# UBSS

## University of Bristol Speleological Society

The UBSS is the oldest of the existing British University caving clubs. Most famous for its work in the caves of County Clare, and also much involved in Mendip caving, the UBSS also venture further afield.

Steve Perry (once dubbed "the fittest man on Mendip") was a CUCC member with UBSS connections, who was on the 1977 expedition. Other UBSS members first joined CUCC's Austria expedition as guests in 1980, and UBSS was a "guest club" on the CUCC expedition in both 1981 and 1982, after which their involvement declined. The work done by UBSS members was written up in the prestigious Proceedings of UBSS.

Sadly we have been asked to remove these pieces of documentation, which are relevant to CUCCs exploration of the area. We are currently trying to contact the orginal authors of the articles to ask for their permission to publish the articles.

81.1427
  Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 16(1) (1981) pp 5-10, An introduction to Austrian karst, Steve Perry
81.1309
  Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 16(1) (1981) pp 11-20, A description of some caves..., Julian Griffiths
83.1621
  Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 16(2) (Nov 1982) pp 77-83, The Stellerweghöhle system, Totes Gebirge, Austria, Rich Barker et al

Unknown to CUCC (and very much to our embarassment in 1989), a few UBSS members staged independent expeditions to an area north of the plateau. We believe there were two trips (in 1989 and 1990), though information is still hard to come by, as the whole thing was clandestine. The local Austrian cavers found it hard to believe that CUCC had no knowledge of the trips whilst CUCC found it hard to believe that no-one at the BCRA Conference would admit to being with the "English group camped on Augst-Eck" found by the helicopter during Becka's 1989 rescue. This upset an already delicate political situation, with the risk that all English groups might be banned from the area permanently. It would appear that the officers and committee of the UBSS itself were unaware that their members were visiting the area without permission and had not bothered to research the political situation before giving grant money for the trip. Index of all caves documented in 1623.
Overview of area 1623
Overview of area 1626, and index to caves
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Other groups who have worked in the area