[Xandar]

Nice report.

I was actually feeling far better on the way out, so much so I took lots of photo’s some of which came out. I plan to release them when I do my report on this and the next week of caving.

[Xandar]

I also have a vid, but it’s not up to my usual standards sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvDwZihnZcM

[Xandar]

Read the description, it’s not normally a sump, you can when it’s not full of water follow it downstream I think. I changed over at the bottom not knowing how deep it was, but as the ledge where you swing off from was 2.5m above the floor according to the description and it was almost that far above me, it was likely only a couple of feet deep. Still there was no sense in getting my legs wet and change over practice is useful.

The Whoop no real beer issue was due to freehouse supply issues apparently.

[Xandar]

I have moved to the log book.

[Xandar]

Hmm John might enjoy this trip, if the duck is low.

[Xandar]

Yeh I forgot to warn you about the high water levels, part of Gavel was sumped (though it was just the end of a side passage) Normally dry, the formations underwater made for a lovely picture.

[Xandar]

Yeh I thought I wrote you went straight through the duck but as often with me I think I had wrote something but had not.

[Xandar]

Video complete: Alex’s video

Chris’s photos: Chris’s Facebook photos

[Xandar]

Ahh yes I was getting Rowton and Aqua mole mixed up.

[Xandar]

Oh so there was a second call out from the cave on the same day, blooming heck!

This I guess is the incident you were involved in.

[CRO Facebook post]

We had a busy day yesterday, busy but very successful. More on the other shouts later.

We received a call to assist an injured caver who had fallen down a pitch in Aquamole Pot in Kingsdale. A hasty party of team members went underground with first aid and emergency equipment to assess the casualty and report back as to what additional kit was required and also the extraction plan. Additional cavers followed with extra equipment and a surface team prepared a hauling system at the cave entrance.

The casualty was treated for leg, pelvic and possible lumbar injuries before being packaged in a drag stretcher. Due to space restrictions in the cave, the casualty was initially hauled using a counter balance technique where a team member is effectively attached to the same rope as the casualty and is used as ‘ballast’ to assist the other team members hauling the stretcher up the pitch of the cave. Once the casualty was suitably far enough towards the surface, he was attached to the surface hauling system which utilised a tripod over the cave entrance to assist in bringing the casualty up the final vertical entrance pitch.

Due to the nature of the casualty’s injuries, we requested the assistance of our friends at Yorkshire Air Ambulance who performed some superb flying in very tough conditions and some equally superb casualty care. After an initial assessment on the fell, the casualty was loaded into Helimed 98 and transported to LGI for further treatment.

The weather was a bit on the grim side towards the end of the incident so we didn’t waste much time de-rigging our kit and getting off the fell as soon as we possibly could.

We would also like to thank Louise and John, two Nottingham University Caving Club members who stopped their planned trip and came to assist us in hauling the casualty to the surface, as promised you’ve both got free rescues for life – we hope you never have to cash them in👍

https://cro.org.uk/incident-11-2020-feb-29th-sat-12-50hrs-…/

[Xandar]

Phew so you guys were not the ones being rescued in this one. They must have had enough members like you said as UWFRA was not invovled. Well done in trying to help anyway.

Interestingly water levels were not too bad in Lanc, or wretched. The stream was barely flowing on the outside of the cave as well. It was flowing past mystral but it was easily crossable, all the water seemed to come from the going stream on the right, as the water all sank at cow dubs.

[Xandar]

Yeh, alright rub it in. I seem to recall you were saying Chris that it was the riggers fault for tightening it too much?

P.s. when doing tight squeezes such as the one above, it’s important to remove the knife that is pressing against your sternum. That is bruised to feck.

[Xandar]

Only other thing of note, is one of the crabs was well and truly jammed on the short pitch below stink pot. With the same rope used for the pitch below that, I had the time of my life undoing the knot and then re-threading the rope through the knot that often got tangled and lots of swearing ensued.

[Xandar]

If only I was available as I can remember the route pretty well. You go up the rope on the rift on the left of Duke street 2, about 30m in before all the big boulders.

At the top you go to the very top of the ropes then go left, don’t get off early. But don’t go up the rope if it’s there in the next chamber beyond the crawl.

After turtle crawl you turn left, just before the hole in the floor.

[Xandar]

A few pictures from the trip, as I had my phone with me for GPS…

Looking up Jockey hole

Coming up Jockey hole

A suicidal sheep at the bottom of the entrance pitch to Rift.

Chris rigging the 3rd pitch in rift.

Chris rigging the 5th pitch in Rift

Fine oxbow passage in Rift.

[Author]

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