Just flown in from our action-packed long-weekend to Grenoble, France. Epic 10hr trip on the Friday in Sasenage; stretching the club FX3 lighting rigs to their very limit. Climbed 250m+ on a series of undulating pitches, stream way, storming passageway and a FANTASTIC tight-rope traverse over a deep pool of icy water. Saturday saw three serious trips go out, all involving long walks through the snow before even getting to the cave, and amazing ice-formations in the entrance series once inside - so pretty BUT SO COLD! Sunday was spent sleeping, packing, eating and faffing.

Obscenely warm, pleasant + enjoyable weekend - couldn't quite believe we were in Derbyshire!

We're back, and everyone survived unscathed more or less... See HERE for a gathering collection of trip reports and other such fluff...

An... interesting weekend!

Most of the group got involved with a large Cave Rescue operation - a caver had abseiled off the end of a rope [never forget to tie stop knots!] + had to be stretchered out after falling 5m onto his shoulder. Luckily, his injuries were relatively minor all things considered + is ok.

Tasty late-night curry [rescue continued till about midnight, with the other cavers stranded in their furies in a pub in Castleton], Sunday trips were short but taxing; Tom, Steph + Dan went for a walk up a big hill followed by a perversely pleasant cream tea.

Well, we didn't quite make it to the Seminar; but had an epic series of interlocking trips down Easegill on the Saturday, with a serendipitous meet up of three different groups underground. Got lost in the fog + driving rain on the boggish moors, but everybody made it back in the end to consume a gallon or so of pasta 'n' sauce. Sunday was more sedate for the majority, quaffing vast flagons of coffee and gnawing on house bricks of chocolate cake at Inglesport cafe. The zealous freshers [Jack, Nicholas, Lester, Alvin] followed Jesus down Agill + seemed to have a pleasant enough trip.

Stonking weekend in South Wales - woke on the Saturday to a pristine white carpet of snow, thank god for the wood-stove + teas maid at the hut, otherwise we may well have spent the entire weekend huddled in our sleeping bags!

Fantastic weekend in Yorkshire; bangs, bombs, fights with mythical beasts, epic trips, Chili + SRT :- what more could you want from a weekend?
Enormous crowd approaching 20-odd, three Epics on Saturday; an easy bimble that turned rather wet + depraved and a hardcore SRT session that turned far too pleasant + pretty on Sunday.

Ran a wet 'n' wild trip down Swildon's hole on the Saturday; followedby a game of Sofa Ruby Vs. the Cardiff caving club - we lost, the sofa[or, more accurately, its splintered remains] got burnt. Had a more sedate, but still epic trip on the Sunday - wandering 5kmaround a disused Limestone mine, and playing with the old cranes +winches. The roof was held up by decidedly dodgy + rotting woodenprops; had to spend a good deal of the time clambering overpreviously-collapsed sections!

Jan's report on Hidden Earth 2004.

The expedition has returned from the fleshpots of Tolmin. The cave and bivvy are derigged for another year. About 1.5 km of new cave this year - mostly below -700m, damned impressive in my book. Loads more to do next year though....