The traditional annual roundup video from Caver Keith Studios. 2018 was an eventful year in which I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my first upload and had many more views than any other year, but amongst the highs there was one slight disappointmen…
I had succumbed,
like so many others, to the lurgy and so, was out of action. Jonathon sent the
following summary of the morning’s activity at Hallowe’en Rift, the first session
of the year:
“We were down to
two diggers – Jon and Paul.
Thinking…
A walker (f 69) slipped and fell on the limestone pavement at the top of Malham Cove. Visibility was very poor due to low cloud and the pavement was extremely slippery. The casualty was located by CRO team members and treated for a suspected lower leg …
With Jon and Brockers
Finally managed to hand-over goodwill bag to Mark, who was in the
yard when we arrived at the farm.
Up the hill at Hallowe’en Rift, the loose bags were packed up and
the packs stored underground. We decided to start the qu…
27 th
December 2018: with Roz, Brockers, Nick,
Tav and Jon
Had purchased some
supplies and a good team assembled to help carry the equipment, including drill
bag, sundries bag, drill-bit tube, wire and a 3.5m aluminium ladder, into the
cave. …
A walker (m, 52) reported himself (and dog) ‘lost in fog and pitch black’, near the Ingleborough summit shelter. He was escorted down to a team vehicle, near Crina Bottom, to be brought off the hill. Avoidable. Volunteer time: 17 hours
A walker (f, 46) slipped on mud, on the path from Lower Winskill down to Langcliffe, hearing a ‘snap’ as she injured an ankle. Having given her pain relief, team members put the patient into an insulated casualty bag then carried and sledge…
With Jon, Brockers and Nick.
Nick turned-up with a large, heavy bar to try and deal with an
obstruction underground. At Hallowe’en Rift, Nick went ahead to attempt to
remove the obstructing slab of rock, although he required some assistance to
get…
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has agreed a new Code of Conduct for walkers undertaking the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge, with advice for walkers and event organisers. As the team who respond to the many calls we receive from participants o…
With Jon, Duncan, Nick and Brockers
It was a wet and miserable morning with a cold south-easterly
wind, not a good day to spend too long on the surface, everyone underground.
Brockers digging with assistance from Duncan, Nick was at the mid-way ha…
North Yorkshire Police contacted the Duty Controller when nine cavers were reported overdue from a trip into Aquamole Pot. However, the call was cancelled only a few minutes later, as the group had emerged safely, but with no immediate phone signal. V…
With Jon, Brockers and Nick
Jon digging, Brockers assisting, I went to the mid-way hauling
position because Nick had gone on a quest to explore the ‘north-west passage’.
Bags and the occasional rock were temporarily stashed at the mid-way point
un…
6th December 2018: With Duncan, Jonathon,
Nick, Tav and Alex
The trip through Chamber 20
didn’t appear to be much wetter than last week, in spite of the recent rain. At
the sand dig, the water level had risen c.150-200mm and was encroaching into…
A walker (f, 60) slipped on wet limestone, twisting her knee, so that she couldn’t walk. Having immobilised her leg, CRO members helped her onto a stretcher and sledged/carried her to a team vehicle, then drove her down to Malham car park, to mee…
Volcanoes are not fed by molten magma formed in large chambers finds a new study, overturning classic ideas about volcanic eruptions.
After being rocked gently to sleep by the horrid weather Jess and I awoke refreshed and ready to rumble.We were designated Duty officer this morning and so begun gently with a cuppa and taking the hut fees.Once all had paid up we begun the search for t…
The team were contacted by North Yorkshire Police after a walker reported herself lost and requesting advice, having set out to walk Pen-y-ghent. Despite a poor signal, the police control staff were able to get a location for the caller before losing t…
A call was received from North Yorkshire Police to reports of a man suffering shortness of breath and palpitations. Just after the team was mobilised, and as the first team member arrived at the location, the team was stood down, as it became clear our…
With Nick,
Brockers, Jonathon, Duncan and Alex
Alex, Brockers, Jonathon and Duncan disappeared underground to get
the digging underway and started to fill bags and shift rocks. Nick remained on
the surface for a short time to build some wall, I pa…
Last weeks digging
session was abandoned for the pub when only three of us turned up at Wookey
Hole.
