Caving companions

[mrodoc]

I have been indexing my caving log that covers my first ten years and I was astonished to see I had been underground with about 100 different people in that time. Is that unusual?

 

[Samouse1]

Looking at my log for the last three years, I've been caving with 122 individuals! It'll probably come down to the amount of caving you do of course

 

[Pegasus]

...what a wonderful community caving is

 

[cap n chris]

In ten years I'd be into thousands.

 

[Ane]

Quick check on the last three years that I’ve consistently logged people on my caving trips gives me ~90 different people

 

[Steve Clark]

I haven’t updated my log recently, but I think I’m only at roughly 100 (non-diving) cave trips. All in the Dales. I’ve been caving with over 50 different people and with some people over 50 different times.

Fantastic.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

I am a miserable sod so just stick to a few mates over 65 years. Never been on a club organised trip either.

 

[mrodoc]

I should have added that leading commercial trips doesn't count. It's rather like dive guides who clock up thousands! Seems there is a wild variation in numbers. Of course my number including those 'never again' individuals!

 

[bagpuss]

I have been indexing my caving log that covers my first ten years and I was astonished to see I had been underground with about 100 different people in that time. Is that unusual?

Often meet people who come on club trips to try caving and then decide caving isn't for them, so that must bump up the numbers, along with meeting different cavers on leader trips.

 

[porgzilla]

Interesting, people here log individuals caves with.
I usually put a letter that denotes the friend(s) I caved with, or a single letter for the club trips.

In the past year though, on sheer estimation across 70 or so trips, possibly about 50 different folk I reckon; now I'm curious

 

[cap n chris]

I am a miserable sod so just stick to a few mates over 65 years. Never been on a club organised trip either.

Have you ever been on a disorganised trip? Have you ever gone caving by mistake?

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Have you ever been on a disorganised trip? Have you ever gone caving by mistake?

Having been on a (initial) solo trip, where I was met by "Pirates" (not CNCC booked) at the top of the first pitch just as I finished rigging it, we decided to combine and have a group trip. In the course of the trip the unofficial "guide" of that party got separated from us and lost for a while causing the rest of us to split up and search in different directions like a Scooby Doo episode. On exit the "Guide" also inexplicably got stuck for a good 45 minutes (no exaggeration) and it was very much looking like callout until suddenly he freed. The "guide" was one of the most genial people I've met and it was one of my most enjoyable trips!

I can assure you.. Disorganised Caving is a thing!

It never occurred to me that people would log their caving (unless they're an instructor). Reading the thread with great interest...

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Have you ever been on a disorganised trip? Have you ever gone caving by mistake?

Most of my trips are now rather disorganised. As for the other I do wonder what the heck I am doing there when I could be home in the warm. As for caving logs I thought that most cavers kept them. How else would they account for such a wasted life ?

 

[Fulk]

Cantclimbtyom: It never occurred to me that people would log their caving (unless they're an instructor).

It didn't occur to me, either, but, well, I'm an old git now but sometimes I chat about trips I did ages ago, or get asked about them, and the details are generally pretty hazy; I now wish that I'd kept a log of my early trips.

 

[mrodoc]

I think it might have been my father that suggested I keep a log but that was for diving started in 1967 but why I kept one from July 1966 onwards I don't know. my earliest trip report was a school essay I wrote just after I started aged 15 entitled 'Stuck in the Bunghole'. I was chatting to my cousin Anne after she had rung to inform me I was (very) distantly related to Gerard Platten (one side of the family is really hot stuff on genealogy) and she told me the experience put her off caving for life. Not one to waste material I put it in the Belfry Bulletin a few years back! All I know is that one's memories as has been alluded to, get not only hazy but erroneous with events happening on one trip being attributed to another until I have checked the facts. It is why I can say with some confidence I was probably the last person to look over the head of Swildons Forty and see water falling down it. Partly through a pipe installed by Oliver Lloyd who was secretary of the MRO for some years. Some of the older forum readers might remember the plastic caver hanging in Maine's Barn showing how to rig a seat for hauling him up the pitch.

 

[mrodoc]

Caving by mistake? Well. Jeff Price tells a good tale about a Little Neath River Cave trip that was pretty lengthy. They were crawling along the stream when somebody bumped into a tree at which point they discovered they had left the cave some time back and were now crawling up the river bed! True story.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

He looked down the Forty and said " lets scarper " so we did ---

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Caving by mistake? Well. Jeff Price tells a good tale about a Little Neath River Cave trip that was pretty lengthy. They were crawling along the stream when somebody bumped into a tree at which point they discovered they had left the cave some time back and were now crawling up the river bed! True story.

But that's Not-Caving by mistake, which surely doesn't count!

 

[mrodoc]

But that's Not-Caving by mistake, which surely doesn't count!

Could be considered as roofless caving!

 

[The Old Ruminator]

But that's Not-Caving by mistake, which surely doesn't count!

It would be the other way around.