how did you get into caving

[langcliffe]

A possible late addition to the options in the poll might be 'Books'.

In my case (and probably many others) it was Underground Adventure (Gemmell and Myers, 1952) and Ten Years Under the Earth, The Darkness Under the Earth etc. (Norbert Casteret, various English translation dates). These titles were available in my local library when I was at school. These and others inspired myself and a couple of school friends to explore caves and mines within cycling distance in north Wales.

Dave

Same here. I devoured Casteret from the age of 10 onwards. I never had the chance of going caving at boarding school, so my only experience of caves as a youth was a couple of show caves. However, when it was time to go to university, I got out a geological map and worked out that Lancaster was pretty close to a lot of limestone, so that's where I went. My first trip was on a cold October day with horizontal rain, dressed in a boiler suit and a couple of woolies, and we visited a very damp Great Douk, emerging from the top end. The freshers were supposed to go back and get changed, whilst the big boys went to do Hardrawkin in their wetsuits, but I insisted on tagging along too. A ladder was lowered down the waterfall, and Mel Gascoyne started to descend. He emerged about four seconds later spluttering and coughing, and it was declared to be "too wet". That was 56 years ago, and I haven't yet tired of it.

 

[Mrs Trellis]

I also need another tick box. Our school had an annual summer camp for first year pupils at Cooper's Edale and one day our maths master took us to Old Tor Mine in the Winnats for a practical trigonometry lesson (so he said). This was in 1958 so both entrances were open. Later on we had a sort of school club - the school library had Cullingford's British Caving - an Introduction. Obviously we lacked tackle and transport (the song of the 60's) but we did Oxlow, Giant's, Carlswark, Wapping Mine etc. and I did P8 on a probationer trip with the Eldon (same one as Grotty). In the summer vac before Uni we camped at Bull Pot Farm - then a ruin inhabited by goats - and did Lanky & Easegill County Pot. It persisted down all week and we had to go into the pub at Kirby Lonsdale wearing our ganzies to dry them out. Rather ironically I never went to Alderley Edge which was the haunt of "cowboys" in the 1950's & 1960's with regular rescues.

 

[skippy]

I blame Mrs Trellis......57 years ago.
.

Mrs Trellis was also instrumental in my demise into this sport..1985.
I had been caving with Scouts and was then advised to join a club. Stockport Cave Group was my club of choice(In Stockport there were 5 clubs to chose from). Mrs Trellis was the secretary of the SCG and kinda took me and my mate under his wing. I also remember his God awful 5mm, 2 pc divers wetsuit. It was so stiff, it used to stand up on its own.

 

[BikinGlynn]

The short story is Im just a adrenaline junkie, I was quite claustrophobic so liked to give myself the buzz, I got over that so moved on to SRT to push my boundaries again, whats next? cave diving I guess!

the long version was finding local mines which were always like a holy grail that only whispers of dying men gave out.
this got me into the whole Urbex scene & i carried on doing underground along side.
Meeting @tomferry @ChrisJC & the like has helped me along immensely.

 

[Mrs Trellis]

I think you've got the wrong wetsuit. Mine was luxury.

 

[tony from suffolk]

A friend I used to go fishing with in The Thames at Kingston had a mate who went to a posh school. One of the latter's teachers, a young French fella, was a caver & we agreed to meet up with him on The Mendips at Whitsun, 1962. Our first trip was Stoke Lane Slocker, through the sump. We were given old battery cycle lamps, most of which expired on the way out. We loved it!

 

[davel]

... However, when it was time to go to university ... My first trip was on a cold October day with horizontal rain, dressed in a boiler suit and a couple of woolies, and we visited a very damp Great Douk, emerging from the top end. The freshers were supposed to go back and get changed, whilst the big boys went to do Hardrawkin in their wetsuits, but I insisted on tagging along too. A ladder was lowered down the waterfall, and Mel Gascoyne started to descend. He emerged about four seconds later spluttering and coughing, and it was declared to be "too wet". That was 56 years ago, and I haven't yet tired of it.

Same caves and almost word for word including Hardrawkin pitch being too wet, Lancliffe could be describing my first day out with my university club (in my case MUSS) in October 1968.

Dave

 

[Pony]

Did The Churns during a YTS outward bound week and thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn't bother with it for another 10ish years, though had got into climbing. A mate had been badgering me for a few years to go to GG for the Bradford winch meet and I finally agreed.Thought I'd just dabble, then I saw the Cutting Edge, Fear of Falling episode. I got to have a bit of this. A couple months later I was dangling about down Flood Entrance with the Bradford.

