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  1. A_Northerner

    New Species of Fish Found in Meghalayan Cave in India

    Oddly enough the article omits the details of a certain British Caver's accidental foray into sampling these rare delicacies.
  2. A_Northerner

    Win a Rab Microlight Alpine Down Duvet with the 3rd of the Inglesport Fabulous 5 competitions!

    When the SUSS digging team broke through the pot in Christmas Aven (P8) back in pre-Covid times, a return trip was planned to squeeze into the breakthrough point and explore/photograph/survey the passage beyond. Here enters our hero. Named "Team America" due to his heritage, this keen young...
  3. A_Northerner

    Winnats Head Sump 1 "The Lake"

    The level doesn't change much at all in my experience. The outflow towards the sewer seems to match the flow coming in from the collected percolation through the boulder choke below Fox Chamber. In dry weather it simply doesn't flow down the sewer and in wet weather the flow into it is never...
  4. A_Northerner

    Winnats Head Sump 1 "The Lake"

    This is just a bit on info for anyone who has wondered what's in The Lake halfway down Winnats Head Cave, when I first started caving it always enticed me to wonder what was on the other side. It's been dived a couple of times in the past but I went for another look due to good vis. After the...
  5. A_Northerner

    Giants/Oxlow Connection "The Chamber of Horrors"

    There's also air gaps over the top.
  6. A_Northerner

    Giants/Oxlow Connection "The Chamber of Horrors"

    My favourite quote from WBT's 1966 Giants-Oxlow-Giants trip is "We were out after 9 1/4 hours, of which I can optimistically say that 2 1/2 were enjoyable". They were on 2 lead acids between three people, combat jackets, and dragging a 100ft Ulstron. Luckily they had 6 honey butties each to keep...
  7. A_Northerner

    Giants/Oxlow Connection "The Chamber of Horrors"

    I realise I haven't spoken about clothing - I wore a 5mm wetsuit (thinnest neoprene I have) and a hood, with an oversuit to protect it from the tight passage. This was warmer than necessary and quite restrictive, I was only cold while waiting for Toby to dig. You can't do the ducks with your...
  8. A_Northerner

    Giants/Oxlow Connection "The Chamber of Horrors"

    How to do the connection Logistics We parked at Oxlow, rigged it and left an SRT kit per-person at the top of Pilgrim's Way. This was advised by Leo, who has done the connection twice and suffered kit snag issues when shuttling kit. In 2016 the all SRT kits made it through but not every person...
  9. A_Northerner

    Giants/Oxlow Connection "The Chamber of Horrors"

    Except Toby's light. Which he'd borrowed from Jonah. Not wanting to go back, Toby immediately offered Jonah £65 in payment so we could head off and get to the pub. Jonah wasn't having it, he wanted his light back. He offered to go back to fetch it himself, but the passage beyond the Chamber of...
  10. A_Northerner

    Giants/Oxlow Connection "The Chamber of Horrors"

    For the more prosaic reader who just wants info on how to tackle this classic through trip - I'm going to write a how-to guide at the end of this report. Feel free to scroll to the end if that's all you're after, instead of my inane ramblings. Trip Dates: Sun 6/5/25 + Wed 9/5/25 Members: Jack...
  11. A_Northerner

    Bad Air on the way to Crusader in Oxlow

    To bring it back on topic to Lara's initial question - it's probably likely that some of the slow moving/stagnant water in the upper New Oxlow area is contaminated with fuel/oil, much like many other caves situated beneath roads and working farms (Intestines in P8 had it recently, as did the...
  12. A_Northerner

    Bad Air on the way to Crusader in Oxlow

    One of us is a Northerner and one of us is a Southerner. Hopefully that will answer your question!
  13. A_Northerner

    Bad Air on the way to Crusader in Oxlow

    Technically three, as on our scouting trip we went into Oxlow and came back out of Giants, before doing the through trip a couple of days later. They aren't that bad if you maintain composure and work out the best approach for each one. I'm writing a "how-to" guide for them because I think a...
  14. A_Northerner

    Bad Air on the way to Crusader in Oxlow

    Report from the first ever Giants - Oxlow - Giants trip. (EPC had claimed the first O-G-O trip the week before 😉)
  15. A_Northerner

    Bad Air on the way to Crusader in Oxlow

    Oxlow Aven Passage is what the 1960s SUSS journals refer to as the low crawling passage between Mecca Aven and Poached Egg passage. I haven't seen it referred to by any other name since then so just going with that name, lots of good leads along it (for the masochistic digger). Part way along it...
  16. A_Northerner

    Bad Air on the way to Crusader in Oxlow

    We did Giants - New Oxlow - Giants on Sunday, and Giants - Oxlow through trip last night (trip report on the horizon) There's air howling through the connection and all the tiny inlets along Oxlow Aven Passage are draughting inwards very strongly. I'm surprised the passages up to Crusader, which...
  17. A_Northerner

    Caving Memes

    Top marks if you can reverse-engineer this one into what it originally said...
  18. A_Northerner

    Caving Memes

    Draenen only has one entrance, what are you on about?
  19. A_Northerner

    History of cave litter / clean ups?

    Logismos is correct. I headed up a couple of sizeable cleanup projects with SUSS in 2016/17. Exact details are in the following threads: Nettle - 'Cleanup on Aisle "Nettle" - 6/12/16' https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/cleanup-on-aisle-nettle-6-12-16.21306/ P8 - 'The Great P8...
  20. A_Northerner

    Sheffield Adventure Film Festival - Any group want to take the cave?

    Unfortunately, that weekend is the SUSS annual dinner, otherwise we'd have been interested in promoting caving on our home turf!
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