Keen but with no cause?

[caverholic]

SUSS have survived the troubled times of the usport reign, but have hit another barrier.
We had planned to head out to Matienzo over the summer but with the troubled out look thought we ought to have a back up plan.
( Wot students Plan? :shock: )

There has been many suggestions and we have decided organising our own expo in this short amount of time is unfeasible so we going to do big through trips or trips.

So this is just a request for any ideas and more so info about the trips.
One thought was Dent de Crolles in france or P.S.M. We aren't quite sure where you get permits and if you need them.


Look forward to the responses.

p.s. not to far flung we only have limited budget.

 

[AndyF]

Dent de Crolles is fantastic area, with three major through trips. I did it 10 years ago, and again last year.

Glaz-Guirs is a classic 8+ hour pull through. Glaz-Chevalier is harder, but perhaps better. I have surveys, and there is a downloadeable PDF guide book at:

http://www.alpesgeoconseil.com/Chartreuse/Speleo/Speleo.pdf

I can also give you details of a caver friendly gite to rent if you want.


The other place I would highly recommend is the Coumo D'Hyouernedo in Haut Garonne. Top quality streamway/SRT caving with minimal walk-ins. There is an excellent guide available that details the though routes.

Andy Foster

 

[ian mckenzie]

Dent de Crolles is indeed a great trip, but the true top/bottom is actually from P40 rather than Trou de Glaz, which used to be the deepest thru-trip in the world. Glaz can also be done to Annette rather than Chevalier; emerging from Annette at night is pretty neat. You could spend a week there. Great surface karst on top too.

Another classic thru-trip is Raggejavreraige in Norway, probably the northernmost major cave in the world, emerging just at sea-level. Not much else around there though. You can take the ferry from Newcastle to Bergen, take along your own food to save some money.

Here in Canada Yorkshire Pot is a -386m deep thru trip, right next door to Gargantua, a thru-trip of about -250m.

 

[SamT]

How about the Diau through trip too - very close to the Dent De Croll,

You can do the Tanne de Bel Espoir - or the Trois Betas entrances. Its a magnificent trip.

Think JH to Peak but much much bigger.

 

[AndyF]

Glaz can also be done to Annette rather than Chevalier; emerging from Annette at night is pretty neat

The route through Annette is supposedly quite loose, and at times can be blocked by collapse. It also misses out the superb 55m pitch.

We came out of Chevalier at dusk, and had an epic finding our way down to the cars, that were parked by the hospital....

Here in Canada Yorkshire Pot is a -386m deep thru trip

How accesable is Yorkshire Pot, would it be suitable for a "holiday" caving trip of a week duration..? we tend to fly/cave these days, but as we are all turning into old f**ts we need more user friendly trips to do...

 

[Cumbrian Neil]

Here in Canada Yorkshire Pot is a -386m deep thru trip, right next door to Gargantua, a thru-trip of about -250m.

Where can I find good information on these caves?? I read the SUSS report from back in 1994... but there must be something else out there. I noticed you [Iain McKenzie] had done the cave many years ago before it was a through trip... I'll bet that was an epic 18 hour trip!!

CN.

 

[ian mckenzie]

The standard pull-thru in Yorkshire Pot is thirteen pitches, the deepest of which is 40m, but there are other inter-entrance exchange trips possible in its 12km of passage. Gargantua is a mostly horizontal 6km cave, the pull-thru is a simple five pitches with the deepest being 17m. There are other caves in the area and the scenery is unbeatable, you could easily spend a pleasant week camped out here, anytime July thru September. This is the original home of Canadian Rockies caving. The hike in is mostly along a road with a steep bit at the end, two or three hours. The area is two hours' drive from Calgary, which has good air connections to Britain.

You could also consider attending Speleofest, an annual week-long gathering of cavers held somewhere in western Canada, with a focus on original explorations. The 2005 location is at the same place as last year, another couple hour's drive past the Yorkshire Pot area. See www.caving.ab.ca/subweb for details of last year's Speleofest (not to be confused with an American event of the same name). This year's event is July 29 - August 7.

 

[ian mckenzie]

C. Neil: The best source of info on Canadian caves is our national journal The Canadian Caver, see http://www.cancaver.ca/pubs2/cc/ and click the link at the bottom for the Index. Our local club is at www.caving.ab.ca and of course I'm happy to answer specific questions.

 

[ian mckenzie]

The route through Annette is supposedly quite loose, and at times can be blocked by collapse. It also misses out the superb 55m pitch.

