Cover: Lathkill Head Cave, Derbyshire. Photographs by Paul Deakin

Rescue: The Stats of the Matter

More than one caver has the need to thank cave rescue teams for bringing them out safely; we all cave easier for knowing that they are there. Each year the rescue statistics are published; each year we look to see what misfortunes (or stupidity) has led to a callout. Now, as we near the end of the decade (let alone the millennium), Pete Allwright looks back across ten years of facts to determine the overall trends.

Choose the Cover You Require

Insurance! Ho, hum, boring! Yet we live with it every day &Mac246; car, house, life, access for caving, cover for expeditions ... We pay dearly for something we hope we never need, but what can we do? David Judson wonders if developing a better policy is the way to go ... but at what price? A single national caving body? Here's the pros and cons of what could arise from the current discussions.

Fifty Years of Aggy Aggy

Fifty years ago, Christmas and New Year spent on a bleak limestone escarpment in South Wales led to a major find: Agen Allwedd. Aggy's discoverer, Brian Price, recounts how he and two schoolboy Scouts dug their way in.

Gear Review

Inglesport's new helmet is given the once-over.

Leeds Underground

The annual National Caving Conference, Hidden Earth, was a resounding success. Here are more than mere reports on every lecture and competition results - here is the distillation of what British cavers have been doing for the past year.

The Descent Caption Competition

Your last chance to win one of Inglesport's new helmets.

 

Descent