Birmingham City Student Caving Club

About Birmingham City Student Caving Club

We are Birmingham City University Caving Society, and we welcome anyone from beginner to expert!

What is caving?

Caving is a cooperative non-competitive sport. We are a group of people who explore the underground. Scrambling over boulders, splashing through stream ways, climbing up walls, descending/ascending rope and crawling through passages to discover a new world! This makes caving a challenging but rewarding sports that will give you friends for life and experiences you will never forget!

Equipment and training

To join us you do not need any equipment or experience, just a sense of adventure! The club is well equipped; with wellies, over suits, helmets, lights and SRT kits. The club also has rope and metal work (Carabiners and maillons). This allows people to cave practically and safely. In our training sessions we’ll cover the basics of safe rope ascent and descent, general caving advice and even teach you how to rig up ropes for cave exploration. These sessions are quite informal so come to learn or just to hang out. The first few training sessions of the year do not require membership to attend so feel free to show up and say hello!

Our training sessions are held at Redpoint climbing centre. These sessions teach members SRT (Single Rope Technique). This is used to go up and down caves which is needed for some of the more advanced caving we do on trips away. We run regular day and weekend trips across the UK from South Wales and Mendips up to the Yorkshire Dales.

Please keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram for updates

Trips

All trips will be announced on Instagram and Facebook. There will be a mix of day trips and weekend trips. Day trips usually start relatively early and finish in a pub or a curry house. Weekend trips contain plenty of caving, caving games and expanding your caving knowledge. There is no pressure to cave on both days, people are more than welcome to do something else such as walking or climbing.

What do you need to bring? Please have a look at the document which lists everything you need: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18BYRtFNOFi3Q0idWw03JNilBc8Z8VRhtRcFGoWfHCFQ/edit?usp=sharing 

Trip dates for 2023/2024 so far!

22nd to 24th September Shepton Mallet hut Freshers trip

6th to 8th October SWCC South Wales

20th to 22nd October Bradford pothole club SRT training with Manchester caving

3rd to 5th November TSG Castleton Bonfire night with Bangor caving

Dates TBC November CHECC in Hope

15th to 17th December Orpheus hut Christmas weekend with Manchester caving

All weekend trips are currently £40.00 without kit hire and £45.00 with kit hire which is broken down into light, SRT kit, helmet, oversuit and wellies. Both prices include food, transport and accommodation.

If you have an area or club you want to go to or cave with please let us know

Membership fees

For students membership is £28 per year

The membership includes insurance which is done through the BCA (British caving association).The membership fee contributes to gear and safety training so we can maintain the highest standards. BCA website: https://british-caving.org.uk/ 

You can join the society at any time in the academic year, and all annual memberships will expire on 31st August. 

Constitution

Have a look at our clubs constitution: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LkmilsxHGfwZRNvZG0GTMT8TbY-M0dJACd-bPs1Fvd0/edit?usp=sharing