 

[MiloFrance]

Campbells bean and bacon soup in Goatchurch aged around 6 with Dad. FFWD to age 14, given a list of caves to explore and report back on before being given the next list of progressively more challenging adventures. IIRC Swildons was on the 3rd list and after reporting back I was released in to the wilds to explore the caves I wanted to.

 

[Allan]

Late teens interested in rocks and fossils, then a friend who had a car said that the best minerals were on the old mine tips of the Northern Pennines and the Lake District, it was a short step from there to exploring underground, parents not happy. Ended up exploring a lot of mines before I went to College in Derby in 1973, where the club said that due to my experience, you are now in charge of the caving section of the Mountaineering and Caving club, never having been caving before. It was a steep but enjoyable learning curve, never looked back. Still exploring mines and caves.

 

[Cavematt]

I started caving for one reason only… because I had a friend, who I was rather hoping would become more than just a friend, who kept disappearing off down caves at weekends.

As an excuse to spend more time with him, I asked if he would take me on a caving trip, even though I knew absolutely nothing about what this would involve. He took me to Long Churn, and I hated it… I got so cold and wet and miles out of my city-lad comfort zone. I stuck with it, despite him trying to deter me by getting me to swim the White Scar Lake with just a threadbare furry undersuit as my second trip.

After a few more trips as part of our student caving club I started to find the caving less and less unenjoyable, until after six months I even started to slightly enjoy it. Anyway, fast forward 20 years, the guy I started caving to spend more time with is now my husband and it is now me dragging him along on caving/digging/surveying trips most weekends.

So, I have ticked ‘student caving’ in the survey, although there was an ulterior motive…

 

[Tosh]

I was caving 2 months before I was born. You could say it was hereditary.

 

[Babyhagrid]

thanks to the Mods.
there are some more options. people should be able to recast their votes and vote for more than one !

 

[caving_fox]

I think my very first cave was a school trip to goatchurch. I know my family went on holiday to the Dales and we did GG on the winch (before floodlights), we did have to come back the next day to make the trip, having bemusedly walked past a short queue in the late afternoon and asked what was going on. Only really go into it through Venture scouts as the club leaders were the county caving team and needed to get enough hours in, so we did many trips to Swildons - to the ladder, to the sump, through the sump1 and back, and then the full (short)round.

After that I went to uni, and joined the City club (being no uni caving club there). I have no recollection of how I found them, pre-Internet! Highlights being Draenen only a year or so after it went big.

 

[psychocrawler]

Started with Sunderland Caving Club in 1978 through John Grey who was the boyfriend of my climbing mate Martin Smith’s sister Leigh Smith. This rapidly developed in 1979 at Leeds University with ULSA plus the short-lived Darlington Outdoor Club in the early 80s. Also did a year with HUSS while doing teacher training In 83/84. Later developments from the 90s were via the Northern Pennine Club and Cave Diving Group.

 

[Andrear68]

for the interest of @rm128 and many many others.

please tick boxes as appropriate.

and let me know if anything else needs adding.

Partner got me into caving

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Went whilst at school to Holwell Cavern. Cycled there with a carbide lamp. c 1961. Made my first discovery there c 1965. Still going ---

 

[Speleofish]

First taken down something trivial by Dad aged 5 (I think Hoyles Mouth near Penally). Revelation! This is a sport that allows you to get wet and muddy whilst fully dressed without parental disapproval!

Next year Goatchurch, Sidcot Swallet and various other adventures. Several cleaner, wetter experiences in Yorkshire. Somewhere along the way my long-suffering mother decided to retire from caving but provided fairly willing transport to caves and rather more reluctant transport back, even if we did line her car with bin bags.

Subsequently no holiday was complete unless I was taken down something wet and preferably muddy. Family holidays became dictated by geology. No limestone? No holiday.

And so on, and so on...

 

[Tintinfan]

I was not very cunningly tricked into becoming caving committee for a uni club after I did a trip with friends. Kind of fell in the hole after that! (Metaphorically and sometimes literally).

 

[cavemanmike]

I blame wife.
My wife was looking after some horses that belonged to a friend, as she was walking back ( past local pub) some bloke started to chat her up (😂😂) and as It turned out he was in a local caving club who where having a drink there. So when she returned home she said “you need to get next door quick those lads in the pub are right up your street. And I’ve been caving ever since. Also the lad that tried chatting Chris up has become a close personal friend. Sorry about the essay 😬😬