Other Sites and Blogs – Darkness Below

We can’t hope to bring you every story, but there are plenty of caving and mining blogs out there you can browse at your leisure! Have a read through some of the best! If you know of a blog you’d like us to add to this page please let us know!

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Skyhook and beyond

Team: Chloe Francis, Duncan Hornby, Tim lewingdon, Helen Stewart & Claire VivianTrip date: 25/1/20A few years ago Claire and I had the privilege of supporting a Freem filming trip beyond the sky hook at the top of Midnight Passage. It was quite an ...
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Driven by Earth’s orbit, climate changes in Africa may have aided human migration

New research describes a dynamic climate and vegetation model that explains when regions across Africa, areas of the Middle East, and the Mediterranean were wetter and drier and how the plant composition changed in tandem, possibly providing migration ...
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INCIDENT 6/2020 – Jan. 23rd. Thu. 19.12hrs – Black Dub Moss, Horton in Ribblesdale – Mountain Incident

Two Three Peaks walkers (m,30; m,30) reported themselves ‘in a field and completely lost’, as well as ‘surrounded by swamp up to their knees’, between Birkwith and Pen y ghent. The Phonefind app, used by the duty controller, ind ...
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INCIDENT 5/2020 – Jan. 23rd. Thu. 10.50hrs – Sheriff Hill, Malham – Mountain Incident

A visitor (m, 57), walking from Malham Rakes towards the top of Malham Cove, slipped on the extremely muddy path, about 300m from the road, sustaining a dislocation fracture of one ankle. The YAS paramedics who attended to the patient asked for CRO&#82 ...
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INCIDENT 4/2020 – Jan. 19th. Sun. 14.32hrs – Malham Cove, Malham – Mountain Incident

Whilst incident number 3 was underway, the team was called to assist Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) with an incident near to Malham. A walker (f 15) had slipped on a steep and muddy grass slope near to the top of Malham Cove. The young person had a ...
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INCIDENT 3/2020 – Jan. 19th. Sun. 13.32hrs – Above Bruntscar, Whernside – Mountain Incident

A walker (m 19) slipped and fell on wet rocks whilst descending from the summit of Whernside. He injured, possibly fracturing, his right lower leg. CRO team members splinted the injured leg, packaged the injured person into a stretcher and were able to ...
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INCIDENT 2/2020 – Jan. 11th. Sat. 21.56hrs – Large Pot – Rift Pot, Thornton in Lonsdale, – Cave Incident

Four cavers (all m) were reported ‘stuck’ while on an exchange trip (two each way) between Large Pot and Rift Pot, beneath the fell, above Masongill. Although not strictly ‘overdue’ (They had given a ‘call-out time’ ...
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Sea-ice-free Arctic makes permafrost vulnerable to thawing

New research provides evidence from Siberian caves suggesting that summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean plays an essential role in stabilizing permafrost and its large store of carbon. ...
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INCIDENT 1/2020 – Jan. 4th. Sat. 1656hrs – Lancaster Hole, Casterton Fell, Cumbria – Cave Incident

The team were called by Cumbria Police to reports of an overdue cave diver at Lancaster Hole on Casterton Fell, Cumbria. 40 CRO team members and members of the Northern section of the Cave Diving Group (CDG) responded.. As well as searching from the po ...
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INCIDENT 102/2019 – Dec. 25th. Wed. (Christmas Day) 10.07hrs – Above Crina Bottom, Ingleborough – Mountain Incident

A fell-runner (f, 48) slipped on a rocky section of the bridleway onto Ingleborough, sustaining (at least) a deep laceration to one knee and a shoulder injury. She and her partner were also very cold when team members arrived on scene. After the admini ...
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INCIDENT 101/2019 – Dec. 19th. Thu. 00.06hrs – The Gaping Gill System, Clapham – Cave Incident

A group of nine cavers went in to Gaping Gill by various routes, meeting up in the Main Chamber. After all the others were out safely, via Bar Pot, two (m, 22; m, 22) were reported overdue. They had tried to exit via Corky’s Pot, but realised th ...
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INCIDENT 100/2019 – Dec. 16th. Mon. 22.45hrs – Area around Sannat Hall, Stainforth – Local Incident

A motorist, near Sannat Hall, reported seeing a light being flashed in lots of three. Each time the DC called his number, it went to Voicemail, so a team member drove up Silverdale for a look around. Nothing out of the ordinary was seen and by the time ...
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INCIDENT 99/2019 – Dec. 15th. Sun. 20.04hrs – Road above Kingsdale Head Farm, Thornton in Lonsdale – Local Incident

A motorist, following his SatNav, tried to drive over from Kingsdale to Deepdale, but the car became stuck in snow. He called for help, then managed to get his heavily pregnant wife and small child to the safety of Kingsdale Head Farm. The farmer and C ...
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Alert only – Dec. 15th. Sun. 14.06hrs – Lythe Fell Road, Lowgill, Lancashire – Alert No. 15 of 2019

A patient (f), driving herself to hospital for essential medical treatment, became stuck in snow, on a very remote, moorland road. Lancashire Constabulary’s Force Incident Manager alerted CRO, but when the duty controller rang in, the FIM advised ...
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A DCC Christmas Adventure…..Nothing but Coal in the stockings for those on the naughty list!

After much debate it was decided that The Dudley Christmas trip would be in Agen Allwedd this year. As we had all been such good boys and girls we were fortunate to have none other than Santa himself lead our trip.....or at least that's what we thought ...
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Illumination drives bats out of caves

Researchers have investigated how the illumination of bat caves affects the animals' behavior and whether the color of light makes a difference on their flight. Although red light irritates the small mammals somewhat less than white light, from the res ...
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INCIDENT 97/2019 – Nov. 29th. Fri. 14.33hrs – Crina Bottom, Ingleton – Mountain Incident

A walker (m, 86) complained of not feeling very well, then collapsed, having suffered a suspected heart attack on the Ingleton to Ingleborough bridleway, a short distance beyond Crina Bottom. YAS requested CRO attendance and the first team vehicle to a ...
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Provisionals’ / beginners’ Weekend, November 2019

With a record breaking 30 people to arrange trips for, this weekend was a huge one. We had 18 people completely new to caving and 11 who were within their first year of starting caving with SWCC.Meeting bright and early on Saturday morning to kick the ...
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