Dear Cavers, * Mendip trip this weekend (23-25th January)* Staying in the delectable *Belfry* hut (with the child-cooking oven, so expect pies and crumble galore), a *Swildons Short-Round* trip hypothesised for the Saturday, and a 'sporting' visit to the August Streamway in * Longwood* on the Sunday. This is also our designated 'refresher' trip of the Spring calendar, as it doesn't require much ropework. So come along no matter what your experience, and bring a friend! See these photos from last October: http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/caving/photo_archive/trips/2008-10-31%20-%20me... *£20* if this is your first trip with the club, £30 otherwise * TGV Easter Trip to the Vercors* (Probably *9-15th April*, over the Easter Weekend) Our Easter tour will be to the Vercors in the South of France, near Grenoble. To be able to carry the vast quantities of rope that we need to successfully descend these Alpine monsters, we're going on the Eurostar with bags-a-bursting. Hire cars from Grenoble train station, to get to our Alpine chalet. The 'raw cost' should be somewhere between £100-200 for the week, before union travel subsidy kicks in (no idea yet how much that will be). The caves out there are absolutely stunning, its the birthday of modern vertical caving, and for a very good reason! The centrepiece of our trip will be an attempt on one of the 600m+ deep monsters, probably taking a few days to rig in succesively and then derig out. There's also a fantastic cave which can only be reached by paddling a boat across a lake, climbing a cliff and then entering the cave, to ascend to +500m inside the mountain on permanently rigged stainless steel traverses above booming rivers! *Tuesday Meet from 7:30pm *Find us in the Union Bar / down stores from 7:30pm on Tuesday. Come to chat, grab the nicest fury before the weekend trip, and to scheme for the future! Jarv Your incompetent secretary -- Imperial College Caving Club http://union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/caving ic.caving [AT] gmail.com