Wharfedale Caves

[adamski555]

Is caving in Wharfedale having a bit of a revival since the publishing of NFTFH?I seemed to be reading more trip reports from clubs caving in the Wharfedale valley ie ULSA WhiteRose and others.Are there teams active in these caves most weekends .The trips i am thinking of are Birksfell cave Stransgill Pot Langstroth pot Pasture Gill ,Yockenthwaite pot,swandike .Or it could just be there are more people writing about their trips.I welcome your thoughts.

 

[langcliffe]

Someone needed extracting from Langstroth Pot yesterday evening...

 

[danthecavingman]

Were they from SUSS? I know two of our Lads were going to do the through trip this weekend.......

Not another SUSS Dales rescue I hope!

Dan

 

[Speleodroid]

Yes I believe it was a SUSS group. Someone stuck on the second pitch.

I think there has been a revival since NFTFH was published. Trips like Birks Fell and Dowbergill are always done regularly anyway, but there has definately been an increase in the number of people visiting places like langstroth, pasture gill and yockenthwaite, which is good as these are excellent trips, particularly the former two. Not sure about Langcliffe and Strans Gill though, although these two are a bit harder. Its just a shame its difficult to get permission to do a lot of caves and for access to digging, as there is a vast, vast, vast amount of cave still to be found in wharfedale, littondale, great whernside etc etc. Just makes you drool thinking about it.........

 

[caverholic]

Let's just say it wasn't me but I did have to wait quite a few hours there whilst a certain member of our club was stuck on the second pitch.
No bad feeling though but I feel I have the right to name and shame Adam who was extracted using fairy liquid and 3 strong dales cavers

I'll make sure I'm first down the pitch next time so I can finish the through trip.

Was unfortunately a NFTFH moment which was noted by the rescue guys as I was heading out. At least it wasn't anything to serious he was out of the squeeze in about 30sec of them getting to him.

 

[LarryFatcat]

http://www.uwfra.org.uk/tw/tiki-index.php?page=Callouts+2008

 

[Brendan]

As members of the same group (including the individual involved) had rescued a sheep from a pothole the day before, in Peyghent Gill, we are rescue neutral for the weekend (Technically at least). Thank you to the UWFRA members who attended on Saturday

 

[NOZ]

Yes. Twas me, no harm done apart from a few bruises. We all had a good laugh after the event. Thanks to all involved. A

Although it was a NFTFH choice, I have done other Langstrothdale caves in the past when I was younger and obviously slimmer.
I think perhaps NFTFH has renewed interest, however the main reason for their lack of popularity is distance. Everyone knows Northern Caves 1 has
the best caves, if they have a copy.

 

[ianball11]

Do you feel shame or embarassment at causing cave rescuers to have to come to your aid?

Ian B.

 

[MSD]

Nobody should ever feel shame and embarassment at calling out the rescue. Yes, after an accident one should reflect over lessons learned, and a hearty laugh and a bit of leg-pulling is OK. But accidents and mistakes can happen to anyone and we shouldn't be judgemental.

Mark

 

[seddon]

Well Mark, I might have been embarrassed (a bit)...

But really folks, it's a lot easier to extract a live customer than a dead one, or at least less depressing; so if in doubt call early rather than late. You'll look a twit if you have a callout (and you'd  have survived without one), but you'll look a whole lot dafter if you don't have a callout, (and you'd have survived with one)...

 

[Peter Burgess]

There's no shame in feeling embarrassed.... Or is there? Now I am confused!

 

[LarryFatcat]

[quote Everyone knows Northern Caves 1 has
the best caves
[/quote]

A slightly contraversial statement?

 

[dunc]

Everyone knows Northern Caves 1 has
the best caves

A slightly contraversial statement?

Depends how you like your caves I guess! Not convinced on them being the best but there is some fine caving to be had in that area..

 

[Pitlamp]

There are also several sensitive areas as regards access, so tread carefully folks.

 

[GemmaJones]

Brendan - "rescue neutral!!" - good phraseology! We once did a sponsored 24 hour caving trip to raise money for CRO only to find that an eager member of the village called CRO out for us when they realised our minibus was still parked in the same position the next day! I think that was "rescue neutral" as the amount raised probably covered the time spent on CRO coming out to look for us.

Definitely get the feeling that Wharfedale is coming back into the limelight since that damn book!  Keep hearing all these random trips mentioned and I keep having to clarify whether it's being mentioned because they have seen it in NFTFH....and therefore they suddenly want to do it.  Why oh why?

 

[dunc]

Definitely get the feeling that Wharfedale is coming back into the limelight since that damn book!  Keep hearing all these random trips mentioned and I keep having to clarify whether it's being mentioned because they have seen it in NFTFH....and therefore they suddenly want to do it.  Why oh why?

I can't speak for other people but had NFTFH not appeared I would still have carried on doing occasional trips in that area - same for NC2/3. I guess the book has just made things a lot easier for people wanting to undertake those kind of trips, hence the increase in activity in certain places!

I wonder if the same will be said when new NC books appear - will people be mentioning and/or doing some of these newer discoveries that perhaps they weren't overly familiar with before?

 

[NOZ]

IanB. No shame. A little embarrassment. However some of the rescuers much enjoyed coming to MY aid.