Lectures, Films & Workshops
The weekend is packed with lectures, with two or three parallel sessions running both days. Topics include new and old exploration from the UK and overseas as well as workshops covering cave science, research, technology and photography.
We wouldn't have an event if we didn't have lots of exciting lectures so we encourage all cavers to submit a talk, film or workshop. You can submit your abstract online any time throughout the year - even if you haven't been on that expedition yet!
Lecture secretary: Gary Douthwaite - lectures@hidden.earth
Giving a lecture? Please read our information for lecturers.
Submit sessions online
Thank you for all those submitting to Hidden Earth 2024.
Session submission for Hidden Earth 2025 will be open early in the year.
2024 Sessions
Hear's the sessions from Hidden Earth 2024. Sessions for the next conference will be shown here in the run-up. You can also look back at previous years.
Video Workshop - discussion about equipment and ideas -
Paul Taylor & Footleg
This session would provide a forum for discussion about equipment and ideas etc. We will bring some equipment along to show people as well as I hope getting ideas as to what people would like to see in the future.
Read moreBrazil: bloody big, bloody FANTASTIC
Martyn Farr
The next International Congress of Speleology will be held in Brazil during the summer of 2025. Not many Brits have travelled that way in years past but if you come and see this presentation you may well be thinking hard and seriously considering a visit. Brazil has fabulous caves and you will be enthralled by what you see. From...
Read moreScout Caving : Getting Involved
National Scout Active Support Unit
Ask just about any group of cavers, and you'll find that a fairly significant number were introduced to Caving through the Scouting movement. What many people don't realise is that you don't need to be a full time Scout Leader to help out. This session looks at how introducing our young people to Caving can benefit the sport as a...
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South Wales Round Up
Alex Stacey
With yet another year stuck under the Mynydd Llangulag (and the rest of South Wales), comes yet another year of digging by its prisoners. I come forth to share a whistle-stop tour of their glorious exploits, dives, breakthroughs and dits since the last South Wales round up.
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The Slaughter Catchment in the Forest of Dean, cave science and resurveying point to the existence of a Symonds Yat Master System
Mark Tringham
During the last 5 years a science and resurveying project has been underway in the Slaughter Catchment in the NW of the Forest of Dean. The Wet Sink - Slaughter Stream Cave (WS-SSC) has been shown to be exclusively formed in dolomite rather than limestone and to contain many geological and speleogenetic features of interest. The resurveying has extended the...
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Major Extensions in Redhouse Lane Swallet
Tim Nichols
Redhouse Lane Swallet was explored in 1991 after years of hard effort by Paul Taylor and the Redhouse Diggers. The 1.6km system discovered ended at a boulder choke at the end of an impressive streamway. Despite its potential, other projects intervened and the wet and small nature of the entrance series put many off returning. Until in 2022, inspired by...
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Visiting the Nymphs: religious outings to caves in Ancient Greece.
Lina Van 't Wout
The nymphs of ancient Greek myth are the daughters of rivers. They live along their tributaries, in remote woodland areas and caves. While the gods of Olympus commanded large-scale religious festivals, a visit to a cave sanctuary was more like a pleasant day trip, to be made alone or with family. A selection of archaeological finds and literary accounts brings...
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Cave Surveying Group Meet/AGM
Wookey
We're supposed to have an AGM. This is it. But really it's a chance to meet other surveyors and find out what people have been doing. Please come along if you are interested in any aspect of cave surveying or cave GIS.
Read moreMatienzo Caves 2024
Juan Corrin
Another successful year for cavers and cave divers in Matienzo, Cantabria. Over 6km of passages surveyed with the Four Valleys System growing by over two kilometres to maintain its 40th position in the World's Longest Caves list. Draughting digs, as usual, appear tantalizingly close to opening up and providing links between systems. Plenty to go at in 2025,...
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Junction Junkies - Connecting Draughting Hole and Missed Pot to make a 7.7 km system
Peter Talling
This talk will tell the ongoing story of maze cave exploration on the Stang above Arkengarthdale, with the recent connection(s) of Missed Pot into Draughting Hole. The Draughting-Missed system is now 7,698 m long if you include the mine (865 m) and fragments of cave off the mine (310 m). This makes it something like the 11th longest cave in...
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Cavers' Just a Minute
Peter Glanvill
Back for a 4th year a group of brave individuals compete to talk on a caving related topic for a minute without hesitation deviation and repetition. This year the audience members will be invited to choose the topic.
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Caving in the Abode of the Clouds, Meghalaya, NE India - February 2024
Simon James Brooks
The Caving in the Abode of the Clouds Project began exploration in NE India, a part of the world that was not considered at that time to be a major caving area, in 1992. February 2024 saw a remarkably large multi-national team of 30 in the Sakhain and Muallian areas of the Jaintia hills of Meghalaya. Over the the three...
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Peak District Update 2023-2024 (AKA Pissing around in the Peaks 2023 to 2024)
Simon James Brooks
The Peak District is a well established caving area with evidence of exploration arguably going back over 400 years. Yet despite this new discoveries continue to be made. Established digs are getting longer, or in some cases deeper, with old dig sites being revisited yielding commendable results. Caves are also been found in new outlying limestone area, previously thought to...
