Issue 163 - December/January 2001/02
......(Click cover for full view).
Cover: An entrance in Dashiwei doline and lotus flower formations, Leye River System, China.
Photographs by James Alker
Features
Gear Review: Blizzard Pack
Cavers have a rough-and-ready approach to survival bags, normally based on a poly bag inside a tackle sack, if that. The Blizzard Pack might change your mind.
The Buxton Diamonds
With the Hidden Earth conference making full use of Buxton’s show-cave, Poole’s Cavern, it seemed an appropriate time to present this moral tale of caving in the 1600s.
Heading into Hensler’s
The Born Again Losers are on the move, this time discovering the delights of Hensler’s Pot while other cavers were intent on enjoying the more spacious Gaping Gill. Read how they made out – and how Monica went down on them!
Ah, There’s the Rub
It’s not often that a small team can make not one but a series of major discoveries in a far-flung land, but three cavers have done just that, finding a massive pitch and immense chamber. Mind you, some of their rigging techniques were ... original!
Images from the Past
Most queries concern images about which little is known; this month the emphasis is on the person and what else Emily Lloyd might have drawn underground during the 19th century.
The Descent Caption Competition
A new Descent Caption Competition begins this month, with four prizes to be won. If you fancy an LED headlight, it’s time to take a look at how cavers of yesteryear tackled a pitch.
Hidden in the Peak
The annual National Caving Conference always offers cavers a good time. This year’s was exceptional with double the numbers expected. We report on every lecture, every event ...
It’s a Republican Plot
How many times have you heard diggers cry, ‘It’ll only take five minutes to clear these boulders’? In this case, though it took longer, there was a just reward with another extension to Ogof Draenen.
