The Columns, OFD, Photo by Merryn Matthews.
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Welcome
to the first newsletter with your new editorial combo of Linda and
Billy! If caving in Wales isn't your thing, we apologise in advance -
but if you haven't yet sampled the delights of Welsh caves, you should
definitely give it a try (preferably starting somewhere other than Daren
Cilau - but that's another story entirely!) and it just so happens that
there's a joint trip with Birmingham uni caving club coming up very
soon. As ever, thanks to all the wonderful people who we've badgered
into trip write ups, including our anonymous writer whose identity
remains a closely guarded secret. And if you want to know what the
acronym MCCB stands for, ask Billy ...
Some of you may have noticed that our website www.ubss.org.uk has
finally fallen over after many years of sterling service, but worry not,
Graham has finally found someone who is able to take on the job of
rebuilding this on a more modern platform, so we hope to be back in
action soon. In the meantime, the direct link to the online shop still
works and the online repository of all the back issues of our digital
and online newsletters also remains accessible.
Please keep the articles coming, and do take a moment to massage our
fragile egos with a quick comment when you reach the end of this bumper
issue!
If you want check out previous issues, you can find them all here. You can also find a scanned archive of all our paper issues from 1919 to 2017 here.
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ONLINE TALK - THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CAVES IN THE BURREN
The British Cave Research
Association (BCRA) hosts online talks by Zoom. The next in the series,
at 7.30pm on Monday 8th April, is on the archaeology of caves in the
Burren, Co Clare, an area well known to many UBSS members.
At present, 15 caves in the Burren are protected archaeological sites
with evidence of human activities underground spanning at least 4,500
years. This talk will explore how people from the Neolithic (Stone Age)
through to post-medieval times used and perceived caves in this
distinctive landscape. It was during the later Bronze Age (c. 1000–600
BC), in particular, that cave usage increased, with evidence for
elaborate ritual and religious practices. The early medieval period (c.
AD 800–1100) saw extensive use of caves for occupation, storage and as
hideaways. Folklore, as well as the more recent activities in caves
associated with the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921), will also be
examined.
The talk will be given by Marion Dowd of the Atlantic Technological University.
All the BCRA talks are free and are open to non-members.
Joining instructions can be found on the BCRA website.
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AGM & DINNER
Former student president Mia Jacobs introduces UBSS's equality statement.
The AGM weekend kicked off at
10.30am on 9th March 2024 and saw the society back in The Stables for
the first time since 2018! Our centenary, covid and building works all
contributed to our absence. Many thanks to the Geography Dept (and Zoom)
for hosting us during that time.
Student President, Mia Jacobs chaired an entertaining meeting, with the
first committee elections that the club has seen in living memory (or at
least since the early 1970s!). The candidates entered into the spirit
of the occasion with good humour, and there were even some unexpected
nominations from the floor when votes were taken to reopen nominations
(in accordance with SU guidance) when there were other expressions of
interest.
The following non-students were given the vote for the year: Andrew
Atkinson, Ashley Gregg, Ben Alterman, Billy Evans, Clive Owen, David
Richards, Elaine Oliver, Elliott McCall, Gabriel Littler, Graham Mullan,
Henry Morgan, Linda Wilson, Merryn Matthews, Zac Woodford. If we have
an EGM for any reason, we're relying on you to use your power wisely,
folks!
The other positions were filled as follows (with only students voting in committee elections, in accordance with SU bye-laws):
- Hon President: Elaine Oliver
- Student president: James Hallihan
- Hon Vice presidents: (multiple roles with only one vote between them): Andrew Atkinson, Merryn Mathews, Linda Wilson, Clive Owen
- Secretary: Daniel Rose
- Student treasurer: Jake Reich
- Hon Treasurer: Graham Mullan
- Equality officer: Alysia Ellis
- Ordinary student committee members: Ben Pett, Stanley Lewis, Jositha Sivakumar, Jessica Brock, Felix Arnautovic, Jessica Brock.
- Ordinary non-student member: Billy Evans
At the first committee meeting of the new society year, the following other jobs were dished out:
- Tackle Warden - Daniel Rose
- Training Officer - James Hallihan
- Safety Officer - Merryn Matthews
- Social Secretary - Jositha Sivakumar
- Midweek Caving Officer - Billy Evans
- Social Media (with others helping) - Jess Brock
- Trip Officer - Billy Evans
- Student Newsletter Editor - Billy Evans
- Student Museum Curator - Charlotte Harman
- Hut Warden - Ben Alterman
- Hon Librarian - Nathan Cubitt
- Hon Museum Curator - Linda Wilson
- Proceedings Editor - Graham Mullan
- Sales Manager - Jan Walker
- Charterhouse Cave Company Ltd rep - Graham Mullan
- PDCMG rep - Clive Owen
- CSCC rep - James Hallihan
- Caving Wales (formerly Cambrian Caving Council) rep - James Hallihan
- CHECC rep - James Hallihan
The formal business of the AGM was followed
by two interesting and informative talks, the first by Mia Jacobs on
the recent panel discussion covering Equality, Inclusion and Diversity
and the second by Mike Norton on the society’s explorations in the 1960s
and 70s in GB Bat Passage, Manor Farm Swallet and Little Neath River
Cave.