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The Remote Pico del Oro Plateau in North Peru: Searching for Caves in 2,800m Deep Limestone
Peter Talling
This talk tells the tale of an ambitious expedition in summer 2024 to a remote and very beautiful high altitude (3,200 to 3,650 m) plateau located in Northern Peru, which is perched on the very rim of the Amazon Basin. The Pico del Oro Plateau is underlain by ~2,800m of limestone, and has an extremely large (~30 m3) resurgence at...
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Gourgouthakas: A Resurvey
Rostam Namaghi
The expeditions that inspired my international caving were the SUSS Crete expeditions of the Noughties and Tens. This year I got the chance to go to the Lefka Ori on the Sternes International expedition and was put in charge of resurveying the Gourgouthakas cave system. Join me for a tale of scarred lunar landscapes, Greek hospitality and Topodroid fettling.
Read moreTry a Little Harder
Fleur Loveridge
To be fair, its not like the Ario Caves Project team haven't shown significant perseverance in the last few years as the tight and awkward Ario Reality was explored, and last year's team then made the much hoped for connection into Pozu Jultayu. This year camp was set up at the far upstream end of the system and...
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Cave Survey & Emerging Technologies
Jono Lester
Join us for a panel discussion on cave surveying and emerging technologies! We will cover everything from 2D and 3D surveying to new devices and communication systems. Our expert panelists will share their insights on the latest advancements and practical applications in the field. Don't miss this opportunity to learn about cutting-edge tools, techniques, and innovations that are transforming cave...
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Not another Mulu talk. Well ... errr .... yes
Colin Boothroyd
In November 2023 a group of roughtytoughty speleologists descended upon Gunong Api. The main thrust of exploration centred around the search for a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle, but there was also a lot of work done to make the enormous known passages bigger and some scientific work to determine which of bat or bird guano was yummiest.
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The best of Cave 84, 85 and 86
Colin Boothroyd
Red bolts. Standing up in caves. 30 foot extension in Wookey. And more... Back in the eighties the BCRA conference took itself very seriously. Which was why a satirical view of people and places in the caving news was a much needed oblique perspective within the caving calendar. The three original ´news programmes' have been edited down to one video. So, if...
Read moreBCA - Youth and Development Talk: Spelioholics Anonymous
Jono Lester
Join us for the Spelioholics Anonymous Talk and Chat, where we’ll reflect on our achievements over the past year, introduce the new workgroups and their members, and engage in discussions about our future plans and ideas. We’ll also emphasize and further develop our focus on safety, expeditions, workshops, group activities, and research skills!
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Cambridge University Caving Club - Totes Gebirge Expedition 2024
Jono Lester
This summer, cavers from the UK and around the world returned to Austria's Totes Gebirge region to explore the Loser Augst-Eck plateau, continuing decades of work by the Cambridge University Caving Club & friends. Over 5.5 weeks, 40 participants, including many students and first-time explorers, focused on Balkonhohle (Balkon) and Heimkommenhöhle (Homecoming). With two surface camps and underground camps in...
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The Mulu caves just keep on getting bigger… Biogenic subaerial dissolution by nitrification in the Caves of Gunung Mulu National Park, Borneo.
Andy Farrant
The Gunung Mulu National Park is well known for its spectacular caves including the >250 km long Clearwater Cave system. Recent expeditions have identified many unusual geomorphological features in the caves that don’t fit with traditional views of cave development. They suggest that the caves may continue to enlarge even after abandonment by the formative rivers. These unusual passage morphologies...
Read moreNorthern Round-Up
Frank Pearson
News from the North. Details of digs, dives and breakthroughs across northern England, along with conservation work and subterranean cultural events from the last year. Mountains, Caves and Streams without end!
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Where does all the water go? The Northern Caves & Karst Hydrology Database - what it is, what it can tell us and what you need to do to help
Phil Murphy
The Yorkshire Dales has a long history of water tracing experiments but the records of these endeavours, both professional and citizen science, are often not easy to find. The Northern Caves and Karst Hydrology Database is the result of a lockdown project to try and pull all the records into one easily accessible format ensuring the data are available to...
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Lava Caves in the Eastern Rift Valley in Kenya
Joerg Dreybrodt
The East African Rift Valley Lava cave expedition explored the volcano areas north of Baringo lake and the valley rim at the western edge near Eldoret in 2022. Large lava caves were found at Silali Volcano based on literature references. The caves consist of three segments and belong to one system of 1.8 km length. One segment contains a very...
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Cave Archaeology - communication and collaboration
Rick Peterson
Over the last two years I have been running a project examining the prehistoric archaeology of caves in the western Yorkshire Dales. Cave archaeology depends on cavers, local archaeologists, professional and academic archaeologists, and conservation bodies like the National Parks and Natural England all working together. There have been some excellent initiatives over the years by the BCRA and others...
