Yearly Archives: 2007

Birks Fell Cave Saturday, 1 September 2007 A lack of things to do at work means I can write some rant... It was good to finally tick this excellent pothole, which has proved fairly elusive in previous years (was raining/ hungover/ went to watch lots of cars smash into each other) When our...

Rowten - Valley Entrance (and back again) Saturday, 1 September 2007 With the low water conditions and not really fancying Birks Fell having done it fairly recently, I set out to do another trip I'd been keen to do for a while - the through trip from Rowten to Valley Entrance....

Yordas ULSA Kids trip Monday, 27 August 2007 A family trip to Yordas for the next generation of ULSA Kids being prepared by their 1980s ULSA creators. Anyone got any tight leads that need pushing? Comments Bottom of Car Pot. A hole between boulders in Marble Sink. I'll return all the bits if I break...

Hallucination Aven, and some of the Witsun series Thursday, 23 August 2007 After 5 weeks not caving or doing any real excise due to being in China until four days ago, on a slimming programme. I'm markedly smaller in the shoulder than my last visit. So having arranged to meet Mike...

Beyond the Salle de la Verna Saturday, 11 August 2007 Unfortunately, our last planned trip - the Gouffre Couey Lodge had been de-rigged before we could get a trip in, and so we decided to have a look at the passages beyond the Verna which lead to the bottom of the...

Tete Sauvage - Verna (PSM Through trip) Monday, 6 August 2007 The through trip of the Reseau de la Pierre Saint Martin is one of the classic trips in the world, and offers a 7.7km, 909m deep trip between the Tete Sauvage and EDF tunnel entrances. I had originally planned on...

Gouffre Lonne Peyret Sunday, 5 August 2007 - Wednesday, 8 August 2007 With two classic through trips in the bag, it was time for the 717m deep Lonne Peyret, which proved to be the highlight of the trip for both of us! Sunday 5th saw myself and Tom rigging the entrance series...

Scialet Vincens - Vercor Thursday, 2 August 2007 A delightful 1 hour drive (white knuckle rally experience) across the Vercor plateaux to park about 20 minutes from the entrance. This sporting trip some '403m deep had been bottomed by a crack NPC team the day before but they had only de-rigged...

Cueto-Coventosa Thursday, 2 August 2007 ULSA's most popular cave on foreign soil was about to be visited yet again, and what an awesome through trip it proved to be!! A pleasant 3hr or so trip on the tuesday saw tom, patrick and myself take some inflatable things (rubber ring etc..) to the...

Gournier - Vercor Saturday, 28 July 2007 An unmissable classic of the area ? even if you are only 7 years old. A large team of proper potholers forged ahead whilst a select group of junior caves enjoyed the treats of boating across the lake and the exposed traverse into the...

Saints des Glace - Vercor Friday, 27 July 2007 Part of the Trou Qui Souffle system, the Saints des Glace was a superb day out. Parking only a few minutes from the entrance the cave started with an ice blast of wind, presumably something to do with the saintly ice-cream making...

Grottes de Choranche - Vercor Wednesday, 25 July 2007 No trip to the area is complete without a trip to the beautiful Choranche showcaves complete with spectacular formations, salamander tank, cheesy sound & light show and bar. Images Choranche Decorations 1 Posted by: David Brock Size: 30kb Width: 600 pixels Height: 765 pixels Posted: 15 August 2007 Choranche...

Pay Sank Wednesday, 25 July 2007 Once again the pair found themselves in Ingleton chippy enjoying sausage and chips prior to another excellent evening trip! Todays trip was Pay Sank, a relatively new pothole which drops into the bottom of Grange Rigg Pot and was opened up by the BPC. Arriving at...

Cheminee - Vercor Tuesday, 24 July 2007 Situated about 1km back up the road from the Gour Fumant, the Cheminee is unashamedly a kids cave. A pleasant 10 minutes stroll through the woods led to a massive hole in the ground some 20m across, spanned by a rock bridge that provided...

Gour Fumant - Vercor Sunday, 22 July 2007 A very pleasant introductory SRT trip. Parked close to the cave and enjoyed a few short, P-bolted pitches to the small stream way. Despite having packed the ropes carefully, we still found ourselves one rope short and liberated 8m off the last rope...

Hammer Pot Friday, 20 July 2007 The conclusion to Tank Passage is it gets too tight beyond the squeeze, the credit for the find in the caving literature goes to Mike Cooper not me (BPC Bulliren 1965 vol4 no5 pg 13). Sunday 20th July. This wasn't intended as a digging trip. An...

Valley Entrance Avens and the Window Aven Extension (almost) Sunday, 15 July 2007 Part of a weekend mission to reclimb the various avens in the roof tunnel between Valley Entrance and the pitch into the Kingsdale Master Cave. Partly to find out where they went, and partly to practice bolt climbing...