The annual dinner, arranged by Stanley Lewis was held at the Spotted Cow
pub on Kellaway Avenue, where we had exclusive use of most of the pub,
where an excellent buffet meal was served, allowing everyone to
circulate and chat, and ensuring a degree of privacy to enable us to
carry out the annual awards ceremony. The food was plentiful, as was the
booze and a good time was had by all.
Jess Brock being thanked for all her contributions over the past year!
We were joined for the evening by several
members who were involved in the explorations covered in our second AGM
talk: John and Judith Worley, Kit Eaton, Mlke and Sue Norton along with
Michael Perryman and Nick Thorne, the maker and star of the recent film of GB, which also included interviews with the original explorers. If you haven't already seen the film and the interviews, do check them out.
John Worley commented afterwards that he had "...
anticipated that current members would have little interest in old
crusties from more than 60 years ago - but on the contrary we found
everyone keen to engage, and the whole atmosphere was fraternal and
energising. Unless we looked in the mirror we could believe ourselves
still to be undergraduates." It's nice to know that so little has
changed!
Mia Jacobs receiving the Big Cheese award from master of ceremonies Stanley Lewis, with Graham Mullan looking on.
The after party was held at Jess's flat,
but in the best tradition of such things, what happened at the after
party stays at the after party!
Thanks to everyone who came to the AGM and dinner, and particular thanks to Stanley Lewis for arranging a great evening.
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JOINT WEEKEND IN WALES
Crystal pool in OFD Top.
UBSS is joining Birmingham Caving
Club for a joint weekend in South Wales on 12th - 14th April 2023,
leaving Bristol on Friday evening and returning on Sunday.
Further details and the sign up sheet can be found here.
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NEW BUFFS FOR SALE!
New buffs expertly modelled by Merryn, Mia and Jake (left to right).
Back by popular demand, UBSS buffs
in new colours, blue, red and green are now ready for purchase at the
cost of £7.50 (plus postage if applicable).
To buy a buff, go to our online shop,
select what colour you want, decide whether you'd like it posted or
whether you can collect it/them from the Stables or the pub, place your
order and pay online, and then you can look as stylish and cool as our
amazing models.
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LET THERE BE LIGHT!
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Henry Morgan, the club generator is now working again!
The genny suffered an unfortunate mishap in the autumn term when, after
running out of fuel, it turned out that someone's parent had filled the
petrol tank in her offspring's car with diesel instead of petrol. In the
resulting (failed) attempts to restart it, the cord broke.
Since then, gatherings at the hut have relied on caving lamps for
illumination. However, after much taking apart, cleaning and
reassembling, Henry's work has finally been rewarded!
Thanks, Henry!
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CERTIFIED!
Left to right: Emma Robinson, Billy Evans, Daniel Rose, James Macmillan-Clyne, Ben Morgan and Emily McAndrew.
After eight sessions, the Monday group of
Jess Brock's Training Academy (and Bondage Society) proudly display
their certificates.
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AN EGGSCUSE FOR ABSENCE
Andrew Pawson (Bangor) left, Siôn Du (Bangor) right at Straw Gallery.
Eagle-eyed attendees at the AGM may
have noticed that one of the candidates for student president was
conspicuous by his absence. James Hallihan explains that he was
underground at the time, so all is forgiven.
Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who voted for me as student
president in my absence and I figured I’d write this as an explanation
as to why I wasn't there.
My Friday started eventfully, trying to drive Kai (from Birmingham) over
to South Wales only to find out my car had a flat battery. After
eventually managing to jump start it, we were underway and arrived at
the SWCC at roughly 19.30 with a quick stop to buy pizza and chocolate
eggs. After that was a rush of claim beds, cook pizza and run up to OFD
top entrance before people grumped too much at how late we were heading
underground.
The Crossroads. Spot the cunningly concealed egg!
Once in top entrance, Kai and I set about
hiding Easter eggs for Birmingham’s/Bangor’s underground Easter egg
hunt. In just shy of two hours we managed to hide eggs at Edward’s
shortcut, Cairn Chamber, Timo’s Table, Poached Egg, the Crossroads and
Swamp Creek and have a nice pizza break in Salubrious before returning
to the surface to engage in the usual shenanigans.
Swamp Creek. Slightly more obvious egg.
The morning was met with a large amount of
faffage before groups were assigned and we headed back underground. I
was with Siôn Du (Bangor) and Andrew Pawson (Bangor) to supervise their
scavenger hunt and ensure they didn’t get too lost heading to Straw
Gallery (I can confirm they did not get lost at all). After a little
navigation in and around the Brickyard we made it to Gnome Passage, past
the Wedding Cake, down the Corkscrew and across Salubrious. After
negotiating the climbs and a quick check of the survey we made our way
into the squeeze through to Timo’s Table and the first set of eggs. From
there, Siôn and Andrew navigated us faultlessly through to Poached Egg
where the second set of eggs were hidden at the top of a climb.
