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20/12/2007 -
Improving access through a
choke in Hungerhill Swallet
Eldon members have
been
working to improve access through the choke at the top of the 12m rift
climb after the Bag o' Worms in Hungerhill Swallet. The squeeze under
poised boulders into the chamber above has been removed and some
shoring done. Despite the work there's still a good deal of loose rock
here. Jules Barrett.
15/12/2007 - Contact Details
If anyone's contact
details
(postal address, email address, phone number) have changed please make
sure you let the Secretary know so that we
can make sure that you get club information/newsletters etc. A club
contact/address list will go out with the next newsletter. Stik.
04/11/2007 -
Eldon subs for 2008
It's important that
everyone pays their subs by 6th
December 2007 (the date of the next Eldon monthly meeting) at the
latest
otherwise you won't be insured from January 2008.
Full Member: £24.00 (Eldon subs) + £16.00 (insurance) =
£40.00
Aspirant Member: £12.00 (Eldon subs) + £16.00 (insurance) =
£28.00
Non-caving Full Subscriber: £12.00 (Eldon subs) = £12.00
Please bring your cheque
book or some
cash along to the meeting in December! Stik.
04/11/2007 - Eldon Christmas pub
crawl - Buxton
The Eldon Christmas
pub
crawl will be held on
Saturday 22nd December 2007 in Buxton. For details contact the Social
Secretary. Jase Rider.
26/10/2007 -
Eldon Vercors 2008 Expedition
An Eldon expedition
to the
Vercors is being planned
for next summer to coincide with the Vercors 2008 European Conference
of
Speleology. The dates are Saturday 16th to Saturday 30th August 2008
and more
information is available [here]. Jules
Barrett.
22/10/2007 -
Bradwell Dale Cave Conservation Monitoring
Dave Webb (DCA
Conservation
Officer) is looking for
someone to co-ordinate cave conservation monitoring in Bradwell Dale.
Apart from
taking a general interest in the conservation of the Bradwell Dale
caves this
will involve:
- encouraging cavers
to
fill in cave conservation monitoring forms for the Bradwell Dale caves
- supplying Bradwell
Dale
information to the SSSI Cave Monitoring website
- attending a couple
of
meetings a year in Bakewell to let Natural England know what's going on
in the Bradwell area
If anyone would like
to take
this on please let
me know and I'll send over Dave's contact details. Jules Barrett.
30/09/2007 -
Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation Induction Course
Bryan Woodall has
asked me
to see if there is any
interest in DCRO amongst club members. Anyone interested in getting
involved
should come to the induction course being held at the Whitehall Centre
on
Saturday 10th November 2007 (meet at 9:30 a.m.). The day is a good
chance to see
how DCRO operates, have a play with some of the equipment and meet team
members.
You have to attend one of these Whitehall days before being accepted
onto the
team so even if you're only thinking of joining, it's probably worth
coming
along otherwise you'll have to wait another year to get involved. Bring
warm and
waterproof clothing for hanging in trees and an SRT kit. Jules
Barrett.
26/09/2007
- Eldon
50th Anniversary Celebrations - Giants Hole Trip
Pete Pollard is
organising
a club Giants Hole trip
for Sunday 21st October to celebrate 50 years of the EPC. The intention
is to
get regular, occasional and armchair cavers out for a good days caving
followed
by drinking in the Wanted Inn. More information is available [here]. Jase Rider.
19/09/2007
- SRT
Notes
Whilst doing some SRT
training recently I've put
together some illustrated SRT notes which can be made available to
future Eldon
trainees. They cover the basics of SRT progression (equipment setup,
traversing,
up, down, changeovers, rebelays, deviations and knot passing) and a
draft
version can be found at http://www.eldon.org.uk/cavertraining.html.
