Suddenly it's that time of the year again! Soon we leave our South Ken haunts and haul a minibus of caving gear across Europe to head to a pretty little mountain in Slovenia called Tolminski Migovec.

We've some excellent leads and a keen team this year with a clear plan—we're immediately rerigging Vrtnarija (807m deep / 8776m long) to the bottom and setting up Camp X-Ray (-550m) as a hot-bunking 4-bed camp and pushing the multitude of leads from 500-800m deep. On the surface we will be launching trips down Kavkna Jama (M2) in search of the great, elusive, connection.

During this time we are slaves to the Sistem, so it may seem all a little quiet around here. However, thanks to the wonders of mobile telephony, for the fourth year running, you can follow our every move on twitter @ICCC.

End of August Update: More than 2km of deep cave found! Photos, surveys, tweets and draft report: Izgubljeni Raj 2011.

Cave rescue training ahead of heading out on expedition.

The chief motivator was to get some experience bolt climbing with the new drills and the Raumer stick up, ahead of trying it 'for real' at -800m in Slovenia this summer. Some cheap advanced train tickets to Lancs, three bikes, panniers for the drill batteries and they were away...
Cycling up Kingsdale with cave exploration gear, a suitably retro start to the summer expedition practice...

Excellent three day weekend in Yorkshire ticking off King Pot (7.5hrs), Pennyghent (6hrs) and Meregill (4.5hrs). Fantastic weather, blue skies, sun and enough wind to blow you back down off the hill!

While some of us were jetting off to a Mediterranean isle, the home team completed the excellent JH-Peak through trip...

The Sardinia Easter Tour 2011 was a great success, 10 cavers enjoying the delights of Su Palu (and only Su Palu) via a 5-bed camp established at El Alamein. Day trips were made to Disneyland, Mordor and Sand Creek, with swims in the massive sump lake. PDF Trip Report.

Bullpot farm for the traditional early March Easegill fest. People disappeared in and out of various entrances including Top, Lancs, Cow, Link, WR and County. A massive curry was prepared with the new swish BPC kitchen facilities and eaten at the new long table. Caving games, debauchery & finally a slumbering return to London.

Snow and missing kit couldn't stop IC3 delving the depths near Castleton. An excellent weekend of adventure repeatedly rescued from failure.

A rather aquatic weekend in Yorkshire. Incessent rain constrained our choice of cave somewhat, so it was King and Bull Pot that we delved down on Saturday. Continual torrential rain sunk any motivation of Sunday caving, so a day of fettling and an early return to London instead.

January saw us kicking off the year with the traditional Mendips cluster faff. Something like 24 cavers down for the weekend, we eloped from the Belfry to the relative quietness (rescue practice in St Cuths) of the Shepton Mallet. Lots of trips had, massive evening of Cornish Pasty and Apple Crumble baking.