Pitlamp
Well-known member
At some stage in the second half of the 1960s a caver fell down the short pitch into the Kingsdale Master Cave from the Roof Tunnel. The cause was a failure of the wire, I think due to a ferrule becoming insecure because the hemp core had rotted, or because the hemp core trapped water leading to corrosion of the wire itself. Sadly, the caver suffered serious spinal injuries as a result.
I remember seeing some published information about this a while ago. It might have been in a Cave Research Group Newsletter or Transactions. There may be something in "Race Against Time (the book about the CRO by Jim Eyre and John Frankland). It may even have found its way into one of those late 1960s "Speleologist" magazines. I can't get at a caving library as I type; can anybody easily point me at any written references which describe this accident and / or the technical review of the causes which followed? (Even vaguer memory suggests one written source had one or more photographs of the damaged tackle.)
Thanks.
I remember seeing some published information about this a while ago. It might have been in a Cave Research Group Newsletter or Transactions. There may be something in "Race Against Time (the book about the CRO by Jim Eyre and John Frankland). It may even have found its way into one of those late 1960s "Speleologist" magazines. I can't get at a caving library as I type; can anybody easily point me at any written references which describe this accident and / or the technical review of the causes which followed? (Even vaguer memory suggests one written source had one or more photographs of the damaged tackle.)
Thanks.