WIN 10 x DMM Perfecto Screwgate Karabiners!!

[mrodoc]

About 15 years ago I expressed a wish to have a Boxing Day caving trip and Angie (my wife) agreed (or capitulated). We decided GB would be a good bet as a trip that wouldn't be too strenuous but work off some turkey overdose. We picked a Christmas when we actually had snow and it was still lying around in the sub zero temperatures that day. We changed into our fleeces which at that time were in-your-face psychedelically patterned then drove up in my old Ford Ranger, and after collecting the keys at the Belfry, and headed for Charterhouse. The roads were pretty icy in places and, as we rounded a sharp bend above Velvet Bottom we almost collided with a helmeted cyclist staggering about in the middle of the road with blood streaming down his face. Turns out he was looking for his missing tooth. We scooped him up putting the battered bike in the pickup and set off to find help followed by another passerby who ad a really impressive Rastafarian hair do. There was no phone reception for mobiles so we stopped at the cottage at the Charterhouse junction. I got out, knocked on the door and a small child answered. I explained the situation and escorted the injured cyclist to the owners care. Angie had a brief chat with her before we set off down the road for our delayed trip. Turns out the child who had seen me had asked her mother if there was a circus nearby as she'd seen a couple of clowns. Ne'er a truer word spoke in jest.

 

[bagpuss]

Christmas trip was low on numbers this year with excuses coming in thick and fast, from needing to keep the peace with the kids, to preferring a hot bath after getting soaked, a family trip to Sri Lanka and another taking their housemate to A and E.. 4 of us had a buffet for 7 between us which was all consumed. Santa struggled to get up the pitch to escape to deliver Christmas presents because he was so full...

 

[Pegasus]

I'm loving all the entries - thanks everyone 😍

 

[Dave_w]

Some of the Scottish 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 crew had a Christmas meet at Airthrey and took our own tree down 30m where we had mince pies

 

[Stones]

Video from UCET 2023 Santa dash in Ogof Nadolig (Christmas cave)

 

[PeteHall]

I'll avoid the Santa hats for my story and recall a tale from the Christmas holidays seven years ago. It's a tale that many forum users will have heard before, as this forum played a crucial part in the adventure!

New Year's Day, 2018, I set out for a trip to the end of Swildon's Hole, with my camera stuffed into my wetsuit pocket. By the 20, I realised it was missing...

After the trip, I posted on the UKCaving lost and found board, in the hope that someone might have picked it up in the fields near the cave, though I wasn't too optimistic about my chances.

The story continues here:

I couldn't believe it when I had an email on Friday morning saying it had been found, even less could I believe it when I saw a reply to my post on the forum saying that it still worked!

Caver post at its best saw it deivered to my home by Saturday morning and Les told me he'd heard it had been found in Swildons 2! If the finder (whoever you are?) could confirm this, I would be very interested.

The camera seemed fine and when I opened it up there was no moisture inside anywhere and all the pictures were still on it, plus a little bonus... As well as a couple of test shots taken by the finder, was a 22 minute long video which has given considerable insight into the adventures that occurred.

The timestamp tells me I was about 10 minutes into the cave when it started recording in my pocket. You can here how wet it is as the roaring of the water all but mutes the clanking of diving cylinders on rock.

The last clank is heard at about 14 minutes in, shortly before the camera clearly drops into the water. This would correspond to just before I reached the 20' as I checked my watch while rigging the ladder.

The camera can be heard being washed along, sometimes under water, sometimes not for a couple of minutes. At about 16 minutes the camera goes briefly under water before a sudden roar of a waterfall a load crash and the continued roaring of a waterfall. At this point I assume the camera had descended the 20', without the aid of the ladder that I was probably still rigging at the time!

After a request, I posted the self-recorded video to YouTube and despite not a pixel of light, it has been viewed (listened to, I assume) 262 times!

The camera still works and is still my regular caving camera. It came to my underwater dig at Rickford Rising yesterday and will be making another New Year's Day trip tomorrow (also to Rickford), though this time I shall try not to lose it!

