CPC Newsletter No26 November 1990 NEW CHARGES FOR GEAR As from last month, the charge for hiring gear from the central store has been adjusted to be realistic with replacement prices etc. The new charges are:- OVERSUITES - £1.50 per day (Not available for arduous trips) HELMETS = - £1.00 per day LAMPS - £1.00 per day SRT KITS - First 4 trips free, then £3.00 a day for full set. Please try and book well in advance and return gear at a sensible time. Staffordshire CC have priority over certain gear. ---000000-- SETBACK TO PEAK DEPTH RECORD | BBQ aders of the caving press may By all accounts the Barbeque at cently have noticed a claim to the Shugborough Hall was a ‘right good do! (despite the weather) - the highlight being a ‘Berger’ slide show by Paul FRPS (etc). If you managed to avoid paying and can't sleep at night the costs were £1 plus £1 a day (ie day = £2, 2 days = {3 - dead easy) plus a donation towards Cave Rescue Organisation for the slide show Cheques to Ralph (no credit cards accepted) cord for finding the deepest shaft Peak district. The claimant, a Mr Ralph Johnson claims a shaft near Magpie mine discovered during a CRO search, having a depth of 500 Self pointed rule setters have tried to pour scorn on this record, claiming that {t doesn't count as the shaft is not normally accessible to the caving public. Do I detect sour grapes? as) 0 KNOTLOW COMES UP SMELLING OF ROSES It is rumoured chat the dead sheep has been removed from the 210' shaft at Knotlow and air is once again fit for human beings to breath, The National Farmers Union have sent out a reminder to all {t's members pointing out the reasons for not disposing of sheep down shafts. ‘THE LIONEL PARKINSON GUIDE 10 SAFE RIGGING For my first example of safe rigging, I have chosen Alum Pot in North Yorkshire. This is a lovely je and a fantastic trip co che bottom, if you manage to get that far There are several routes to the bottom but I have chosen to highlight the straight route down the yin shaft, The firse part of the pitch to the ledge is about 120' and for this I strongly recommend the Edelrid 90m. It is very strong rope and has been knovn to take the breaking strain of a Boeing 747 falling 36,000', For this cyrip, I suggest that you take about 10 Km as 9 Km could be cutting it a bit fine RIGGING To rig this pitch you start on the cre edge of the bottom path, the redyood. From there you take the rope up to the top pati e fork in the tree behind vhich you put in a backup belay (don't forget to backup the backup as well). After that thow the rope to the other Side and tie it to the other large tree with about 20m of supertape and nine or ten shock knots for good measure. Now that you have backed up to all the trees, you think that you are safe, but what if « plague of tree eating locusts comes along? - then you are knackered! -s0 you need a main backup of course ‘There are three options for this, sone better chan others. First of all, chere's Caving Supplies in Buxton, But Phil Brown would probably try to sell your rope to someone else while you were ecill hanging onto ir, so not always a good idea. Next, there;s Ingleborough Common, but you never know if some nosey ranmbler will mess with it so it's not safe enough, after all, your life may depend upon it. ‘The third option in my opinion is che best, Inglesports in Ingleton. I£ you backup to this it could stané a 20 Megaton nuclear warhead going off within 300 yards, but anything less and your rope disintigrates so it’s still not completly bonbproof. There is always a certain element of risk in caving s just about it for Alum Pot, and remenber the golden safety rule for caving: don't go, rig Rob ' CHRISTINE SCRAGG Tt is with regret that I have to inform you of the death of Christine on li 20th October at the NSRI. uw Christine has been ill for some time but on each occasion that members | contacted her she was without complaint, bearing her illness with U) bravery that defies description. | Christine was introduced to CCPC more than a decade ago by Alan vhom she later married. They have two children - Adina aged three and Emma aged one year old. | She helped the club in many ways acting as minutes secretary (she was | far from complimentary about my writting) and taking on the thankless 1 task of arranging club ‘dos'. Her confrontations with Tony became i legendary. 1 She will be sadly missed and our thoughts go out to Alan and the a children. 