Issue 157 - December/January 2000/2001
......(Click cover for full view).
Cover: Guiem Mulet, Cova del Pas de Vallgornera, Mallorca (Hidden Earth Photo Salon 2nd place winner).
Photograph by Tony Merino
Features
The Descent Caption Competition
We've a top-of-the-range Lucido light to give away. Fancy a new, seven-LED headlight complete with variable output? You'll have to enter the latest Descent Caption Competition.
The Far Side of Gaping Gill
'I kit up; always the same order, like a ritual. Is it for luck, a safety routine, or just habit? I don't know, but with each bit of gear I retreat more into myself ... My head is pushed underwater and I can hear the grating of the torches on my head against the roof. The bedding is very low and wide - almost too low
- and I thrutch forwards, pressed between roof and floor.' With radio-location pinpointing problem areas in the survey, it's off to the sewer-like basement of Gaping Gill.
Images from the Past
There are three questions that need some answers in this month's Images from the Past. Can you help with dates, names or faces?
The Future is not Orange
LED lights are all the rage: everyone, but everyone seems to want one. But are they as good as the manufacturers make out; what are the myths and realities of this new technology - what should you know before you buy?
Into Hidden Bristol
Hidden Earth 2000, the annual caving conference, appeared to be doomed in the face of travel difficulties. Cavers are, in the end, always versatile and it proved a well-attended, excellent event. Here is the full report on every lecture, recording the year's successes and failures in British caving's calendar.
Would I Mind Doing it Again?
How would it feel if you had a trip into your favourite cave, resurveying an area to bring the records up to date, and found open passage that wasn't on your list? Open passage to push, only an hour from an entrance into Poulnagollum, Ireland's longest cave ...
Looking Forward
For the past twenty-odd years and more, cavers have talked about forming a new national body. Once there was the BSA and CRG; now the NCA and BCRA and the key players. Following an independent report on the future of British caving, where is it heading and what needs to be done?
The Last Remnants
Charcoal drawings have been found in caves in Kalimantan, the last remnants of a lost civilisation. Eight expeditions later, Rolex aids their exploration.