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Drawing Underground
Robin Gray
Robin will talk about materials and techniques used in underground sketching and produce a large drawing of a caver who will stand in caving kit. He was asked to do this last year and is prepared to do it if it is still thought interesting.
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ICCC - Pol Stoletja
Chris Hayes & Ben Richards
Celebrating 30 years of student exploration in Sistem Migovec! Imperial College Caving Club was first invited to Slovenia by the JSPDT in 1994. Looking back over 30 years, what have we done? A brief history of the expedition, a discussion on this years findings, and our aims looking forward.
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How Wet is Wales Really?
Graham Christian & Gareth Edwards
South Wales Caving Club members have been monitoring the rainfall at Penwyllt for over 20 years. This presentation looks at the drivers for starting to monitor the local rainfall and then the more recent monitoring of the stream level in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu One. We look at the equipment used and the problems that cropped up and how they...
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Achik Kol - Uncharted Caves of South Garo Hills
Thomas Arbenz
A video documentary covering CORE GEO-EXPEDITIONS' 2024 caving expedition in South Garo Hills, Meghalaya, NE-India. During a period of three weeks a team of 16 cavers from UK, Romania, Switzerland and India explored and surveyed 52 caves with a total of 12.7km of passage. Core Geo-Expeditions is a non-profit research organisation dedicated to exploring the subterranean landscape and its related aspects...
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Descent at 300
Chris Scaife
The October 2024 edition of Descent will be issue 300. Founded in January 1969 – when a first edition could be paid for with a half-crown coin, the Beatles were still together and humans had not yet set foot on the moon – Descent has been a huge part of the caving world for over half a century. This presentation...
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Mulu, the longer journey to Benarat
Tim Allen
This is the story of a pre covid and post covid expedition to Gunung Benarat, Mulu. Benarat is the most northerly limestone mountain in the National Park and much more remote than other recent expeditions. It is tough but rewarding caving. Across the two trips there was success and failure, highs and lows, accidents and illness, and...
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Sulphate caves and karst in the South Harz Mountains, Central Germany
John Gunn
Globally the majority of caves are epigenic (formed by water descending from the surface) and have formed in carbonate rocks but there are also fascinating and extensive caves in sulphate rocks (gypsum and anhydrite) many of which were formed by hypogenic processes (fluids rising from depth). In the South Harz area of Central Germany there is a 100 km long...
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An Electronic Cave Rescue Incident Management System
Keith Edwards And Paul Taylor
Traditionally cave rescues have been managed using a T card board along with a hand written incident log. This system has stood the test of time. So why change anything? The aims behind the development of an electronic system were: * To provide more information on the T card board to aid decision making, such as the time that the incident as been...
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The Dachstein Caving Expedition
Andrew Mcleod
The Dachstein caving expedition has been exploring the high Alpine plateau of the Dachstein in Austria for over 50 years. It is a primarily British expedition but international expedition with cavers from countries such as Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic etc. We focus on training for new cavers, offering discounts for young cavers and training new-to-expedition cavers before...
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Am I a Cavefish? Exploring the Evolutionary Adaptations and Medical Insights from Blind Cavefish
Rachael Pajak
It is not often you find creatures lurking in the underground, however, when one has made the hidden realm their home, one must adapt to this hostile environment. The phenomena of the blind cavefish of Mexico demonstrate there is more than what meets the (lack of) eye. These fascinating cavefish are an excellent model for evolutionary development but also could...
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Back to Buda
Louise Korsgaard
Gunung Buda National Park is the little-known neighbor of Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysia. Buda has more than 80 km of known cave passages. The Green Cathedral system is almost 30 km long. Since 2003, no one has explored the caves of Buda. In July 2024 an international team of 9 cavers go on a quest to revive...
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Forest of Dean Round Up
Paul Taylor
Exploration and Research work in the Forest of Dean continues. Resurveying of the Wet Sink (Slaughter Stream Cave) system has seen its length grow to 14.1km. It is the longest Cave in the UK currently with a single entrance and sitting in Dolomite Rock. It may be the longest in Europe in Dolomite. Recently a connection was established between Kuwait...
Read moreIn defence of caving politics, a history and possible future of the BCA
Rostam Namaghi
Politics, from the greek 'Poly' meaning many and 'Tics' being blood sucking creatures. Therefore it follows that caving politics is the art of trying to get blood from a stone... This promises to be a good natured and hopefully humours examination of our caving politics! The first part takes a look at the history of caving politics, how things are structured...
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SpeleoPhillippines
Henry Bennett
Permits, Heat and Politicians Google Earth shows a river coming out the side of a mountain. The catch? It’s 24km from the nearest road. However, our original plan was 100s of miles away. A tale of the power of indigenous people, jungle exploits and politicians promises.
Read moreCuetzalan, 20 Years On From The First Sump Rescue, and the Future
Steve Whitlock
Cuetzalan was forever changed by the events in Mar 2004, when six cavers were rescued via a sump and were on the front page of every western newspaper for 10 days. It was the first rescue of its kind. Following a recent visit on the 20th Anniversary, Steve Whitlock reflects on the 2004 trip, the effects the rescue...
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