A climb down followed by a small bit of scrambling popped us out at our
deepest furthest point, Straw Gallery. After a quick photoshoot, we
turned around and headed back to daylight. Once there, I checked my
phone and saw the result of the morning’s AGM (thanks again!) The
evening consisted of introducing some of the SWCC members to students'
caving songs (Caving Matilda, Hard Caver, Mendip Pasture’s just to name a
few) before heading down the road to Wales’ most difficult through
trip, the infamous Powell’s Cave for more drunken singing.
Pizza break in Salubrious streamway, Kai Trusson (Brum) left, James Hallihan (UBSS) right.
On Sunday morning I was awoken by the smell
of Bangor’s standard cooked breakfast of eggs, mushrooms, beans and not
one, not two, but three whole sausages and hash browns, which was a
welcome treat. Over breakfast I was approached by Kai to see if I wanted
to do the OFD 1 round trip. I then remembered a conversation I'd had
with James Waite of Cardiff the night before discussing the writing of a
route description for the OFD 1 round trip so I leapt at the
opportunity and a route description is now in the works. After a fairly
uneventful enjoyable trip we surfaced, changed, started to clean the hut
and I bade my farewell to head home for Mothers' Day.
James Hallihan
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DAREN DREAMS
Oooh look, pretties!
Addictive escapades find definition
in the swirling pool of Daren dreams. Dan Rose muses on a recent trip
deep under the Welsh countryside.
Following our January adventure, Billy Evans and I were yearning for
more. Enamoured by the CSS surveys of splendour, Daren Cilau clawed
itself into our ambitions again.
Hard Rock Café. That was the aim. A pleasant practice trip of route
finding to prepare us for our eventual goal of slumming it in
Spaderunner. We arranged at Monday’s SRT session to set out to
Whitewalls on Thursday to stay the night, then venture to the Café
below. Initially planned as a three-man trip of me, Billy and Ben
Morgan, the latter soon dropped out due to PhD time pressure – a valid,
if unfortunate, excuse.
Following the loss of a comrade, we drowned our sorrows in the pubs of
the Old Market. A two-man Daren trip? Easily done, but sad, nonetheless.
Present at our drinking session was Tom, Billy’s brother, who had
travelled from Essex to see his older sibling. Tom had grown irritated
by the suffocatingly totalitarian cave talk, and decided that, after
previously attempting just Goatchurch and Pierre’s Pot, he was a worthy
replacement for the third man in our Daren dream fulfilling.
We answered ‘no’ at once. How could such an inexperienced caver be
trusted to cave to the Café? It would be deeply irresponsible if we were
to take him. We would have no way of guaranteeing his safety – neither
physical nor mental. Yet he hatched a plan to pressgang us into
acceptance. Buying us drinks and encouraging the night to never end, we
became increasingly drunk and, in our moment of weakness, he negotiated
his way onto the trip. Our drunk agreement codified, we had found our
third man.
We journeyed to Wales with no car. Catching the mid-afternoon train to
Abergavenny, we soon found that the few taxi firms present in the town
were unwilling to drive us to Whitewalls. Fearing a three-hour kit
carrying slog, we made one last ditch attempt to hitch a ride from one
‘Sam’s Taxis’, who we told that we were headed for ‘just past Gilwern’.
Once we passed Gilwern, we apologised and told him it was slightly
further than we realised. We soon found ourselves at the door of
Whitewalls, energy intact. Success.
The fun bit ... or maybe not.
A 9:00 start, we set off to the cave, increasingly wondering if Tom’s
UBSS rented ‘Evil Henchman’ cotton undersuit – a glorified Halloween
costume – would suffice in the cold depths of Daren Cilau. The arduous
entrance crawl that dominates any popular discussion on this cave – the
517m slog that Keith Edwards described as the equivalent of doing ‘1000
push-ups on one arm whilst inching forward in freezing cold water’ – was
done with relative ease by our pasta filled constitutions. With Billy
carrying the bag on the way in, I zoomed through and waited for the
other two at the end… for about half an hour. At numerous intervals I
thought I heard them coming, only to be met with the bitterly
disappointing realisation that my mind was mistaking the rush of water
for the sound of humanity. Once they emerged, we moved quickly, eager to
warm up.
Up the oxbows and through some decently impressive chambers we went,
following the excellent CSS route description and enjoying the
simplicity of Daren’s layout. As, naturally, we had not read the route
description before entering the cave, we found ourselves facing a 20 m
ladder pitch that was unknown to us beforehand. Equipped with belts and
cowstails that CSS had kindly lent to us the day before, we tied our
Italian hitches and climbed what I found to be the most frustrating part
of the cave; not because it was especially difficult, but because the
ladder, in wisdom beyond my understanding, is rigged upside down,
meaning your cows tails get frequently caught on its spikes, preventing
smooth scaling.
We haven't got any photos of the ladder, so have one of Billy pointing at some formations.
Nonetheless, we persevered, frequently
checking on Tom to prevent unwanted exhaustion collapse. Reaching some
roped climbs, we took our time harmonising with gravity and friction to
slowly lower ourselves down drops: some chimneys, some exposed, some
providing convenient knots to clip into if needed.