Just click on the file named srt.pdf. You need a password which can be
found [here]
if you have access to EPC Private on ukcaving.com. If not, just send me
an email
and I'll send the password over. I'll be using them as the basis for
any
training for new members so am keen to get views from as many people as
possible; a lot of you have been swinging around on rope underground
longer than
I have! I know everyone's busy but if you get chance to have a look and
perhaps
suggest changes/additions/tips that would be great. Please send your
comments to
me before the end of October 07 when I'm going to have some time to
finalise
them. Jules Barrett.
03/09/2007
- Eldon
Library
Now that a more
permanent
home has been found for
the Eldon library Dan Hibberts is looking for volunteers to help sort
and record
the journals etc. Please get in touch with Dan
Hibberts if you are able to help. Jules Barrett.
21/08/2007
- Eldon
Tackle Store
First steps have been
taken
towards building a small
Eldon tackle store in the Hope Valley. This will be a place to store
digging
materials etc. and it is expected that work will be finished soon.
Contact The
Tackle Master for details. Jules Barrett.
21/08/2007
- Meets
list 07/08
Pete Pollard is
currently
putting together the meets
list for 07/08 and is keen to get ideas about caves throughout the UK
that
people would like to visit as a club trip. We had a good chat in France
and drew
up a list of 12 or so spread across all four major caving regions but
if anyone
else has suggestions please contact The Meets
Secretary.
Similarly, if anyone has a suggestion for the 2008 Eldon expedition
please let
Pete know. Jules Barrett.
20/08/2007
-
Successful Eldon expedition to the Pyrenees Atlantiques for the PSM
Traverse
The summer 2007 trip
to the
Pyrenees for the PSM
Traverse went very well with a sociable team of twelve traversing from
the
Gouffre du Beffroi (SC3) entrance to the EDF tunnel. There's an
expedition
report [here].
Jules
Barrett.
06/08/2007
- New
project - Buxton Water Aven, Peak Cavern
After a certain
amount of
sitting on the fence I've
decided to have a proper go at the top of Buxton Water Aven. In fact
the aim is
to progress a climb begun by Mark Wright up the steep gully/rift at the
north
west end of the aven. Mark's ropes are still in there and I'll be
making use of
those in the first instance before (hopefully) pushing on up. The main
issue
with the climb is that the rope goes over some very loose rock that
makes up the
bottom of the gully and if this falls it falls right into the sump
pool. First
job will be to organise somewhere safe to stash dive gear whilst
working. Second
job will be to try to secure the exit in case something does get
knocked down
and finally climbing the aven itself. Jim Lister will be trying to find
a little
time away from Doom's Retreat to assist. See the Current
Projects page for more information. Jules
Barrett.
02/08/2007
-
Congratulations Jim and Sadie
Jim and Sadie have
had
another young 'un; so Jim's
now a dad of two. Congratulations to you both! Jules
Barrett.
21/07/2007
-
Photo-scanning day
Following the Eldon
50th
celebrations a
photo-scanning day was held at Nick Williams' place where all the old
photos
made available by various members and ex-members were scanned. This
means that
the originals can now be returned to their owners and we will have
copies for
the 60th and subsequent celebrations. The day went very well and with
three
computers and scanners going we were finished by early afternoon. Many
thanks to
Nick for use of his premises. Jules
Barrett.
26/06/2007 - PSM
pre-trip meeting
The main meeting
before this August's PSM trip will be held before the next club meeting
at 8:00 pm on Thursday 5th July 2007 in the White Lion, Buxton. Please
bring your £30.00 for the permit if you haven't already paid. Pete
Pollard.
26/06/2007 - Photos wanted for new edition of
'Caves of the Peak District'
Work on the new
edition of Caves of the Peak District has reached the stage where
photographs are needed. If you have photos that you think are worth
including please contact me at peakland@talktalk.net
with details of what you have etc. Will probably plan an evening in a
Derbyshire pub to have a look through them and choose the best. They
don't all have to be serious either! Iain Barker.
