Another year, another set of 1st years to introduce to the vertiable delights of the king of Kingsdale. For some peculiar reason (claiming work, illness, home renovations & etc.), most experienced cavers dropped out leaving a hardcore of bright eyed bushy tails and the very dregs of 'too far gone' leadership from the dusty bottom of stores to power their way down to Kokemono and back in a relaxing 10hr trip. Stunning stars and meteorites when we got out to the frozen yet crystal clear moor.

A long overdue return to Bullpot Farm. Weather was fantastic, deep freeze during the night, blue skies and beating sun during the day. The building works at the farm are all complete (underfloor heating in the changing room! working showers!), there's a new working oven in the kitchen & the wood stock is full!
Great trips down Easegill, Top-Lancs, and a Lancs-County via Manchester Bypass. Sunday saw a gentle bimble on the warm hills, and brief forays into Lanc and Top to derig.

Out & around Penyghent

Lovely little trip to the 'Dip. Two short round trips, a trip to Sump 4, two counter flow round trips, a full sniffing out of every last bit of GB and a little jolly to the Swildons upper series. Lovely roast at the Belfry, crumble is good!

White out! Yorkshire absolutely stunning looking with a good metre of snow up on the Dales. Beautiful caving once underground, but getting the transit up the snowed out roads was impossible.
Still, had a great day on Leck fell (walking from Leck) bottoming Notts I and getting some Lost Johns' action in. Monday expedition to Gaping saw a brilliant Bar-Stream-Dis meta exchange; a great day of caving for all involved, no matter what experience.
Greenclose was an absolute delight; warm fires, comfy beds, & ace showers.

Derbyshire! And naturally, it was rather chilly. As we approached Castleton we could see the snow up on the peaks. Winnats pass was open, and we abandoned the bus on the sodden verge as there were dozen cars festooning the road. We assumed it meant millions of maillons down the entrance pitch - but was actually just one exchange trip, with each person in a separate car! Storming trip down and out, shot home to the Orpheus as the snow closed in to the roaring coal fires and a truly stuffing curry. Sunday saw us investigate the legends of Derbyshire caves worth doing which were not in Castleton...

An aquatic but extremely fun weekend. Saturday saw three trips gently probing the mighty Easegill system, followed by a massive Chili at the NPC. Sunday saw us in Kingsdale (surprise!) experiencing the joys of underground waterfalls.

A wet weekend on the Llangattock escarpment! There were issues with capturing an Aggy key, so the Saturday was spent in the double whammy of Eglwys Faen (AKA Grafitti cave, or at least it should be...) and the short but sweet Ogof Pen Eryr. An inch of rain fell during Saturday night, so the path & caves were rather aquatic on the Sunday. Had a little explore down Aggy, but failed to find our way through the first choke.

A lovely start to the new year with a couple of adventurous trips down Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (Cave of the Black Spring) on the Saturday. The cute little WSG hut made for a great evening eating, drinking and playing silly caving games. Sunday saw everyone donning wetsuits, and setting out for DYO and Little Neath, where much swimming and gaping at the formations took place.

Just back from a stonking Yorkshire classic. Tim and James did not drown, Leo got someone to carry air for him, Magdalena tried the underground out, Aleeza back on the ropes, Dan and Nathan lost on the moors, Jarv got to the spiral staircase. Jana enjoyed a swing.