Topic

Bernies, Ingleton : October 1999

Ian Ball "Please can I buy a survival bag to go in my helmet?"
Steve Round "No, but you can have one to go in your pocket, it's 99p"

Horrocks-Stearn Crawl Flood Entrance end : January 2015
Ian Ball "Thank you Steve"

There is a great deal of chewing over what it feels like to be the cause of a rescue but I've not got through it all yet. The overriding emotions are embarrassment and regret, constantly thinking of what if's and trying to think back to the critical decisions which got us in the predicament we were in. I made decisions based on assumptions which left us with no way out and a long wait for CRO for which I am truly sorry and certainly won't make hurriedly again. I understand why being rescued is a bad thing for the reputation of the YSS, apologies again.

One question from Ian Walker when we got back sums up the situation really, "why did you do a pull through on a route you'd not been through before?" I didn't have an answer then, I still don't now.

I must thank Calum for his endless optimism and Keith for his usual calm head under pressure, lovely to see Nigel at the CRO depot when we arrived there, his friendly, familiar face was very welcome, I apologise to all those back at the school house who were no doubt kept up and disturbed by the hunt for us and we were even fed when we got back too.

Further thanks to Nigel and Gordon who kindly collected our left behind rope out of OBJ. Despite not being a regular at the club, it was nice to have so many people ask if I was ok, cheers guys.

The CRO are a very slick outfit and tackled a potentially large problem very quickly, without ever making me feel like the dunce I deserved to feel like, I sing their praises from the highest roof top, just saying thank you seems rather hollow. I never intended to find out, but having done so, caving seems a little safer with CRO and UWFRA and the other organisations ready to help when you really need it.


EDIT:
One week after.

Rose tinted specs, hindsight is a wonderful thing etc etc, but with that in mind, what happened, what would I do differently, or what would have made a difference this time.

The day started badly, I was meeting my friend Tim from the Wessex and we were going to do OBJ Hole, down South East Pot, New Hensler's to Mud Hall, through Booth-Parsons and the Pool Chamber to West Chamber traverse before coming back through South Passage to have a look at South East Chamber before heading back out OBJ. I estimated that it'd be a 10 hour trip so call out was set as midnight as we were meeting at 9. Sadly Tim was ill that day so I was alone but Keith and Colum who were looking for a trip offered to join me and I gladly accepted but they were going for breakfast first so a much later start but I didn't redo the call out note on the board as I figured that by using Keith's 9mm rope and having 3 to carry it, the trip would be probably be faster anyway and so we'd probably miss 0out some parts of it to get back in time for a ginger beer in the pub.

The entrance to OBJ was pretty obvious and Keith set off rigging but Colums light failed so we had a choice to make. Carry on on a back up light or cancel. I was keen not to cancel and suggested we truncate the trip and just do a through trip from OBJ Hole to Stile Pot which is what was on the permit.

At the bottom of the 1st pitch in OBJ there is a slight squeeze through a rift, which pops out into the top of the Flood Entrance passageway. Problem was we couldn't find the spits which the cave is rigged with and it was almost a srt kit off pinch. Keith went through and not knowing what was beneath him we arranged a sort of rope system so Colum could steady his progress once through the tight bit. I went next and got through with my srt kit on, though I shifted my descender from the front to the side. There was a spit just beyond this so if that was rigged in you could just go through the narrow bit on cowstails but we didn't see it till we were through!

Keith arranged a pull through around a large block and we dropped into the passage, this is where we firmly discussed the act of pulling down the rope. Keith asked me twice if I was sure I knew the way. I was confident I did, but I also knew there was a passage off in the same direction somewhere in the system which ended too tight. As it happens that goes off from Cigarette Chamber so 20m above the level we needed to be at, but there was the seed of doubt.

I'd read about the connecting crawl many times, the LUSS survey paperwork calls it a constricted muddy passage, but I was more familiar with the NC2 description of a bedding place crawl, which sounds fine. So direction finding was pretty simple, head down the two following pitches of Flood to the top of South East Pot, then from there instead of following the water, head into the crawl straight ahead.

Keith arrived first and took his srt kit off, hmm a bad sign for me. He set off into the crawl pushing the big bag, but soon said he was coming back. The rift had a slightly annoying gripping section 15cm or so off the ground which was wide enough to slide your knee through and work away on the ground, but difficult to get it out again and on the way back the big bag was below the little curtain and would have to be taken back into the rift, which Colum did, and then brought back again through the upper section, which I did.

