Descent (161)
August 2001
Prospecting Watch Hill
If you study the map of the Upper Eden Valley in Cumbria, you can hardly miss a huge area where roads and tracks have not penetrated the land. Here, far from acknowledged caving country, Steve Warren goes prospecting.
The Great Traverse of China
The statistics are impressive: a height drop of 930m, 11km of canyoning and 7km of cave involving 3.5km of swimming, 35 pitches and endless rope traverses. This is not a journey for the faint-hearted!
Our Cave and Karst Inheritance
Caves - magical places which deserve conserving for the generations to come. Is World Heritage status the ultimate recognition of the importance of caves and karst?
Images from the Past
The feedback continues - more memorials, and an underground grave.
The Descent Caption Competition
You just have time to send in your winning entry - a wetsuit for your words, my friend!
Tunnel Rats: 2, Cavers: 0
Joe Duxbury compares two works of fiction, seeking public attitudes to the underground.
A Pioneer Potholer
Club cavers have always been the lifeblood of British caving. Edgar Smith worked on ladder design when this meant looking at ways of attaching wooden rungs to cotton rope.
Caving's Continued Recovery
Cavers are desperate for countryside access to return to normality, let alone the businesses that depend on their trade. With seemingly random outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease still appearing, while at the same time footpaths reopen, how does caving stand?
A Great Thloo Trip
A one-eyed caver who claims he only requires a weak LED headlight, and a human pipe-cleaner pushed into unknown passages. Alan Jeffreys takes a look at the latest caving expedition to India's Meghalaya.
Gear Review: First Choice Expedition Foods
Apart from the attractions of easily carried, ready-prepared food, here is a self-contained chemical heater.
Cover: Judith Calford in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu.Photo: Chris Howes
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