Hidden Earth 2007

Wolfart

New member
(y)Great weekend enjoyed it toughrlly congrats to all who organized it and the helpers :bow: :clap:
Yes i did buy the drinks :beer:Mr Fell,pitty Mr Buttcombe didnt show his face :tease:
Worst bit its all over and got to wait another year :(
 

anfieldman

New member
Wonderful end to our honeymoon. Also nice to put some more faces to the names on here such as Les (yes you do look a very busy man) and Walrus.
Can't wait for next years event.

:)
 

kay

Well-known member
Yes, a good event with some very good presentations. Thought the dinner was very good this time, too.

Ooh - and this board seems to be doing 'as you type' spellchecking - great stuff (y)
 

SamT

Moderator
:clap: :clap:

Top weekend - big shout out to LesW and the crew  (y)

Excellent presentions, Particularly enjoyed Simon Brookes's Ghar Parau and Meghalaya talks.
Joels Dacshtine and PNG
And not forgetting DaveR and Scoffs hilarious anecdotal presentation.

Nice to put some faces to some names - ChrisJ, Potholer, John Maneeley to name a few.

Have to agree that there wasnt enough UKbased presentations. But then hey - thats down to the likes of us. We'll be putting together a Derbyshire round up next year (promise Les).

Once again - cheers to all those involved in the organisation and smooth running of the event -  :bow:

Right - Im off for some well needed kip. nighty night
 
W

Walrus

Guest
A good trade hall (spent a fortune); interesting lectures, I fitted thru the 'easy-squeeze' box (upper flood here I come) Les & the staff did a marvellous job, the dinner was ok (they had ran out of soup by my turn :( ), put a few more faces to names and they said some nice things about Darkplaces (the website - the man himself couldn't attend)! All in all a top weekend!  :clap:
 
C

Caver2007

Guest
I was hoping to get to Hidden Earth but didn't make it. I was keen to see the presentation on Sima GESM as I've been to that part of Spain and met some cavers there.  Anyone know where I can get hold of a copy of the film?
 

Glenn

Member
Caver2007 said:
I was hoping to get to Hidden Earth but didn't make it. I was keen to see the presentation on Sima GESM as I've been to that part of Spain and met some cavers there.  Anyone know where I can get hold of a copy of the film?

Yes, many thanks to Les and the crew for another great weekend, and to reiterate Goon's plea at the closing ceremony, if you enjoyed it this year, tell your mates, 'cos if every one who attended this year brings just one mate next year (who didn't attend this year) it can be even better!

The Sima GESM film is really good, especially the climbing sequence towards the end of the film! It's ?8.00 including P&P from Marcus Taylor, 55 Ashgrove Road, Ashley Down, Bristol BS7 9LF email:
underground@jft.co.uk (information from current edition of Descent)

Glenn

 
C

Caver2007

Guest
Glenn said:
Caver2007 said:
I was hoping to get to Hidden Earth but didn't make it. I was keen to see the presentation on Sima GESM as I've been to that part of Spain and met some cavers there.  Anyone know where I can get hold of a copy of the film?

Yes, many thanks to Les and the crew for another great weekend, and to reiterate Goon's plea at the closing ceremony, if you enjoyed it this year, tell your mates, 'cos if every one who attended this year brings just one mate next year (who didn't attend this year) it can be even better!

The Sima GESM film is really good, especially the climbing sequence towards the end of the film! It's ?8.00 including P&P from Marcus Taylor, 55 Ashgrove Road, Ashley Down, Bristol BS7 9LF email:
underground@jft.co.uk (information from current edition of Descent)

Glenn

Thanks Glenn, I must read my copy of Descent more closely, I hadn't realised the info was in there!

 

Peter Burgess

New member
An abridged version of my entry in the WCMS online journal:

Some weeks ago I asked around to find out if any of our members were planning on attending Hidden Earth this year. Only Graham C responded that, yes, he would be going along as usual. Slightly disappointed that this excellent event seemed to be far less popular with our members than the annual NAMHO conference, nevertheless I looked forward eagerly to another entertaining weekend of socialising and talks.

It was therefore good to find that quite a few of our number were attending, albeit perhaps under a different guise. As all attending do so as individuals anyway, this hardly mattered, but in all there were some 8 of us there. Apart from Graham C and myself, we bumped into Richard V, Walrus, Claire C, John Maneely, Gary C, and Tony J. Apologies if you were there, and I didn't mention your name!

It may be that the idea of meeting and talking to other cavers in such numbers is a bit intimidating, or perhaps having no actual field trips over the weekend suggests that the weekend is just a mixture of boring lectures, amateurish trade and club stands, and outrageous drunken behaviour. Well it certainly isn't any of those!

I don't think anyone attending went away disappointed.

