Oxford University Cave Club

Club Caving Meetings, Hilary Term 2023

Please sign up to one of the OUCC mailing lists to be notified of new events.
(New members who gave us their email address will also be notified even if not on the standard mailing lists.)
Also keep an eye on the OUCC Facebook pages!
For enquiries about caving trips, contact the OUCC Meetings Secretary (Rosa Clements): meetsec@oucc.org.uk

(end of) Week	Date	Place	Cost	Accommodation	Meeting Leader
1	21-22 January	South Wales	£55	Godre Pentre	Fiona Zhang
2
3
4	11-12 February	Mendip	£55	Wessex	Vlad Catanea
5
6	24-26 February	Peak District	£60	TSG	TBA
7
8	10-12 March	Yorkshire Dales	£60	BPF	TBA

Other meets may be organised - please check at Social meetings or via the OUCC mailing lists.

Details of the trips will be advertised closer in time. They will mostly be advertised on the "oucc-all" mailing list.
So if you want to stay up to date, please sign up following the instructions on the website: http://www.oucc.org.uk/current/mailists.htm

PLEASE help and volunteer to organise a weekend. If no-one organises the weekends they won't happen.
There is a detailed crib sheet on the website telling you exactly how to organise a weekend. Take a Look!

How to Sign up for a Caving Trip
	Trips must be paid for in advance. Payment is by an online system. https://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/product-catalogue/oxford-university-cave-club/ou-cave-club-trips Cost covers: loan of equipment, transport, accommodation, food on site; but not food in transit or what you spend in the pub! See here for more information. If you haven't been caving with us before but want to give it a go, membership and insurance for your first term with OUCC is free!
Your first Caving Trip?
	Read this important information and complete this online OUCC Pre-Trip information form
Single Rope Technique
	Going to the Dales? Going on an expedition ? Don't know the ropes ? - try SRT Training.

Trip Details

1st week 21st-22nd January Wales weekend Godre Pentre

We'll start the term with a Wales weekend! Wales is always great fun, lots of long and complex caves with a lot of variety. It's also an excellent place to start caving if you missed the Freshers' trips last term, this will be a beginner friendly weekend. Hut wise, we're trying something a bit new. At the TGM, SWCC seemed much more popular than Whitewalls, so I made a booking there, but Imperial must have got in just before us and we were turned down. However I'd already said SWCC was the provisional plan on the WhatsApp group, and Mark Burkey offered to lead us on some interesting trips near there (which is a pretty cool offer for those not on the beginner trip(s)). So we're staying at the Godre Pentre, which I haven't been to before, but it's a bit cheaper than SWCC and hopefully not too much of a drive to OFD or whatever Mark's planning.

4th week 11th-12th February Mendip weekend Wessex

Given that not a lot of caving happened at CHECC, we're having a Mendip weekend next term to get a bit more of a chance to see the underside of the Mendips. This should also be a pretty good weekend for beginners. We'll be staying at the Wessex, a very nice hut which is an easy walk from Swildons, Eastwater, and Hunter's Hole, some of the Mendip caves we visit most. It also has its own SRT tower, so we might get chance for a little SRT practice too. For a non-beginner trip, I might see if I can get us a permit for one of the less usual Mendip caves as well, suggestions please.

6th week 24th-26th February Peak weekend TSG

It's what everyone's been asking for, a Peak District weekend! Our last two Peak weekends got cancelled for different reasons, so we need to make sure this one's a good one. We might even have a visit to Titan, which has the biggest shaft of any cave in the UK! There are also quite a few caves and mines round here that are good for first SRT trips, and a few good non-SRT trips too. We'll be staying at the TSG, a lovely hut in a village called Castleton with 6 pubs in it.

8th week 11th-12th March Dales weekend Bull Pot Farm

No term would be complete without a trip up North to see some of the fine potholes of the Yorkshire Dales and thereabouts. There are hundreds of them! We'll be staying at Bull Pot Farm which is an excellent hut right on top of the Easegill system, which is part of the Three Counties system, the biggest cave system in the UK. I'll definitely get us some Easegill permits, and maybe something nice on Leck Fell too (again, suggestions welcome). We might restrict this weekend to people who have done at least one caving trip and one SRT practice, so we can focus on SRT trips this time (most of the caves in this region are SRT caves, and SRT is the way to see the best of what the Dales have to offer). But of course it depends on who's interested, we might revise that nearer the time.

Accommodation:
BEC: Bristol Exploration Club; BPC: Bradford Pothole Club; BPF: Bull Pot Farm;
Godre Pentre Croydon Caving Club; LCCC: Lancashire Caving & Climbing Club; MCG: Mendip Caving Group;
NPC: Northern Pennine Club; Orpheus: Orpheus Caving Club; SMCC: Shepton Mallet Caving Club;
SWCC: South Wales Caving Club; TSG: Technical Speleo Group; UBSS: University of Bristol Speleological Society;
WCC: Wessex Caving Club; Whitewalls: Chelsea Speleological Society; WSG: Westminster Speleo Group;
Yorkshire Dales Guides: (Hornby Laithe Bunkbarn); YSS: Yorkshire Subterranean Society.