CSS Activities 2019

CLUB EVENTS AND MEET REPORTS 2019

CHELSEA SPELÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY Caving in Wales, the South of England, and beyond

Jan 25-27: Whitewalls with Annual Dinner and AGM Yet again the food at The Bear was excellent, and this year our speaker was Tom Foord who gave a really good presentation about the recent breakthrough in the Dachstein. Caving trips included Tractor Tracks and Big Bang Pitch with capes in Draenen, and the Annual Bat Count and Maytime in Aggy. The AGM took place on Sunday.

Feb 22-24: “Off the Beaten Track” Weekend The objective of this weekend was to go caving somewhere unusual or rarely visited. We opted for Pom Pom Passage in the Fault Aven Series of OFD as none of us had ever been there before, which turned out to be a really interesting and varied trip. We had a Rum-based drinks theme Saturday night, and more work took place on the ODSS Sunday.

March 29-31: Mendip Our base for the weekend was the BEC hut The Belfry, very convenient for food and beer at The Hunters’ Lodge. Lots of caving trips took place including Wookey Hole on Friday (pictured), Rhino Rift and Tynings Barrow Swallet on Saturday, and Swildon’s Hole and Shatter Cave on Sunday.

April 26-28: ODSS Working Weekend The purpose of this working weekend was to get the scaffolding erected ready for the big ODSS re-roofing week, and this objective and more was completed over a very productive couple of days. Other tasks undertaken include removing the old water tank and taking down the chimney.

May 24-June 2: ODSS Roofing Week The working week was incredibly productive and great deal was achieved by the 17 members that helped out over the 10 days spent in demolishing then reconstructing the roof of the Old Daren Sunday School.

June 28-30: Whitewalls Summer BBQ A fun packed weekend of sunshine, caving, barbeque and beer, with trips to Craig a Ffynnon, Agen Allwedd and Daren Cilau. There was also further progress on the ODSS roof, with one side now fully tiled.

July 26-28: Mines of Mid- Wales A camping and mine exploring weekend, in the impressive Devils Bridge area of Mid-Wales. Two mines were visited on Saturday, Henfwlch and Camdwrbach, and a trip to Fawr Level in Cwmystwyth on Sunday.

Reports from the August-December club meets will appear here soon!