I am not going to list all the lectures, presentations and discussions I went to. You can read all that in Descent magazine in due course. One of the highlights for me was the showing of archive film footage from Devon, Mendip and Yorkshire. Maybe that's a sign of growing old, and feeling nostalgic. Perhaps so. But the anecdotal presentations of current cavers, and the after-dinner talk by Dick Willis were equally memorable, and Sid Perou's film at the closing ceremony was a fitting hilarious climax to another brilliant weekend.

If you think that actually going caving is always more important than attending conferences, or whatever we may choose to call such gatherings, I believe that, yes, in general you may be right, But as far as Hidden Earth is concerned, as "Goon" said in his closing address, this is one weekend in 52. I believe that to make the effort to go along, meet other cavers, do some 'networking' as they say nowadays, or just to enjoy yourself, is an extremely valuable thing to do. I hope all the rest of you who were there think the same way, and will be along next year.

Oh, and yes, I am proud that as we did two years ago when I last went to Hidden Earth, Graham C and I totally trounced the opposition at the surveying competition, achieving a 0.25 percent closure error over a 4 leg loop of about 130 metres. In fact we did it twice, once with Graham on the instruments, and once with me. Graham's work achieved the 0.25 percent error, and my loop was 0.5 percent. The accuracy figure seemed to draw gasps of awe (or incredulity) when announced. Our closest rival was a massive 2.5 percent out! As Graham also achieved the best result two years ago, and has the awarded prize mounted on his wall at home, I am very grateful to him for letting me pocket the loot this time, money that will go a long way towards buying a new lamp.

And I haven't even mentioned the beer.
 

j4nny

Member
i had a fantastic weekend and met loads of really nice people.  :beer: does anyone no if there are any piccys of the weekends events posted anywhere? all i have found so far is J-rat getting his groove on at the stomp!  :LOL:
 

footleg

New member
I thoroughly enjoyed Hidden Earth this year. Felt completely exhausted by the end of it mind, but had a bloody good time. Probably met a load of people from this forum without realising it! Somehow during a drunken evening at the dinner I found myself volunteered to produce an openning AV for next year. :eek: To this end it would really help to have as many embarassing photographs of attendees and organisers that anyone can supply  ;)  So if you have any suitable pictures please contact me. I did not manage to get any pictures of drunkeness in the bar, stomp or campsite, so some coverage of that would be particularly welcome.  ;)
 
R

Rubber Duck

Guest
Only went on the Saturday but still thourghly enjoyed it, nearly bought a Stenlite to go with my Scurion but was happy with my karabinas and knee pads purchase.
I managed to fit through the "Easy squeeze box" and got my certificate, I also looked on the sheet of paper and I was the biggest person to do it so far; 46" chest....so no excuses if you didn't fit through 'cause if I can do it then anyone can!!
Just a shame I couldn't stay for the weekend.
 

menacer

Active member
Excellent bits
Wide variety of interesting lectures.
Good location next to Motorway.
Plenty of parking.
Excellent caterers, good choice and queues not to long.
Lots of interactive activities in the trade hall and the ability to buy just about anything you want to buy caving related.
Plenty of camping space
Morrissons half a mile down the road.

Not so excellent bits

The price of the white wine ....Just a little grumble....(being a tight arsed caver someone who likes value for money.......I was forced  into buying my own bottle....I then obviously felt obliged to consume the whole thing.....this had devastating consequences.... none of which are my fault  hmmm ok  maybe it was   ......  :cautious: .....thus I also missed the first lectures on Sunday morning.....AND.....suffered a bad hair day to top it all off..... !! Hmphhh  )

The unisex toilets were MINGING!! (a tad smelly)
 

martinr

Active member
Rubber Duck said:
I managed to fit through the "Easy squeeze box" and got my certificate, I also looked on the sheet of paper and I was the biggest person to do it so far; 46" chest....so no excuses if you didn't fit through 'cause if I can do it then anyone can!!

Its not quite as simple as that. I am analysing the results, and will post them here later, but basically it  depends on age, not chest size. Over a certain age it would appear that the sternum and ribs are less flexible. So a young person with a 46ins chest can do the squeze when an older person with a 36in chest can not.

More later.
 

Peter Burgess

New member
martinr said:
Rubber Duck said:
I managed to fit through the "Easy squeeze box" and got my certificate, I also looked on the sheet of paper and I was the biggest person to do it so far; 46" chest....so no excuses if you didn't fit through 'cause if I can do it then anyone can!!

Its not quite as simple as that. I am analysing the results, and will post them here later, but basically it  depends on age, not chest size. Over a certain age it would appear that the sternum and ribs are less flexible. So a young person with a 46ins chest can do the squeze when an older person with a 36in chest can not.

More later.
Is there a gender factor?
 
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