Hi there! Welcome to the Imperial College Caving Club.

If you're new here, check out this video to see what we're all about:

If you're interested in caving, this is the place to try it out. Feel free to have a look around at some recent trip reports to learn about what we do, and look here for a brief summary. If you have any questions, just send us an email at ic.caving@gmail.com, or find us at the pub every Tuesday from 6pm - we'll be in 568 or the Union Bar, probably wearing a noticeably muddy helmet.

During termtime we'll be running weekend trips every two weeks or so, with sign-up emails being sent out to the mailing list. The first two trips to Wales won't require any training or experience at all - you can just sign up and come along, and we'll provide all the equipment you need.

We'll be running rope training sessions every Wednesday, 1-5pm in Princes Gardens during Autumn term, where you can familiarise yourself with the equipment and SRT (single rope technique). You can just turn up and stay for as long as you like; just look for some people hanging in trees next to the Ethos sports centre. These skills will be used on trips to Yorkshire and Derbyshire, where the caves are predominantly vertical.

First trip to Yorkshire: classic West Kingsdale fresher trips to Bull Pot and Rowten (with another group in Alum Pot) on Saturday, and everyone on Leck Fell on Sunday.

The SWCC is under construction so, after many years away, ICCC returned to the Westminster Speleological Group (WSG) and their tiny white cottage. There were caves, fire alarms, and pumpkins galore for this Halloween weekend in deepest Wales.

The first trip of the year had us stomping through the mighty halls of Aggy, crawling through the unnecessarily tight squeezes of Eggy, and enjoying the beautiful Welsh countryside in good company. All the boxes were ticked: comforting damp darkness, minibus songs, and the finest games known to cavers. Also Chris invented a questionable new addition to the game repertoire, Laura got lost many a time, and of course Matti cooked the eggy bread to perfection.

As we begin the new academic year, let's give our new committee their much overdue welcome. Congratulations to the new committee for ending Matti's reign as Supreme Leader and for thwarting RON's rise to power.

And, as always, our commiserations to the winners of the following awards:

Herman Herz: Julien, nominated for staring into the face of death as he slowly but surely slipped off the ledge in OFD’s Edward’s Shortcut into the pit below. Credit to Astrid for leaping into action to prevent disaster.

For Evans' Sake: Chris, nominated for expertly watering the plants by the path in the Wormwood Scrubs with a perfect parabola of urine while gracefully in motion on his bike, even executing a corner effortlessly mid-piss.

Wretched Rabbit is open again so we had to go back! We exchanged with County Pot and were out in good time. A breakaway party had a FAAB trip to the bottom of FOUL Pot, also getting out before the forecasted heavy rain. Sunday held another successful exchange trip, between Boxhead and It's a Cracker on Leck Fell. A cracker of a weekend.

While typically not deemed worthy of documentation, this year's attendance at the annual Hidden Earth national caving conference unfolded with such astounding drama that it insisted on being immortalized in the written epic saga of Panda-monium.

A chaotic but surprisingly successful start to the year with a trip to Whitewalls in Wales. Two epic trips to Daren and Aggy were followed by an equally epic photo session in Eggy.

Training, caving, canyoning - this weekend had everything! On a sunny weekend in Yorkshire ICCC learned to keep them warm and stop the bleeding, that there's always been a canyon 10 minutes from Kingsdale, and that it's possible to do more than one activity in a day.

A rare example of a successful exchange trip: Simpsons <-> Swinsto, with a cheeky parallel Turbery pullthrough leeching off of some Swinsto rope before disappearing down Valley Entrance. The Sunday hosted a relaxed Out Sleets Beck trip before the bus carried us home.

Big caves, pretty stals, expo caving, via ferrata, turnips, beaches, BBQs and el bombo - this brilliant tour to Cantabria had it all - Bamboléo!