Please tell me the BCA has joined the “Outdoors for All” initiative. I can’t see it to date, but maybe I missed it. Every outdoor activity I can think of is a member, certainly the non-caving ones I belong to. This is the umbrella group campaigning for access. It has MP’s sponsoring it...

Hundreds of thousands of accounts have been frozen/closed belonging to companies and organisations, usually with no explanation. That have trapped peoples money for many months without the slightest concern - they don't give a damn. It's got to the point that banks are going to have to be...

The via ferrata on Kinabalu is a laugh. Long day if you do the full one after going to the summit. Keep you busy.

When I last lived in KK about 8 years ago we had the Chinese on the horizon trying to invade from the west, and a war going on in eastern Sabah with some Filipinos who believed Sabah belonged to them: last time I went diving there we had a dozen guys with assault rifles standing guard. Malaysia...

There are some show caves near Kuching, but not overly exciting. I would not try in Sabah on a holiday, it won’t work. It is more organised on Peninsula Malaysia with Malaysian cavers more involved, but still not really that easy for a tourist. There are a lot of “local issues” around the place...

It’s possible to go caving in Mulu if you pay for it. There are several companies. Cave of the Winds to Clearwater and even Sarawak Chamber. Several massive others near the HQ. You don’t need vertical gear. You can’t go without Park guides. Niah Caves you just need a decent head torch, not even...

New Zealand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_Compensation_Corporation It solves a vast number of problems, not least liability for doctors.

My wife once made a poster at work showing the wife and kids sobbing over a hospital bed. It was to try and get people to put less faith in God and more on their driving standards. It was deemed rather shocking, not sure how long it lasted. But you get the idea. Afterwards is not the time to be...

This is not accident insurance. There have been many incidents over the years and the insurance has never been invoked as far as I am aware. it cannot be relied upon for “widows and orphans“. At one point I had life and critical illness insurance that covered caving. It was a hell of a lot more...

The other thing is having clear separation between access and club membership. Some people just love being in clubs with some sort of exclusivity. In my caving lifetime we have had clubs jealously guarding access rights and even barring women from membership (and hence barring women from cave...

There are a number of gated entrances on CRoW land in Wales. Presumably once I finally get a legal right to go down these caves the gates will be removed? Insurance will obviously not be required unless I personally feel the need. My impression was that Labour wanted to extend CRoW to large...

It is the cumulative effect of a number of people being attacked recently over objectively trivial (or non-existent) issues. Disagreeing with a policy (or lack of one) is one thing, having a go at individuals is another. And even then you should have some sort of alternative suggestion, however...

It would be common to rebelay over the edge, but that thing looks horrible and possibly not overly attached? I have often rebelayed on to a strop over the edge (either tape or wire), which does require a certain level of user awareness. It deals with the abrasion risk at least and you don’t...

The Petzl Rig has clearly been designed to operate like this with a wear plate in the appropriate place and hopefully designed to take the load. I see no evidence even in the new Stop of this being done. The whole device is being treated as a consumable with a fairly limited life. But since...

That spur will make it harder for me to fit in some pitches, so I would need an alternative sometimes. It will be grinding down the wall on the gate. I seriously object to sideloading the descender and wearing the plates from an engineering perspective, it just looks nasty. I am amazed that...