Sorry it?s late posting here, but can anyone take a group of SUSS including myself around OFD1 tomorrow ? was hoping to do a round trip ? Dugout ? Bolt traverse ? Pi ? Lowes ? Streamway ? Out. I have done the trip plenty of times and would like to get my OFD1 Leadership approved at the same time if possible.

See you tonight,

Dan

Dan,
      can't do tomorrow as digging is lined up, but if you don't get a better offer I may be able to do Sunday in exchange for some modelling/flash-holding.

I've just seen a weather forecast and Sat may be iffy in any case.

Cheers,
Tony.

Oh, and I should point out that if you want me to approve you for leadership we'll have to do the trip the opposite way to your suggestion. You're supposed to be demonstrating your knowledge of the 'escape route' from the stream and the routefinding is trickier that way round. I don't know if other OFD I leaders insist on this, however, but I wouldn't want to nominate a leader who subsequently failed to lead a wet/cold/stressed party quickly and efficiently out of the cave via the upper route.
See you tonight.
Tony.

I wouldn't insist on the trip being in the "correct" direction, so long as the potential leader pointed out all the relevant landmarks as we passed them and demonstrated a good knowledge of the route generally.

However, I can't help this weekend. I'm down Slaughter Stream Cave Saturday and Clearwell Caves on Sunday.

Cheers
Rhys

Rhys, while I don't want to spark a huge debate about this, I don't have a problem with however other leaders choose to assess would-be leaders, I'll explain my point-of-view...

Some years ago I had to 'fail' a would-be leader not once but twice, as he simply couldn't find the way out of Pi Chamber. This despite being given plenty of time to do so, even on the second trip!
This is really the only tricky bit of routefinding on the entire route. I am sure that had we been going in the other direction he'd have found his way around with no problem.

All too often in debates about fixed aids and so on on the escape route, people come up with a lot of hypothetical 'what ifs', but I am sure that had my would-be leader had to 'escape' a rising stream with a party of inexperienced cavers he'd have got to Pi Chamber and then stalled, so I had to turn him down. This despite the fact that he was a mate!

Personally I also think it is valuable to assess how would-be leaders deal with the climb into Lowe's Passage (formerly Lowe's Chain but now rigged with a rope) as this is something that can cause difficulties for some.

How were the water levels on the w/e, by the way? I set out from Oxford later than I'd intended, having offered to take some of the Southampton Uni lot round OFD1 on Sunday; but by the time I'd got to Ross at about 7.30pm, my wipers had been running double-speed for an hour, and every time a lorry came the other way it was like having a bath-tub full of leafy water thrown at the car. I wimpishly turned for home!

Steve

Tony_B said:

Rhys, while I don't want to spark a huge debate about this, I don't have a problem with however other leaders choose to assess would-be leaders, I'll explain my point-of-view...

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Hi Tony, that's fair enough. It depends who you're "testing" I suppose. I would expect them to make a point of telling me that the way out of Pi Chamber is an obscure hole under a boulder at the bottom of the chamber, as it is one of the key landmarks in the trip. If they remember that much, they should find their way out. Also I'd get them to pop back up Lowe's Rope to prove they could do it!

Cheers
Rhys

Rhys

SGR said:

How were the water levels on the w/e, by the way? I set out from Oxford later than I'd intended, having offered to take some of the Southampton Uni lot round OFD1 on Sunday; but by the time I'd got to Ross at about 7.30pm, my wipers had been running double-speed for an hour, and every time a lorry came the other way it was like having a bath-tub full of leafy water thrown at the car. I wimpishly turned for home!

Steve

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You did the right thing. It rained on and off pretty much all weekend, and the OFD I stream was not a clever place to be. I went in on Sunday afternoon on a solo photo trip and although I did do one or two shots in the stream at Pluto's Bath I had to be very careful. It was clear that any attempt at going far in the stream would have been foolhardy.