Don’t you love it when the caving kit starts sprouting in spring? I wonder what percentage of my garden is washed off Derbyshire mud…

Went to the alpine museum (Munich) and saw gear in better condition than mine

Do they? It'll certainly do a lifetime of Mendip caving ;) To be fair that rack has now had ca. 5km of travel, which I consider pretty good going. Especially as 1.5km out of that was with a 25kg cement bag attached to me. Think it'll easily do another 4km before I have to change most of the...

Hmmm… Good as new- just don’t look at the back

Bugger xD

Can't tell you about the hangers into Jupiter, but the rope is very thick - I'd say 11mm, so I wouldn't be too concerned about their age. 2 years ago they were in perfectly good condition. I was too concerned my child bearing hips wouldn't fit through the Rift connection, but I've heard it's...

Bump No one travelling that way?

Robbed of caving by an ear infection I fettled with my chest harness instead. Been using it for a year now and love everything about it - except the attachment to my chest ascender. Seemed good on paper but crap in reality. Out with the old In with the new-ish

From chatting to those involved, yes. Despite people saying CAW does sump, in the 12 years or so I've been caving there I've never seen it properly sumped even once. As Charley says, things are in motion to address this blockage but it may require somewhat major works and an assessment of the...

Red-ish, appear to kind of stick together in clusters or maybe just quite long single worms looking like a group. Only ever encountered them stationary, I'd say near the bottom. But the places I saw them are so shallow I couldn't say whether they seem to have an affinity for the surface or...

You know what I like after digging? A nice long shower. Careful what you wish for. (Yesterday rather than today, but ukc posting wasn’t the first thing on my mind after a late arrival home 😅)

Whether we're talking helminths or not, the medium these particular invertebrates dwell in has a very distinct aroma associated with agriculture. The water coming from above is most definitely not fit for human consumption, aside from my younger self I know of at leat one more idiot who has...

Evening all, Is anyone travelling from the MCC Nordrach Cottage to TSG any time soon? Cap n Chris has left a parcel for me there and I won't be on Mendip in the near future.

Depends entirely on nature of the trip and people on it. If it's novices I bore them broaden their horizon with speleogenesis/ geology facts; if it's a gentle sport trip it'll be general chit-chat; digging is a mix of talking yourself up to the misery of what effectively amounts to a labour camp...

Very little to no mud. Cow Arse Worms near the bottom of JH sadly being one of those bits, then from RotV to the left hand turn towards AI has a little bit. A great loop, going up the Vortex pitches for completeness is worthwhile.

Agree, I love Elizabeth but consider Beza & crumble as annoying drippy hellholes. Think I’d even prefer to get to the further reaches via Elizabeth & the duck, you’ll get wet either way. Edit: I’m not slagging Winnats Cavers choices off for the sake of it, honest. Opinions just differ.

Kind of funny, but yes, the order seems completely random. Why on earth would JH or Titan be on a level with Moss Chamber, Rowter very oddly low, etc.

A good insole turns wellies into perfectly serviceable walking boots. I use a pair of Dunlop Acifort, all my dog walking since around October has been in them, regularly in the 10km region with an average of ca. 40km per week. Only thing I don't like is the sweaty feeling, but that is intrinsic...

Roughneck 18” wrecking bar. For roughly 6 of your finest pounds you get a crowbar transportable enough to lug it to the arse end of nowhere (for some reason exactly where most of mine end up), long enough to actually do something with, and a bent end sort of usable for digging when nothing else...

It’s also possible to use a type of soft shackle with AS hangers, though I use them with 6mm concrete screws (like the ones shown below). 5mm dyneema gives an acceptable yield strength in the region of 13kN depending on direction of pull. They’re a bit of a faff to make though.