1 Ralph WHEELING AND DEALING IN THE TATRAS I have been asked to write an account of the financial situation our party faced on the Czekoslovacia trip, June/July 1989, It's a long story! When Tom Piskula first contacted Liam, he wrote that we would have an exchange trip with an equal number of Czek cavers. We would go first as they had other plans for the next year. In their country, they would pay our expenses including spending money, petrol etc, and vica versa when they visited England. Previously, a few of our party had visited Bulgaria and we had an idea of how valuable Western currencey is in the Eastern Block, You could exchange money at 4 to 5 times the official rate. when we arrived in Pilsen, Robert and Lenka met us at the train station and took us off to see a church (the first of many) and then on for lunch. Tom had left in his keeping 14,000 Koruns (Kes). 1,000 for each of us for which we had to sign for. After getting lost a number of times (Robert's map reading, everyone will agree, leaves 2 lot to be desired), we arrived at Lipovec, There, we met Tom and his brother Michael along with Melos, Blanka, Paval and Eva. After a special Czec dish (you guessed it, dumplings, pork and saukraut) and a number of quite palatable beers, I went over to talk to Tom explain that reading between the lines, we thought that he did not want to go to England and what exchange rate did he want for the money, He replied that he wanted the official rate which he quoted as 12Kes : fl. (the official rate was actually 15Kes : £1 and I thought this was very greedy and with a few beers in my stomach I dissagreed with him and left to discuss the situation with he others. Robert was furious with Tom and took Kev and Mark outside to explain how much we could receive on the black market (40Kcs : £1). We decided that we could not stay if we had to use Tom's ‘official rate’. We went to a room and discussed what we had learned from Robert and decided to pay 35Kes : £1, Alternatively, we could buy money elsewhere and give Tom his money back, or simply leave and go elsewhere as we were free to travel the country as restrictions were not as severe as they were a few years ago. The next day, Tom and Rob had left and we explained to Micheal that we could not afford to buy petrol, food or anything else and that we would have to go home after one week, We told him that we would accept 35Kes or would take one of the other options. At this point, he seemed as though he disagreed with Tom and although he could not agree with us (Tom is in a very strong position as Chairman of their club) he said that he would put forward our proposals. Later, after a rumber of very interesting show caves, Eva came up to me very secretly with a note from Rob and 6,000Kcs. The note, which I was asked to burn afterwards (such is the way of spies) read that Tom was acting illegally by asking for money and an exchange should take place. The money was to repay Tom and then if necessary ve should leave his company. Rob had arranged alternative accomodation with Lenka's parents and he could also arrange most of the caving ips that Tom had planned for us. The top black market rate was 75Kes : £1 but this was too high for him and his friends; he could accept 60Kes : £1. Eva had mentioned Robert's name when giving me the note and Paval had overheard this and told Micheal. Not wishing to get Robert into trouble, we stuck to the exchange rate of 35Kes for Tom. Tom and Rob returned two days later and after consultation with Micheal, John Gillett and myself, we retired to a bedroom to sort things out (that's one way of doing it - Ed). Tom at first refused to budge saying that he had clearly stated his intention in the correpondance with Liam. Lukily 1 had all the letters with me, but when asked to read them out, he declined. He wanted us to exchange 1,000Kcs a week plus pay for our accomodation. At this rate it would cost us approx. £250 each. This I doubt any of us could afford. I gave Tom our alternatives and eventually he agreed although we told him we would only require 1,000Kcs spending money. This worked out at a cost of £57 each. We rounded this up to £60 for goodwill. We returned downstairs and started to drink, all relieved that the ordeal was over. Whilst smiling at us he was saying in Czec how bad we were and we had gone back on our word. He also told the Czecs not to change any money with us. After the initial problems, Micheal changed some money with