01/06/2007 - "Not for the Faint Hearted" by
Mike Cooper
Mike Cooper has
published a book titled "Not for the Faint Hearted" which should be of
interest. It's a guidebook to 50 'harder' Yorkshire potholes covering
famous nasties like Brown Hill Pot, Quaking Pot and Mossdale Caverns. I
used the guidebook for a short trip to Yorkshire and easily found and
followed the descriptions through Trapdoor Pot and Grange Rigg Pot.
There really are some tremendous and demanding trips in here and many
are well off the beaten track. Many of the caves combine tight sections
with good sized SRT pitches and P-bolts are scarce. Take your 8mm
bolts, hangers and pretend you're in France! It's an impressive looking
hardback and the layout is such that it photocopies well. All profits
go to cave conservation. Available from caving shops including Hitch
and Hike and priced around £20.00. Jules Barrett
01/06/2007 - Eldon SRT rescues/problem solving
day
An SRT
Rescues/Problem Solving day will be held on Saturday 28th July 2007
at Pindale Farm near Hope. The day is open to all members and will be a
good refresher prior to the PSM trip. Pindale Farm have kindly offered
us free use of their training facilities so it's not going to cost
anything. Meet at 10:00 a.m. and we plan to be in the pub by 5:00 p.m.
Details of venue here: http://www.pindale.fsbusiness.co.uk/
Please bring:
- SRT kit and any
slings/pulleys/spare krabs etc. that you'd normally have with you
- helmet
- lunch
It would be useful to
have an idea of numbers beforehand so please let Jules Barrett know if you are coming along.
12/05/2007 - 2007
Hidden Earth venue and dates
announced
The annual caving event
Hidden Earth will this year be held 21 -23 September at Tewkesbury
School, Gloucestershire. This is in easy reach of S. Wales, Forest of
Dean and Mendip. An Eldon contingent will be attending. More
information on the Hidden Earth website [here] and event flyer [here].
11/05/2007 - Eldon 50th Anniversary Newsletter
Sam Townsend is currently
compiling the EPC 50th Anniversary
Newsletter. Please
send articles, trip reports etc. to Sam by the end of May 2007.
Sad loss of Peter Revell
The club is mourning the
passing of Peter Revell, owner of Bagshawe Cavern, who's generous
support has made EPC exploration of Bagshawe Cavern possible over many
years. Peter was a kind man with a great enthusiasm for caves and
caving. Our deepest sympathies go to his family and friends.
09/01/2007 - 50th Anniversary Dinner + Stomp
The 50th Anniversary
dinner will take place on Saturday 21st April 2007
at The Pavillion Gardens, Buxton.
For further information or to reserve tickets please contact Jase Rider (Telephone
07855886521). The AGM will take place on the afternoon of the 21st at
The White Lion, Spring Gardens, Buxton.
15/12/2006 - Slop Moll restoration work.
Eldon members have been
helping to rebuild a collapsed wall on the north side
of Slop Moll near to the entrance to Peak Cavern. There was some
concern that
the path used by visitors to the cave was being undermined. John Taylor
(EPC)
led the project and worked alongside members of the Eldon, TSG, SUSS
and
Yorkshire's BPC. The Peak Cavern management are very pleased with the
outcome
and hopefully it will be some years before this particular wall needs
attention.
AGM and Stomp 2006
This years AGM will take
place on Saturday 22nd April starting at
1.30pm at The White Lion, Spring Gardens, Buxton.
The Stomp, as last year, will be held at Sterndale Moor Club, A515 Nr
Buxton. Entertainment will be provided by the up and coming 'Freshwater
Only'.
Camping available in adjoining field, Free Car Parking. Tickets
£5 on the door. 8.00pm 'till late.
12/12/2005 - Bagshawe Cavern steps re-built by EPC team
A team of EPC cavers have
re-built the rotten wooden steps leading down the stope into Bagshawe
Cavern. A number of weekend days were spent concreting, sawing,
drilling and bolting and access to the Cavern is now much better.
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