******************* This email originates from outside Imperial. Do not click on links and attachments unless you recognise the sender. If you trust the sender, add them to your safe senders list https://spam.ic.ac.uk/SpamConsole/Senders.aspx to disable email stamping for this address. ******************* Hi, Welcome to the Imperial College Caving Club mailing list! (or welcome back if you never left) Here’s a brief overview of what we do during term time: Weekend Trips *You need no previous caving experience or equipment to go on trips - *All the equipment you might need is provided by the club. If you’d like to join the first one, reply to the sign-up email that will be sent out on Thursday. It won’t be possible to reserve a spot until that email is sent out. Sign up emails will usually be sent out two weeks before the trip. For the best idea of what these trips entail, visit our wonderful website (i <http://union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/caving>mperialcaving.com) where we upload trip reports and photos for all our weekend trips and have a calendar of the upcoming trips. Every two weeks we’ll drive a minibus full of kit and keen cavers from Beit Quad on the Friday night, returning on the Sunday night, aching and satisfied with two solid trips under our belts. Typical destinations include Wales, Yorkshire, the Mendips and Derbyshire, where we sleep, cook and relax together in cosy caving huts to hide from our responsibilities. We’ll make sure everyone caves as much as they like, and that the trips are challenging but not dangerous – if you don’t fancy caving on the Sunday just let us know and you can relax on the surface instead. Incidentally the best caving locations are also prime hiking locations so you can just as well go for a walk if you prefer. The first two trips to Wales won’t require you to have learnt any rope skills, but to attend later trips to Yorkshire or Derbyshire you must have come to rope training (see below) at least once and learnt the necessary skills to traverse caves on ropes. To come on any trips you’ll need to purchase the annual caving membership (£30), and the trip fee will be ~£45, however if this is your first trip with us you'll get a *£20 discount* making the trip fee only £25. All travel, food, accommodation and kit are included in the £45 trip fee. The trips planned for this term are: 13/10-15/10: Wales 1 27/10-29/10: Wales 2 10/11-12/11: Yorkshire 1 (SRT required) 1-3/12 Yorkshire 2 (SRT required) 15/12-22/12: Winter Tour - Yorkshire (SRT Required) Rope Training Aka Tree Training runs *every Wednesday in Autumn term, 1-5pm In Princes Gardens,* but you can turn up whenever you like and stay for as long as you like – Just look out for some people hanging in ropes in front of Ethos sports centre. These sessions will teach you the basics of SRT (Single Rope Technique), which is needed to visit vertical caves in Yorkshire or Derbyshire later in the year – many would say the best part of caving! You don’t need to sign up or buy membership to come to these sessions – just turn up. It typically takes 1.5-2 hours to teach everything but everyone is different. We normally require people to have come to at least two sessions before going on a Yorkshire trip. There isn't one this week but *the first session is on the 11th* Pub Every *Tuesday, starting today, from 6pm onwards *we’ll meet in the *union bar or 568* for a couple of drinks and we discuss the caves we’d like to do over the weekend and tell wild tales of past trips, some of which may even be true. Look out for someone wearing a muddy caving helmet and put a message in the whatsapp if you can't find us. If you’re coming on the next trip, or interested in future trips this is an opportunity to get to know us and ask questions before you get thrown underground with a bunch of strangers. You don’t need membership or to sign up, just turn up whenever you like. Hope to see you there! Socials We’ll be running a variety of casual socials throughout term, typically on off-weeks (where there’s no trip on the weekend), including (but not limited to) film nights, curry nights etc. There's a film night planned for this Saturday and there'll be more details about that soon... Website, whatsapp and instagram: *Website*: imperialcaving.com *Whatsapp*: https://chat.whatsapp.com/GQWF1ZlOVTk54ofa808IME *Instagram*: iccaving If you have any questions about anything just send us an email :) Yours til I send emails at a normal time, Ellie Pizey & the ICCC Committee [image: image.png] -- Imperial College Caving Club <https://imperialcaving.com/>