Hello there?!

Nanette

New member
Hi there, I want to scratch that itch again and get into caving!

Ok, so I have only had a couple of hours underground a fair... fair... few years ago, but its always interested me.... yes, so much so that I haven't done anything about it, but..... now i want to!

I have been reading through the forums, allsorts of info online and i am now stuck with deciding whether I should just book on a 'caving experience' day with one of the companies who organise these or joining a caving club nearest to me (East Yorkshire) and try to get on a 'novice' cave trip. 

Only thing is I would imagine that most caving clubs don't often have 'novice' cave trips.... so how and where do i start?

Any ideas or help...... please??  thankyou  :)
 

cavemanmike

Active member
Nanette said:
Hi there, I want to scratch that itch again and get into caving!

Ok, so I have only had a couple of hours underground a fair... fair... few years ago, but its always interested me.... yes, so much so that I haven't done anything about it, but..... now i want to!

I have been reading through the forums, allsorts of info online and i am now stuck with deciding whether I should just book on a 'caving experience' day with one of the companies who organise these or joining a caving club nearest to me (East Yorkshire) and try to get on a 'novice' cave trip. 

Only thing is I would imagine that most caving clubs don't often have 'novice' cave trips.... so how and where do i start?

Any ideas or help...... please??  thankyou  :)


we(ucet) do novice trips all the time, i think you'll find most caving clubs will take you out on a novice trip if you contact get in touch. im sure there are quite a few local clubs on your door step.
if your prepared to travel to north wales we would certainly  sort something out for you.
good luck
 

AR

Well-known member
Contact some clubs; you're a couple of hours drive from both the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales and if you ask, you'll generally find a club member will be happy to take a novice out for an easy trip, and arrange for some loan kit.
 

Antwan

Member
The Yorkshire Subterranean Society or YSS for short are always happy to give an introduction to Novices.

We also have a pretty sweet club HQ at Helwith Bridge with an indoor training wall to teach/practice all the ropework, with accomodation for non-members at only ?6 pppn and there is an excellent pub next door too

have a little nosey on www.yssuk.com if you have not found us already.
 

cavemanmike

Active member
Antwan said:
The Yorkshire Subterranean Society or YSS for short are always happy to give an introduction to Novices.

We also have a pretty sweet club HQ at Helwith Bridge with an indoor training wall to teach/practice all the ropework, with accomodation for non-members at only ?6 pppn and there is an excellent pub next door too

have a little nosey on www.yssuk.com if you have not found us already.

there you go i knew you lot would chirp up and help out . result :clap: :clap:
 

Nanette

New member
Thanks for the tips guys, I will contact a few clubs and check out ucet......and see what happens!!

actually..... I was in the peak district last September and checked out a cave .............. this will make you chuckle i'm sure...... it was Thors Cave... hehe not that exciting but still enjoyed the 5 minutes it took to look around it  ;)
 

skippy

Active member
You could always check out Craven?
We run several novice trips in our meets calender, we have a yearly 'Try Caving' event and we also run the GG winch each year.
We have a Web site where our meets are available to view..and a public facebook page that documents the trips we've done recently.
Take a look and see what you think...Contact details are available on the web site.

We welcome all abilities...
 

Nanette

New member
Thanks Skippy... I will indeed check it out and get my arse into gear!

I've looked at a few caving club links before and just wondered how many of the members regularly go on trips?  is there like a whole herd of you crawling through the tunnels and cracks underground all at once or do you have a limit on the amount of people on one trip?
 

JasonC

Well-known member
Nanette said:
I've looked at a few caving club links before and just wondered how many of the members regularly go on trips?  is there like a whole herd of you crawling through the tunnels and cracks underground all at once or do you have a limit on the amount of people on one trip?

That's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question :) 
On a fine Sunday afternoon in late September, you might find certain popular caves full of Uni freshers trips, but parties of 3 - 5 are far more common, with numbers generally dropping with the temperature and the tightness of the cave...
 

Nanette

New member
.... thanks for the link, i'll be adding that to my fb and watching you! 

I expect I will be sending a few messages to clubs nearest to me soon...... see what I can get sorted  ;)

Thanks for your help everyone  :)
 

Alex

Well-known member
It does depend on the club as for herds or not. BRCC does not do herd caving, we actively try to avoid it (not like its normally a problem) only thing is we don't have the capacity to train newbies as we like to stick with the harder and interesting trips and avoid the novice stuff simply because we are bored of those sorts of caves but also because training novices takes more than a few trips! Even the bigger clubs can this mistake. (BRCC would be happy to do it, if it was only one or two novice trips, required).

Larger clubs often have a split of those who want to do the harder trips and those who are happy to do the novice type stuff all year round which is great for training newbies too. YSS tends to be the latter and do go down in herds at times too.

BRCC was my first club and I think I was the last 'novice' to join 8 years ago. I know about being chucked in at the deep end , my third trip was Ease gill depot 1.5. which was well knackering, I was in hammer 6 months later but I was no where near ready! So novice training really does take a lot of time, and although I learned quickly this way you are courting danger.

 

Nanette

New member
Thanks Alex..... you say BRCC would be happy to train a novice if it only took one or two trips..... I am a quick learner!!?! lol

I will try and get on a few novice trips wherever/whenever I can this year.

Anyone fancy a tag along?!?!  :blink:
 

andrewmcleod

Well-known member
Alex said:
BRCC was my first club and I think I was the last 'novice' to join 8 years ago. I know about being chucked in at the deep end , my third trip was Ease gill depot 1.5. which was well knackering, I was in hammer 6 months later but I was no where near ready! So novice training really does take a lot of time, and although I learned quickly this way you are courting danger.

I only went caving for the first time last Halloween, and last weekend I rigged the main pitches of Rift Pot (Allotment) and derigged the Bar Pot Alternative (SE Aven + traverse, Flowstone Chamber and Small Mammal Pot), but I have done 15 new caves and mines and 4 repeat trips (not necessarily the same part) since then, and more importantly I am a climber! Doesn't give me much more time to beat you to a grade 5 cave in 6 months though...

None of this would have been possible without my club, to whom I am extremely grateful! One advantage of a Uni club is that training novices is critical since everyone leaves after 3 years, so the main thrust of the club is getting novices on trips...
 
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