EREWE ELIMBING AND PoTHoLine BLuuB REWSLRTTER JUNE 498K No 5 Edited by Kevin Mountford. THE CLUB 'DO* Most of the comments about the ‘Club Do! have so far been complinentary. In ny opinion, anyone who didn't make it, missed a good night out, ao book it down in your diary for next year. The floor show engineered by that tpight pair’ «ruckle! (Newsletter Feb.&,) Phil and Kevin was excellent, despite being 'near the (rumour hes it they're suditioning for TW TW TWt) and the Wally awards had un excellent standard of entry, with Phil's ‘Berger evacuation’ gaining nost points on the clapometer, narrowly followed by Zixgy's "rescue in Knotlow', Pinally I would like to thank our resident DJ/conpare/ringmaster/uC Cliff Jones for s service. If you have any suggestions for 1985, they'll be most welcona can 'do a turn’ J.R.JOHNSON, PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION hich Judged at the took part in this competition to all those wh Pobruery. The standard of entries was high, the winner by a narrow margin being Mel Bratt with a slide of C.J at the Columns (OFD). A roving this competition should submit ideas to ALAN SCRAGG ‘club dot suggestions for io (with s agreed to collect, analyse and publish suggestions, This corpetition will minimal pressure and without resorting to the usual strong-ara tactil an annual avent,so don't leave it tco late =~ Do it now. ‘uly becer Pegs on your suggestions either in person or in writing. MINNATS HEAD CAVE It has heen stated that rescue from Fox Chamber is now impossible, ani th are rumours about the cave entrance to be blocked permanently GET_KNOTTED (aq abreviated vergion of 2 reeent article in Caves ant Caving, For ‘attachnent knots! the strongest are Pig.8 and Fig.9. Contrary to popular” belief the bowline is particularly poor, The Fig.8 and Fig.9 are less good when used other than in an tend! situstion. In the above diugram, should the bolt fail then the Fig.8 at this point will ne longer be loaded along it's usin axis ie, an ‘end’ knot, but will becone a middle knot, and the rope wil] be much weaker at this point. MCRAL -- avoid this situation by always using 'Y* anchors. sre + no or Pig,8 on the bicht) is better ‘ion ., oinee on ths lexge loop is Sasienly e ‘middle’ inet. pa of the Solt falls ? in the o-se on how the knot is tied)! Sometimes the loop slips back into the knot absorbing much of the energy of the fall, thus being stronger, BUT it depends how the knot is tied. Personaly I would go for the Fig.8. Now for a 'new' concept (unless of course you're old enough to remenber the Tarbuek noth) A shock absorbing knot can help considerably. B x In the above diegras, should the bolt fail (B) then the loop of rope (L) can absorb the energy , 1f soy o butterfly imot is used. You can't of course use the traverse Line to hang on, since the butterfly knot will slip, but it does help 4£ you fall onto the traverse liney--- think about itt PS. Having been weened on shock absorbing knots such as the Tarbuck knot,I am putting together sone ideas of ay own for cosideration by Dave #lliot. I'11 let you ‘know . the outeone Ta saene 2 COMPLAINT Deer Editor, ‘ May I edmplain about the objectionable insinuation that ferales employed by H.H, Gcvernsent in the arsed forces (particularly the Navy) are of low intelligence as portrayed in your ‘problem page' of your February issue. I also take exception to the term ‘Naval fluff. C.P.0, Wygeins W.RNS Hello Sailor, ‘The article refered to Navel fluff not Naval flurr. Ea. GOING GOING___ GONE. Some people have said, and I would not disagree, that the Mayday Bark holiday meeting was the best they have ever attended. Although the attendance was lorer than ususl (where was Tony Reynolds) I'm sure those who were present will agree it went very weH. The agenda was dealt with very quickly, but for the life of ne I can't remember one single item, I should add here that I lost my bit of paper on which I was taking notes, and all those people whe askei ze to book certain oaves should approach ne again ---- before I oi] my neck this tine. After the meeting proper, we held an impromptu auction, Alan Walker, recently retired, had sent along some gear which he wanted to dispose of. Krabs, tapes, helmets and belt, people were happy with became £40 better off, (he originally wanted £25 for the lot) . People with gear to sell , take note. : ‘Also on auction was a collection of photographs recently taken in Yorkshire, ng with various other bits and pieces all went ‘under