Ghar Parau Expedition Support

As British cavers once again plan overseas trips in search of caverns measureless, this is where the grants will take them.

The Descent Pixa Competition

Did you win the Petzl Pixa 3R rechargeable light in the Pick up a Pixa competition in Descent (228)? If not, you have another chance.

A Short Dig, An Open Dive

A new cave diving site in an overlooked ‘other’ area – that’s an opportunity for exploration that doesn’t come along too often, and it yielded more than expected.

The Road to The Frozen Deep

The media has been filled with fleeting reports about the discovery of the UK’s largest naturally occurring underground chamber, but we have the full story of the dig and the resulting find.

A New Kind of Fun

Pushing a system high on a New Zealand mountain sounds exciting. The trouble is, Stormy Pot is anything but nice.

From UMIST to Hidden Earth

It’s not only a report on the most recent Hidden Earth conference, it’s also a tale of highs and lows across the years.

Shooting the Cover

Our cover image is an unusual one – this is how it was shot.

The Manhattan Connection

The Ease Gill System has another connection, this time between Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which means Manhattan offers a new through-trip.

Write it down!

Hot Turkey!

Our occasional series of anecdotes continues with one from Turkey – it was clearly time to Write it Down!

Cover: Looking up the Astradome in Cueva de la Hoyuca in Matienzo, Spain. Photo: Paul ‘Footleg’ Fretwell

Back cover: Green and black: delicate formations from the Aven des Crozes, France. Photos: 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.

A New Kid on the Block

Ralph Johnson takes a look at how the use of ropes has developed in caving, then tries out a new, high-spec rope from Gleistein.

Adding a Fraction to Notts II

Round-trips seemingly being all the rage, the inlets in Notts II have yielded another connection.

Far from Doomed!

The Peak Expedition for 2012 has closed – but oh! what a lot was found.

Urs
The gourmet cave photographer

Urs Widmer, perhaps best known for his Speleo Projects calendar and quality book publishing, died in April. We pay tribute with a photo feature containing images gleaned from his vast caving legacy.

Game On to Game Over

To descend the deepest cave on earth is an achievement to savour – we take you to the depths of Krubera Cave, high in the mountains of Georgia.

The Descent  Competitions

Here are the winners of our latest competition, and the chance to win a Petzl Pixa 3R.

The Underground Journey

The amount of historical material that awaits to be revealed is surely amazing. Dave Webb tells the story of how he has brought a film back to the caving community.

Nine Months in Crescent Pot

When continued access to Crescent Pot looked shaky in light of the imminent collapse of shoring, it was time to start replacing the rotting timbers.

Write it down!

On Rowter’s Shaft

We all enjoy a good caving tale, especially if it is both true and involves what could so easily have been a disasters.

Cover wrap-round: A dry pool in the Red Seas area of Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico, USA. Photo: Kevin Downey & Urs Widmer

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.

Beneath Leck Fell, Kirk Pot has lain unchallenged for years, but diving and surveying have revealed a more extensive cave than was previously thought to exist.

Do Sheath Defects Weaken a Rope?

Provatina was the big one of the 1960s; the unbottomed largest shaft in the world. Ken Kelly, who took up the challenge, has died and here we pay tribute to this larger-than-life character.

Two Rounds for Swildon’s

Swildon’s Hole on Mendip has a new round-trip established and, with work on the Mud Sump, an old one now accessible year-round.

Seeking the Draughts

All cavers know the significance of underground draughts, enticing them to follow into unknown lands. When those draughts are gale-like in huge Chinese passages, the lure is unimaginable.

Mendip Technology

The most recent Cave Technology Symposium changed its emphasis from one to two days, and headed for Mendip.

Extenuating Circumstances

For the first time in over a decade, a dig in the Forest of Dean’s Slaughter Stream Cave is heading into a blank area of the survey.

William Black’s Caves

Sometimes the quality produced by early cave photographers is astounding, considering the problems that had to be overcome. Just so the work of the Reverend Black.