Better turn-out this
week, with Nick, Tav, Jonathon, Duncan, Mike and, course yours truly, all keen
and raring to go, unfortunately Roz got left b…
Shatter photo trip 28th Nov 2018We met up in the priddy good farm shop after the night before having a few pints at the Hunters for the digger awards. There was myself, Tash, Kermit, John and Bev were heading down shatter in fairy quarry, Mark, Jess, P…
Mendips Meet, 17-18 NovTeam: Bill Buxton, Celestine Crabbe, Andy Freem, Antonia Freem, Duncan Hornby, Stephen Johnson, George Linnane, Sanita Lustika, Phill Thomas, Claire Vivian, Clive Westlake. With Miri and Duncan Simey in support.This was the last …
Solo
A gentler, more considered solo digging trip to retrieve some
small mammal bones that Alex had noticed and pointed out on Saturday. The
remains are relatively recent. The animal bones were recorded (photographed)
in-situ before carefully lift…
With Alex, Jonathon, Duncan, Brockers and Nick
We continued the quest to the south-west. My turn to be up-front
digging, Alex was next in line and did some extra widening of the passage, Jonathon,
also moonlighting, in between skips, Duncan and Br…
Continuing our our recent trend of visiting caves new to us we decided on something a little out of the norm for the Mendips with an SRT trip in Rhino rift.Our weekend begun in the Hunters Inn where we met up with Mike, Paulina, Tash and Kay who had sp…
The fossil record of early hominins in South Africa is biased towards periods of drier climate, suggests a study of cave deposits. This finding suggests there are gaps in the fossil record, potentially obscuring evolutionary patterns and affecting our …
A sheep was reported to be stranded on a ledge about 30m up on the quarry face and may have been there for two days. A team member abseiled down to its level, but the combination of criss-crossing, vegetated ledges and a rather lively young ewe made ca…
Scientists are studying a guppy-sized, blind, translucent fish that lives in the cave systems of northern Mexico to figure out why some animals can regenerate their hearts, while others just scar.
With Brockers, Jonathon, Nick and Alex
While the empty bags were being removed from the drying line, I
took the opportunity to go underground and have a quick look at progress so
far. The enlargement of the south-west passage to hands and knees cr…
15th November 2018: with Jonathon, Mike, Nick and Alex Surprisingly, the sand
dig was dry and didn’t appear to have backed-up at all after the very heavy
rain last weekend. However. A seepage of water through the sediments in the
alcove had caused…
With Roz My 500th trip into Hallowe’en Rift.
The purpose of this trip was to try and capture some images of the
low stuff approaching An Unexpected Development, to show it how it really is. The
cave is still very dry. Got some good photos too. …
This was the biggest Provisionals’ Weekend I have been involved with. We had 34 people come caving with us over the course of the two days and over 20 current club members helped out to make sure everyone had a great experience. Some were current SWCC …
With Brockers, Nick, Alex and Jonathon
Brockers experienced the “loneliness of a long-distance digger”
far away from Nick, who was hauling the skip with filled bags, and digging a
hole in the middle of the skip-run, why, who knows, something about…
8th November 2018: with Alex, Mike, Jonathon
and Roz
It’s been raining
recently and all the way up through Chamber 20 the results of this were clear;
the drips were stronger, pools were filling-up and water was flowing down the
calcite cascade. …
Good caving videos need great lighting. My grateful thanks to MyFenix (www.myfenix.co.uk) for supplying these amazing torches.Thanks also to Mark Burkey, Kayleigh Wood, Bill Nix, Clare Warwick and Graham Fentham for their help and assistance in making …
I was away digging on the Gower this weekend but the work at
Hallowe’en Rift continued.