the hammer’, Most hat they managed to successfully bid for, and Alan Walker und the proceeds of these were for club funds. Photograph NO.1 went to Phil Marsden, whose finol bid of one new tackle bag, secured him a black and white print of his own face. Photograph No.2, in a sealed plain envelope, also went to Phil (what's this I've got in my hand) Marsden, for a paltry £2. (I think psople took «pity on Phil, whose 4 ity to tell his **** from his face must put his reputation us a hard ? caver nt risk.) Photograph No.3 after sone hard bidding, went to Poul Shenton for £5, and althouch the print was once again in a sealed plain envelope, most people knew what it showed, Photograph No.4 which was @lso in a sealed plain “THROUGH envelope was acuired by yours truly for £5.05, and I can only suarise at the people who saw it before-hand thought it worth no less. Pinelly a message for Paul Holdoroft, your'e a marked man, you'll get yours -- IN A SEALED PLAIN ENVELOPE!!! C.Jones. IS THIS A RECORD. igs Ralph's story --- . This particular "dig" began in about 1957 when two intrepsi teenagers, clad in layers of wooly pullies and armed with a couple of nodificd bicycle lamps and a home-made wood and hemp ladder, set off for théir new find in Giant's Hole. In those days you couldn't get into it if the weather was bad, firstly there was a duck about 50m, in which threatened to drown anyone attexpting Jed. This +ook three nen about two hours since they had to move about 5000 gallona of wate - to exit against the current, and secondly, the first sump had to be I counted several times! If the rain had been heavy the previous week the muter vunning in just about equalled the bailing rate, Even in dry weather one pad to bear in mind the possibility of heavy rain filling the susp before you returned or the likelyhood of soreone letting the bungs out of the dana! Anyway - back to ay story. On one of our aborted sessions on the way cut a noticed a strean coming out of the left hand wall, just before Pillar Crawl.(Pillar ng passsge with a tighter right hand bend. After some difficulty we arrived in an aven from which the water appeared, With our paltry lights we could hardly see euch other let alone the top through the torrent of water, so we went home. (Me on ay bixe) Crawl dissappeared years ago), An awkward climb landed us in o tight upward slo: 4 couple of weeks later there we were, Mike Scott and ayself, baek in the avan with the sum tétal of two bits of aetal called pitons, one coal hanmer, two ladders ttor ed and couple of krabs. After a few feat I decided that discretion wus the » part of valour so I handed Mike the hammer and remaining peg , and he cont: upwerds by standing on one ledder fastened to a peg, before planting the si pes higher for the next ladder, transfering to the new ladder before removing the lover peg. Now this night sound stupid in this different age but these pegs had cost us around 2/9 each (thats about 1hp in'new' money!) and being skint, it's all we could afford, also we didn't possess any lifelines! Eventually Mike reached about 20' while I shivered below. Suddenly = ‘ping’ was followed by a brief ory as the top peg came out sending Mike back in the direetion he had cone, leaving his fingernails behind as he clawed at the rock in an attenpt to arrest his fall. Luckily for hia (but not for me) his fall was broken ty your: truly. 3 Needless to say we were somewhat disencouraged by our lack of sucess, so nursing our wounds, we exited to our club hut (the imfanous hen cote ut Rowter Fara) leaving 3 trail of blood to mark our route. «Ne never went beck, but in the early 704 the notorious Rob Heath accomponied by Tony R. (Juws) hud a look but their attentions were diverted to 'Rob!s dig! which held the pravious ‘dig record’. hil and Kev. take up the story. J.R. Johnson. Kevin's story -—- . Ralph came running up to Phil and-I, all exeited telling us about this new ‘dig’ that he had found, Phil and T were not very enthusiastic at all but then Ralph told us about the last time he visited this passage down Giant's Hole. ‘They got 20' up this aven using pitons, but as the piton cane out, they saw a sign post at the top of the aven which saia "Jackpot 1 mile" but only for young men, So Ralph and his friend retreated from the passage imoiring they were too old for this type of adventure, because back in 1957 Ralph was 43 years ola, and so never returned to the aven to retrieve his piton, ‘This is where the adventurous Phil and I stepped