With Jake, Jon, Brockers, and Tav. Jon and Tav took the first digging shift, Jake and Brockers shuttling the spoil from the ledge to the bottom of the entrance, I was on the surface. 100 filled bags were hauled out of the cave, emptied onto the spoil heaps, and even managed to add a few […]
Team: Duncan Hornby, Simon Lowis, David Mullin, Claire Vivian, Clive Westlake, Tomasz ZalewskiDates: 28th August 2021Passage in Little Neath River Cave. Photo by Tomasz Zalewski.So the 28th August 2021 was a big day for SWCC, it was the 75th anniversar…
With Brockers, Jake, Tav, Nick, and Duncan (for the morning session). A bit of fettling of the pulley system and hangers beforehand, some discussion about the best position for pulling up the skip, we settled on the diggers hauling the spoil from the bottom of the pot. Jake and Tav were digging for the morning […]
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Tav. Me, underground by 09:00 as planned, got the kit laid out and set to work breaking up boulders. Sometime after 10:00 Brockers turned up and made a start on bagging up the loose gravel and fine sediment. Then Jake arrived followed by Jon and a bit later, Tav. Jake […]
A farmer had seen one of his sheep, apparently stranded on a ledge of Mealbank Quarry, on Sunday. He kept trying to tempt it back to safety by shaking a bag of sheep nuts, but eventually asked for CRO’s assistance. A small team set up an abseil, …
Solo Finished work at home at a reasonable time, so I decided to head over to HR and reduce the boulders there to manageable pieces rather than going over early Saturday to do it. The large boulder turned out to be a bit of a pig – it was heavily mineralised and just wouldn’t fracture […]
Vince, Brockers, Tav, Nick, Duncan. Jon, and Jake. Met with Brockers at the farm 08:30 where we got our respective bits of kit together and walked up to the cave entrance. Underground by 09:00. I got on with the task of reducing boulders to a manageable size using plugs and feathers while Brockers sorted out […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, Nick, Tav, and Duncan. Morning session: Tav and Jon digging in the deep (and getting deeper) Soft South, Jake on the ledge hauling the skip up out of the pit (c.100+ loads – top effort!) and transferring the contents to the next skip. I was at the junction hauling away the […]
A visitor (f, 20) slipped, while about 300m into White Scar Cave, sustaining a lower leg injury. Show cave staff assessed and treated the casualty’s injured leg, but were unable to evacuate her from the cave. Having splinted her leg, CRO team me…
Vince, Jon, Jake, Brockers, Nick, Tav, and Duncan Morning session: Brockers digging, aided, and abetted by Nick; me and Jon were hauling the skips along the passage from the Soft South back to the entrance. Jake and Tav were on surface, they were joined later in the morning by Duncan. The filled bags were moved […]
The next MCR AGM is to be held on Tuesday 15th June 2021. MCR meetings are usually held in the Hunters Lodge Inn, but due to the current Covid19 restrictions, this AGM will be held online. Please contact the secretary is you wish to attend this meeting…
A walker (m 55) phoned for help, saying that he had collapsed, felt weak and had a pain radiating from the upper left hand side of his chest. He had been walking alone and CRO was able to confirm the walker’s “off-piste” location at t…
Vince, Jake, Nick, Tav, Brockers and Duncan. Some decent weather at last and surface duties were a popular option today. Morning session: me and Jake were on the surface; Brockers and Duncan were digging with Nick and Tav clearing away. Now it had dried out a bit, some spoil heap re-distribution could be carried out. […]
Vince, Nick, Jake, Duncan, Jon and Tav. A grey, overcast morning but it seemed that the heavy rain had passed over and would not spoil the lunchtime picnic. Morning session, me and Nick digging, Jon and Tav clearing away, Jake and Duncan on the surface. We decided to start removing the lower bench to widen […]
UWFRA forwarded an alert from North Yorkshire Police regarding two Three Peaks walkers who had become separated from a bigger group after losing the path on Ingleborough. Reportedly, they had made their 999 call from a mobile phone with 1% battery. Whe…
Vince, Jake, Nick, Tav, Jon, Brockers and Duncan. Following my 2nd covid vaccination jab on Tuesday I have been suffering with an ‘iffy’ shoulder, hauling stuff out to the surface and digging is off the agenda for me. I settled down at the bottom of the entrance and transferred the spoil from skip to skip, […]
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Nick, Tav, and later, Caroline. A lovely sunny day perfect for digging, and long may it continue. Tav turned up laden with digging skips and a rope net expertly constructed by Dave Brook and kindly donated to the cause by Alison Moody. These were to be put into use as soon as […]