After the final drop down, the vastness of White Passage knocked the
wind out of our eyes. Fenixes barely able to reach the wall on the other
side, any tiredness was remedied by the imagination of what lay beyond.
This being Daren, our amazement only grew as we hobbled over boulders
down the path of the vast abyss. In the distance we saw a glimmer, then a
few, shining out to us. Reflectors marking the beginning of Time
Machine, the largest passage in the UK. A trance of genuine wonder
captivated me (and Billy too, I suspect), yet his brother Tom had gone
non-verbal. Despite his insistence that he was still at ‘70% energy’, we
suspected that this may be an exhaustion inflicted delusion.
Preferring to prevent a rescue, we decided to turn back, embracing the
side of caution to avoid putting Billy’s brother off caving for
good. We trudged our way back up the climbs, down the ladder pitch
(especially irritating on the way down due to a ledge halfway up from
which you must awkwardly turn on your side in a callisthenics exercise
to manoeuvre your way down), and through the various twists and turns to
the entrance crawl.
The half kilometre crawl turned out to be a bit more of an odyssey on
the way back. Tom, his energy depleted to near zero, mustered up enough
inner motivation in the face of discomfort to impress even the most
stone-faced of stoics. After a little over an hour, we were through.
Emerging to darkness we haphazardly found our way back to Whitewalls and
relished in what was an outstanding occasion. Great cave and great trip
as expected!
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A COLUMNIST WRITES
Cavers admiring the Columns.
On the recent Bank Holiday weekend,
Elliott McCall and Merryn Matthews went to OFD for one of the
famous Columns open days. Elliott tells all, with thanks to Merryn for the photos.
Myself and Merryn show up to the SWCC and meet up with James Hallihan
(our new glorious leader), and Ellie (a non-UBSS student) who also
wanted to do the columns and - importantly - had a key.
It was a beautiful sunny midday – perfect weather for being underground.
Having a good natter, we make our way into Big Chamber Near the
Entrance which is - unsurpringly - near the entrance (and big). Some
lovely non-crawley Welsh caving later we come to Cairn Chamber and then
later to the gate to the columns (open on the Sunday of Bank Holiday
weekends), with only one brief wrong turn along the way.
The Columns.
We now come to the star of the show, Column
Hall and the Columns! It is as crowded as I’d seen the cave with
multiple groups all sightseeing. The wardens said that 20 - 30 people
had been down to see them already by the time we got there. The columns
themselves, formed by runoff from limestone kilns, I’m told, were very
pretty – we took particular liking to one shaped like a wooden spoon
standing upright. We did some photography and then turned up right to
see some greeny brown calcite which turned out to be very unflattering
colours. Also there were some lovely mud spikes/towers which are a
favourite of mine.
Mud formations.
Making our way back, we head through the
Labyrinth without any wrong turns thanks to James, and some caving
later, we make our way to (what I think is) Bagpipe Chamber and the
start of a squiggly bit of meanders in which I was grateful I wasn’t any
larger. Here we find Timo’s Table and then onwards to some pretty
straws where we take some questionable photos.
Elliott Mcall, quite overcome by the excitement of it all.
On the way out we go via the Trident and
the Judge to see a ‘magic floating bit of calcite’ which was indeed
magically floating bobbling about as it hangs from the end of a tiny
stalactite rocking in a drip – It is perhaps attached by the tiniest
connection but I hadn’t seen anything else like it (maybe the formation
needs a name??).
Then all the way back out into the beautiful sun for a cuppa and a catchup with Linda whom I hadn’t seen for well over a year!
Elliott McCall
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STUMPING AROUND IN SOUTH WALES
The Penwyllt Inn, now known as the Stump.
Linda Wilson and Jan Walker spent
the Easter weekend at the former Penwyllt Inn, now the Wealden Cave and
Mine Club's luxurious cottage in South Wales for a weekend of caving,
walking and graffiti hunting.
The Stump, as the Wealden's very swish cottage is generally known, lies
opposite the SWCC cottages, with a glorious view of the hillside
overlying OFD and provides the perfect base for a weekend of caving and
walking, so much so that after staying there a couple of times with our
long-standing friend Peter Burgess, Graham and I decided to join the
WCMS. Our original plan for Easter had been to park the campervan
outside the cottage but the utterly foul weather forecast made several
days in a campervan with wet dogs an unattractive prospect, so Graham
opted to stay at home and instead, I headed over to South Wales on
Friday afternoon with Jan.
I swear Napoleonic armies travelled lighter than we did, but our kit,
food and sleeping gear did all fit in the car and Peter greeted us with a
very welcome meal of breaded pork after which we spent a very pleasant
evening slobbed out in front of the multi-fuel stove in the living room,
watching the beautiful evening light over the hills.
Formations above the Brickyard.
Saturday saw the three of us plus James
Hallihan (who had been warned several times that we weren't planning
anything worthy of his talents) going for a relatively short,
rehabiliatory trip in Top so I could add to my photo library for use in
newsletter articles. I say rehabiliatory as this was Jan's first caving
trip in a long time after she tore a muscle in her thigh in two place
slipping in the OFD 1 streamway, and my first trip underground after a
minor stroke at the end of October last year.
Gnome Passage.