in. We decided to unravel this 25 year old mystery, so we sat down at our drawing table for days on end, devising 4 plan of action, In the end we decided not to use pitons, but to use scaling poles. So one cola frosty Saturday morning we went to Giant's (in cars this time, not on picycles) with 30° of sealing poles sticking out of the boot, We drove up to the fara house and gave the farmer 45p each, the farmer went into the backroom and fetched his shotgun and politely asked us for 90p each, so we told him that we were only going in Giant's and not coming out as we knew where the connection to Jackpot was. At this he began to lead his shotgun, so we shoved £1.80 into his hand and ran off. We entered the cave with a rucksack each and the sealing poles and mae our way to small passage that Ralph had described, Full of exciteuent I climbed up to the crawl, with the help of a bunk-up from Phil (thanks Phil), I went 5° up the crawl and came back, Phil asked if I had reached the aven and I answered “I'm not going up that crawl" end clisbed ne Phil then entered the crawl only to return a few minutes later to tell back dom agai nme that his 'posh' petzy2 helmet would not fit through the squeeze , so I gave hin mine because mine is a lot smaller (due to the fact his head is a lot bigger!) Phil vanished pack up the crawl and a few minutes later shouted back that he had reached the «ven, So I built up ay courage again and started up the crawl, only to find that I now had Phil's big cumbersome helmet, which I had to take off and push in front of me. Phil started to laugh as I reached a 45° bend and couldn't push the helmet round, so he came back and took it off me, I finally reached the aven and Phil pointed to Ralph's piton, still there after 27 years. Phil chimnied up the aven to see where to put a bolt and returned, and I then climbed up to the piton and fastened a rope to it and tied myself on, I knew the piton would still be safe after 27 years, especially as Ralph had put it in, I dangled for about half an hour putting in the bolt, but if you ask Phil he will probably say it was more like 25 hours, but I should know, shouldn't I, I attached the rope and ladder to the bolt and abseiled to a shivering Phil, blue with cold, I made him sit on his carbide lap to get warm, and once he was and realised he was sitting on his lamp ha shot up the ladder and put the next bolt in, in 5 minutes flat!! We repeated this proceedure for about 3 hours and although I was unaffected Phil got exposure 6 tines waiting for me, so we called it a day. The next day Phil and I returned to Giant's with Paul Holdcroft , to help us with the bolting. We had decided to remove Ralph's piton and make it into the club ‘Wally war" (already mentioned),gnd while Paul was doing this Phil had placed another bolt. Once the ladder was attached to this bolt Phil was able to enter a passage similar to Grab Walk, but which closed dom to a squeese after 4 feet, and only by breathing out and pushing hard was he able to enter the chamber beyond, A small stream ran through the 6" figh chamber but the only way on was a 3"square hole , admitedly heading towards Jackpot, but even Phil who is, as we all know = all skin and done, could go no further. He returned to the foot of the aven and asked Paul and me to ‘have a look', Paul’ went first, took one look at the first squeeze, and came back, telling Pail he was "bloody daft" for going through that. I climbed the ladder but did not even attempt the squeeze "ploody daft” was right. I unclipped the ladder and abseiled down to Phil and Paul and we made our way out.... straight to the nearest pub, Kevin Mountford. EQUIPMENT NI To aid future rescues the foot of the stretcher will be labelled "Foor" (the end with the boots on goes here - Kevin please note) and the head of the stretcher will be labelled 'HEAD' (thats the end with the helmet eyes etc, etc,). This will avoid confusion for Team G. and will minimise chest fractures on the "victin"!! -_ SPORTSWEEK 8. The organiser (ie. the barman at the Apnual 'Do') has asked if we will help with the above event, which takes place in Biddulph on Sat. QM, June. I suggested an “Andoor display” (gear, photograchs, posters etc.) and a prusiiing, ladder, abseil tomer. We have also been offered a 100" high crane jibt{ We will need at least 8 people to attend on the day so please give your name to Ralph if you can help. J.ReJohnson. Most of you will have seen Sid Perou's film of the Gaping Gill/Ingleborough