ideas come from.

Magpie: Mining and Murder

The gaunt remains of a lead mine stand isolated, strikingly preserved on a bleak skyline. Magpie,
site of violence and … murder.

Cover: Maria A. Garau, Cova del Pas Vallgornera, Mallorca. Photo: Tony Merino

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

If you study the map of the Upper Eden Valley in Cumbria, you can hardly miss a huge area where roads and tracks have not penetrated the land. Here, far from acknowledged caving country, Steve Warren goes prospecting.

The Great Traverse of China

The statistics are impressive: a height drop of 930m, 11km of canyoning and 7km of cave involving 3.5km of swimming, 35 pitches and endless rope traverses. This is not a journey for the faint-hearted!

Our Cave and Karst Inheritance

Caves – magical places which deserve conserving for the generations to come. Is World Heritage status the ultimate recognition of the importance of caves and karst?

Images from the Past

The feedback continues – more memorials, and an underground grave.

The Descent Caption Competition

You just have time to send in your winning entry – a wetsuit for your words, my friend!

Tunnel Rats: 2, Cavers: 0

Joe Duxbury compares two works of fiction, seeking public attitudes to the underground.

A Pioneer Potholer

Club cavers have always been the lifeblood of British caving. Edgar Smith worked on ladder design when this meant looking at ways of attaching wooden rungs to cotton rope.

Caving’s Continued Recovery

Cavers are desperate for countryside access to return to normality, let alone the businesses that depend on their trade. With seemingly random outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease still appearing, while at the same time footpaths reopen, how does caving stand?

A Great Thloo Trip

A one-eyed caver who claims he only requires a weak LED headlight, and a human pipe-cleaner pushed into unknown passages. Alan Jeffreys takes a look at the latest caving expedition to India’s Meghalaya.

Gear Review

First Choice Expedition Foods

Apart from the attractions of easily carried, ready-prepared food, here is a self-contained chemical heater.

Cover: Judith Calford in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu. Photo: Chris Howes

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.

With access to the countryside curtailed throughout the British Isles, showcaves such as Peak Cavern, White Scar Cave and Dan yr Ogof offer some of the few opportunities for trips. At Ingleborough Cave, normally closed to cavers, there has been some exciting exploration.

Gear Review

Etché Caving Boots

A boot’s a boot’s a … But not so, says Dave Elliot: here’s a welly from out of his past!

The Rescues of 2000

The British Cave Rescue Council has released an account of the incidents of 2000: read and learn where others went wrong.

Between a Rock and a Wet Place

Now and then there is a daunting push at the far end of Wookey Hole, but what of the rest of the cave? Peter Glanvill recalls how a determined series of dives revealed Edmunds’ Chamber.

Have You Done the Curtain?

Peter Borthwick concludes his tale of 1950s Peak District caving with more exploration in Giant’s Hole. ‘Have you done the Curtain?’ was once a yardstick of caving ability …

Caving’s Road to Recovery

The effects of foot-and-mouth disease all but shut down British caving, with closed huts and people banned from footpaths and fells. So what is foot-and-mouth, and what does it mean for the future?

Booty and the Beast

Out on the moors, cavers and animals pass like sheeps in the night. If you think that pun is bad, just wait for this unforgettable tale of how one of those woolly bleaters got its own back.

Images from the Past

Information on caver-associated memorials and plaques was requested by a reader – resulting in a flood of pictures and notes.

Between 45m and G’day Cobber!

‘Head down, young man,’ to paraphrase a quote. Just so – and when the Strangle Pot breakthrough came it brought tears and laughter and some beautifully emotive text!

Gear Review

Lucido T7 Headtorch

A seven-LED headtorch is under the spotlight.

The Descent Caption Competition

A new competition starts this month, with a wetsuit as a prize for the best giggle.

Cover: Adrian Hall in Malham Cove Rising. Photo: John Cordingley

Price shown includes postage within the UK. For customers outside the UK, postage will be added on at checkout.

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.