The BCRA Online Archive has been enhanced to enable comments to be added to a Collection and Images within a collection. The facility is to allow users to add useful information about the source of a collection, e.g. additional biographical details; and the images, such as identifying people...

A new version of the BCRA Online Archive software has been released. The changes are internal, and should not affect the user experience. With the rise of AI tools, there has been a significant increase in web scraping. For the BCRA Online Archive with its vast collection of over 50,000 images...

I read on a trip report that a group became confused as they couldn't understand why the route guide they were following on the Magic Roundabout circuit claimed that a "couple of 25 m ropes suffice" for negotiating the 20-metre deep Aquarius Shaft. For many decades I have taken the stance that...

I am delighted that after a year of it being in limbo, we have at long last published the Jack Myers collection on the BCRA Online Archive. Jack Osborne Myers (1925-2008) will be for ever remembered by northern cavers for the book "Underground Adventure" that he co-authored with Arthur Gemmel...

There is yet another pull-through trip to enjoy in the Dent de Crolles, but this one is definitely different from the others. It descends the Grotte Chevalier, ascends a 100-metre pitch on a fixed rope, and finishes up at the Grotte des Excités in the eastern face. To get back to the access path...

Does anyone have a copy of this, pretty please? I'm after a copy of an article in it.

The Gouffre Jean-Bernard is a cave that will be familiar by repute with many of the older generation of forum users. It is a remote Alpine cave situated about 60 km north-east of Annecy. Currently 1,612 m deep, it held the world depth record for almost 20 years and is still the seventh deepest...

Gilbert Bohec has kindly let me have an updated version of the Gouffre Berger Survey, and it has now replaced the 2020 Deep Zoom version on my website. It's not complete, as some new explorations are still being surveyed. I believe that the Réseau du Gouffre Berger now is over 45 km long, with...

I have been informed by Gilbert Bohec that the number of entrances into the Réseau de la Dent de Crolles has risen by two to eighteen. The first new entrance is a neither here-nor-there, being an alternative way into the Guiers Mort entrance passage. The second is more interesting, being an...

Does anyone have a copy of British Mining No. 94 "Coal: A Chronology for Britain", to hand, please? I am analysing some Barmaster accounts from the beginning of the 19th Century, in which duty is being paid on a "load" of coal. According to the table of contents for the Memoir, page 15 has a...

If anyone fancies a race next year in a beautiful area, try this for size. Entry cost €3. https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/This-is-the-French-ultra-trail-race-that-no-runner-has-ever-finished

For anyone venturing to Chartreuse this year and wanting to try something new, Spéléo Secours Isère have produced topos for two newly equipped pull-through routes in the Dent de Crolles system. Both of them start in the Gouffre Bob Vouay, situated just 200 m from and 47 m below the summit of the...

Once upon a time, there was a pair of large stalactites in the passage between Hensler's Master Cave and the bottom pitch in Disappointment Pot. They were still there after the war, but subsequently disappeared (together with their smaller companions). The photograph below was taken the day...

It's not my turn for Wezzit, but I thought people might be amused by this photograph. Anyone recognise it?

Does anybody have any information about Leslie Pill they would like to share? He lived in Sheffield and was active in the Derbyshire area. He may have been born as Arthur Leslie Pill in 1918, and he was still around in 1992. It seems that he was a bit of a gentleman scientist, who contributed...

Having resolved a couple of potential issues, I have, for the time being, moved the three currently available BSA Records volumes from the test Online Archive to the main BCRA Online Archive. The BSA Records are held by the British Geological Survey, and a large proportion of them have been...

Does anyone know when the BSA moved out of their premises in Settle?

The Joint Service Adventure Training currently have a rope tied into the hangers on the first pitch in Swinsto. It is dominating the hangers, and it is not feasible to use one's own rope. Unfortunately, it's not a very good rope, being thick and inflexible, and I found that I had to use a C-rig...

On my way down Lost Johns' earlier today, I noticed that the entrance to Quicksand Passage was blocked off by a very elegant one metre-high cobble wall. May I point out to the person(s) that built the wall, that Quicksand Passage is not intrinsically the wrong way. It just happens not to be the...

Does anyone lay claim to the ropes abandoned in Marble Steps, which are dominating the bolts?