Depth through thought

Editorial

A lively TGM last week brought us nearly unanimous votes on the new Van Monitor (Ian Barker) and his (in this case) responsibilities (vehicle + accounts) until the AGM. Thanks to all for contributing to the "frank and open" discussions. Apologies to Pauline for not publishing the club accounts this week: electronic cock-up, but I will get them in next week.

Diary

Saturday 30th Nov. / Sunday 1st December. Mendip Madness weekend, with an underground treasure hunt for what unknown beauties? By kind invitation of the Rodneys...an underground BBQ in Read's Cavern will follow. Helpers needed to go down on Saturday am, but the van will leave the hut at 1200. Bring sleeping bags, carrymats, drink, and caving gear. I must know numbers to arrange food and flowers...

Wednesday 4th December. Climbing wall/ swimming/ skating trip to Swindon (I think). Tony is organising it, but probably meet hut 6.30.

Expedition news

Reply from Dr Sills, A.C. Irvine Fund

Pauline has had a reply from Dr. Sills, of which this is the nub...

"I understood that there had been some disagreement last year within the Caving Club, and I therefore wrote to all the Trustees to find out the general consensus. We did, of course, know that the Fund's support was administered by the Club and not passed directly to individuals. However I don't think we had realised that the expedition might include quite a few people who would not be eligible individually for Irvine grants, with the result that those for whom the grant was provided could be receiving quite a bit less than we expected. Certainly the majority of Trustees said that they wanted the main priority to be support of eligible undergraduates, with some suggesting that a Club grant might be considered. There is a precedent for this in the Club grant to the OUMC, with the caveat that it is used specifically to support beginners..."

At Dr Sills' suggestion, Pauline will arrange a meeting with Dr Sills and the Fund's Treasurer in advance of their AGM to discuss possibilities. Would anyone like to pass thoughts or suggestions on to Pauline, David or Tim?

2/7 or not 2/7?

There is, at present, a debate going on within the club as to what the aims of next year's expedition should be - the argument centres on the question of whether or not we should rig 2/7.

The cave 2/7, also known as Pozu Jultayu or Pozu del Ojo de la Bruja, has been the main focus of the last five OUCC expeditions; in that time we have made some very exciting discoveries - a vertical shaft 400m deep which leads to a very large streamway, a mile long. In 1989, the present down-stream limit was reached -- a boulder choke known as Choke Egbert. Since then we have been unable to pass the choke, although we have found a lot of passage in that area and there are still a lot of leads to be looked at. The main reason is the remoteness of the pushing front: trips have typically lasted 4 days and have only managed about 8 hours at the sharp end. Everyone now realises that this is not an efficient way to push the cave; if we are to find a way past Egbert, we will need to find an easier way into the system which will allow us to give the leads the full attention they deserve.

At present we know of a number of caves which may lead into the Jultayu system:

• 66/5: this cave is located about 250m away from the line of 2/7: the bottom is about 300m above the stream level. If appears likely that it will either link into the system near Choke Egbert or bypass it altogether. The bottom of the cave is completely open, and waiting to be pushed ...[Tim wishes to point out that although "The Comer Shop" access to 66/5 is currently rather awkward, he reckons that if the cave goes well an alternative bypass exists in the bottom of the rift that will provide easy crawling: it could be hammered into in about a day, so you contristophobes needn't be fazed by the place]
• Skull Cave: this is directly above 2/7. At the moment it is very tight, but it could easily open out into a shaft dropping into the master cave.
• 53/5: the bottom of this cave seems to be heading towards the Xitu system; however, there is a very strong draught in the entrance series which is lost further down the cave. This draught has to come from somewhere - could it be 2/7?
• Area 4: there are a number of caves in this area which haven't been bottomed; they are beyond the end of 2/7, although it is speculated that they lie directly above the downstream continuation.
• Area 12: this area lies low down in the Cares Gorge, above the resurgence for 2/7. A number of entrances have been spotted in this area, but have not yet been entered. These could be fossil resurgences, and so may provide a way to walk into the system from the other side.
• Areas 8, 9 and E: the water in 2/7 has to come from somewhere, probably these areas. This area hasn't been very well looked at (probably because it's a long walk from any convenient camp site).

