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Freshers

Information for Freshers

Welcome to any freshers who have decided to join us!! We hope you’re excited to head underground with DUSA!

What to Expect from Your First Trip

If you’ve bought membership, your first trip is free!! This will likely be a trip down one of three caves: Long Churns, Notts II, or Valley Entrance. Long Churns and Valley Entrance both involve a laddered pitch, so you will be belayed from a rope as you climb up and down the ladder. Notts II doesn’t involve any ladders, but it does have many opportunities to climb. These three caves are technically easy, but there will also be chances to try out some more difficult things (like squeezes!!). All of them are great trips!

On the day of your trip, we’ll be meeting at the Student Union building, just around the side where the carpark is, bright and early (typically around 8am) to set off for the Yorkshire Dales. We provide all the kit you need for the cave, but there are a few things you should also bring with you:

  • Clothes for the cave
    • These should be warm and synthetic (not cotton or jeans; you want something that doesn’t absorb a whole lot of water)
    • Ideally wear fleeces, thermals, leggings, walking trousers etc. (something you won’t mind getting a bit dirty)
  • Wellies
    • We might be able to lend some, but you’ll have to message us beforehand
    • You can generally find some on Amazon for cheap!
  • Gloves (optional)
  • Spare clothes to change into (including underwear and socks!!)
  • Full sized towel
  • High-sugar snack
    • E.g. a Mars bar
  • Medical Needs
    • i.e. epipen, insulin source, inhaler – inform your leaders of any relevant medical conditions when doing your trip with them (before going underground!)
  • Money for food / takeaway (optional)
    • Depending on how nice your driver is, there tend to be post-cave McDonald’s trips…

The drive is around 2 hours, so gives you plenty of time in the car to get to know your leaders and fellow freshers! Once we get there, we’ll change by the car, get you all kitted up, and head into the cave; our trips generally last 2.5 to 4 hours underground. Keep in mind it will be cold and you’ll likely get wet as well, so dress appropriately! We provide oversuits for you, which you wear over your clothes to protect you from abrasion, but the layers you wear under this need to be warm.

Once we’ve crawled around, seen some really cool stuff, and gotten sufficiently muddy, it’ll be time to return to daylight and head back to Durham. There’s almost always a stop for McDonald’s on the way, and we’ll arrive in Durham sometime in the evening.

Further Trips

Once you’ve gone on your fresher’s trip, hopefully you’re keen to keep on caving! If so, the next step will be to get you SRT trained, which you can get more information about here. You’ll be able to join us for regular day trips and weekends away, and there’s always DUSA socials to keep you busy until your next trip.