Keld Head

corinthian

New member
When Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham did the epic through trip dive to Keld Head some years ago, I seem to remember one of the TV companies recording it. Does anyone know if  a copy is available anywhere?
 

graham

New member
Almost definitely. It's a good piece, Geoff's Mick Jagger impersonation was a truly great bit of caving PR.
 

darwen dave

New member
If it helps, I think it was part of a series titled "Beneath the Pennines" and the episode was "The Underground Eiger"
 

JJ

Member
darwen dave said:
If it helps, I think it was part of a series titled "Beneath the Pennines" and the episode was "The Underground Eiger"

I am not sure that this is correct. "Beneath the Pennines" was part of the brilliant (for the time) Sid Perou series from memory Pipikin, Dowbergill, White Scar, Alum and Lancaster and made for the BBC.

The Underground Eiger was entirely separate not by Sid and broadcast on the other "side".
 

martinm

New member
JJ said:
darwen dave said:
If it helps, I think it was part of a series titled "Beneath the Pennines" and the episode was "The Underground Eiger"

I am not sure that this is correct. "Beneath the Pennines" was part of the brilliant (for the time) Sid Perou series from memory Pipikin, Dowbergill, White Scar, Alum and Lancaster and made for the BBC.

The Underground Eiger was entirely separate not by Sid and broadcast on the other "side".

Yorkshire Television:- http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6dc39959

It's listed as DVD17 on the old RRCPC web site:- http://www.rrcpc.org.uk/video.htm

Might be worth contacting their librarian (via their new site) to see if they can supply a copy. I wouldn't mind one too!

Regards, Mel.
 

Blakethwaite

New member
I made an extremely half-arsed effort to find a copy a few years ago to no avail. Finding someone and/or a library who has a copy and finding a way to copy it is probably the way forward.
 
I have the Underground Eiger on VHS and a facility to copy it to DVD (courtesy of Panasonic). However, this would probably be a breach of copyright if I then distributed the copies here, there and everywhere.
 

Duncan Price

Active member
I have it as .wmv file with the adverts edited out and spliced together into a 2.9 GB file.  PM me your address and I'll send you a DVD in return for a donation to the cave rescue team of your choice.
 

SamT

Moderator
Get it stuck up on YouTube! !!!

If someone gets upperty about copyright, you tube will send you an email and you take it off again.  Big deal.
 

skippy

Active member
It was part of a series of cave Diving films called 'Darkness Beckons' and it was filmed by Sid in the eighties.
Underground Eiger was one of 4 episodes charting the history of British Cave Diving Starting from the break though at Wookey to the connections at Ingleborough and Keld head.
It also documents several tragedies that have occured over the years.
There are one or two UKC regulars in the films...looking very young.

Thanks to 'Darwen Dave' I have three of the 4 episodes.

 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
skippy said:
It was part of a series of cave Diving films called 'Darkness Beckons' and it was filmed by Sid in the eighties.
Underground Eiger was one of 4 episodes charting the history of British Cave Diving Starting from the break though at Wookey to the connections at Ingleborough and Keld head.
It also documents several tragedies that have occured over the years.
There are one or two UKC regulars in the films...looking very young.

Thanks to 'Darwen Dave' I have three of the 4 episodes.

I think you're wrong Skippy; the Underground Eiger was a stand alone programme made in 1979 for Channel 4. What you're thinking of was a 4 part series from the 1980s showing many highlights (but not all of) UK cave diving history. It was a very good set of programmes but there were a few notable gaffes. As I remember, one of them was when Rob Palmer set off prussiking up the main shaft of Alum clean shaven, arriving in the next shot at the top with a full beard. You can imagine the comments we all made about the speed of his prussiking! I think there was also another one where someone came out of a sump with more air than they set off with, which takes some doing! Excellent programmes though.
 

skippy

Active member
Ahh....

I'm trying to think what the title was of that particular episode...Was it something along the lines of 'The devil is a gentleman'...or was that just Yockens quote after the dead mans handshake incident?

Confused :-\
 

graham

New member
skippy said:
Ahh....

I'm trying to think what the title was of that particular episode...Was it something along the lines of 'The devil is a gentleman'...or was that just Yockens quote after the dead mans handshake incident?

Confused :-\

That was Bob Davies' quote after the Wookey 13 incident back in the fifties.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Graham's quite right of course - but don't "give up" Skippy - you're only trying to help!

Just for the record, the date of the dive when the so called Dead Man's Handshake incident occurred was 5th February 1978. Jochen Hasenmayer's words on surfacing (as recorded in CDG Newsletter 47, April 1978, page 7) were "That was taken directly from a horror movie".

The incident has long since passed into UK caving folklore but I understand (from German cave diving friends) that Jochen has never been happy with the way his part in this has been portrayed. Living overseas he probably never really got the chance to relate things from his perspective. I mention this purely for the benefit of any serious caving historians so you're aware that there may be a little more to the story than is commonly told. There are hints of this in the relevant pages of Martyn Farr's The Darkness Beckons (2nd Edition).

Jochen Hasenmayer is of course a pioneering cave diver with a huge list of amazing underwater advances to his name, for which he deserves considerable respect; I'm sure most British cave divers would concur with this.
 

Antwan

Member
What happens with this 'dead mans handshake'?  Never heard any reference before so not sure where to look?
 

graham

New member
I've never heard Jochen's side of the story, but had it recounted in great detail by Geoff in a talk he gave in Bristol.

In brief, and trying to be objective:

During the explorations that eventually connected Keld Head with the downstream sump in KMC, Geoff and Bear Statham were sometimes joined by Jochen Hasenmayer, an extremely experienced cave diver, up there with the best.

On one dive, 5th February 1978, according to Pitlamp, Jochen was slightly ahead of Geoff and had a route-finding problem when the line pulled away from the route that he had taken. This was exacerbated when he found himself almost alongside Geoff, but unable to reach him, as the passage between them was too low to pass. He was, however, able to pass his hand through and was, for a short time, holding onto Geoff's arm. Aware that Jochen was well off route and seemed to be unable to get back, Geoff's comment was "I thought I was shaking hands with a dead man." However, his worst fears were unfounded as, in due course, Jochen, having let go of Geoff as he realised that the route between them was not feasible, managed to find his way back through the beddings and thus out of the cave.

I also remember Bear saying that by the time that they did the through dive, they were so familiar with even that part of the route that they swam past without even a second thought.

Sad loss Bear. Lovely bloke. I remember sherparing for him on his first ever cave dive in Ireby Fell, a hook up with southern softy namby pamby divers & sherpas organised by one Oliver Lloyd.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
The easiest way for you to find out (noting you're in the YSS) is to look up that CDG reference in your club library - or look at Martyn Farr's The Darkness Beckons. In a nutshell Jochen had difficulty getting back through a "line trap" situation because his line had pulled away from a rift into an inaccessible part of a wide low bedding. At one point he was able to grasp Geoff Yeadon's hand (who was on the right side of the restriction). The latter was able to indicate to Jochen with hand movements that he should go back move across then come forwards. Jochen did this and made his exit safely.
 
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