25 years since Geoff Crossley and Geoff Yeadon dived from King Pot to Keld Head

David Rose

David Rose

Active member
Coming up on August 3: the 25th anniversary of the amazing 3.1km dive from the ternminal sump of King Pot, East Kingsdale, to the resurgence at Keld Head, by Geoff Yeadon and Geoff Crossley. I covered it on the day for the Observer with Gavin Newman taking the photos, and I'm glad to say that all four of us are still caving to a reasonable standard, despite the passage of years. To the two Geoffs: have a pint on me and hope to see you underground before too long. A great day I still remember very vividly - as, I am sure, do you!

The 1991 article made the front page!

wl
 
David Rose

David Rose

Active member
Readers who want to read the article  will find that if they go to the UK Caving Facebook page and download the image from there, it will load as a JPG that can be enlarged and still be readable.
 
Joe.Bones

Joe.Bones

Member
Watching Sid's Film, it mentions that a new entrance was dug into the bottom of King Pot, a similar thing to Valley Entrance to make things easier for the divers.

I'd never heard of this before, and assume that it must have been filled in after the connection dive was made

Can anyone shed light on it's existence?
 
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damian

Active member
Joe.Bones said:
Can anyone shed light on it's existence?
Click to expand...
Valley Exit ... as far as I know it was dug with the landowner's permission on the understanding it would not be used afterwards ... and that remains the situation.
 
Pegasus

Pegasus

Administrator
Staff member
damian said:
Joe.Bones said:
Can anyone shed light on it's existence?
Click to expand...
Valley Exit ... as far as I know it was dug with the landowner's permission on the understanding it would not be used afterwards ... and that remains the situation.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's correct.

I feel lucky to have been able to do a through trip down King and out of Valley Exit  :)
 
F

Flotsam

Active member
Pegasus said:
damian said:
Joe.Bones said:
Can anyone shed light on it's existence?
Click to expand...
Valley Exit ... as far as I know it was dug with the landowner's permission on the understanding it would not be used afterwards ... and that remains the situation.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's correct.

I feel lucky to have been able to do a through trip down King and out of Valley Exit  :)
Click to expand...

I was there in King Pot the day the surface connection was located it was possible to shout to and hear the surface team. Unfortunately we weren't able to dig it through on the day.
 
Badlad

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
Only a day before the anniversary Geoff 'Roy Orbison' Yeadon still caving and finding new passage in the dales...  8)

wl
 
Franklin

Franklin

Member
Ah, Roy Orbison, the Grand Master! He's still 'walking well' - 'walked' into the new extension beyond Frink Chamber in Ireby 2 (er, ... Far Frink?) in his 'new shoes.' A cardio-vascular epic for some - a stroll in the park for others!
 
blackshiver

blackshiver

Member
I saw Geoff in Inglesport cafe on Sunday and mistook the gentleman with him (A Geoff Crossley apparently) for my childhood hero (John Cordingley). I would like to sincerely appologise to John for any offence so caused.
 
Pegasus

Pegasus

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks to Geoff Yeadon, Geoff Crossley, Gavin Newman & Frank Pearson for the following (historical) photographs - doesn't seem like 25 years ago.....

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slinkydan

Member
Must say I had hoped I would get the opportunity to meet these guys during euro speleo. They have done some amaizing things for cave diving and caving in general.
 
Pitlamp

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Geoff Crossley gave me some much valued advice on parapenting a while ago; he almost persuaded me to do that instead of cave diving. Must admit it does appeal.

What's the bloke called in the red shirt next to Geoff Yeadon in that picture where he's holding up a pint?
 
X

xley

New member
No worries Blackshiver, I wasn't offended either! 😉
Slinkydan - that's a shame. We were both there on Saturday in the day, would've been good to have met up.
Pitlamp - The guy in the photo is Mick Watson, sadly no longer with us.
 
Pitlamp

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Thanks - I remember meeting him when I was a teenager in Bernie's cafe. Never actually knew his name.
 
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