The Black mountains provided a useful setting for hillcraft practice with rapidly changing weather paterns, snow, icing above 300m, 60 mph winds and bright sun. @RichM: Original route planned by the student had been Black hill - Hay Bluff - Offas Dyke circular walk. I pulled this due to weather conditions, ice and participant PPE. Hastily rearranged route up to the reservoir and then out onto the tops, decided to make it a fairly unpleasant experience to enhance learning therefore did not show the b ...

A good session at the face hauling rocks up the 12m pitch and up to the stack, breaking up large boulder accompanied by the sound of rattling rocks as loose bits fell through the many gaps all around. Good draught estimated at 11 mtrs/sec. Interesting solid wall and larger boulders and gaps as we progress through the ruckle, water still running and cross rift joining

A good session, cleared all the spoil from the bottom of the railway to the surface and prepared to progress downwards into the small vertical rift. @RichM: 1kg in 4 x 32mm holes split front two instant and rear two 25msec delay - could be busy on next trip

A session hauling 26 bags of sand from the surface down to the bottom for further stabilisation work and a bag of cement. PH did some walling whilst AV & I hauled out some spoil. Dig shaft very drafty and quite damp - looking good. SRT rope replaced.

Sunday night dig revisited - more work carried out at the site in rather unpleasant conditions @RichM: Following the succesful trip on Thursday I managed to persuade the sunday regulars to join me down Bath again. There was some suggestions raised on the surface that it may not be a good trip spured on by the thunder, lightening and heavy rain. The entrance was running well and despite a temporary dam shower pot was true to it's name pouring icy water down on us as we negotiated the ladders. The cerv ...

Trip into Bath to review progress made by Pre-Christmas bang, and a taster session for a digging virgin. Very cold conditions. @JonnyC: Having been re-educated on which is the bottom car park in Burrington, a very cold change into gear and switching to a far more appropriate vehicle to ascend the hill. Out of practice of ladders, my vice like safety grip tired the forearms quickly on the descent of double pitch, however once grounded swift progress was made to the dig. Having let the boys head ...

A fine trip on Eastern Mendip ably led by Jude. @JonnyC: Nice fairly easy trip into a beautifully decorated cave, massive thanks to JV for leading

Good conditions meant a very pleasant paddle heading out from Devizes in the K2 @JonnyC: Starting from the race start point we headed out along the K&A, out of practice so little shaky to start not least past the junior paddling club but soon settled into the rhythm. Avoided a couple of swing bridges that risked causing head injury and pulled up dry for the final time at Wooton Rivers lock. @RichM: Good result after anxious start, longest driest run so far - enjoy and appreciate team work to date hope today sets the stall out for a delayed but ultimate success thanks dude. @JonnyC: Date: Saturday 05 January 2013 09:54 Duration - Tot: 05:11:49, Mov: 03:59:01 Distance - Tot: 24.6km (15.3mi), Mov: 24.2km (15.1mi) Speed - Avg: 4.7km/h (2.9 mi/h), Max: 8.5km/h (5.3 mi/h), MovAvg: 6.1km/h (3.8 mi/h) Stops - Tot: 6 Name Start Duration Distance Speed Journey % ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== Leg 1 09:55:16 00:04:52 ...

SPAM winter ride 35km MTB route. Wet ground conditions made progress difficult, clogging gears and wheels with mud and grass. Strong winds and heavy rain storms added to the fun

Many small streams running down through the boulder ruckle. Good downward progress, spoil cleared then more stabilisation commenced.