I did DDC in 1990 with some Brit cavers; I remember that Annette ended thru a dig shored with highway guardrails. We did both the P40-Guiers Mort pulldown and the Glaz-Annette side-to-side trip, plus a bottom-towards-top along the original Chevalier route from Guiers Mort up the modest stream passage as far as we could, so we saw quite a bit of the cave. None of us had been in the cave before, and we didn't even have a survey - just a schematic drawing. :wink:

 

[Cumbrian Neil]

See www.caving.ab.ca/subweb for details of last year's Speleofest (not to be confused with an American event of the same name). This year's event is July 29 - August 7.

It amazed me that the NSS held last year's convention in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan... an area completely devoid of significant caves!! I read that this year's is going to be in Alabama (the home state of the NSS) and is more likely to include caving as they did in 2003 when it was held in Colorado. Have you ever been to an NSS convention??

CN.

PS. How far is Northern Wisconsin to Calgary??

 

[ian mckenzie]

Well, I guess if there are cavers in Michigan, why not have a convention there. These events are as much social gatherings as anything else. Kind of like having a BCRA conference in Devon :?. As I'm not American I don't normally go to NSS conventions, but went to California in 2003, and then only because I was asked to present on Peru. But I am seriously considering the 2005 convention because it is in TAG country.

Canadians have no such Conventions - we focus our gatherings around caving, and original exploration at that.

To see how close Calgary is to northern Wisconsin, consult any map of the world; most cities of a million people show up as a dot with their name beside... :wink: :wink: .

 

[SamT]

Back on to ideas for a SUSS holiday.

Try slovenia - the home of karst limestone. Fly easyjet to lubliana hire a car/van - get yourself to speleocamp

Awesome campsite, club house with big barbie, showers, kit washing area, drying room etc, owner is really friendly local caver who'll no doubt show you around the local caves (theres one in the field behind his house).

You have to book the campsite in advance as he only books it out to visiting clubs/groups.

 

[Cumbrian Neil]

Back on to ideas for a SUSS holiday.

I was giving SUSS ideas!!! Do you know how cheap it is for UK folks to visit the USA right now!! Bush screwed up the interest rates. Think outside the normal box :shock: !!

CN.

 

[Cumbrian Neil]

To see how close Calgary is to northern Wisconsin, consult any map of the world; most cities of a million people show up as a dot with their name beside... :wink: :wink: .

Hmmm... I didn't realize that maps in the USA included Canada? I thought it was a barren track of land populated by beavers, moose, and the odd French speaking fellow (well, at least in Quebec)!! There ain't nothing wrong with a nice beaver either!!

Calgary is 1432.68 miles away according to MapQuest. I am interested in getting on one of your exploratory trips at some point in the future even if SUSS isn't.

As for the SUSS old timers - A friend of mine went to Mallorca(??) last year to the Matienzo area... apparently there are lots of open cave there if you are willing to look for it as well as some established routes. Stick to your plan... I guess Phil Pappard (CRO) now lives there permanently and is a good source of information.

CN.

 

[pisshead]

i might be wrong., but there are problems with Matienzo - something to do with insurance and not allowing foreign cavers in due to a lack of organised cave rescue...

 

[ian mckenzie]

I am interested in getting on one of your exploratory trips at some point in the future even if SUSS isn't.

Well keep in touch, always glad to have company. We did joint expeds with SUSS here in 1983 and 1984, and are happy to partner with individual cavers or more 'organized' groups from afar.

 

[ian mckenzie]

[It amazed me that the NSS held last year's convention in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan... an area completely devoid of significant caves!!

So... anyone considering hopping the pond to attend the 2005 NSS Convention? No shortage of easily-accessible caves in TAG country.

 

[twllddu]

Not this year. Last time I got caught at US Customs with 6 pairs of new warmbac elbow pads, 6 pairs of elbow pads and 4 pairs of wet socks.

I thought I was going to do 20 years hard labor for neoprene smuggling

 

[ian mckenzie]

You could also consider attending Speleofest, an annual week-long gathering of cavers held somewhere in western Canada, with a focus on original explorations. This year's event is July 29 - August 7.

C. Neil: One of the three connectable caves in this area just broached -400m last weekend, and is still going (apparently it's getting slightly bigger). The other two are each about -250m I think, and also going. Could be a new Canadian depth record here...

 

[Cumbrian Neil]

One of the three connectable caves in this area just broached -400m last weekend, and is still going (apparently it's getting slightly bigger). The other two are each about -250m I think, and also going. Could be a new Canadian depth record here...

That's pretty impressive... we only lost our snow recently (two weeks ago)... that must make for some epic trips underground!!

CN.