There was a tight bit about 5m into the crawl which was rather committing, I couldn't say if it was the crux or not so pushing past it may have made things far worse, properly stuck rather than just a long wait. I knew that the crawl was on the survey as a flat passage from Flood arriving a few meters up at the back of the Bar Pot big pitch area and didn't change direction in height or direction. We also figured that the distance between South East Pot and the Bar Pot big pitch Aven is about 30m so the crawl was at longest 30m yet where the stream turns to the right and goes to South East Pot, the passage goes straight on as a stoop over small boulders for 10m so the tight bit was 15m into a 30m crawl.

If there has been someone at the other side showing us the distance needed to be made and also helping to see if it narrowed further or as the survey shows, widen then I'm confident now that I could have forced myself that first narrow bit, but hindsight grrr.

Keith gave it three goes, head first with the bag, then feet first pulling a trailing rope and then head first again once it looked like we were having to sit it out. Colum gave it two goes mainly because being the smallest all eyes were on him! Once Keith couldn't get through I knew I wouldn't so I didn't really feel any need to try, but I went in as far as the first tight bit and came back out. Getting to the wider bit where the bag had dropped down I was there with my knee trapped in the lower section, so I couldn't rotate downwards with my chest to get into the wider bit ahead, the thought of reversing all the way back to the start where the lower section relented and allowed my knee to get up again and then to head back in just to get stuck where Keith had got to, knocked all the fight out of me and I resigned myself to cheering on Colum and Keith. I regret that especially after looking at the survey and seeing how close we were. If we had had no call out then I'd have stripped off everything and gone for it especially as the reason we were there was my decision that I knew the way out of Stile. At the time it was having cold hands that stopped me, my gloves were on their last trip, (just one more trip, I've been saying that for a few trips now) and I think if I'd had warmer hands I'd have considered stripping down sooner rather than waiting till last to have a go by which time I was cold enough.

We had lots of rope, we'd pulled through 3 ropes which were for the pitches above, so if we could just get one guy through the crawl, we could rig both the Bar Pot big pitch and South East Pot and though leaving one rope on South East Rope to collect another time, we could get up and out Stile. Sadly we didn't have that one person who was going to fit.

I was now feeling the cold so scooted back up to the other pitches to see if there was a chance I could climb the 15m, the 10m was definitely climbable, we'd seen that on the way down, so if the 15m was we could get to the bottom of Flood, Wades and OBJ, and hopefully one of them would be climbable too, I was fairly confident OBJ was climbable but I couldn't see the top of the 15m and could only get about 5m off the floor before my bottle went so we resigned to a long long wait. I regretted not going back to the drying room to bring my caving box of stuff, food, handwarmers, spare survival bag, candle and lighter, camera etc. The Camera would have given us more batteries and had a photo of the LUSS 1980 survey on it which would have made a difference I feel, the candle will have made the survival bags warmer and food would always be nice and after a surveying trip a while back I had a pen and paper too so could have left a note at OBJ of the change to the plan, not that I would have though.

We had arrived at the crawl about 4pm and after 2 hours of faffing at it we were faced with wait till midnight when our call out was set for. If we had visited the main chamber first then we'd have had less of a wait, a more interesting trip and perhaps we should have done that, but as South East Pot can be a little damp I didn't fancy getting wet coming back up it to wait out when I was mostly dry by now. The water coming over the climb before the South East Pot was rising.

We debated where to wait, where would the CRO enter the system once they had discovered no 2nd rope on OBJ. I suggested the bottom of Bar Pot as that is the fastest way in and out of the system, but where were were was warmer and we would loose the Flood rope, so we stayed put. Keith got the lucky big bag to sit on, Colum had to battle with a bag full of metal work but knee pads keeping our backs of the cold walls, sitting out any draft or dripping water we could have been in a far worse place. We talked amongst ourselves for a while then in an effort to conserve battery power we sat in the dark, I was a little surprised at how happy I was in the dark and turning the light on every now and again was only really to see the watch. I certainly dozed off as the time passed pretty quickly, when midnight came around it was a good feeling and five and a half hours later we heard voices through the crawl to the CRO team that had come down Bar Pot.

Amusingly the CRO guy told us we could get out through that crawl, but we assured him we could not and suggested rigging Wades as the quickest way out the system. We set about kitting up again and packing everything away and although we didn't rush, after a few minutes at the bottom of the 15m pitch CRO Andy and Paul arrived dropping a rope down and we were away. I wish I'd suggested rigging OBJ in stead as that would mean we'd get our top rope back on the way out, but it seemed a little unreasonable being that it's on hangers, not sure if the CRO would be equipped and there was the small matter of the tight bit to get through.

