Evening all,

with the new book being released next week and the daunting prospect of turning 30 next year I'v been putting more and more thought into the prospect of a Berger trip.

I'm currently not a member of any club, (not through any aversion to join one mind, it's been on my to do list for a long time!) and looking through past trip reports, surveys and descriptions it's looking rather unlikely that I'll be able to recruit enough friends, tackle, rope etc

Are there any clubs that have a permit for 2015 that might have space for an extra member? I'd obviously be happy to attend club meets from now onwards to show my face, get stuck in, prove my worth

I'm Wensleydale based ATM.

Any help would be great,

Cheers,

Matt

Others will no doubt provide accurate info on this topic but I understand there is a general clean-up of the cave during a couple of weeks in the summer and if you are capable to serve as a voluntary worker and assist with bringing out rubbish/old rope etc. you might find you can visit the cave, do something useful, and not need to go through the rigmarole of getting hitched up on a permit trip. You will obviously need to contact the coordinator/organiser, though.

Thanks Cap'n Chris,

I had heard mention of that before...

Selkirk,

Cap'n Chris is right. The FFS (Jura) have their 4th of 5 clean up trips next summer. These are fantastic events with cavers from all over the world. The first one in 2012 attracted over 200 expedition members. There were just over 100 members this year. It is open to anyone who is prepared to pull a bag out or do some other work. Chris Blakeley and myself have been re-rigging the Canals and sections of the Cascades. We will be doing something similar next year.

As well as having suitable insurance the organisers only require a small contribution of about 20 Euro. Camping was also discounted this year to 5 Euro a night. The cave usually gets rigged prior to the start of the permit (the French can pull a few strings) so you get the best chance of getting to the bottom. Nobody got anywhere near the bottom this year due to bad weather.

If you are going to Hidden Earth we can have a chat about it when you come and buy your copy of the book. If not you can get one from <www.gouffreberger.org> and just PM me and I'll let you know what you have to do to get on the trip. Permits aren't allocated until the end of February so nobody knows which 10 day slot they will get until then, it depends how many permit applications there are. 

Cheers,

Mark Wright

Mark, if you

have been re-rigging the Canals and sections of the Cascades.

Click to expand...

why is the rigging so low? (close to the water) 

see 6.25 to 7.00 mins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v94JIt7eUOE

By the way all the rope including the tatty string (if it could still be called that) and the camps were completely cleared at the end of the Expedition 

me,

Thanks for the feedback.

In 2013 Chris Blakeley and myself re-rigged all of the Canals with heavy duty 12mm arborist rope supplied free of charge by Petzl. We were told by the few people who went down that far during this years International clean-up trip that the first section of the Canals had been damaged by the exceptionally wet conditions witnessed. Those conditions prevented us from actually re-rigging the Cascades. Instead we left about 70m of heavy duty rope in the Starless River and a further 30m rope on the surface for members of your trip to re-rig. This was in return for us loaning the joint Red Rose/Army expedition most of the tackle bags and most of the hangers/maillons used on the trip. From the youtube clips of the Cascades between 6.25 & 7.00 its obvious these weren't actually re-rigged with the new rope. This will be one of next years jobs, weather permitting. 

We did suggest to the French that we install fresh bolts in both the Canals and the Cascades but we were told this wasn't accepteble so we just replaced the old rope and removed all the old tat that was in the Canals, about 5 tackle bags full. I'm not sure what you mean by the 'tatty string' but there were 4 prototype ropes supplied by Petzl that you were testing in the entrance series. Maybe this is what you are talking about. We haven't had any feedback from anyone on these ropes yet, although by the state of them when they were dropped off in Crolles they were well tested.

The Canals and the Cascades have been rigged as they are now for at least the past 30 years and can usually be crossed relativeley dry. It was that wet on our trip that it was necessary to swim the last section of the Canals. This was as far as anybody went on our trip. The high water levels in the region this year were unprecedented. A large group of cavers were trapped in the Cuves de Sassenage for 24 hours a couple of days before our permit started.

It sounds like you had a good trip though and got close to the bottom. The video clip of the 'bottom' is where most people, including me, turn round to save getting soaked swimming through the long Pseudo Siphon a short distance further on. 

Cheers,

Mark Wright

Mark

Thats excellent news, thank you. Im not able to make this weekend due to work but ill definately send you a msg for some more info!

Regards,

Matt