Vince, Jake, Brockers and Tav. A depleted team today, some have gone diving and another has vehicular and mobility problems. No matter just means we will have to stack stuff in the entrance and work in shifts. All underground, Jake digging, Tav and Brockers clearing away the filled bags and I stacked the spoil in […]
Vince, Jake, Brockers, Nick, Tav, Jon, Duncan, and Mike. A ‘full’ complement of participants today, we split into two groups; one group on the surface consisting of me, Jake and Brockers, the second group underground. The extra pair of hands on the surface enabled spoil heap management to be undertaken and the slope was redistributed. […]
To see a summary of incidents attended for 2020, as well as our annual report, please click on the link below. Usually we try to make the report cost neutral – the fees paid by our advertisers usually cover most if not all of the cost of producin…
YAS called CRO following a report that a child (m, 8) had a leg injury and was on the ‘side of a cliff, waterfall at bottom, halfway up on rocky verge, stuck unable to get down, equivalent of 4 floors up’. With other members on stand-by and…
A sport cyclist (m, 18) landed badly from a home-made ‘jump’, complaining of rib, face, shoulder and back pain. Arriving at the accident site, the YAS paramedics asked for CRO’s assistance and equipment, in order to immobilise the cas…
A walker (f, 23) twisted an ankle on rough and boggy terrain, so that she was unable to put weight on the injured leg. A companion rang the Police for help and CRO team members responded. After assessment by a team doctor, the patient was stretchered t…
At last breaking free from lockdown and the digging team assembled for the first time in 2021. After a quick chat underground, I returned to the surface with Brockers to haul-out and empty bags, etc. The rest of the team mixed it up underground and shared the duties. The filled bags emerged from the cave […]
Vince and Roz.
Vince and Roz
The team has sadly decided that this years challenge will not now go ahead. You can read more here.
Almost 80 years after its discovery, a large shell from the ornate Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees has been studied by a multidisciplinary team: it is believed to be the oldest wind instrument of its type.
North Yorkshire Police requested CRO’s assistance after they found a missing person (Sadly, deceased.) at the foot of Malham Cove. Team members searched an area at the top of the Cove for personal effects and carried the deceased by stretcher, th…
Along with representatives of all the other MRTs operating across the County, CRO’s ‘Silver’ reps were alerted to a flooding forecast (‘Storm Christoph’) through the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum. They put the Org…
A four-year study concludes that the fungal disease, white-nose syndrome, poses a severe threat to many western North American bats.
A walker (m, 24) called for help, saying he was stranded on the summit of Whernside, couldn’t find his way off and couldn’t breathe, because of his asthma. A small group of CRO members set off on foot and a controller telephoned the ‘…
Two visitors (m, f), walking from Clapham, reached the summit shelter on Ingleborough, but were unable to find the way off at dusk, in low cloud and on trampled snow and ice. A small team drove to the top of Fell Lane, Ingleton, then continued up on fo…
Just me today. Some spoil management required, the morning spent trying to extricate my boots from especially glutinous mud!
A low turnout for the first digging session of 2021 but, not wholly unexpected. The UK government has imposed more corona-virus pandemic restrictions, that includes an ever-fluctuating and rather confusing “Tier” system. And, the weather is not great, temperatures are just about at freezing point or below and the roads are icy. As a follow […]
A walker (f, 50) slipped on steep, frozen ground, sustaining a suspected ankle fracture. The first team members on scene kept her warm until others arrived. Then, after being given pain relief and attention from a YAS paramedic and team doctor, she was…
Lancashire Constabulary asked CRO to investigate a request for help when a man and two small children became stranded in their car on Lythe Fell (on the High Bentham to Slaidburn road, 8 km / 5 miles South of High Bentham). The duty controller confirme…
Part of the attraction of caving for me is pitting myself against nature and these 5 caving trips are amongst the most technically difficult trips I’ve done in my thirty plus years of cave exploration.Completing each trip in the knowledge that I’m one …
Vince, Brockers, Jake, Nick. and Duncan. Boxing Day digging session, Nick and Duncan were up front, although I expect Nick did the vast majority of the digging. Jake was at the junction, I was at the bottom of the entrance, Brockers did the hauling on the surface. I did offer to rotate places with Brockers […]
A friend reported a solo Three Peaks walker (m, 44) ‘lost . . . . cold, alone and disorientated . . . . with minimum food and not appropriately dressed . . . . approximately 500m from the top of Ingleborough and now lost’. T…