The Brickyard isn't the best place to
regain your cave legs, but we navigated it without mishap and made our
way, with frequent photo stops, down to Gnome Passage and Chasm Passage,
somewhere I hadn't been for a long time, as unless you're intending to
do the pitch, this nice section of passage doesn't actually lead
anywhere. I had fun trying to light the bigger bits (memo to self - more lights never go amiss) and everyone was very patient.
The Wedding Cake (in the foreground).
On Sunday, Peter proposed a stroll down to
the valley bottom on the footpath that runs down the valley past the old
route to OFD 1. We then took a stroll around the Craig y Nos country
park, before picking up our intended route again and following the track
about the river through a farm with lots of chickens and ducks before
turning right just after the buildings, following a public footpath
across a steeply sloping field and back up the hill to arrive at the top
with great views all round, including over to the Stump. When I say
stroll, I mean a stroll by Peter's standards! Jan and I muttered and
moaned on the uphill bit, but on the whole weren't too displeased with
our efforts.
Dan yr Ogof showcave.
The weather remained really decent all
weekend, despite the gloomy forecast, so on Sunday, I phoned an old
friend, Ashford Price, the owner of Dan yr Ogof as Jan had never been
there, and I hadn't seen Ashford for a couple of years. He invited us
over and we spent a very pleasant day wandering around DYO showcave, as
well as Cathedral Cave and the Bone Cave.
Cathedral Cave.
All the caves have self-guided tours. In
the main cave you can listen to a commentary at various points, in
Cathedral Cave (also known as Tunnel Cave) the visit is accompanied by
background music and in Bone Cave, you get stared at by hyenas and
wolves..
The inhabitants of the Bone Cave.
We also happily geeked out over many, many
plastic dinosaurs. And when I say many, I mean it. A member of staff
told Jan they now have around 250! The kids love them, and so did we! As
we were doing the whole tourist things, our visit also included a trip
down to the petting zoo and the Shire Horse Centre. Blimey, Shire horses
are BIG!. We rounded off an extremely pleasant day chatting over tea
for an hour with Ashford.
One of Dan yr Ogof's protected species in its natural habitat.
And that would have been the end of our
cave related activities for the weekend if it hadn't been for Peter
arriving back from a walk with tales (and photos) of old pencil graffiti
in Powell's Cave. My graffiti hunting senses promptly started twitching
to see more, so we hatched a plan to get up at 6.30am on Tuesday
morning so we could record as much as possible before packing up,
cleaning the cottage and heading back to Bristol. We even stuck to the
plan!
Powell's Cave (shown in red) in relation to OFD.
Powell's Cave is a short section of large
passage accessed via a stooping height arch just below the level of the
road almost opposite the new route down to OFD 1. I've passed the
entrance hundreds of times without realising the unassuming entrance
leads to a large section of passage that exits via a scramble to
daylight in one of the many small quarries on the hillside. The Caves of South Wales
states that: "The lower entrance to the cave was dug out in 1927 by
Cyril Powell of Rhongyr Isaf farm when working on the Penwyllt road
surface. The upper entrance was later opened up. There was once a voice
connection recorded with the OFD I system that lies beneath this section
of cave, but this was blocked by the SWCC to protect the cave below."
Ruth Parsons, 1947. Women are generally under represented in named graffiti.
We spent an hour and a half photographing
numerous inscriptions mainly from the 1930s and 1940s, many of which
were written in pencil. Inscriptions like these can easily fall prey to
more modern graffiti and damage caused by visitors who don't think twice
about brushing or leaning against them.
C.M. Harn, Swansea, 1938. They get extra points awarded for adding both place and date.
To my surprise, apart from one love heart
from the 2000s, I was pleased to find that there was no spray paint or
other damage on the walls, and we were able to obtain a full
photographic record of the inscriptions.
Linda Wilson
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YAY! CAVING!
There's life in the old dogs yet! Left to right: Stu Alldred, Alice Whale, Geoff Daniels.
Stu Alldred recently
managed to talk a couple of other fellow cavers out of
early-retirement and sent in the following photos and short report. He's
happy to do more caving and has offered transport for midweek trips. He
can be contacted via the WhatsApp Group.
I recently bumped into Alice Whale in my shared working space while she
was hot desking outside my company's office. After catching up over
lunch, I asked if she would be up for a trip underground...and she was!
Speaking to Geoff Daniels, he was also up for trip, so after work one
night the three of us went for a bit of a pootle around Swildon's upper
series. It was good fun, but also very high water and freezing cold.
After exploring a few of the routes for an hour and a half, we decided
that we had more than earned a trip to the Hunters.
Stu Alldred
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THIRTEEN POTS
It was a sunny day on Mendip, too. Left to right: Merryn, Claire, Jake, James.
A sunny Sunday in Bristol seemed
like a perfect day, to go down a deep dark cold hole, so Jake Reich,
Merryn Matthews, Claire Missen and James McMillan-Kline headed off to do
the Eastwater 13 Pots Round Trip. Jake, tells the tale.
In we went, down the climey boulder ruckle, James M-K hauling the brunt of the large tackle sack.
Does anyone get the impression Jake isn't feeling the love at this point?
