SRT trip to the bottom of Spider and a look around the dig face @JonnyC: A second visit to Spider to try and go all the way down the SRT pitches in light of me feeling slightly more alive this week. Rich suggested it be done the proper way, as a rebelay and I fairly quickly agreed. It was a slow and cautious trip down with a couple of breaks (still finidng my stop stiff to depress). At the bottom we dropped our kit and headed on down to the dig face, an intriguing place with much work put into sh ...

SRT trip into Spider however for the sake of cautiousness turning round at the bottom of the first descent. Great trip and good to use the SRT in the real environment. @JonnyC: After motoring into Cheddar Gorge and [finally] arranging a call out, the SRT gear was donned for a short trip to the entrance of spider. The relative sterility of my gear was clear to see up against Rich's but I knew that it's bright colours were due to stand out for not much longer. After mild difficulties with the gate key ...

14 mile route up the portway and back the pill path

Following a theory session in the morning we headed for The Old Grotto and created various incidents both trauma and medical which were abley responded to by 8 enthusiastic MCR cas care qualified wardens. Despite a fractured spine, pelvis, head injury, sucking chest wound not to mention hypothermia and hypoglyceamia all casualties survived to self extricate. @RichM: Excellent acting with fantastic cas sim - thanks to Jon & Andy for making this exercise first class @JonnyC: A very enjoyable and reassuring exercise, would pay to be a little less last minute with the Cas Sim next time (assuming an invite arri ...

Some quality time on th Wessex tower practicing basic SRT with Rich's kit in a proper measure of mendip murk.

Novice trip to Barnes loop via short dry way @RichM: Unfortunately G was unable to make it at the last minute, but we stuck with our plan and headed for Mendip. Andy was well impressed with the civilisation of WCC as his previous encounter with Swildon's was from the barn. After a pleasant walk in the evening sun we arrived at the entrance and Jon lead the way to the twenty via the short dry. Having rigged the pitch our plan was to do a few action shots - well back to the drawing board on that one bo ...

Trip to consolidate navigational knowledge of lionel's, and to revisit the round trip @JonnyC: In order to try and cement our growing knowledge of navigating Lionel's hole we decided to revisit again this week. Secretly I was quite pleased because a small trip around the main body of the cave shouldn't deplete my low energy levels too much further. Before entering we vocalised our intended route to the end of the traverse, via the entrance hall, right at the boulder chamber, left past the tent, ri ...

Route revision in Lionels - Entrance, tent, traverse, first duck to second duck [which had sumped] labyrinth and out @RichM: After much deliberation and indecission we decided to do a refresher in Lionels. After a quick drive to log our trip details due to no reception in Coombe, but timely for Jon to recieve breaking news. We entered the cave and dropped down the passage taking the second left into the crawl to the top of the boulder chamber. Turned right dropping down and taking the 4th left past t ...

Goatchurch, safety line tradesmans, safety line coal chute, safety line over the coffin lid, drainpipe, assisted handline up the coffin lid (hauled last few metres), terrace, giants steps, main entrance. @JonnyC: A nice little trip into Goatchurch. Callum had set his sights on attempting the drainpipe, and both Rich and I were pleased to have a subject to practice our leadership and rope skills on (hence the unusual route to the water chamber). Callum was safety lined down the tradesmans entrance, ...

Rope and rigging practice in Goatchurch with a bonus exploration of orange peel passage. @JonnyC: We started out with an exploration of orange peel passage, I descended as far as the small flowstone channel to see a small but complete straw. Rich took up the challenge of the 45 degree down dip crawl to the dig as he would live to regret when he found no place to turn and had to return feet first up hill. We practiced different methods of rigging the coal chute and the coffin lid and took a few pic ...