Jonathon, Nick and Alex
Report from our Toad Hall correspondent:
“Dear team,
I’m sad to report that the Badger let us all down by disappearing to
Not…
The team were called to a walker on Pen-y-ghent summit who had jarred their back, resulting in much reduced mobility. Together with the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, on arrival at the rendezvous point at Dale Head, it was found that the cloud base prevented…
SWCC Team: Duncan Hornby, Allan Richardson & Claire VivianTrip Date: October 16th 2018Following directly after the SWCC Yorkshire trip meet, Claire and I stayed up North for a few more days. On a wet and miserable Tuesday we headed over to Nenthead…
With Alex, Jonathon, Brockers and Nick
While Alex went ahead to start digging, Jon and I rearranged the
‘boardwalk’ so that it bridged the ‘drainage channel’ and, therefore, making an
improved skip haul route. Brockers, meanwhile, decided that he …
Natural England reported a ewe stranded in an un-named cave entrance whose stream runs into the Alum Pot system. In the evening, four CRO members went up and wrestled the sheep out, taking care not to drive it further in and into the stream-way. Volunt…
25th October 2018 With Alex, Nick,
Jonathon, Mike, Duncan and David Walker (curator at the Wells & Mendip
Museum and MCRA)
At the sand dig we were
relieved to see it had dried-up and quite quickly after the fill event by the
look of it. I s…
With Roz and Alex
This evenings plan was to attempt to climb up to the small space
through jammed boulders observed from the bottom of the rift in An Unexpected
Development. I packed some clean shoes so that mud wouldn’t be transferred onto
the ca…
SWCC Team: Derek Cousins, George Linnane, Helen Hooper, Duncan Hornby, Mark Rees, Lee Smith, Claire VivianDates: 12th October – 14thA smaller team of SWCC cavers descend upon the YSS for a weekend of SRT training and trips. Very wet weather limited our…
With Jonathon,
Brockers, Nick, Tav and Alex
Continued the
digging effort to the south-west side of the entrance (downstream), enlarging
Quiet John’s dig. Jake, Nick and I, with others, had dug there in the early
90s. It is rather snug in places. J…
18th October 2018 With (l to r) Mike, Duncan, Nick and Tav After persistent rain
last weekend, it was not a surprise to find that the trip through Chamber 20
was wetter, the calcite cascade had water flowing down it. As suspected the sand
dig wa…
A walker on an evening excursion from Settle to Ribblehead became lost after descending from the summit of Pen-y-ghent. During a brief and muffled telephone call, the CRO Duty Controller was only able to establish that the lost person had a fading torc…
The CRO Duty Controller was contacted by Yorkshire Ambulance Service to help identify the location of a serious road traffic accident through use of SARLOC – a computer software application available to mountain rescue teams that can help phone u…
A 3-peaks walker slipped on wet rocks just below the summit of Pen-y-ghent. His fall caused an injury to his ankle – a suspected fracture. The injured walker telephoned for help, but also started to make his way down the hill after his ankle was …
Solo
A steady trip into
An Unexpected Development to de-rig the rift following up from Sunday’s trip. Pulled-up
the ladders and handline too, it could do with cleaning. All the kit bagged up
and ready to go, I decided to spend a short time cleanin…
With Dr Gina Moseley, Dr Marc Luetscher and Roz, we were later
joined by Ray Deasy.
Gina and Marc are Palaeo-climatologists, with a specific focus on
cave sites, and had accepted an invitation to visit Hallowe’en Rift and comment
on the processes …
On
Saturday I gave a poster presentation at the BCRA Cave Science Symposium,
University of Bristol.
Evidence
for frost and ice damage of speleothems in Hallowe’en Rift, Mendip, some
initial observations.
Abstract:
Recent discoveries in H…
11th October 2018 With Nick, Mike,
Jonathon, Tav, Alex and Duncan
Nick, Mike and Jonathon
at the sharp end, digging and filling buckets, then moving the filled buckets
and occasional rocks to Tav who then facilitated dispatch. Alex hauling the…
Solo (not really digging though!) Dragged some kit including water and a brush to An Unexpected Development. Going to have another cleaning speleothems session next week sometime. Took the camera along too, just for something else to carry. Actually,…
10 years ago today that I uploaded my first caving video to my YouTube channel. It now has 130 caving videos and is the most popular caving channel on YouTube.In the first twelve months I had 1.5K views.In the last twelve months I’ve had 9.3M caving vi…
With Jonathon
A much-depleted team due to work commitments,
injuries and malaise. To cap it all, it was raining and rather chilly.
We discussed our options while getting
changed in the shed and, as Jon hadn’t really had the opportunity to l…
4th
October 2018
With Roz, Jonathon, Duncan
and Mike
A mellow evening. Jon and
Mike rotated the digging, Roz transferred the filled buckets to the skip,
Duncan hauled the skip up the slope and I emptied the filled buckets. The procedure
was r…
I guess I could be described as a lifelong learner. I enjoy setting myself challenges, acquiring new skills and working outside my comfort zone. I also take pleasure in problem solving. Making videossatisfies my creative urges, and allows me to experim…
With Jonathon, Alex, Tav and Ray Deasy.
Another antipodean visitor to the cave, Ray,
back for an update, his last visit was earlier this year in April.
Jonathon and Alex set-off with the ladders to
rig the climb down the rift and cont…
A diabetic student (m,14), on a field visit, collapsed, falling face-down in the beck. He was recovered by companions, then regained consciousness. Yorkshire Ambulance Service first requested CRO’s help in locating him, via PhoneFind, but this di…
25th September 2018: with Snablet, Roz and Tav
An impromptu trip after
Snablet’s enquiry “are we doing anything tonight?” following up some beer
fuelled conversation we’d had on Saturday evening at the Hidden Earth
conference in Churchill.
We…