Heads twisted as we shimmied through the
Upper Traverse bedding plane. We made our way onwards through the Canyon
and Dolphin Pot and laddered down the 35 foot pitch.
As I waited for the others to come down the ladder, I proceeded to
explore some of the various passages in view. After everyone got down,
we continued to the Bold Step. Each person found their own imaginative
way over this obstacle, all safe and sound. Through the Muddy Oxbow we
went, to the start of the 13 Pots, a fun series of climbs.
Ladder practice!
Then back we went, after some belaying
practise on the ladder with our favourite teacher (Merryn). This time
Merryn and Claire shared the tackle sack going up the boulder ruckle.
Bruised and battered, we exited, just in time to see the last of the sun!
Jake Reich
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GETTING TOGETHER ON MENDIP
White Passage, GB, photo by Linda Wilson.
Shortly after my trip with Birmingham and Bangor I decided I hadn’t done
enough caving with other people, so I sent a text to my friend and
decided to turn up at the Manchester and Aberystwyth joint weekend at
the Wessex Cave Club.
After a long morning involving a post-birthday hangover, dead
horses/pigs, guts and formaldehyde, I packed my car and made the arduous
solo journey down to Priddy. It was at this point I realised that I had
gone down to a club for which I possessed no keys at mid-day and
neither Aberystwyth nor Manchester would be leaving until after
lectures. Luckily for me, Martin Grayson was around to let me in. The
next several hours was full of the revision I’d been neglecting to do
but at least now I could do it looking out over Mendip whilst chatting
with Martin about caving. When I finally grew bored of reading about dog
testicles, I looked up to realise I was now surrounded by scout leaders
and after chatting to one for a while about my own scouting career, he
asked my name. I barely had chance to say ‘James’ before he said
“Hallihan by any chance?” Turns out us cave babies sometimes do carry a
reputation.
A while later Aberystwyth Caving Club finally arrived. I’d just had my
birthday so I came prepared with a rather sizeable chocolate cake. After
everyone had finished eating, Manchester arrived just in time for the
drinking to begin. There was lots of drunken chatter, people trying to
climb onto the ceiling supports to lick the rubber ducks glued to the
ceiling, human Jenga, human pyramids, chilling on a sofa (after which a
large chunk of hair on my shin was missing thanks to Ellie Davies and
Lara Bartleet, both MUSC), sock wrestling and some minor head trauma.
I remember chatting with someone and coming to the conclusion that,
whilst caving is undoubtedly fun, this is probably my favourite part of
being a member of caving clubs, loads of very open, friendly people just
having fun and getting to know each other in our small community.
Whilst I may not have officially been a member of either club (although I
turn up to MUSC so often I may as well be), everyone was welcoming and
friendly and just there for a good time.
After my little philosophical chat, I looked at the clock and realised
it was 5am; I’d been up for nearly 23 hours straight so it was probably a
good time to catch three hours’ sleep. A while later, the banging of
pots and pans heralded breakfast and a morning of sobering up before
caving for most. Whilst my plans differed, I waited around and helped
people organise caving trips so that I was sober enough to drive over to
the UBSS hut. After most of the morning organising and helping teach
freshers how to use ladders and belay properly, I was finally ready to
head over to Burrington Combe for an enjoyable and informative afternoon
of SRT and hauling.
After dinner I left and headed back over to the Wessex and joined
everyone else in the Hunter’s. Whilst drinking the pints bought by
Martin I committed to a trip in the Peak District with some members of
Manchester solely for the joke. As it may say at some point in this
article, my name is James Hallihan, and there is a mine in the Peak
district called James Hall
so a trip with JH into JH has been added to Ellie’s bucket list. During
the same alcohol fuelled conversation, a plan of a joint trip between us
and MUSC was discussed. This is one of the other things I love
about joint trips and having friendships between caving areas, at UBSS
we have a lot of knowledge of the caves on Mendip just as MUSC do with
the Peak District, and the ability to share knowledge and introduce
people to new caving areas can never be a bad thing. So, instead of
returning to the UBSS hut on Sunday, I decided to stay with Aber/MUSC
and take a group down GB. We ended up exploring most of the passages in
GB, spending a good few hours enjoying ourselves. On our explorations we
ended up in East Extension past White Passage and the few of us that
climbed up into it all started to get really out of breath and some
people reported a mild headache. Fearing bad air we turned tail and fled
back to the safe passageways. We pushed down, rigged the ladder and
negotiated the duck but ultimately got lost in the boulder choke and had
to turn around without finding Great Chamber.
As people had quite a long drive back, we headed back to the hut,
cleaned up and left with a surprisingly small amount of faff. Upon
getting back to Bristol I remembered Lara lent me her bright pink socks
(as my boring old black socks got soaked in the duck) and I was still
wearing them while she was in Manchester but ah well, it’s an excuse to
crash another trip soon.
James Hallihan
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THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL DRAWINGS
Picken’s Hole Section on east face of cuttings, squares D-E-F. Drawn August 1964, basal part of square E added August 1965.
Archivists and librarians always
have horror stories to tell of loans that are never returned, but some
stories do have a happy ending, as Graham Mullan discovered to his
delight.
