Back to Yorkshire! Excellent pair of trips attempting a Rift / Large exchange, but not making the connection through the rather aquatic duck. Sunday saw a rigging practice in Sunset Hole and a solo revisit to the flooded depths of Joint.

Our AGM this year saw another free and fair election, with the usual combination of whimsy and serious deliberation. Our Committee for 2012/2013 (our 50th year) is thus:

President: Rhys Tyers
Treasurer: Oliver Myerscough
Secretary: Sam Page
Tackle Master: Clare Tan | Foreign Secretary: Jana '5 languages' Carga | Medical Officer: Saber King | Health + Safety Officer: Konrad Domanski

Awards:
  For Evans' Sake: Kate Smith for her creative use of vomit, in Yorkshire, Mendips and on the jelly.
  Herman Herz: William 'my soft lock has forsaken me' French for breaking both heels in Quaking.
  "For Evans' Sake" Lifetime Achievement award: J. 'Drink your Own' Evans

A beautiful weekend in Yorkshire probing the muddy delights of the Easegill system. Torrential rain on Saturday didn't massively flood the caves, a beautiful bright and icy day on Sunday. Peterson Pot — Mistral, Lancaster Hole, County — Manchester Bypass all probed.

The forecast of SNOWPOCALYPSE put paid to our King Pot plans, as there would be no chance of getting out of Kingsdale. So we defaulted to Clapham, as it's a nice even drive to Greenclose and walked up into the Snowy Dales. Flood-Bar exchanged and the very muddy Jean Pot bottomed. Heavy snow on our return to the surface, and a careful snow-chained drive home. Sunday saw a photo-support trip to Hardrawkin, and a sump sampler session in Joint.

Short round and round! A bit of GB action, some Eastwater Cavern probing and the first trip of 2012 was a classic start to the caving season.

Cracking winter tour, we seemed to have the Dales to ourselves. The NPC was empty: we turned up at 2am, all was dark and we thought no one was there, but Dave and Tetley were, tucked up in their beds. The massive oven was put to good use churning out roast dinner after roast dinner. Weather was fairly kind for once, sub zero with snow on the first weekend (but still driveable), a fairly smooth thaw followed by warm foggy weather.

After the disasterous minibus behaviour of the weekend before, we had a free hire to spend! So why not take two buses to Derbyshire?

Ace weekend at the NPC. Attempted a Dis:Bar:Stream exchange on the Saturday, but Dis' duck was flooded, so became a successful Bar:Stream instead! Unfortunately, we returned to a dead Transit. Made it back to the NPC by shuttling in the cars, ate a fantastic curry, and spent the whole of Sunday faffing with the RAC on our merry way back to London.

Lovely little trip to the Llangattock escarpment, staying at the extremely comfortable Whitewalls cottage (CSS). Full frontal assault on Aggy (Ogof Agen Allwedd) breached both the boulder chokes and got everyone to North Western Junction, where the cooks left sedately, leaving the Turkey dreamers to meander upstream and inspec the formations, before slithering downstream down the impressive passage and then exiting. Excellent evening curry. Sunday saw more modest trips, to Eglwys Faen where a hippy-led Cello & multi instrumental concert was in full swing in the main chamber, and Ogof Pen Eryr which has retained its enjoyable corkscrew climb.

A new year, and a new crop of freshers to introduce to the delights of caving. Excellent weekend altogether: 3 Trips down OFD - Ed's Shortcut / Salubrious, Top Waterfall & Poached-egg climb / round about everywhere climb. A trip to the Neath valley for Sunday, Little Neath by the wetsuit glad, and a fistful of smaller caves (Town Train, Bridge, White Lady) and a bit of wild swimming outside for the others... Good times!