Depth through thought

Editorial

Many thanks to Peter Bolt for his excellent and entertaining talk on Draenen (and future big discoveries) last week.

Steve Roberts is soon to put DTT on the WWW, so keep those articles coming.

SRT Practice

SRT Practice will take place this Friday at New College school gym (7-9pm). Ladder climbing/lifelining/knot tying etc. can also be incorporated. Speak to James if you're interested in coming. Beer and live music to follow.

Lost and Found

Lost: One Northern Caves 3, name inside, absent without leave.
Found: One knackered caver wandering round back quad, origin unknown.
James "Spam for Beer" Hooper.

Expedition update

Dates and things

We have bought a ferry ticket, so the dates for expedition are finalised. They are 4 July - 23 August. It would help us hugely in our planning if we know who is interested in coming. Please give Anita what information you can, even if it is only "well I might, but...." Come for as long or as short a time as you can fit in. To encourage people with limited time we have decided upon a daily charge as an alternative to the deposit. At 9 pounds a day you would need to stay for 2 weeks before paying the full deposit. Anyone can choose whether they want to pay the £125 deposit, or pay the daily rate.

Gear Order

The gear order forms will be out next week. John would like them returned in 1st week next term. If you need some advice before deciding what to buy then there will be advice and catalogues on that 1st week Wednesday night, or you can start asking old lags now. There will be substantial reductions from normal prices, and usually you can get much more than main-line caving gear.
Expedition Committee (we don't want any vodka)

Marble Steps

Fully armed with a bottle of Water and a Washing-up Scrubber, accidentally decrying SRT to a couple of SRT freaks, I became.... Conservation Man. Saturday's trip down Marble Steps, Suzanne's first caving trip, was totally dedicated to the Pleasure Principle (with a bit of cave-cleaning for a laugh.) The team included, Urs, Tony, Phil R., Nicola D., and Dave Horsley. Classic abseiling, singing, gossiping..... We only got as far as the head of the 90 but it didn't matter, the sun was setting outside, the Marton Arms was open, beer was settled back at Southerscales. No problems in the cave except for huge amounts of ice-cold water. Fortunately, I was wearing a wetsuit system. All in all, a day in the best of traditions.
James "I'm an old fart really" Hooper.

County Pot

There was more enthusiasm for making Gigantic Snow Elephants than for going caving on Sunday morning but nonetheless a hungover team assembled in the Fountains Cafe, Ingleton. We got changed in Bull Pot Farm and had a glorious walk over to the entrance, sun overhead, snow underfoot. As it turned out, County was Nicola's first cave (and Marble Steps her first OUCC trip), so it was more memory lane. Inside there was just the right amount of water, fun and splashy without serious risk of flooding. After spending ten minutes failing to connect two passages together, we popped out at Eureka Junction. "Where are you going?" another caver asks Tim. "Christ Knows." Pause. "Ah I've got some jelly beans..." Tim replies. Five minutes of fun and hilarity. I'd love to know what the other two cavers thought of us but when we decided to go to Easter Grotto, we seriously shifted, leaving them lagging behind. Tim, Pauline and Maarten hadn't seen it before and the look on their faces was great. It's always worth a trip into Ease Gill. We got out for a second ideal sunset. I couldn't ask for a better day.
James

History repeats itself?

The following is a an extract from recent correspondence: Dear Gerhard, We've just come back from an excellent Yorkshire weekend, to which 40 members of OUCC attended. A record??? [James.] Dear James, As far as my memory will serve, yes. Though I still have fond memories of that 4-wave trip down Lost John's, one New Year meet, years ago. 28 OUCC members and guests down the same cave at the same time...! The rigging / lifelining on Battle Axe got a bit complex on that occasion. But Richard's writeup about all the ladder-in parties getting entangled with SRT-out teams summed it up nicely: "And then we all went INN." Yours to and beyond the next OUCC mega-curry,
Gerhard.