Age Restrictions ?????

Big Si

New member
First post for me Guys n Galls so no links to White Scar Caves, Wooky Hall or Cheddar Gorge please.
I'm going to be doing some caving real soon so have been in touch with Burnley Caving Club as a starter for ten.
I'm hoping to get a bit of extra training and advice from them before we disappearing underground together.
The thing I'm wondering is,I have a ten year old son that I know would love to have a go.Do you think hes to young though.....????
 

PaulW

Member
never too young, took some scouts out in the mendips at the weekend most of them were 10/11 my daughter first went under ground when she was 8, and took a 5 yr old on a short trip at new year, obviously all suitable caves for the abilities/ ages of those involved :)
 

carabeener

New member
Never too young, my niece is 11 and is doing SRT trips.  Just keep the trips real easy to start with so as not to scare them off.  Besides, the smaller they are the easier to send them down that small hole to "see if it goes!"
 

TheBitterEnd

Well-known member
Search this forum, you'll find quite a lot of advice. My kids have been caving for a couple of years, now aged 9 and (nearly) 11. Just make sure they have lots of warm, non-cotton, clothes and take plenty of sweets. Inglesport/Bernies do helmet hire and Bernies hire out kids oversuits (but waterproofs are pretty good).
 

Burt

New member
Si - Go for it. He's old enough to know what he likes and more importantly, be able to tell you. He'll probably love it if "sold" in the right way!
 

Big Si

New member
Great stuff....looks like all sytems are go then...I was thinking about having a look at Great Douk sometime soon start him off....good idea ?? :clap:
 

hhoops

New member
Great Douk was the first successful caving trip I had with my (then) 9 and 11 yr old daughters.
I had tried Long Churn but the eldest was spooked by the thunderous noise the water can make, even at quite a low water level. Helen
 

Amy

New member
I wish my parents had been into caving and taken me along when I was young!

I've helped with trips up north - nice easy 640 meters of passage, if you've been to Heron Pot it reminds me a lot of that first horizontal bit with the walking/crawling in small watery passages but we have an 8 foot waterfall that is pretty easy climbing and a fun muddy goopy loop and a few dry spots too - and we've had families with kids come on them, youngest was 6, I believe. They often do better than the college students who come up with their geology classes!
 

ttxela

New member
10 is plenty old enough, young T's first trip was a couple of weeks after her 7th birthday, a 3 hour wander round Devonshire Mine.

Take a picnic and a flask of hot chocolate.
 

Brains

Well-known member
ttxela said:
Take a picnic and a flask of hot chocolate.
Take extra for yourself/anybody else - trying to get that flask of hot choc of "Young T" just isnt going to happen!
Took my little ones u/g from 4 or 5  - not so little nw though!
 

Amy

New member
....hot chocolate 0.o now there is an idea. What can you keep that in so it stays warm? Or tea, probably tea for underground. Oh and tea has caffeine in it - maybe that should be my underground migraine cure! (caffeine does work for mine sometimes...hrm...)
 

graham

New member
Amy said:
What can you keep that in so it stays warm?

thermos-flask.jpg
 

kay

Well-known member
Big Si said:
Great stuff....looks like all sytems are go then...I was thinking about having a look at Great Douk sometime soon start him off....good idea ?? :clap:

My son claimed this was his favourite cave. Use your judgement as to whether you take him the whole wet way into Middle Washfold or take him out the way you came in. If you take him out the way you came in, you can vary it by taking him up to that window in the cliff overlooking the shakehole.

Choose a nice day - walks are longer and more boring for kids.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Burt makes an extremely good point about the importance of the trip being "sold" in the right way.

Dow Cave makes a good introductory trip - pick a nice day though so that the walk up to the entrance is a pleasant experience (and, more particularly, coming out of the cave is also pleasant). It can get very wet very quickly in there, so use discretion with the weather. Ribblehead has several good offerings as well.

The Burnley is a very good club and you shouldn't go wrong with them.

The NPC has a couple of "family weekends" each year, so that mums & dads can stay at the cottage near Clapham with their kids. Caving features highly in these weekends. The beauty of this is that, as well as the kids having a brilliant time, mums & dads who have drifted off the scene have a perfect excuse to drift back again. Another benefit is that today's children become tomorrow's caving tigers. In fact the first junior member has just been welcomed into the club - and she's mad keen!
 

bren

New member
everything said above is great advice.my lad has just started the only problem he has is that his hands get cold really quickly and he gets pretty miserable when this happens.He is now using neoprene diving gloves and that seems to have solved the issue.My advice go for it but just remember that they get colder and hence more tired quicker.Jelly babies and neoprene!!!! sure to love it.
 

PaulW

Member
bren said:
everything said above is great advice.my lad has just started the only problem he has is that his hands get cold really quickly and he gets pretty miserable when this happens.He is now using neoprene diving gloves and that seems to have solved the issue.My advice go for it but just remember that they get colder and hence more tired quicker.Jelly babies and neoprene!!!! sure to love it.

had that with my daughter too, she now has neoprene gloves and socks, decathlon do small sizes. also now wears an elios and my new pixa head torch, no battery on a belt to get in the way as the smaller they are the more they have to climb or sit and slide to get past obstacles that we can just step down or over, so this makes it easier for her and therefore more enjoyable  :) :)
 

TheBitterEnd

Well-known member
My kids use goalie gloves which seem to work pretty well - cheap in Sports Direct -  and grippy and don't hold water
 

ttxela

New member
PaulW said:
bren said:
everything said above is great advice.my lad has just started the only problem he has is that his hands get cold really quickly and he gets pretty miserable when this happens.He is now using neoprene diving gloves and that seems to have solved the issue.My advice go for it but just remember that they get colder and hence more tired quicker.Jelly babies and neoprene!!!! sure to love it.

had that with my daughter too, she now has neoprene gloves and socks, decathlon do small sizes. also now wears an elios and my new pixa head torch, no battery on a belt to get in the way as the smaller they are the more they have to climb or sit and slide to get past obstacles that we can just step down or over, so this makes it easier for her and therefore more enjoyable  :) :)

Used to stick an Oldham on young T, didn't half used to complain about it  ::)
 

kay

Well-known member
I was in Yordas today with a grown-up non-caver, and realised from his reactions that Yordas might be a very good start. Not far from the road, which is good. Take them into the main chamber, show them the false floors in the main chamber, wow them with the waterfall, let them explore the narrow rifts around there. Then back to the other end, along the stream to the lower exit as far as they want to go, then into that other passage and up to the window overlooking the stream. Then out of the cave, and get them to follow the valley upwards and see if they can find where the stream enters the system. Finally, show them the bottom entrance. Lots of fun there. But I expect you've already done all that!
 

Rachel

Active member
hi, we're in the BPC which has quite an active junior membership, including my 10 year old daughter who started caving at 18 months old. I'm sure your son would love Great Douk - I know I always enjoy it and I'm the biggest kid of the lot  ;)
 
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