Showcase: Fitch Pitch

When Keith Batten photographed Fitch Pitch in Thailand, he began a project that would require plenty of computer time.

Cover: Annie Guiraud in Cueva de Santa Catalina, Cuba. Photo: Philippe Crochet

Back cover: Fitch Pitch in Tham Pha Phueng (Bee Cliff Cave), Thailand. Photo: Keith Batten

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 Kirk Pot Extensions

Beneath Leck Fell, Kirk Pot has lain unchallenged for years, but diving and surveying have revealed a more extensive cave than was previously thought to exist.

To Provatina and Back

Provatina was the big one of the 1960s; the unbottomed largest shaft in the world. Ken Kelly, who took up the challenge, has died and here we pay tribute to this larger-than-life character.

Images from the Past:
A Visit to Jatijajar

An obscure magazine, complete with early underground photography, reveals how travel in the late 19th century took tourists to a cave in Java.

Boulder Pot – Relocated!

Access to Boulder Pot in the Peak District has been lost not once, but twice. With even the location of the entrance forgotten, the search was on.

Sarawak Chamber

The Mulu 2011 expedition returned with a stunning photograph of the immense Sarawak Chamber. Photographer Robbie Shone reveals how it was shot.

Surveying Sarawak Chamber

The Mulu expedition also spent time producing a high-tech survey of the chamber, producing a 3D model.

The Rescues of 2011

Details of all last year’s rescues: read and learn.

Wikipedian Cavers

With more and more information to be found on the web, it’s time to update its caving content.

A Three Counties Fantasy Trip

What would it be like to traverse the Three Counties System in a single trip? Andy Walsh lets his imagination run wild.

Swildon’s Twenty: A different perspective

In the second of our photo features, Paul Dold tells how he found a new angle to photograph an old location.

Cover: Pete Bradford in Swildon’s Hole. Photo: Paul Dold

Back cover: Delicately balancing lighting in one of northern England’s most popular group of caves, Philippe Crochet has photographed Annie Guiraud in Long Churn Cave and the entrance to Diccan Pot

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.

Tim Allen opened our major coverage of the Three Counties System final link in Descent (224) and now concludes the story of how the team attained that major achievement.

Going Head to Head on Leck Fell

As if concluding the Three Counties link-up was not enough, the team headed directly for Death’s Head Hole to work on another connection dig.

The Three Counties Media Circus

As cavers, we all know how the media portrays our sport, often with an inelegant description of what it involves and complete with utter inaccuracies. With the Three Counties link, however, the press outdid even its own poor record.

Christmas Cracker

No day is a good day to break a leg, let alone require a rescue callout – but then again, it’s perhaps made more embarrassing when you have to pull rescuers from their Christmas dinners …

Nicola Makes the Grade

Cave rescue is going to see some changes, with a central European organisation in the offing and a new version of the Nicola radio passing its field trials and heading for production.

British Cavers Overseas

The expedition season is upon us – who is heading where in 2012?

Gear review:
Doming 3W Headlight

An updated Doming headlight now sports a powerful 3W LED – and at the price it sells for, it’s going to interest cavers!

Diving the Fou de Bor

The terminal sump of Fou de Bor begins at a static pool in a frequently visited Spanish mountain cave. It seemed time to take a good look, with the bonus of meeting the local caving godfather.

Cover: Formations in Cova des Pas de Vallgornera, Mallorca. Photo: Tony Merino

Back cover: The waterfall into the Main Chamber in Gaping Gill, and Lake Cadoux and waterfall in the Gouffre Berger, France. Photos: Robbie Shone

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 search has been long, not to mention the amount of effort that has been expended. Tim Allen covers the story of how the connection across Three Counties was finally made.

Memories of Lyle

The key place to dig in Lost John’s Cave turned out to be a side passage in Lyle Cavern High Level Series. Tony Waltham remembers how it was found, over three decades ago.

