To an Anglo-Saxon there is something irresistible about the name ARSIP - variously known in England as Arsewipe, "Anal 'Rotic Speleology is Pleasant", or simply "That load of bums". Well at the risk of being classed as what the French would call an arse-licker, I reckon that is a load of b.....ks (buttocks). This is what might be called a rearguard action before ARSIP's reputation hits rock-bottom.

Let's face it, ARSIP-bashing is fun. Enthroned in their seat of power they are just waiting to be flushed out and knocked down. Land-owners are bad enough, but when cavers start imposing restrictions, then it's absurd. In England, I'm inclined to agree, but I see no reason to apply English criteria to the situation at the Pierre. Whatever their technical difficulties, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Mendip are minute areas. If ARSIP had relied on an English type grapevine, the Tête Sauvage would have remained undiscovered. If access to the Pierre had not been controlled, there would have been more than one episode of the Polish type. If caving were as informal as it is over here, a vast amount of work would have remained undone, and much time would have been wasted in needless duplication of work. As an example I doubt whether the, BEC would have looked in the Pas se l'Osque area, and broken the record, if Ruben Gomez had not suggested it to them, provided maps and aerial photographs etc..

Understandably, clubs do not want to go so far only to do the little grot holes the French can't be bothered with. In our experience, and some of us have been going there for five years now, this is not the situation. Admittedly, we had two major advantages - French speakers, and Nick Reckert, who was a member of ARSIP when he joined us. Also our expeditions have been small, informal affairs. We have not broken any records (except for winning the valley tug-of-war three years in a row), nor have we done anything very spectacular, but we have done what we have been asked to do:- CUCC 3 (a 550 ft choked pot), the exploration and surveying of about 5 kilometres of passage in Betulako Harpia, assistance in the tight B102/2, which nearly hit the Arrigoyena, many other smaller odds and ends, and what we have done this year (described elsewhere in this journal).

We have always found ARSIP very co-operative and the whole atmosphere very friendly and not at all restrictive. And if it's hard caving you want..... well, this year we were offered the Audiette, le Trou du Mouton, Arphidia, Lonné-Peyret, a through trip in the Pierre, and the virgin area which later yielded BEC's toptoptop entrance to the Pierre. All of which adds up to quite a lot for seven cavers in three weeks.

ARSIP is not of course perfect - witness the Polish fiasco of 1973. Nevertheless, whatever the criticism (slowness, eventual over-reaction, bureaucratic takeover and closure), it should be remembered that the Poles were there without permission, that they had not done any work for ARSIP, such as is often rewarded by a through trip, and that they were neither equipped nor competent to do the trip. In fact, all they succeeded in doing was putting ARSIP's backside up. ARSIP has decided rightly or wrongly, that it is not going to turn the Pierre into an adventure playground for the sporting caver. The French are bound to react hostilely when an outside group, seeking glory and if possible, a record or two, flouts the code of behaviour they have established, ignoring the hard work without which the classic sporting trips would not now exist. They do exist and are available to any club which is prepared to accept the situation as it is, and work within it. Repeated visits undoubtedly help, and it is a mistake, I feel, to expect too much on a first visit; which is not to say that there will be no good caving. There will, but ARSIP are not going to let unproven clubs loose on the huge and potentially dangerous systems in the area.