 

[SamMil]

The annual C9C Christmas Croesor trip, initially there was only 2 rules for the trip. You must have a Christmas outfit and you cannot repeat the previous year’s outfit. As seen in the photos some people don’t always adhere to the rules!
However after the hypothermia incident of 2022, where one member only had the Santa suit he was stood in to walk back over the mountain in white out conditions, a third rule was added that you must bring a jacket.
Each following year has not been without incident but we have all made it back at the end, to whichever local hut we have managed to secure for a good evening of drinking and being merry!

 

[Ripley]

Christmas #1😊
An unconventional tree!

 

[Ripley]

Christmas #2
Santa likes DMM!

 

[Ripley]

Christmas #3
Finally, looking up the chimney (shaft) in “a North Wales mine”.

 

[Ben Richards]

I present on behalf of the Imperial College Caving Club: a festive photo shoot from a couple weeks ago on our winter tour up in Yorkshire! 🎄

Our magnificent president Chris Hayes is never one to shy away from a festive toboggan ride, and while Christmas jumpers and Christmas lights were a-plenty, bonus points go to anyone who can guess the chamber (???)

(Also a disclaimer that, as always, no caves, cavers, dig trays, Christmas jumpers or caving club presidents ended up worse for wear after this photo shoot!)

https://flic.kr/p/2qDhFUu

 

[Pegasus]

Competition closes today at 10pm!!

...thanks to everyone who has entered so far. Amazing how much Christmas caving takes place

 

[PeteHall]

Pretty tenuous and unfortunately no pictures, but since we're allowed three entries, I might as well throw in another one.

Earlier this week, during the work Christmas shutdown (a distant memory ), I was digging with @Duncan Price at Rickford.

Due to the recent strong winds and surrounding woods, the whole area was littered with bits of Christmas tree, including a large branch wedged just below the waterline in the cave.

Very festive 😁 🎄🎄

 

[Fulk]

Is it the Holiday Slide (not the Beger one) in Shuttleworth Pot?

 

[rm128]

Is it the Holiday Slide (not the Beger one) in Shuttleworth Pot?

Nah. I reckon it's the Stream Passage end of Sand Caverns 🤞

 

[me]

After racing round upper Swildon's for an hour to find the answers to the annual Christmas Quiz, Cheddar Caving Club enjoyed some hot mulled wine 😁

 

[andrewmcleod]

Missed the deadline, which is fair since I didn't do any caving over Christmas (just a bit of caving admin). Only got home last night after being away from before Christmas, and off again tomorrow for a week... But over the New Year period I've managed:
28th Dec: Dan-yr-Ogof trip to Cloud Chamber (just for fun)
28th Dec evening: OFD1 round trip to inspect entrance, all 'official' wire traverses (i.e. Airy Fairy, Maypole chain traverse, Bolt traverse parts 1 & 2), Maypole chain and the four pots with scaffold bars
29th Dec: Installing resin anchors in entrance of Tunnel Top (14 new anchors in one trip is a new record for me)
30th Dec: OFD 2 -> OFD 1 through trip (mostly for fun but also inspecting the Maypole inlet ladder, streamway markers and sizing up the diver's pitch rope which needs replacing at some point)
31st Dec: Rigging ropes onto the new anchors in Tunnel Top for measuring-up for a topo, derigging all the ropes (including old in-situ ropes), photographing the new anchors (for the serial numbers), removing three rawl bolts and a spit, and sending a very sizeable chunk of the wall above the second pitch-head down the cave using a long crowbar and a worryingly small amount of effort...
1st Jan: Column warden duties in OFD (rigged/derigged the SRT pitch)
2nd Jan: Taping the passage beyond the Skyhook on the route to the Great Oxbow series (p20/p8 pitches) after the short crawl. Hopefully the tape is not too confusing; you can still go down that passage but need to rift along the top not crawl along the much more delicate streamway at the bottom (which I did once because I was an idiot and didn't remember you could just rift along the top).

 

[Ben Richards]

Nah. I reckon it's the Stream Passage end of Sand Caverns 🤞

Bonus points go to @rm128 - spot on! (great guess though @Fulk!)

 

[Fulk]

Well done, Ray . . . it still looks too long a slide (to me, at least) to be Sand Caverns, but the general appearance looks right; maybe it's a perspective effect?