I believe that these caves provide more than enough opportunities for the expedition. A plan has been put forward that 2/7 should be rigged in order to explore upstream. I think this is a bad idea for the following reasons:

• It will divert resources away from the search for alternative entrances into the Jultayu master-cave.
• There is every chance that an un-ascendable waterfall will soon be reached.
• It will be divisive - trips will be of the order of 17 hours long, and so only "hard cavers" will be able to go. On the other hand, the small caves described above are all small enough to be done as day trips, and will allow cavers on their first expedition to play an active role in making new discoveries.
• It will be less exciting caving: in my opinion, walking along a large streamway, surveying, is vastly inferior to pushing one of the smaller caves where you just don't know what will happen next (pitch, rift, squeeze, climb, ...).

It is important that everyone planning to come on expedition tells the expedition committee what they want to do. [David will be handing round a sheet tonight for you to make comments on. Please hand it back today so that the expedition committee can put their view in next week's newsletter]. My hope is that most people will decide that they would rather play a part in pushing the smaller caves, and that the plan to rig 2/7 is abandoned, freeing resources for the search for a lower entrance. Even if this is not the case, the more cavers working in the smaller caves, the more successful the expedition is likely to be.
Gavin.

Huerta del Rey 1992

This year's expedition seems set to get University approval, subject to some modifications to the prospectus. CB radios are being taken seriously this year. Sean is looking into them, so any suggestions to him please. One idea is to put a base station in the van at Los Lagos.

Exploring here

Digging in Frosty passage...

On Friday 22nd November, Tony and I went digging in Frosty Passage in Daren Cilau. An efficient trip down saw us at the dig site within two hours, despite carrying various weapons of destruction (crow bar, hammer, trowel, fork). The boulder which had stopped me and Sean on the previous trip was soon levered out, to reveal more rocks and sand. The largest boulder took some shifting - we even had to widen the passage at one point to get it out. This gave enough room for Tony to kneel up in the dig and attack the choke manically with the crow bar, he made fast progress while I stacked the spoil in a heap strangely reminiscent of a building designed by Dave Bell.

The dig was extended by about two metres, before we decided to call it a day. We need some better way of removing spoil from the dig site (this says something about how fast our progress was -we had expected to just pass it back) as well as some sand bags for stacking it more efficiently. The choke is made out of boulders, up to head-sized, stuck together with sand; it is very similar in character to DADES choke, near the end of the cave and on the same fault line. Progress is made by poking the choke with a crow bar, while cowering out of the way, and then dragging out the sand and rocks.

So, another OUCC dig is up and running. It looks quite promising: it also has a lot of potential for connecting with open passage heading towards The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and intersecting the second streamway. The question is whether we'll break out into open passage before we run out of space for stacking spoil. As always, more people are needed to help. This one could go far; there again, it will probably go nowhere.
Gavin

Cabbages

Paris underground...

No, not the Metro, but a huge complex of passages 60 m below the ancient city. At first just enjoying stomping down miles of passage away from the traffic above, then amazed as we popped out into the Catacombs with walls stacked high with skulls from the French Revolution and before. For about half an hour we kept walking swiftly as if in some vadose trench cut deep into a striated sandwich of human remains. Six million of them, reburied when Paris decided it needed its cemeteries for building. I never thought you could get habituated to such things, but I was literally boned-out when we finally emerged on some small street a metro stop away. Well recommended.
Tim.

Red Van

The van has been primed for repainting. and has a new sprayer on the front: thanks to all who helped last Saturday. It looks like the 13 Bevington road parking site is too difficult (bit like David M. in the Eft). Any thoughts?. Dave Lacey is probably about to provide us with a rare sight: a smile! The hut was also cleared up on Saturday - thanks all.

This week's silly

Where is "the last resort"?