Ukcaving Rope offer for summer expos

[Badlad]

Calling all summer expeditions with a healthy student or younger caver membership.

Get your free rope here!

On a number of occasions UKC have offered summer expeditions SRT rope in exchange for writing about their trips on this forum. We are delighted to be doing this again in 2026. On offer is 200m of 9.6mm SRT rope - per successful expedition entry.

So how do you get hold of this rope? Well... the more coverage your expedition gets the better it is for all your sponsors... and cavers like to hear your expedition stories..... so you're going to have to write about your expedition on ukcaving. What does that mean? To apply you will have to post on the 'expeditions' board of the forum giving some history, details, hopes and objectives of your trip. Those who have applied before are very welcome to apply again. If you kept us all well informed before then you are likely to be successful again.

Closing date is 10pm Monday 18th May. When we will announce the successful expeditions. As part of the deal you give a commitment to write about the trip on that same thread. This must include as a minimum; a post before departure, posts from the field and a good report upon your return. Make it positive and fun and that will help with recruitment and sponsors next year.

The rope is Fides III 9.6mm SRT purchased through SpanSet UK. This is a UKcaving sponsored initiative but we are very grateful to SpanSet for offering a generous discount and supporting many other caving projects.

 

[phil]

Thanks for running this offer again. Here is the Tresviso 2026 entry

 

[Samouse1]

Yes, a huge thank you to UKC for always going above and beyond to support caving!
The CUCC expo entry can be found here

 

[Pegasus]

Thanks for the entries both....and the kind comments.
UKC is run by cavers, for cavers. If we can support our sport, we should. Tell your mates, encourage them to engage, spread the word - unlike other social media companies, last time I looked Badlad and me didn't have a few billion to spend on marketing....so free rope and caver word of mouth is it

 

[AlexR]

Thanks for running such a great support for expeditions!
The Dachstein exped would be a very grateful recipient, and of course this provides a great motivation to let other cavers on UKC know what's happening this summer - I know I'm looking forward to reading the Tresviso and CUCC reports.

 

[Daniel Rose]

Thanks for supporting UK caving, here is the Kameno-More entry.

 

[Rob]

Amazing you are running this competition again! Many thanks.

Eldon / Team Awesome's Albania 2026 entry now up too.

 

[Thurly]

Thanks for running the competition! Here is Imperial's 2026 entry

 

[Badlad]

Hi all

Many thanks for all the entries - it was more than we were expecting!! They are....

Tresviso - Spain
CUCC Loser Plateau - Austria
Dachstein - Austria
Shtares - Italy
Kameno More - Montenegro
Albania
ICCC - Slovenia
Ario - Spain

We'd love to support every trip but rope (and funds) are limited. We'll do our best so leave it with me for a few days and I'll come back to you all once I've rummaged in the ukcaving stores

 

[Badlad]

The decision is made and I hope it is a fair outcome for everyone.

Tresviso,
CUCC,
Dachstein,
ICCC and
Ario
are all awarded 200m. A kilometre of rope given away just like that. Thank you for your entries and we look forward to hearing about the trips on your ukcaving thread.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much all the rope we bought. So, I have had to tell Sebastiano of the Shtares expedition that it was unsuccessful. This was the easiest trip to drop as it had no UK cavers or UK groups involved and no one who could pick up the rope anyway. It was an excellent project though.

So, Albania and Kameno More.

I like the madness of the Eldon but suspect they are not the youngsters they think they are and we were looking to support the younger caver groups. Also, I expect a lot of prospecting that probably doesn't need too much additional rope.

I like the idea of Montenegro and a group of young cavers prospecting difficult ground. Again it probably doesn't require too much rope until you find the goer.

So, thanks to the generosity of Spanset who included a free extra 185m of rope with our order we would be happy to split that between your two trips, 90m+ each. We hope that will keep you on board and help your trips out. (We were going to give that as prizes at Hidden Earth)

Everyone will need to arrange to collect the rope from the Ingleton area. Please PM me or Pegasus to organise or ask questions. Please note that the rope is not on a reel it is run into a plastic sacks and labeled Fides III 200m. Please note the full spec in the OP. It will shrink in use as does all rope.

 

[Rob]

Thanks both for sorting this out and going the extra mile (metres).

We'll graciously accept being downgraded from "young and dynamic" to "ageing and mad", my knees certainly agree every trip!

90m will definitely still be useful, and you watch the first pitch will be probably deeper now

Thanks again to UKC and SpanSet for putting this on — much appreciated

 

[phil]

Yes, thanks, much appreciated, will be put to good use! PM on way

 

[Samouse1]

Big thanks from the CUCC expo, that will reduce our rope budget significantly enough to get another drill!

 

[David Rose]

Thanks Badlad, Wardy and UkCaving. We on the Ario trip will put it to good use. It's really great to have this - and I know from experience just how good Spanset rope is.

 

[Daniel Rose]

Thank you very much!!! 90m of rope will prove very useful to us. Very generous to sort that out. Thanks for all that you do.

 

[AlexR]

A big thanks from the Dachstein crew, I'm a little far away these days but Andrew and Jo will be in touch to collect the rope.

I'm really looking forward to reading from all these expeditions, looks like it will be an exciting summer!

 

[ChrisEd]

A big thanks from ICCC too. We were very pleased with the last rope we received, and can't wait to put this to good use!