Descent 269 is about to land on your mats, so take a moment to check whether your subscription is up to date!

In store for you in this issue is the story of Higher Education, a huge climb in Lechuguilla. It was a long way, it took a long time … but the team involved simply had to learn what was at the top.

At home, Brendan Sloan looks at trends and themes over 25 years of the British Cave Rescue Council’s statistics as published in Descent.

The Descent caption competition returns with a superb prize from Petzl: a Boreo Caving helmet and a high-end Duo S headlight.

There’s a timely reminder about misuse of kit. There’s right and there’s wrong and … there are techniques that have come into common use. However, there could be consequences as the article explains!

On the expedition front, after more than a decade, exploration in Pakistan picks up again and at home, the Carbis Bay Crew have been exploring Morvah’s Cliffs and believe that solid research has led them to a Cornish shaft that hasn’t been entered for over 100 years. In similar vein, Write it Down! looks at the ever-popular pastime of digging.

There’s an extra eight pages in this edition, with all this and more for only the price of a couple of pints of beer per issue. We’ll be bringing you a full report as soon as Descent pops through our letterbox, but in the meantime, we hope the above is enough to whet your appetite and send you over to Wildplaces Publishing subscriptions page to ensure your subscription is up to date so you don’t miss out!