YAS asked for CRO’s assistance when a walker (f, 70) was reported to have fallen at the top of Malham Cove. Although she had sustained a painful shoulder injury, she was determined to set off to walk back down the steps at the side of the Cove, w…
A motorist called NYP when he and his partner became stuck in the first snow of the winter on the road to Deepdale/Dentdale, above Kingsdale Head. A small CRO team, in a Land Rover, soon recovered them and a supermarket delivery van. ‘CRO makes i…
As members were back at Clapham, cleaning the Whernside mud from equipment, a further call was received. A member of a family party (f, 13) was reported to have separated from her parents on Blea Moor at about 14.30. When the parents returned to their …
A walker (f, 14) slipped, then tumbled five or six metres down the steep path, where it leaves the Whernside summit ridge towards Bruntscar, sustaining head and possible elbow injuries. After assessment and treatment by a team doctor, she was ‘pa…
NYP asked for assistance in finding someone, believed to be at risk, missing in the Airton area since about 15.40. However, just as the first team member arrived on scene, police officers found her ‘safe and well’, so team members stood dow…
Bowland Pennine MRT asked for CRO’s support when they found themselves short-handed on the way to an incident in Gisburn Forest. A cyclist (m, 30) had come off his mountain bike, sustaining a shoulder injury. However, as a CRO controller was text…
Mendip Cave Rescue received a SARCALL message from Avon and Somerset Police at 01:31 on 19th November 2020 on behalf of their colleagues from Wiltshire Police (who don’t currently use SARCALL) for an incident at Box Stone Mines, concerning a group of 4…
A walker (f, ) slipped on the steep (temporary diversion) path on the Chapel-le-Dale side of Ingleborough, sometime after 15.00 hrs. As neither the injured person nor her father could get a signal on their mobile phones, a passer-by called 999 and aske…
Mendip Cave Rescue were called by Avon and Somerset Police via SARCALL at 20:50 on 5th November 2020, concerning an overdue party visiting Single Way mine at Bathampton. Whilst MCR wardens were preparing to respond, further information came through tha…
Mega-droughts – droughts that last two decades or longer – are tipped to increase thanks to climate change, according to new research.
When startled, do all fish respond the same way? A few fish, like Mexican cavefish, have evolved in unique environments without any predators. To see how this lack of predation impacts escape responses that are highly stereotyped across fish species, s…
A call was received from North Yorkshire Police to a report of a walker (f) who had sustained a lower leg injury. Although with 3 companions, and able to walk slowly with assistance, they requested help due to the distance back to their vehicle, and th…
Cumbria Police were contacted by the wife of a caver who was apparently overdue after setting off to do a through trip from Lancaster Hole to Wretched Rabbit. Having passed the call to the team, neither the Police nor team controllers were able to call…
Vince, Nick, Jake, Jon and Brockers. After some discussion at the entrance me and Nick went along to the “Cold Gnarly North” while Jake, Jon and Brockers returned to the “Sunny South West”. We had decided to revisit the “Cold Gnarly North” to retrieve the empty packs of bags, tools and other sundry items including […]
With Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Nick. The winter migration to the ‘Sunny South West’ continued. We had a plan, well, more of a cobbled together idea really that came to fruition. Brockers sourced a generator, Jake brought along his 110v Hilti breaker, there were cables a plenty and everything was carried up the hill to […]
A group of five walkers (m 48; m, f, f, f, all 20/21), having started the Three Peaks Walk in Horton in Ribblesdale at 04.00, reached Chapel le Dale at 16.00, then climbed Ingleborough as their last peak, but reported themselves lost on the descent. NY…
With Jake, Jon, and Nick. A mellow morning digging session back in the “Sunny South-West” passage. We had spent quite some time enlarging this passage only to put it on the ‘back-burner’ in favour of the “Cold Gnarly North”. Nick was poked into the rather constricted end and left to his own devices in an […]
Having taken the temporary diversion path to Ingleborough from Chapel le dale, two walkers (m 37, f 34) reported themselves unable to descend, because of the steepness and apparent instability of the fell-side. The Duty Controller persuaded them to con…
As a few team members were involved in incident no 68, a second call came in from a walker concerned about a group of five Three Peaks walkers (3 x m, 2 x f) he believed to be cold and struggling on the descent from Ingleborough. They turned up in Hor…
A Three Peaks walker (m) was reported overdue. He had last been seen, ‘flagging’, on the summit of Whernside at 12.40, when he told his companions that he would not be walking over Ingleborough but would return to the start in Horton in Rib…