John, but all the others were changing via myself with Robert at 60Kes. This made the holiday very cheap. Kev and myself bought top of the range Koflach ski boots for £57 (more than £200 in the UK), beer was lap a litre and you could fill your car's tank for £5. On the second week we were taken to a very posh restaurant. | By this time we were all fed up with Tom ordering everything for us and so Robert translated the menu (much to Tom's displeasure). We started with vegitable soup (with meat stock -tough for us vegitarians) followed by trout in garlic or chicken "curry" and chocolate pancakes, all washed down with three beers each, Tom and the other Czecs were very anxious that we would not have enough money to pay. Tom was smirking and was overheard to say to Paval (by our bilingual spy) that we would have to change more money with him. There were 22 of us eating at the table and when the bill came at the end, we laughed - 75p per head. Tom's face was a picture! hope that this account will help any future visitors to this wonderful country. The problem was caused only by the greed of one man. All the other Czecs in the club vere superb and although not saying anything to his face, they kept turning their noses up when he spoke. [If they get thrown out of the club, they could not rejoin any other and would find it difficult to travel to the West or even meet Westerners]. Myself and others have said that this was probably the best holiday we have ever had and are looking forward to returning to go skiing, (Derek and Jane did return in February; Robert and Lenka are now living in England - Ed]. Ps a very hospitable couple that we met in the Low Tatras are interested in a small exchange trip, possibly 5 people (a real exchange trip!). If anyone is interested, let me or John Gillett know and we will tell you how to go about it. ime WANTED - Crampons and ice axe. Phil c/o Leek 387995 (Bill Bentley Home for Retired Cavers). DURACELL BATERIES £1.20 Ralph FOUND - Wally of the Year Award. Contact P Ton. FOR SALE - CCPC 'T’ shirts (blue) £3.50 Vests (various) £2.50 Hooded tops (pukey yellow) £2.50 Other 'T' Shirts £2.50 See Ralph. PERSONAL If 'ON' (or is it 'NO') contacts Ralph it could be to his/her advantage. Does the figure '8' mean anything? CELIS - 10 hrs, 6 months garantee £5.00 HEADSETS - Suitable for above, £5.00. Why not. treat yourself to a spare? STOP PRESS - Large members of CCPC definitely cannot get through Shit Pot > ask Keith! HAS ANYONE FOUND MY WELLY? Left NCB size 10 Mark (0625) 26946 I Just put this little bit in to fill up the space at the bottom of the column and = make it look neat. GLOSSARY ADIT - something you may not have done for a long time(or ever). ANASTOMOSIS - abusive prophet. BEDDING PLANE- tool usefull for cleaning lonely male cavers blankets BELAY - stopping mate on the way to the bar and persuading him to buy you a larger. BOULDER CHOKE - result of trying to eat your way out of a cave. GAVE - place to avoid. CAVE PEARLS - cavers sexuality (best avoided). CAVERN - miniscule shit-hole CHAMBER - two places useful to pee in. CRAWL - best way of being nominated to old testiment of dubious join ccrc. DEADS - incompetent, unlucky or drunk cavers. DOLOMITE - Type of ferrous deposit mainly found in scrap yards. DUCK - see "cave pearls". EFFLUENT CAVE - Carlswark Cavern, ERRATIC - caver leaving pub. FAULT - let he who is without sin.... FORMATION - very slow congregation of hung-over cavers prior to ‘meet’ Also dirty brown mud spattered thing found in caves. GINGING - that stuff which falls on your head in lead mine entrances (not to be confused with hung-over cavers being sick). JOINT - way of getting arrested. LEVEL - something that is certain, LIFELINE - a mutual suicide pact. MASTER GAVE - place frequented by organised parties and novices during bouts of heavy rain. PHREA - word unknown in most caving shops. POT - see"Joinc™. POTHOLE - another place to invent an excuse for avoiding. RAKE - a bit of a lad, but best kept clear of if of the "cave pearl" type. RESURGENCE - something experienced after breakfast at "Bennies". RISING - that feeling felt in the pit of the stomach at the top of a pitch after a heavy night. RIFT - source of nasty smell from caver in front in tight crawl. RUCKLE - pile of cavers after yet another heavy night... you'll probably find Mark L at the bottom. SYPHON - handy for eeking out your Scotch. SOUGH - term used to deseribe well known