The Essence of Digging

If you’re a digger, you know what it’s like. For the rest, this is a real treat: a description of working in mud slurry and loose rocks that brings home a feeling of being there.

The True Length Unravelled

How long is the Three Counties System? Only the linked caves, mind; not how long it has the potential to be! Typical published lengths are between 75km to over 100km – but read on for a full analysis and the definitive answer.

Into the Darkness

In cave biology circles, Romania’s Movile Cave holds something akin to cult status, given its isolated, evolutionary unique ecosystem. Yet little has ever been reported of the cave itself, of what a trip there entails and just how restricted access remains today.

Handlines for Free

Rope testing reveals much about how our SRT systems fare underground. Now, a new experiment into the survival rate of handlines is coupled with a request to help place some samples.

How Many Teams Fit into a Hole?

Holding a joint rescue exercise is not unusual, but Midlands CRO took the principle to an extreme then even had to deal with a real callout, to boot.

The Wet West Adventure

With no open access, exploration in Glebe Mine’s natural passages has been limited. Yet, three decades ago work was begun that was only recently quietly continued.

The Descent Competitions

Three competitions closed at the end of 2011, so now is the time to see whether you have a prize coming your way, or perhaps simply to laugh at the captions that only cavers could think up.

Cover: Serena Povia in Wretched Rabbit, Ease Gill Caverns. Photo: Mark Shinwell

Back cover: Andy Kuszyk admiring the Blue Greenies, and the campsite at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Daren Cilau. Photos: Rob Eavis

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 Caves of the Haut-Languedoc

Put thirty-plus cave photographers of international standing together in one place for a week and the likely outcome is a whole load of top quality pictures. Here, then, are just some of the results in another of our extra-page special editions of Descent.

At Last, a Reality

For over four decades cavers have striven to connect a series of caves to form the Three Counties System. The breakthrough on 6 November 2011 made that prediction a reality.

Once You Taste It …

Artur Kozlowski – a pioneer cave diver renowned and held in high regard for his discoveries in Irish caves – died while following his dream: to explore, ever onwards.

Found and Lost

Discovering a prehistoric drawing in a British cave is an incredibly rare occurrence, despite decades of searching. This makes the motives behind its subsequent destruction impossible to understand.

Hidden Earth at Monmouth

The 2011 annual Hidden Earth event in Monmouth proved to be one of the best ever with plenty to interest everyone.

Gear review

Step Daddy Tackle Bag and Illamina Undersuit

Cavers’ opinions after trying out a new tackle bag from Beast Products and an Aventure Verticale undersuit.

The Descent Caption Competition

Grotta del Cane

The ever-popular Descent Caption Competition is back with five prizes to award for the best original (and silliest) entries. And not only do we have DVD copies of Cave of Forgotten Dreams to give away, reviewed in Descent (220), a set of Wainwright books has its own competition in the magazine. Plus, online only, we have an additional competition to win copy of Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

Cover: Formations in Aven du Mont Marcou, France. Photo: Sergio Laburu and the Espeleofoto team

Back cover: Caves of the Haut-Languedoc

Top and inset: Grotte des Crozes. Photos: Gaspard Magarinos & Andi Schober, and Michael Shopper; Bottom: Grotte des Ecossaises. Photo: Mark Shinwell

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.

A new species of pseudoscorpion has drawn Robbie Shone to the caves of Portugal, where it became the centrepiece of a photographic essay.

To the Tesla Coil

The National Speleological Society’s annual convention in the USA offers cavers a week-long opportunity to meet folk, go caving and generally have a great time.

Typecasting the Vertical Caver

The Frog system of SRT is in widespread use across Europe, but it may not be as efficient as you think – when it comes to energy expenditure, much depends on your body type.

Short but Sweet

When it comes to expedition destinations, Ethiopia is not the most popular, but a British team has found that this region of Africa nevertheless holds promise.

Gear review:

EDZ All Climate Suit

A new undergarment, designed to help to regulate body temperature, has been given a workout, underground.