Picken’s Hole, an unassuming little cave on Crook Peak, west Mendip, is
the site of one of the Society’s most interesting
archaeological/palaeontological digs. The dig started in 1961, after a
chance find of hyaena remains by a Mr Picken, and continued for several
years. The work was eventually published – these things always take time
& this wasn’t the slowest we’ve had – in 2018 and 2019 in our Proceedings. The papers can be found on the website by searching for Picken.
An interesting feature of this dig was the attempt to carefully record
the positions of all the finds in 3D. This was not wholly successful,
but the data was recorded for a lot of finds and transferred to a series
of section drawings. The problem was turning that data into something
visually usable. This was not an easy task with the technology available
in the 1960s.
Fast forward about 20 years and a PhD student was found who wanted to
try to construct this 3D model as part of his computing thesis. Sadly
his postgrad student career did not last long and he soon vanished from
sight. More alarmingly the site drawings on loan to him also vanished.
This was a serious loss and made the task of analysing the stratigraphy
far more more difficult than it should have been. Another reason for the
delay in getting to publication.
Fast forward another 20 years and David Richards tasked himself with
sorting out the various stored archives in the Geography Dept. He came
across a map drawer full of cave surveys (more on these another time,
perhaps) and some original drawings labelled ‘M30’ which he recognised
as a UBSS site code; the one for Picken’s Hole. He told me that there
were 37 of them and cross checking them against our list of what we
believed was missing they were all there! Plus three more that weren’t
listed!! Cue tears of joy from archivists and academics who had believed
them lost forever.
I don’t know who might work on them in the future, whether anyone will
want or need to rebuild this 3D model of the excavation, but they are
all intact, a bit fragile but that’s hardly unexpected for graph paper
that’s over half a century old!
The drawings have now been scanned to a high resolution, so if anyone
wants them in future, they can have a digital set and the originals can
stay safely stored away.
Graham Mullan
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FEAR AND LOATHING IN TRENCHARD
This month’s prize for Speculative Fiction goes to A. Nonymouse
who has presented a wholly fictitious account of some unorthodox evening
activities and an even more unorthodox haircut.
I hadn’t eaten in eight hours but that was nothing that couldn’t be
fixed by three pickles and a portion of cheesy chips; a great last
supper over which to consider the job at hand. As all self-respecting
students feel from time to time, we had been overtaken by the urge to
jump off a multistory car park. We, however, planned to do it the boring
way and use a rope, thus allowing us to continue our tenure of our
mortal coil. A bit of a cop out, if you ask me.
The crew sitting round the table in the chip shop were prime candidates
for this sort of activity. Three pickles of the much less edible kind.
Two were cavers; shadowy operatives sent by MCCB, rumoured to be the two
men in Bristol with the highest number of cave hours since November and
recently qualified in SRT. The third was the camera woman, a hiker
believed to have been kidnapped and held in MCCB servitude.
Before we could set up, we walked from Clifton to Kingsdown to pick up
some gear. At this point we considered the fact that my mountaineering
equipment is pretty different to the standard caving gear the MCCB
enforcers had been trained to use. This was of no concern; we rigged an
abseil off my sofa and everyone had a quick go to get to grips with how
to abseil on an ATC. After a few minutes, they were confident in their
ability not to kill themselves; a much faster pace of learning than is
standard in caving circles. Unconcerned by the descending gear, they
were mostly fixated on the diameter of the slings to which they would be
trusting their lives. I recently bought some nice 8mm DMM slings which
are best described as resembling shoelaces. The magic of modern fabric
chemistry dictated that each could lift a car if pulled statically but
they do appear horrifyingly insubstantial on first inspection.
The Abseil
We arrived at the site. You have to climb
about 11 stories of staircases to reach the top. Each story has a CCTV
camera that gets a nice piccy of your face. A good start to the job.
Once at the top we chucked some slings round a nice big barrier, tied
the rope to it and threw it over the edge. After a brief pause Caver
number 1 went over the edge. The rope being used was an extremely
stretchy climbing lead rope which has a tendency to saw back and forth
over the edge during an abseil. The edge of carpark was also very sharp,
making for a freaky combo. To increase our chances, we had stolen some
of the padding that is wrapped around scaffold poles and put this around
the rope. Unfortunately, within ten seconds of abseiling the rope had
already cut through. Fortunately, the caver below wasn’t too bouncy with
his abseiling so the rope remained unchopped. Once he hit the ground it
was time for Caver 2. Nonplussed, we stuck a hoodie under the rope and
he went over the edge.
I saw the camera girl gesticulating, A security guard had appeared just
in time for Caver 2 to reach the ground. I was horrified. What if this
meant I wouldn’t get a chance to abseil myself? No chance. Quickly I
stuck my Grigri onto the rope, stepped out over the edge and began a
quick abseil.
At this point everything went wrong. In my haste I had forgotten to tie
back my shoulder-length hair. After a few seconds, I found myself stuck
dangling eight stories up with about half a foot of hair jamming my
belay device. I look down and see the security guard still in discussion
with Caver 2. Horror. Scenes flash in my head. An embarrassing rescue.
