Happy 2009 seasoned rope scallywags & would be prussic meisters, Our Winter tour to Yorkshire was a densely packed week of some of the best caving on offer in the UK. We had deep rope trips, novel exploration by the boys with the Bosch GBH aid climbing their way up a 10m chimney above a 35m pitch (alas, the chimney led not to Santa, but to a choked bedding plane), epic expeds through the might of the Easegill system, decadent consumption of roast dinners and the usual caving hut shenanigans. A few photos, http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/caving/photo_archive/tours/2008%20-%20yorkshir... ---- * Spring Term Calendar:* *23-25th Jan:*<http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/caving/mendips/mendip-2009-01-23.php>Mendips (BEC/Belfry) Short Round with Tet. *6-8th Feb:*<http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/caving/derbyshire/derbyshire-2009-02-06.php>Derbyshire (Orpheus) *20-22nd Feb:*<http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/caving/yorkshire/yorkshire-2009-01-20.php>Yorks (NPC) *6-8th March:* Daren? / Yorks ? TBC *20-22nd March:* Yorks ? / Wales ? TBC Last two dates have minibuses booked, but location, hut + cave not decided. Perhaps an underground camp in Daren on one of them (saves on the hut fees...)? The usual Shrove Tuesday pancake competition will hopefully be organised for somewhere. The first trip (in two weeks!) is particularly suited to you if you're one of the hundreds of lurking freshers who want to dip their toe into the glory of the underground, and similarly for 2nd and 3rd years who have drifted away but want to get back to the dark arts. *Signup via email, or @ the usual weekly meets in the Union bar / stores from 7:30pm ish. * ---- *Easter Tour:* Nothing's organised yet (as ever), but we'll certainly be going somewhere. Most likely is either a return to Croatia (hopefully with less snow and landmines this time): http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/caving/wiki.php?n=Main.Croatia2008Writeup Or alternatively, a TGV powered (take as much rope as we want!) trip to the Vercors, south France. ---- *Summer Expedition:* Dates are: *Sat 25th July 2009 --> 23rd August (4 weeks) *Main aim of this expo is the connection of Sysmig with Vrtnarija, creating the 2nd longest cave in Slovenia. To facilitate the large number of hours required pushing in the extremities of Captain Kangaroo, we will be underground camping. Read the short prospectus from 2 years ago to get a general sense of what its like to camp in the national park, drinking a fine cocktail of rain water / snow melt interspersed with the local fire water, and standing on the shores of the unknown: http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/caving/slovenia/slov2007/Migovec_2007_student_pros... Costs are low as we camp for free in the national park and eat dried food from Asda. There's also some limited outside funding available to help for freshers to buy the necessary Expo grade lighting rigs + etc. Still a long time away, but best to organise before the exam season sets in. Much more info available on an entire section of our website: http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/caving/slovenia/intro/slov_intro.php Or start with the photos: http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/caving/photo_archive/slovenia/2008/dirindex.ht... Your smiling secretary, Jarv