Cherry Tree Hole - Far North - Solo

Icy roads and a bitter gale almost forced me to reconsider doing this one. I'd foolishly brought very little warm gear for the overland trip to and fro, but decided I would just have to suffer.

Treading Water

Some of us will forever be governed by the sensations we have long sought, collected and experienced throughout our lives. Some of these sensations are so addictive that we never break free of the need to continually pursue them. Because without such stimulus life becomes a listless struggle, just merely existing.

For a while now I have felt the frustration that comes with not pushing myself enough, or more the fact I am not pursuing the one activity that I feel challenges me.

Notes on Session

I think it was sometime in 2013 when I first started this Blog. I was getting pretty lazy with my journals at the time and felt it was time I made more of an effort to document my stuff online. No sooner had I registered for the blog I lost interest or more just couldn't be arsed with it.

Season in the Abyss

Re-edited August 2018 by the author, with only a few of the additions left out from the original. I was never happy with how cluttered this one felt, and I've been meaning to get round to sorting it for a long time. I never was any good at the editing/proofreading side of things, but feel it now reads a little better. Some of this article makes me cringe, but most of it is still right on. I'm a very different person now to the one who wrote this fact, and felt the need to preserve that mindset, so haven't tampered with it in that way. Of the few bits added, all came from my original notes for the piece.

One thing I really only touched on in this article, was how lost I'd felt over the previous five years, especially towards Caving and other outdoor activities. Aspects of my old self and the drive I once had were beginning to return during this period. Something I'd concluded was lost forever. These outings were very instrumental in what followed over the next few years. So much so they may never of happened.  

Posted - February 2015 - on Ukcaving.com. The article was heavily censored and still is, especially when taking my original vision for the piece in to consideration, it would have upset a few people for sure....

Losing myself (with Sid) in Langstrothdale

I still remember how I really enjoyed writing this piece. I also remember cursing myself at the time for not writing a lot more about my experiences in the past than I did. Originally posted on UKCaving Feb 2014.

Southerscales Pot through trip: The Logistics of Caving with Diving

Originally posted on Ukcaving.com October 2012. All I have to say about this piece is; it still does a great job of reminding me how good a day that was. The period that followed this day was another one of those significant junctures in my life, where with hindsight I appeared to have made the wrong decision. Fortunately things did eventually come right and I have recently managed to redeem the foolish decision I made some weeks after this.

Return of the Wet Rubber Fetish

This article was originally posted on ukcaving.com in November of 2011. I have made some corrections to this piece, so it does differ slightly from the original.

King Pot

This was the first article i wrote after returning from London during the summer of 2010 it was originally posted on Ukcaving.com in August of that year.

One More Hit

A Ukcaving.com piece from May of 2008. I don't know why I've kept hold of this one, not a great piece, but it did precede what turned out to be a great year. It was also an early attempt to articulate my motives behind these kind of trips...

The Best Medicine or Maybe Not (Old Mossdale Caverns trip report)

Another old article posted on Ukcaving in 2007. This was one of my first online trip reports. The spelling, punctuation and layout of the original version of this article was so terrible that I've made some corrections to the version below. 

The subject of Mossdale Caverns online when I originally posted this piece, was a delicate and controversial one. Most people were against anyone visiting the place. Those with the most averse opinion tended to be those who'd never visited the cave. 
But even then, I came to the conclusion that most of those people were just jealous and pissed off with someone who thought nothing of soloing hard caves making a name for himself, by apparently blowing his own trumpet online. 
I have since those early days tended to speak my mind uncensored, however unpalatable, to those who consider themselves spokespeople for the caving community....