connection recently on television, but how many of you spotted Cliff, Melv, Kev and Mick Farnell in the film. If you blinked at the wrong time you will have missed them, BELAYS FOR Some months ago I wrote an article on bolts for sar, fortunately uost of the points covered are now standard practice but one aspect, which is most important, seems to be regularly overlooked. SRT ropes are low stretch and net designed to teke ae a dynamic load (fall). Tey should never be subjected to a fall factor of greater than 7 (10%), This can readily be caleulated using the formla:~ Fall Factor = Height Fallen Length of Rope. For example - if a caver was clipped into th intermediate bolt 'B' or was close to it when it falled then he would fall 1m. (It is inpractice] to leave a ‘Aaa loop of less than dm, and frequently the loop is auch Lm longer - Don't forget you full twice the length of eo 38 the rope.) If the distance A -B was 9m. thon the fall factor would be% ie. the linit of safety. Any short: and the rope (or bolt) would break. In practical teras a) If you were doing Mandale, the internediate bolt is about 60m. from the main belay, so even with a 1m, laop (2m. fall) the fall factor would be 4; = well within safety 1isits. b) If you were doing Nettle and used the intermediate anchor 3m. below the Sentry Box, with a jm, loop you would fall 1m, on aka, rope is, fall factor-t , the rope/belay ote. would fail, In simple teras a) Keep your loops small, but don't forget your mate if he's wearing a roller boxt! (and if you don't savvy, then asic Tony R. to recount his epic on Deaths Head.) b) If you are within 10m, of your main anchor treat the intermediate bolt as a main anchor ie. put two in. J.R.Johnson, MISSING. Coe on - own up, who's got the club copy of Caves and Caving No. 15 and Ralph's Descents No's 49 and 54. Some time ago, in a moment of weakness, Ralph offered to publicixethe contents of the club “library”. Well here's the first edition, a list of BORA "Transactions" * “Bulletins and "Cave sciences", For the normal caver with miniscule brain these tend to be a bit high-powered (to put it mildly) so the list includes details of anything of special interest to the average 'thickie'. T.DEC "7h. Ropes in SRT. (extract) T.WaAR '80 B,NOV '76 Swildons. NW Stream Passage T.JUN "80 T.DEC '76 New Guinea T.SEF '60 B.FEB '77 Forest of Dean ‘T,DEC "89 B.NOV '77 SRT ropes T.MAR *84 B,PEB ‘78 T.JUN '81 T.MAR ‘78 Pitch-rigging 4 SRT ‘T.SEP ‘81 BaMaY "78 ‘T.FEB '82 T,JUN *78 T.JUN 182 T.DEC '78 ‘T.SEP "62 T.APR ‘79 TAMAR '83 T.AUG "79 Iran 2,J0N +83 P.NOV "79 T.0cT "83 T.DEC '79 Otter Hole & Derbyshire Soughs ‘T.DBC "83 CAVES AND CAVING MUSS Austria Three Counties syste’ Matienzo Mulu SRT Rescue Leck Fell All issues contain regular items on equipment etc. ani Irish News, Northern News,CDz ote. AUG Nov FEB MAY AUG MAY "78 "78 bg «3 "19 "73 Mies "80 "80 *80 "80 “84 81 Shoath slippage, Winnats Head, Mulu austria '78, King Pot, U.S.S.R Norway (by you know who) Mulu, Bire '78 Austria Spain Magnetoneter, France, Greece N,Spain, Matienzo, Austria Yugoslavia, Austria, Trevisco '79 Streaks Pot, Spain, Switzerland Matienzo, Hungary, Austria Morocco, Sardinia, Trevisco AUS "64 Nov '84 FRB ‘82 MAY "82 AUG 182 Nov '82 FEB ‘85 MAY '85 AUG '83 Nov '83 FEB '8h Mexico, Mulu Korocea, Matienzo Missing!! Sardinia, roceo, Yercours Asie, Austria Norway, Austria, Spain Norway, Greece, S |, Mexico Greece Spanish caving data Matienzo, Trelend Spain, Austria If you are interested in a caving holiday in Spain next year (1985), kindly fill in this form so that we will know your requirements. z NAME Z For the questions below please tick the appropriate boxes. We planned to go at the end of august, is this date suitable ? or would you prefer an alternative ? | If an alternative, please indicate Would you be able to go for 2 weeks ? or 1 week ? Which accomodation would you prefer - Camping? Hotel ? Shared Villa ? | Which neans of transport do you prefer - Ow Car By Air? Coach ? I Would you prefer 2 weeks caving ? or 1 week caving and 1 week on the beach etc? Please return to Paul Holdcroft, Cliff Jones or Ralph Johnson, OS. "Bace-yP"” Te he viene Rasa Bowline on the Bight 1 2 } OS Each of the leaps can mf easily be altered to | any length faS. err Gust = Le AR Me = Asegaden TAG Aoxpawd2) ieee) #8(6) HaPrecDVALtEY(ag) GATE (C) HeowTA SHAFT CAPE rARE (A ULES Foyer (C) navdALE CUAET()) ALUM LEM) euiae #1 FTC w terece (1) Speeares (I) neacene () reenyeoort!) Aesy (a) dY06) GMneg-FEC\)