Hi all,
        A bit of history, I've been caving for about 5 years with HSCC and now I'm 18 am allowed to go swinging on string so I'm looking to Purchase;

Petzl stop
Petzl Croll and/or Basic
Petzl Shunt
A couple of Pulleys.

If you have any of this forsale in not to shabby condition it would be going to a good home and I promise to make the best use out of it.

Being 18 I am a student so don't expect a response before half nine or so on any day!

Many thanks!

Bryn

You have to be over 18 there to rappel? (sorry ot...i'm just curious...we dont limit folks here!)

Amy, You have to be 18 to make legal decisions for yourself without parent or guardians consent.
I assume HSCC is a scout caving club so it is probable that minors (under 18s) were not permitted to do vertical ropes with the scouts...
In UK law, Bryn is now an adult and can make those decisions himself.

Must be a local rule within that scout group and applicable to caving srt. Scouting really pushes adventure sports usually.
My own son did his first abseil with the cub scouts at the age of 8 but it was a long way from srt. Full body harness and a second rope as a lifeline/belay.

In scouts abseiling is different from caving SRT

It is probably more a case of the caveleaders do not have the qualifications to teach SRT to scouts/under 18's

Good question, it's a matter of Safety. As an under 18 no matter how compitant I am someone has to be responsible for me within scouting. Therefore on all ladder/srt situations I would have to have a safety line on which with ladders is standard practise but with srt is too much hassle. With abseiling under 18's also have to have a safety line.

I am now certified to take scouts climbing so the rules about safety ropes are pretty specific and as some of the stuff I had done in ofd 2 e.c.t. pobably pushed what should be allowed so they decided srt would be too much hassle. No under 18's are allowed to be members of the caving club anymore, which sort of eliminates the issues we had.

However now I'm over 18 I'm old enough to make the decisions for myself so do not need a safety and can go swinging on string, which I am very much looking forward too.

Still looking...

think this is quite a grey area, there is no reason I can see why you could not take an under 18 scout  in a Cave using SRT, Caving guidelines are very different to climbing, if the authorised activity leader has sufficient qualifications, sufficient practise has been given, has risk assessed the caving system and the young persons ability, not just in up and down, but change overs between the two. if all this has been practised, and should also be practised by anyone before they go underground, then I believe they should be allowed. if your scout caving team a have rules or not the necessary qulifications then probably best not, but if they are suitably qualified then there is plenty of systems that are beginner/basic SRT.

They said to me that in principle there wasn't any problem with it. It was just that practically it was too much hassle, this was because i would have had to be belayed up and down every pitch. So the extra rope and time this would take meant that they avoided doing it underground, I did do it a few times in the scout hut and did lots of other cool things underground so didn't really mind.

Got to have something to look forward too!