Talking International Rescue …

Cave rescue teams across Europe sometimes have very differing approaches to their work, partly due to how the organisations are set up and controlled. We can all learn from one another, hence heading for an international cave rescue meeting in Bulgaria.

Not Flying Mice!

Our British bats are, it seems, still misunderstood even though we as cavers are very likely to come across them close up. It was time for a caver-led, bat awareness course.

Cover: Annie Guiraud in Kazumura Cave, Hawaii. Photo: Philippe Crochet

Back cover: British lead mines: Bwlch-y-Plwm, Llanfrothen, near Garreg, North Wales (top), and Raddle Pits on Bradwell Moor, Peak District. Photos: Phil Wolstenholme

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.

A trailer wheel punches into a new cave in the middle of an unmarked field. Cavers have new and deep rifts to explore in Mr Sparkler’s Glory Hole.

Regaining Nicker Grove’s Streamway

For over a decade the route to Nicker Grove Mine’s streamway has been lost to collapse – but thanks to the renewed attention of diggers, another section of the Peak District’s underground is open once again.

Conservation in The Cupcake

Diggers enjoy the excitement of a breakthrough, but also bear the responsibility of protecting their discoveries. Here we report on conservation in The Cupcake, plus a route description complete with rigging topos.

A Bit of a Bitch

As cavers, one after another, used the same rope on the notorious Bitch Pitch, its protective sheath parted to expose the core.

Roy Deane: a varied life

Roy Deane survived a serious flood that trapped him in Sleets Gill Cave in 1992; he went on to produce a film about the incident. Here, his companion Les Hewitt pays tribute to this friendly, helpful man.

The Rediscovered Cave of Axbridge

A ‘huge cave’ near Axbridge was discovered by miners in the 1920s, but by the 1950s its location had been lost. Cavers have searched for the entrance for over six decades and now, finally, its chambers have been revisited.

The Peak Expedition

The second Peak Expedition – an extended and intensive period of collaborative exploration – has come and gone with a new round of discoveries on record.

Wrap-round cover: Martin Barnicott admiring the Blanc de Blanc column in the Delta area of the Réseau Félix Trombe, France. Photo: Robbie Shone

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.

Gear review:

Doming and New Wisdom Headights

Two imported headlights are given a once-over with one question in mind: how do they stand up to a caver’s requirements?

The Grandeur of Vallgornera

The USA is rightly renowned for the richly decorated Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, but Europe has its equivalent, albeit seemingly less well known: Cova des Pas de Vallgornera on the island of Mallorca. In this Descent Special Issue we celebrate not only its exploration, but also its sheer beauty.

Cave Movies: The Early Years

Films shot in and about British caves are among the earliest ever made in the world and amateur movies provide us with a real sense of what caving was like in decades long gone.

The Rescues of 2010

The British Cave Rescue Council tracks all rescues involving its members’ rescue teams, reporting annually on the statistics so revealed. Here you can learn where things went wrong for other cavers – so that you can ensure you don’t make the same mistakes.

Nepal’s Nature Spirits

Expeditions are not always huge, minutely prepared and heavily funded – sometimes they are small and comprise a few friends; a few cavers who are heading out with a destination in mind and a purpose: to have some fun!

Across Dinaric Karst

The Whitley Fund for Nature offers substantial support to suitable applicants working on significant conservation projects around the world. Now, caving has benefited from a £30,000 grant towards work in protecting the Dinaric karst.

Dreams Fulfilled

Werner Herzog’s film Cave of Forgotten Dreams has been on general release in the UK and gained a wide range of varied comment.

Cover: Toni Mulet in a forest of straws, Cova des Pas de Vallgornera. Photo: Tony Merino

Back cover: British lead mines: Bwlch-y-Plm at Llanfrothen Garreg, North Wales (top), and Raddle Pit on Bradwell Moor, Peak District. Photos: Phil Wolstenholme

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.