equipment vendors wife, AKA Winnie. SQUEEZE - something to mortgage rates and the reason you can't afford to replace worn out gear. STALAGMITE - something of a rarety in underground condition. STEMPLE - type of subteranian chime in joke only understood by people who have seen same dead cat six times. SWALLOW - essential when drinking. TACKLE - what Lionel spends 20 minutes standing on during practicing mid- pitch rescue (I think this may have deprived me of my 2nd child). TETHER - lots of fun if you are into restraint, red hot electrified barbed- wire ete. TRAVERSE - persuade other people to do this during pitch rigging etc. Anyone know any others? Nigel: ‘CREWE CLIMBING & POTHOLING CLUB JOURNAL. vouas OL Sato mi puta urs. VOL 3. Boge an VoL et ame rere nr ul Suna aie or'hare STBSGE Pres” Naa The as Crome GCE, Jeurel | saw was Veune + back 1984 teenie Goutre Berge Tso ‘Sorted a eel uae on tig tho ave ad we ace ‘Gana ea ohuse o ton cua I eoenes up ebe fo farw volumes w aniopaven of some mete sata ana Uieresing reaing: Iwas roto be aapoonted Say ‘lunes Rave bean wal prcoad Ona Wor BDCERe ‘Soave pate g oraurs The Wat Ma 30a con wen he caves oth Ja 11sagen m ma-Eaten anc raw fhe Sis Dro ‘Tnsseco = an enor readable aceour oe Cus {ions m hs aoa eaving epon, The lges! ae Stwoest caves ave hte at ha ena wth ove 30 caves [Seger nan th A dla doscrotono! he Resend Su Vernon ahs the fourth ongea cave "Fran. ven (67m. 28 5m lng) along min goeaassnstons Stack tr svern ter cves” Aho ond SF Source rternces. very uselu The next ance See ‘ean cawng im Beigum Easter 1964 Agar ee ase. 1G gue for move irtang to ws is area Fatoweeg on rom tis a patted guido to ho larger cave systems Norm Wiles. Thore some goog ewvng Norm Wales ‘arf You at na lamsr wn ta Ale wed worth 3 ‘aac. The romancer ene Jounal s taken up wih some Setedainng ates of scspment ‘Yolma 3 has more vanea format win deserns ot caving toe n varied areas of bot France ane Spam Scckuang the Veteour Manin Alps, Cartatnan hte and Pyrennes. Thor sa deaieg season on various aspects ‘St exporaoon bythe cb he PSM aystam wn aes Geeta maging. Imesnclustn then, two very Useful “isunais tor amvone wanking 'o knew mare ot saving ‘tor France or Soan One bral gre noweve® neu ave oeen beter e capes of Vols had bean mare’ {na tha toms had been B'0uped together more by ‘ovate oy Issue No, 49, Autumm990 caves a cag Venue: Lecture Theatre ‘The Dept.of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Pritchatt's Road, off Edgbaston Park Road University of Birmingham ‘Ticket Prices: Advance £3.00 At the Door £3.50 Concessions £2.50 Worldwide Adventure Lecture Series Season Tickets £15.00 for Winter 1290/91 For Tickets and information Telephone ‘Snow andl Rock 021 236 6816 BIRMINGHAM 14 Priory Queensway, Birmingham B4 68S Wilderness Lectures 0272 633013 Priel onl Paper 3 Great Prizes Att ny ce trie you ey simpy emp bck fhe ihr a he organs Lectures 26th October Tibet by Bicycle Cecilia Neville 23rd November Alpine Climbing, Classics to Extremes A Slimmer's Guide Pat Litlejohn Time Cw Lath December 15th March 1991 Skiing off the the Beaten Track Dolphins & Diving im Truk Lagoon Rob Callister Horace Dod Alll Lectures begin at 730 pm IEE DRAW FREE DRAW FREE DRAW FREE DRAW FREE DRAW FREE G CAPTION COMPETITION No 8 BCRA INVITATION TO TENDER BCRA invites tenders from self employed individuals and organisations for providing the following service. General administration of the associations business which will include membership records, book-keeping, distribution and sale of publications and recording minutes at meetings. Attendance at Council meetings will be required along with other meetings organised by the Association. Computer literacy and a knowledge of caving will be an advantage. The post is expected to require an average of 15 hours per week and will initially be for a contract period of 1 year. The service will be required to available from 1st January 1991 and offers must be received no later than 30th November 1990. Offers to be sent to: Deputy Chairman - BCRA Redacted Tel: NOMINATIONS FOR COUNCIL a would like to nominate the following person as a member of BCRA jouncil from April 1st 1991. Name (of Nominee) address BCRA Membership Number (of Nominee) gned (Nominator) Signed (Seconder) Date Date BCRA Membership No. BCRA Membership No. I agree to be nominated for Council, signed (nominee) Nominations to be sent to Redacted To arrive not later than 31/12/90.