Stomping trip to Yorks. Had the NPC to ourself, and a permit for Lost Johns where we had an absolutely stellar trip on the Saturday with a badly planned arduous derig. Saturday saw a trip to Yordas in Kingsdale. Sub zero outside for most of the weekend, but that wouldn't stop us!

Well, the 'fireworks' trip got off to a rather ignoble start when we wandered forgetfully past the cut-price fire sticks in Tescos on our quest for fried breakfast material. So we settled for an epic Saturday exchange trip down Gaping Gill (Flood + Bar), played frisbee & lit up the place with a 15'000 candela hand flare. Sunday saw the determined head down Valley Entrance to giggle at the sumps.

Great set of wet 'n' wild trips this weekend.
1) Went straight to the cave on Friday evening (1am) and caved through the night to avoid the crowds in Swildons (Hallo'ween party with real bats...).
2) Crawled out of bed midday on Saturday before zooming off for more underground rivers in Charterhouse.
3) Absolutely fantastic meal in the super comfy Belfry hut, before getting the bare necessary of shut-eye and then taking on some sump free-diving on Sunday to achieve the Black Hole.

Lovely start to the year down at the SWCC cottage next door to the mighty Ogof Fynnon Ddu system. Big Saturday trip with all the teams meeting up underground at the impressive Top Waterfall. Sunday saw the committed exploring OFD II off the beaten track, following our noses and finding little gems everywhere.

Having finally run out of excuses, a one-man team from ICCC set off on the train to Abergavenny to join the Daren diggers at their Hard Rock Cafe. An amazing weekend to join the Daren crew, a wonderful time had stumbling around the enormity of this complex cave.

Quickly quickly before all the undergraduates arrived, we shot off for a little weekend trip with the JN/EXSS group of the physics department to enjoy the pleasure of Top Entrance (OFD) and the perverse delights of evening games in the WSG hut. Major washout on the Saturday which prevented us from venturing to the streamway, rain had stopped by Sunday lunch in time for a beautiful walk up a hill in the Brecons.

Amazing long weekend in Italy, hospitality by the Kirkpatrick family in the beautiful Asiago (a plateau surrounded by a ring of cavernous peaks), leadership courtesy of the Italian cavers Luca and Massimo (sic.). Was lovely to be back in the cool welcome of an alpine system! Bounced to ~300+m on the Saturday trip and an easy ~200m+ on the Sunday, before driving to Padova to be fed, watered and housed by the Kirkpatricks once more before an early morning flight home.

Lovely trip to Yorks, got down Avalanche via a speedy Bar Pot entrance and surveyed up to Rainbow in Avalanche with the clever new laser rangefinder. Midges were hungry when we came out. Had a lovely midnight walk back up to the gill when it transpired that the early exiters had (re)hidden the mobile a little too well!
Sunday... well, the weather was far too pleasent. A leisurely breakfast, then a big 12km loop walk up Pen-y-ghent sampling the finest artisan icecream I've ever tasted at Horton-in-ribblesdale post office. Sunburnt drive home.

An early return to Avalanche was demanded, this time with rather more conventional caving transport thanks to TomB's family car. Alas, illness turned the push trip into a photo trip, but a wonderful trip down Gaping Gill was had, via Flood. The three vegetarians pushed on to Avalanche for a 8 hour trip including the derig, the carnivores exited after a view of the way to Stream to get cooking.

Withnail: All right, this is the plan. We get in there and get wrecked. Then we'll eat a pork pie. Then we drop a couple of Surmontil 50s each; means we'll miss out Monday but come up smiling Tuesday morning.
24 hr Train-powered run on Gaping Gill was a success; inital probing into Avalanche inlet was made, bivi'ing next to Bar pot was perfectly pleasent until waking at dawn to a snow dusted dale, with the olive oil frozen solid.