People tend to have certain preconceptions about caves and caving, which do not reflect the reality and the rewards of the sport. From non-cavers the most common remarks I get are about claustrophobia and going under water. Given that journalists are people, it is perhaps not surprising that some of the coverage of the ongoing…
I’d been caving for perhaps nine hours. We’d been going slowly, carrying a lot of equipment and I was tired. Very tired. Now I was shivering in a storm shelter at the foot of a draughty waterfall with so much flow that you could barely see where the pitch rope was. In any other circumstance…
Four rebelays and five hangs to “the ledge” (merely a few square metres in size, but bliss to put your feet on the floor) then a further three hangs to -300m. That is the height of the Eiffel Tower pretty much straight down.
Somewhat overdue, some snaps from our explorations at New Year
Its not been all work. Since the Arctic Slope expedition I have been cave exploring in Austria (twice), Tasmania, Timor-Leste and Myanmar. Totes Gebirge 2015 & 2016 As guests again of Cambridge University Cave and friends I was privileged to be involved with exploration of one of the most significant cave systems in the world.…
A 450km journey down the Nigu, Etivluk and Colville Rivers in Alaska Learning Fast I was learning fast on the river Nigu. How to line a canoe through rapids, how to read the river and what strokes to use during what manoeuvres. It was important that both ourselves and our cargo stayed safe as it…
The Sounds and Smells of Caving When on the 19th June 2014 Johann Westhauser was finally brought to the surface after an 11 day long rescue in Riesending cave in Germany a small caving media storm erupted. Around lunchtime I was contacted by Chris Jewell who does media relations for the British Caving Association, saying…
It was raining. Heavily. And the wind was whipping through between the hills. Andy, Pete and I had on only thin oversuits and thin fleece undersuits beneath. We were fast getting wet and cold, but we were already committed. We were committed from the moment we walked away from Beardy and Mark who had dropped…
This Easter I had four days of canyoning and caving on the fantastic island of Sardinia. Cordula Fuili A short, but beautifully wild canyon near our accommodation. It was straightforward with just a few pitches, but gave a good introduction to the island. Grotte Su Bentu One of the great subterranean systems of Sardinia, we…
Saturday was a beautiful day and an equally beautiful night. We used it to escape to one of our favorite spots on south coast where you can get away from it all and enjoy a little bit of wild Britain surprisingly close to home. We stopped only for a pint in the Square and Compass…
undertheground 