Trips & Reports

So my second trip to Marble Steps! A little unexpected as we were originally going for Ireby. After a fairly faff free container stop in the morning and hangover curing breakfast at Bernies it was off to the cave. Faffing soon began when we arrived to find one group was already in the system and another were fully changed and ready to go. Despite a leisurely change, the other group set off about 2 mins before us! When we got... read more

After a faffy start (rigging from the wrong hanger and not having sufficient rope for the first pitch...) I got in a good bit of rigging practice. Slight moment at the top of the bottom pitch where I was sure I'd done something wrong, but it was all fine in the end. We had a quick explore down as far as the duck and were out in quick time with Louise doing some speedy de-rigging. All in all a very... read more

Tony set a cracking pace which given I was in PVC and a wetsuit kept me quite warm despite the very damp conditions. The aim of the trip was to both check the water levels in readiness for CHECC and to also lower the was levels of the ducks in the section known as “The Troubles” so that they wouldn’t greatly slow the trips that would be going on over the weekend. We made it up to Tratman’s Temple without... read more

Perfect weather for the walk up: nice sunny, but cold enough to avoid overheating :-) Maz did a swift bit of rigging practice on the first pitch, and team ChimP caught us up just as we were heading down. The rest of the route down was enjoyable as ever; it's always nice to show people that these places genuinely aren't all crawling-sized! Having said that, everyone seemed to be loving the crawly stuff in SE Passage... With the water levels pretty low... read more

A superb Fresher trip down Long Churn, even with relatively warm sunshine for getting changed. Everyone seemed to enjoy it which was great (Freshers, please feel free to also write a report). Water levels in Long Churn were quite high, making some of the climbs a tad damper than usual but that didn't seem to deter most people from smiling their way through the trip. We even managed to persuade a few people to do the greasy slab after coming... read more

Faff rating of 3 since we didn't get into the cave till 3pm! Lost a MUSCy Ben due to the usual Sunday hangover syndrome. We ditched Al's car down at the car park, and checked to see the lid in the playground wasn't covered by a park bench. Drove the other two cars up to where you park for Jug holes. I had done this trip once before, and gotten horrendously lost trying to find the cave, so had to... read more

Mandy's written something very similar to what I had started writing! A fun trip, the crystals are really cool, the ducks were less fun! Took a couple of mouthfuls of water as I spluttered through the first one and drenched the woolly hat I was trying to keep dry in my oversuit. I'd like to go back, perhaps from the playground side, and look at the other stuff that we had marched past on the way out. There are is a... read more

As we started to change in the drizzle, I realised that my SRT kit was still in the campervan after Hidden Earth the previous weekend. What a muppet! Not wanting to abandon the trip though, we had a look at what we could cobble together. Luckily, it turned out that we had a long enough sling to make semi-decent make-shift harness. Between Mark and Andy they also had a spare descender, tibloc, foot jammer, and a few slings to fashion a... read more

Considering we didn’t get underground until gone five, I could easily write a trip report that contains more about faff than it does caving... After lots of faff in the morning we made it to Grassington for lunch in a little cafe before heading off to Hagg Gill. We got to the “farm” to ask for permission to access the cave about 2:30 pm but no one was home and it looked more like holiday homes than a real farm,... read more

A fun little trip with a bit of everything. After the initial faff of returning to the surface due to one of the party members being unwilling to go through the Wet Crawl, the remaining trio had a relaxed trip as far as Milestone Chamber. After some rain the previous night and morning, we were worried about the water levels, but with no more rain forecast we decided to give it a go anyway. It turned out that our worries were... read more

This showcave, the name of which is "Skocjanske Jame" (currently incorrect above)was a very enjoyable trip. We opted to go on the original tour, although there is a new short additional tour that can also be visited. After waiting in the shade from the baking sun we were taken on a walk across the road and down the hill and into a large man made tunnel entrance. After listening to the introduction talk in at least 6 different languages and... read more

A very basic short cave with a simple entrance pitch. I would recommend doing this as a starting cave just after arrival in the area, not at the end just after a marathon of awesome caves. Sam however seemed to be really at home in this cave and found literally handfuls of badger bones between the rocks near the entrance. Overall though some nice formations but nothing spectacular compared to other Slovenian caves.

Best cave ever!!

Best cave trip ever!

Best Cave

There was a healthy amount of faff before this one, lots of messing around at the hut, going in and out to get odd bits of kit, filling up bottles etc. and then a poor decision on parking further away from the cave than we had to, but we eventually made it. I remember this being a very intimidating pitch when I went last time, but then again, it was my first year of caving so my memories are maybe a... read more

Change 2 as it was raining a little when I came out and very windy while I was going in. Apart from that a good trip, if slightly lacking in things to look at.

Change 2 as it was too hot, fun 5 because it can't be anything else for this cave. A great trip, even better than last time.

After driving to a tall tower not far from Speleocamp we waited around under the trees for a while where there was a round hut that sold drinks that was not yet open. A little later a car drove up and two people got out, looking possibly like cavers. After wandering over they asked us if we were "the tourists". Confirming to them that were indeed not locals and therefore tourists, they wondered off again leaving us confused if they... read more