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!

Clicking on a story will open a new tab and take you to the original story.

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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INCIDENT 96/2019 – Nov. 22nd. Fri. 17.28hrs – Ingleborough – Mountain Incident

Four Three Peaks walkers (m, 18, 19, 20, 26) reported themselves benighted at the summit shelter on Ingleborough and unable to find their way off, but otherwise unharmed. One member ran up onto the hill from Newby Cote, while others set off, by team L ...
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Bats in attics might be necessary for conservation

Researchers investigate and describe the conservation importance of buildings relative to natural, alternative roosts for little brown bats in Yellowstone National Park. ...
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Alert only – Nov. 16th. Sat. 17.59hrs – Ingleborough – Alert No. 14 of 2019

Two people lost the path descending Ingleborough in darkness. Another party of walkers were passing and helped them to locate the correct descent path to the Hill Inn. Progress was monitored using the phonefind utlity until they were off the hill safel ...
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Dudley Caving Club 2019-11-17 18:13:00

I entered this short video in the Art Salon at Hidden Earth this year and to my complete amazement I git a prize for the best work produced digitally.And here's my prize, a hand-crafted statue of a caver made by Ceris Jones.It's now proudly displayed i ...
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Secret of explosive volcanism unlocked

When will the next eruption take place? Examination of samples from Indonesia's Mount Merapi show that the explosivity of stratovolcanoes rises when mineral-rich gases seal the pores and microcracks in the uppermost layers of stone. These findings resu ...
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INCIDENT 95/2019 – Nov. 12th. Tue. 17.45hrs – Ingleborough – Mountain Incident

A lone Three Peaks walker (m, 30) reported himself lost on Ingleborough, but otherwise unharmed. Before calling the CRO Duty Controller, North Yorkshire Police were able to establish that the misper was on Simon Fell Breast, a little way below the foot ...
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