Pulled up by the fire brigade. The laughing stock of the uni climbing
scene. Banned from MCCB for conduct not befitting of an officer and a
gentleman. Unthinkable.
Caver 1 realizes something is wrong and the following exchange ensues.
“Are you stuck, mate?"
“Yeah my fucking hair is stuck in my descender."
“That’s fine, mate, just rip it out.”
“Fuck that, I need my hair.”
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll just take apart the anchor and if you bend your legs when you hit the ground you’ll be fine.”
The eight story drop loomed.
“Fuck you, man.”
“Okay, you’re off belay, I’m taking it apart”
“Shut up!”
At this point, I devised a nice sketchy plan. Tie a Figure 8 in the rope
below the device and clip this to my belay loop. Now attached, I began
the sickly business of removing my belay device, which other than the
screwgate on the Fig 8 was my only point of attachment. After a few
minutes of bouncing like an idiot and a few strands of hair later, I was
off the device. Now my grip on the rope was the only thing keeping me
from taking a filthy whipper on the screwgate. I slowly shimmed down the
rope and get my feet on a ledge. Deep in shame I put the Grigri back on
and continued my abseil, this time careful not to get any hair caught.
Now all that was left was the matter of the security guard.
Post Abseil Clarity
Upon reaching the ground it turned out that all was well. The security
guard was in fact just out for a ciggy break and was not in the least
bothered by our antics. Rather than telling off Caver 2 he was merely
postulating the woes of modern life and death. A true geezer. We packed
up the gear and he tipped his hat to us as we left.
Buzzing with success we said our goodbyes and walked home. Each time I
ran my hand through my hair another bunch of strands fell out. This
pushed me to have my first haircut in 12 months.
Unfortunately, our camera girl ran for freedom as soon as she saw the
security guard and has not been seen since. To my knowledge no photos or
video were recorded so you’ll have to take our word for it. Instead,
we've dotted the article with pics of some of our other antics. If you
the reader are a skilled camera person and would be willing to sacrifice
yourself to a life of darkness in MCCB servitude, contact the publisher
of this paper.
For legal reasons this story is entirely fictitious. Any discerning
reader can see that this is nothing but the ravings of a madman.
A. Nonymouse
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SAY HELLO TO A NEKKID MOLE IN A HOLE!!
In honour of the hotly anticipated
UBSS naked caving calender, we bring you an equally naked molerat
catching up on past issues of the newsletter! Thank you, as ever, to
those who clicked the link and sent us a few words to let us know that
our efforts haven't just ended up in spam. Thanks to everyone who fell
in love with our guest unicorn last month!
- I read to the end! Cheers Mr Unicorn. Looking forward to
seeing everyone next weekend at the AGM! Sounds like an epic in Aggy
btw. [Paul Savage]
- It’s impressive to have this volume of readable material keep on coming ... [Chris Howes]
- Great Newsletter as per usual. All the photos and videos makes it come alive! [Jess Brock]
- Great newsletter, chock full of fascinating stuff! And of course
it ended up in my flippin’ spam again! [Jan Walker]
- Oh, what a coincidence, my favourite book is also Caves of
County Clare! Specifically the edition from 1981! [Jake
Reich]
- I did it, oh lovely unicorn, I made it to the end! {David Hardwick]
- Another great issue! Good to see it hasn't all completely fallen
apart since I've left! In fact I daresay it's improved somewhat!
[Zac Woodford]
- What a nice video of GB Cave - it brought back memories.
And fantastic to have interviews with the original explorers. Thanks to
Michael and thanks to you for sharing this. [Hans Friederich]
- Very enjoyable read, although blimey, Clive's suspension bridge
story made me twitch, matron! I walked across it once without looking
down ... [Sharon Wheeler and the Blessed FT Bear]
- A
wonderful edition of the newsletter, with so much great material. For
me the highlight was Michael Perryman’s film of GB Cave and his
excellent interview with Kit Eaton, Mike Norton, Dave Savage and Mike
Statham, which bought memories flooding back. Talking of floods, I was
on one of the first trips into GB after the great flood of July 1968.
The place was almost unrecognisable, everything had changed. And the
mud! [Bob Taylor]
- Belated acknowledgements. '...a huge upgrade on their last
solution which was “make it dirty”. That always worked for me. Youth are
so spoiled these days. Well done Dan for putting Grylls in that list,
he's a liar and scumbag (Grylls, not Dan) and I sued him once. At the
insistence of his agent, he settled out of court, alas. Apropos Zac's
account of Aggie. Many years ago, Tim Atkinson and I made several
attempts to complete the left-hand wall circuit. Each time we failed,
some inconsiderate sod would discover more passage and increase the
distance to be covered on our next attempt. On one occasion in
mid-winter there was an awful lot of snow, so much that Tim was certain
that the road up to the hut would be impassable. So, we parked in the
Gorge and walked in along the tramway, breaking tracks through deep
drifts, it took hours. We finally arrived to find the road completely
clear. Furious, I insisted that Tim hitch back and get the car. I don't
think we even got underground on that occasion. [Dick Willis]
Hello, naked molerat, lovely to meet you!
THE END
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