YCC Blog
Dan-yr-Ogof Far North
Matt Ewles | 27 May 2025
Dan-yr-Ogof - An epic adventure to The Far North Dan-yr-Ogof has been a fairly regular adventure for YCC members, courtesy of our own Warden (Gary) and other wardens who are friends of the club. However, all trips so far have focused on the round trip. There have been a few excursions...
Brown Hill Pot
Matt Ewles | 22 April 2024
This year is my 20th year as a caver in the north of England, my earliest trip choices being inspired by Selected Caves. In all that time, Brown Hill Pot has always slipped me by, perhaps by choice, owing to its challenging reputation. I’m not really a fan of ‘harder’ caves,...
Sunny Bank Holiday in Wales
Matt Ewles | 5 June 2023
We were delighted to have managed to get a rare bank holiday booking of one of our favourite caving huts, Whitewalls, in South Wales for the end of May, and with the forecast looking amazing I was really excited for a top-notch weekend. A typically late Friday night arrival still allowed...
Avoiding the January Blues in Rift Pot
Tash Durham | 16 January 2023
It has been a rather damp start to 2023 in the Dales so trip options were limited if you didn't want to drown. Thankfully, Rift Pot was available so we booked the cave through the truly wonderful CNCC booking system. Hurrah for not turning up behind a queue of other groups! We set...
North Wales Slate Mines 2022
Matt Ewles | 5 December 2022
December already, how time flies! It wouldn’t be the start of Christmas without our annual adventure down to North Wales, staying, for the 12th year, at the excellent Clogwyn Mountaineering Club hut for mountains and slate mines. Myself, Gary, Chuck, Philip and Mark, and importantly, a polypin of Old Legover from Daleside...
Long Churn beginners trip. 10th October 2022
Conor Morrison | 11 October 2022
With the kind loan of some personal kit from Matt and Gary and tackle from the YCC gear store my friend Alice and I were able to take 4 (semi) willing new cavers (Freya, Emily, Eloise and Jake) on a very enjoyable trip through Long Churn and down the Dolly Tubs pitch to enjoy the...
Covid Extensions surveying complete!
Matt Ewles | 1 September 2022
Back in 2020 we were lucky enough to break through the third sump of Jenga and explore about 1km of new cave; The Covid Extensions. This is all covered in our third journal, however, that year we failed to get surveying complete before the winter floods pushed us out of the...
Mountaineering in North Wales
Matt Ewles | 1 September 2022
For over 10 years, YCC has been visiting the Clogwyn Mountaineering Club hut in North Wales for our annual December slate mine event. This has always proved to be one of out most popular meets of the year and long may that continue. However, each year, we peer up at...
Live streamed talk: Caving in the North York Moors
Gary Douthwaite | 27 January 2021
With lockdown boredom well and truly setting in, we have decided to entertain ourselves by putting on a live-streamed caving talk this Sunday. This hour-long talk will provide a pictorial tour of all aspects of caving in the North York Moors, including the Windypits and the evolution of the North York...
Bridge Cave. Ystradfellte. 1st Jan 2021
Jerry Gibbs | 1 January 2021
So, the day started off okay, I had planned ahead and charged the lights, Tegs had located our caving kit from the many piles of boxes (still piled up some six months after we moved) then I loaded the car. (It later transpired that this was the limits of my...
Christmas Caving - Marble Steps Pot
Matt Ewles | 30 December 2020
Christmas 2020 is certainly a difficult one and my usual plan of visiting parents was off. Still, there was little point in sitting around being miserable about this. Therefore, Gary and I decided that a Christmas caving trip should be on the cards to cheer us up and initially a trip...
Post Lockdown Lost Johns' Cave
Matt Ewles | 20 December 2020
With lockdown over, it was time for some caving again. It’s been months since my last proper northern pothole, and I was dead excited about this. The planned trip was Lost Johns’ to Notts II, and we had two groups raring to make an exchange. As the week progressed, the forecast...
Shiny new YCC website
Matt Ewles | 24 November 2020
Some of us have had more time on our hands this year. We’re pleased to say that our Webmaster, Gary, has spent his time overhauling the York Caving Club website. As well as being packed with all the latest technological stuff including a super-modern photo gallery and being mobile-device compatible, the...
Curtain Pot
Matt Ewles | 23 July 2020
This pothole on Fountains Fell only really came to the attention of the caving community under the most tragic of circumstances last year, involving an all-night effort to rescue one the diggers, which sadly resulted in a fatality. Some of the rescuers reported what an excellent cave it was, albeit...
Croesor Rhosydd
Matt Ewles | 13 December 2018
Croesor Rhosydd through trip – A slate mine underground adventure. I have done this trip several times now and now feel the need to update my description last edited in 2011 to reflect some changes to the state of this mine as of December 2018. This description should prove useful to...
Ogof Craig-a-Ffynnon
Matt Ewles | 27 August 2018
Having been caving in South Wales for 14 years on regular occasions, I am embarrased to say that I have only ever considered Craig-A-Ffynnon (CAF) to be a Sunday bimble to Hall of the Mountain King. Beyond there however if a huge amount more cave leading to the Promised Land. I...
Sleets Gill
Matt Ewles | 10 August 2018
Sleets Gill has an ominous reputation. A high profile rescue raised caver awareness of how very flood prone this place is, often flooding completely days after heavy rain has long since passed over. It nonetheless offers the rarity of a splendid and lengthy adventure in Yorkshire without a single item of...
Ogof Draenen to Big Country
Matt Ewles | 1 February 2018
After a five hour trip from OFD1 to Top entrance the day before to ‘warm us up’, we were in the mood today for a proper adventure into the magnificent Ogof Draenen. I have previously done the round trip, been to the Dogleg Series, The Geryon, and War of the...
Boxhead Pot - It's a Cracker
Mark S Sims | 24 January 2018
On the drive over to the Dales I stated my prediction to Tash that there was no way the folks staying at the NPC would be ready to go when we arrived at 9:45 - she’d have loads of time for a cup of tea and breakfast. Sure enough when...
Croesor Rhosydd Through trip
Gary Douthwaite | 4 December 2017
The most fun you can have underground with your kit on! I was so glad to see the trip is still possible and not much has changed apart from some rigging issues which have been temporarily sorted to make the trip possible. The rope on the first pitch is pretty knackered but...