Editorial
Last Wednesday saw OUCC's brief yearly flirtation with democracy at the
AGM. For those of you who were absent, just to say that nothing of great
import occurred, though we did agree to buy some new (NiCad) lights, and
to reintroduce the direct charging system again instead of the so-called
honesty box for non-club trips (the honest box seems to be self-emptying).
So, don't forget to sign on the book out sheets if you use club gear, and
you'll get charged 50p for the event. We did, however, elect a new committee,
so welcome to them, and thanks to all those outgoing officers who have
kept us above water (well) over the last year. There were two contested
posts: Loris, and Meets 3ecretary (Urs had to stand against herself, but
luckily she won). Oh, and the other news is that members of last year's
expedition are to be invited to pay a E10 bale-out to this year's expedition,
needed because of an apparent accounting cock-up on last year's expedition
(well I never).
Sherry has a proposal about electronic distribution of some of OUCC's
surveys and descriptions. Read it below, and why not comment back to DTT
in the following weeks.
Me and my ceiling tiles now live at 31 Wellington Street, Jericho. 511849.
Events
Ceilidh: This has been postponed until next term, or even cancelled.
Next Wednesday: Celia Myers will be giving a talk on bats. 9pm St.
Hugh's' bar.
The New Team
| President: |
Steve Roberts |
| Chair |
Pauline Rigby |
| Secretary |
Will Jeremy |
| Meets Secretary: |
Urs Mead |
| Inedible Equipment: |
James Hooper |
| Treasurer: |
John Pybus |
| Lamppost: |
Chris Vernon |
| Van: |
Sarah Thingumy (sorry!) |
| Loris: |
Gavin Lowe |
Expedition Update
Expedition Report
The 1993 report is now ready; this beautifully bound tome is yours
for the minor sum of £2.50. It includes a beautiful A3 survey of
Sistema Sierra Forcada, a full account of exploration, plus many other
witty, incisive and useful articles pertaining to last years expedition.
Jim will be along this evening with a few copies so grab them while they're
hot.
Sponsors
Over the years we've come to rely on a fairly small group of sponsors,
this particularly applies to food sponsorship. Now since that nice Mr Major
and his friend Mr Clarke tell us that the recession is over (Green Shoots!
Green Shoots!) The time is ripe to try and expand the number of sponsors.
The process of acquiring sponsors is fairly simple; you identify a supplier
who produces or distributes some goody you simply need, you write to them,
telling them how much you like their product, how useful it will be for
expedition use, send this off with a snazzy looking prospectus and wait
and see.
So all we need to do now is identify possible suppliers, this is where
YOU come in. Can you think of any tasty/useful stuff that would be good
on expedition, try to be a little bit practical here, everything has to
be carried up the mountain, and survive reasonably well over a very wide
range of temperatures and humidity for several weeks. Got some ideas? Well
find the address of the company and get in touch with Rob (food) or Gavin
(equipment) and they will help sort out the details.
Money
Ghar Parau/Sports Council are going to give us E250 this year. Considering
the huge number of expeditions underway this year I think we have done
quite well.
Captain Jim
Getting Wrecked With Harry
Canyoning down under
Those members of OUCC a little longer in the tooth will remember Harry
(let's face it: how could you forget him!), who departed for sunnier climbs
down under about three years ago. Harry suggested we spend Xmas & New
Year with him and Gay getting gripped and wrecked in various ways in the
Blue Mountains (this was a couple of weeks before they got burnt to cinders).
We spent a couple of days climbing, me and Mark being crap and getting
gripped on 14's, Harry and Gay doing tough stuff on 19's and 20's. Harry
then decided we should do some climbing together - the (large) number of
people who've been sandbagged by Harry went up by two: Mark got desperately
pumped getting up one 'easy' climb, and I failed to get up the other 'easy'
climb at all. Fortunately after that it was time to go canyoning - something
we felt more at home with since it is like caving with the roof taken off.
We did Claustral Canyon; it was quite an epic just finding it! After missing
the 'obvious' path to the right and blundering about in the bush getting
more and more grumpy, we eventually found our way into Claustral.
Initially the canyon is a walk through the strip of rain forest in the
valley bottom. It was really beautiful, tree ferns grew all around, lizards
basked on rocks...really Jurassic man! Soon the canyon deepened and three
20m pitches dropped us into the canyon proper. Really tall and steep sided
with ferns clinging to wet walls and just a thin strip of sky at the top.
There were some long swims through freezing water, the coldest I've ever
been in Australia, and then the canyon opened out and we were walking and
clambering over huge boulders that made us feel really small. Eventually
we had to leave the canyon via a break in the canyon wall. Climbing out
the exit was far more gripping than the canyon itself, especially in sopping
wet boots. Once out the top we headed back to the cars. Mission accomplished:
We were totally wrecked. I'm getting really keen on this canyoning thing!
For those of you wondering, Harry and Gay escaped all the Bushfire nastiness
(although the flames came within 6km of Harry's work).
Sherry Mayo
From Gerhard
Dear All, My new e-mail address is <nikl@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de>
Despite administrators' claims to the contrary, mail sent to my old address
<G.Niklasch@ mathematik.tu-muenchen.d400.de> seems NOT to be redirected
to the new one. If you have been trying in vain to reach me between mid
January and now, please try again using the new address. Thank you. Gerhard
Niklasch
From Sherry Mayo
As those of you that subscribe to the caversnet may know an anonymous ftp
site for speleology has just been set up. This is a place where you can
do an ftp login and download caving info. At the moment there is only a
little stuff at the site as it has only been in existence a few weeks,
but the site managers are after contributions. I suggested that asking
people to contribute surveys of caves they have explored would be a good
idea along with a little info about the caves and caving region. They have
asked me if I could contribute any surveys and info. I was thinking of
uploading some of the OUCC surveys of Picos caves along with a little info
about the club and about the Picos expeditions, and references to where
you could find more detailed info (i.e. Procs 11,12 and Proc.13). Of course
I wouldn't do this if anyone in the Club had serious objections. The only
possible objection I could think of was that this may in some way detract
from people buying the Proc. I have to say that I think this is pretty
unlikely as the info on the FTP site will be limited and the surveys of
scanned quality (and it is just as likely it will encourage people to get
a Proc if they are that interested in the stuff). Its also worth bearing
in mind that most of the info I was thinking of including will probably
be in the next edition of "Great Caves of the World" whenever it comes
out. Personally I'm all for spreading our fame as a well'ard caving club
as far and wide as possible Anyway let me know what you think and you've
got any objections.
Sherry Mayo