Warm coffee on the surface from a CRO man in an awesome TSA oversuit, a quick discussion on the Molestrangler in Stile Pot where they had first looked for us after getting the tip off that I was too fat for it and had had to be winched out by a girl half my size, and we set off walking back to where the CRO land rovers were parked at the bottom of Trow Gill.
I tried to ask what the best way to initiate call out was, all those debates on UkCaving always seem odd when really we could just ask the CRO, but the rescuers were uneasy about making a decision as they araen't the people who deal with the phone call, the duty controller is. He did mention that there is a active caver list, which is for when the trouble is really on and more people are needed but not necessarily rescue trained people and we should perhaps consider signing up but really there are many hundreds of people who are closer to the Dales than us so it's not really worth it.

A zoom along the nature trail and we stopped in at the CRO depot for more tea and home made cake where Nigel surprised us with a warm welcome. Nothing left but get changed and try to apologise for getting people up at midnight and keeping others awake all night which is far harder than you'd think, just saying thank you sounds really rather hollow.

Once changed and back at the YSS I was surprised at how many people were effected by us, Hannah, Ian and Nigel had been up most of the night, there's a chance we slept more than them, people I'd not met before were asking if I was ok and even a dog walker passing by asked if the trapped party were out, I had to admit that it was me and we were fine.
I must also thank the person who answered the schol house when my wife Lindsay rang and told her I might be in the pub, a longterm caving break was avoided there



Meets List 2015

Bar Pot : Sunday Feb 8th; Keith, Colum, fancy a revisit?

Having had an unintended wait in the past, I can vouch for the usefulness of a survival bag!

Attaching a trip photo...

Ian W

Well put Ian and yes, BIG thanks to CRO and all the other people who where involved in our dilemma. On the day we all made the decisions to do what we did, and as you rightly say, it is nice to know that in these situations there is a helping hand when needed.
Suffice to say letter of thanks and donation have ben sent to CRO

Thank you Ian, you should not feel embarrassed, feel regret or be sorry for what happened nor should you feel the need for blame

these type of thing happen and hopefully lessons learned and sharing the experience with others might one day help save someone from a far worse call out for the CRO

As for the YSS reputation, everyone knows we are the best club in the dales

Was at work today with one of your rescuers- comment was " its one of those things - they were well prepared and did the right things , so no need to feel bad "

I am real glad you guys left a call out.

alexr wrote:

I am real glad you guys left a call out.

So are we

Don't feel bad on our account. Waiting by the phone helped me to get to the end of a terrible novel I've been reading...

At the risk of sparking a looooong debate, I think it would be good to add an 'expected time out' column on the call-out board. Does anyone have any objections?

Terrible novel?! I feel worse now, sleep deprivation and sub-standard literature, did you not fancy Underground Adventure by Gemmel and Myers available in the library? a classic

Do I have objections? no

Thanks Fiona, very nice to know they aren't annoyed with our predicament.

Don't feel bad on our account. Waiting by the phone helped me to get to the end of a terrible novel I've been reading...

I did not know you had a copy of my book.

harsh

hbunyan wrote:

At the risk of sparking a looooong debate, I think it would be good to add an 'expected time out' column on the call-out board. Does anyone have any objections?

Nope - so long as it's there in conjunction with a Call Out Time column, it can only be a good thing.

Only just seen this! Although I made contact the next day through FB, text and private messages.

So glad everyone is ok! and that is the main thing.

Good to hear honest opinions so everyone can learn from situations so the rest of us less brave souls can learn and plan better /be better prepared for our own trips. I'm so glad you had been so sensible to have with you 'Survival bag, spare rope, food, hand warmer etc. I think the YSS should make such things mandatory.

I admire people who push the boundaries to explore all these places and where would we be without them?

A big thank you to the CRO. We all admire them so much.

Impressed with the write up from Ian. Everyone makes mistakes but learning from them and helping others to learn is key. Good level of detail in this, and a very interesting read.

I called in the Helwith Bridge pub the Thursday after the rescue,It was Carol who actually made the call to the Police, I thanked both Carol & Paul at the pub,she had also stayed up and manage go to sleep between 6.00am and 8.00am for there help and support.
Really nice to know we have know we have a pub that supports the YSS. If Carol had her way that night she would have called the rescue out at 9.00pm the time that Kieth had ordered is dinner

Carol and Paul are superstars, she even provided us with a stuff for a breakfast when we got back on Sunday morning

In Hindsight, I know for a fact that at least one of you would have fit through the hole I am afraid to say, as I took a rather large mate (One who did not fit down trapdoor) through it. So I have to agree with the CRO guy. The passage is the tightest at the flood end, though it remains awkward througout, it becomes a bedding plane rather than a rift. The worse bit about the connection in my eyes it is the climb up/down next landing next to the pitch head on the bar pot end. One wrong move there and there is a good chance you will end up at the bottom of bar!

Anyway perhaps you should post your trip report on UKcaving and at least get some rope out of it.