One final Yorkshire trip before the next wave of novices descends upon the club! Given a weekend at the Red Rose, a large trip to Easegill was compulsory on the Saturday, followed by trips to Bull Pot of the Witches, and Cow Pot on Sunday.
A weekend of first aid training and a couple of classic trips in Easegill and Kingsdale. A good end to a wonderful year. Roll on expo!
A weekend away in the sun at our summer house in the North, the one and only NPC. With 3 exchanges in one weekend, glorious sunshine, a tour of a battery research facility and KYW nearly putting an end to our holiday before it began, this was the best weekend trip since Y5 2023.
While not strictly a club trip, and with most people bailing on the weekend altogether, this unusual trip involved 3 brave souls joining an overnight digging trip in the far reaches of Aggy with friend of the club Alex Stacey. And as if all that wasn't weird enough already, the largest geomagnetic storm in 25 years gave us an incredible viewing of the Northern Lights on Friday evening as a good omen. So of course this trip had to be written up.
A superb week in the Ardeche with vast quantities of beautiful caves, enormous pitches, stunning hikes, cheap wine, delicious bread, exotic meats and of course, endless faff. 18 people, 5 cars, 9 days and 1 dog. I hope you're sitting comfortably.
Another year, another AGM, another round of RON's attempts, in vain, to derail the club's glorious future prospects. This year's AGM was in fact in a random room in RSM due to the Union Bar being booked up, but we made the most of the occasion by turning off all lights and handing out pixas, together with the lack of deafening racket from the union made for a shockingly enjoyable evening!
Congratulation to the impending committee of the autoCHRISy!
And, as always, our commiserations to the winners of the following awards (all of which managed to feature Julien):
Herman Herz: Julien, Leo and Perry, for Perry's second collapse in Slov, on a trip specifically intended to calm nerves after Perry's last attempt to demolish the system. Julien and Perry then went on to escape once again via the dreaded Cloaca Maxima before huddling in a bothy bag for many an hour awaiting rescue.
For Evans' Sake: Julien and Laura, for "the shoe incident" in Slov. Not one, but two entire shoes managed to fall into the forbidden depths of "the pit". Both shoes were rescued and disinfected to fight another day, at great personal cost.
Prose and Cons Voted in this same AGM to highlight a year of unusually many outstanding quality reports, this award highlights the best write up of the year, allowing us to reminisce about the most gripping page turners we'd had the pleasure to peruse. The inaugural award goes to Julien for his truly epic multi-chapter novel of a write up about the collapse and subsequent escape mission mentioned above.
Another wild trip to Yorkshire! Nudity in Lanc, a naughty bail through valley entrance, a calamatous de-rig attempt for simpsons, and a lovely pool sink pull through are a few of the trips.
We went to the NPC. No freshers signed up, so we had some great trips, and taught a load of rigging. Amazing.
This year our annual visit to the Mendips became an "old lags" weekend as ICCC members both young and old descended upon the Shepton for a weekend of Somerset caving. A resounding success with over a dozen old lags attending, many a tale was shared over a pint of cider, and hopefully old lags weekends become a regular item in the calendar!
The inevitable finally occurred; our KYW minibus gave out after enduring months of endless problems and fixes. Stranded in an Asda car park just outside Oxford, we eventually made our way home. A few insane individuals even pulled an all-nighter to reach Yorkshire, immediately embarking on a caving adventure upon arrival.
