Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett
(EPC), Gary Bode (EPC), Jim
Lister (EPC), Jase Rider (EPC), Chris Schofield (EPC), Ann Soulsby
(Masson
Caving Group)
A 10 a.m. start at
Pindale Farm for a day of hanging
around on their SRT platform. As I left Sheffield the weather
was better than I'd seen it for ages so we were off to a good start.
Whilst I
got the kit ready Chris made an excellent job of clearing out the grim
brown
flood sludge that coated the floor underneath the training platform.
Soon Jase
and Gary arrived and just as we were making a start Jim and Ann turned
up. As it
turned out six was a good number as we only needed to run two ropes on
the
platform.
Ann, Ralph Johnson
and I had salvaged the old Block Hall rope from Peak Cavern that had
been in
there some years. I thought it would be interesting to see what sort of
condition it would be in so a totally unscientific test was set up
involving
Chris, a knife and a slightly slack safety rope. Chris found that he
had to cut
through every strand of the core but two before it snapped under his
static
weight and when it went it went with a bang! We looked at changing over
from
abseiling to prussiking and vise versa and this highlighted a number of
issues
with kit. We then had a useful chat about improvising kit ("...help my
Croll just fell apart!...") before starting to consider assisting
"walking wounded" cavers out of caves. We looked at a number of
techniques that could be used to belay and assist cavers up short
climbs and
pitches finishing with some hoisting and associated jiggery pokery to
get the
injured and feckless off at the pitch head. After a break for lunch we
were back
at it considering assisting yourself and other people on SRT ropes. We
looked at
a couple of the more straightforward techniques including a 'snatch
rescue'
(superb acting by Jim whilst Ann abseiled to the rescue) and a
'pitch-head cut'
before a mid-afternoon cup of tea was called for (Chris produced a
stove from
somewhere and tea-making essentials apparently live in Jim's car in the
same way
that a spare wheel might live in other people's). It was very pleasant
sitting
in the sun having a chat about the PSM and all sorts of other stuff.
The final
session looked at the more complex SRT rescues including caver knocked
out on
rope above you (potentially very ill and definitely blocking your
exit!), what
are you going to do? We finished at Pindale at 5:00 p.m. and retired to
the
Nag's Head in Castleton for a drink where we had a good look at the
'Not for the
Faint Hearted' book and planned a trip for the following day. I hoped
to have
time to cover some basic first aid but we found that there was plenty
to cover
in the day on rope. I may try to schedule some first-aid stuff in for
an evening
later in the year. Let me know if you think that would be useful.
Many thanks to the
cavers who came along and
Pindale Farm outdoor centre for the use of the facilities. From my
point of view
it was an excellent day and the feedback that I got from everyone was
very
positive. I will plan to run a similar day prior to the 2008 Eldon trip
abroad.
Click on the
images above to enlarge.
1. Jim Lister
on rope.
2. The Pindale Farm chimney.
3. Chris Schofield prussiking.
4. Chris Schofield rigging.
5. Jase Rider prussiking.
6. Chris Schofield (top) and Gary
Bode.
7. Gary 'snatch rescue'.
8. Ann Soulsby rescuing an
unconscious Jim Lister.
8. Ann Soulsby abseiling with (a
very relaxed-looking) Jim
Lister.
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