How times change...

[The Old Ruminator]

At Cuckoo Cleeves c 1964.

 

[JAA]

I wouldn't be surprised if a pretty big chunk of the longest bolt climbs ever done in caves were done before we had the luxury of a cordless drill. Block Hall in Speedwell was bolted by hand, as were the first unsuccessful attempts to get up Cliff Cavern. Victoria Aven was all hand bolted as was the entire roof of the Peak Cavern entrance, from the old inner gate to the top of the cliff outside, including climbing up into a few previously unexplored avens along the way, to name but a few in the Peaks. These were all done in the early to mid 1980's.

It was in the mid 80's that we managed to negotiate a sponsorship deal with Bosch and got hold of initially 3 x GBH24VR machines and then another couple a few months later, all for a lot less than half price. PB Smith (TSG) had one of the first batch, Frank Brown and Pete O'Neill (DCC) had one and the CDG had the other. Graham Balcombe covered the cost of the CDG drill.

It wasn't long before they were producing results. Frank and Pete got to the top of Cliff Cavern with theirs and I climbed the Risky Business traverse across the top of Cliff Cavern with the CDG drill and got into Joint Effort. The Windtunnel connection to Speedwell had only recently been opened and we would dive Frank and Pete's gear through Treasury sump while they took the much more arduous 'dry' way. The Speedwell side of the connection is more of a railway tunnel these days and you had to go through the actual Windtunnel to get to the Trenches back then.

The book Subterranean Climbers by Pierre Chevalier has some exciting stories about how they explored the caves of the Dent de Crolles, from the bottom up, during WW2. This is the book that first got me interested in doing big bolt/aid climbing projects. Some will remember the Beal? poster of a climber hand bolting his way along the side of the giant Minye river passage in New Britain. That photograph is what really got me hooked on it, although I bet he would have preferred having a cordless drill in his hand.

Before the Grotte de la Diau resurgence was connected to its first higher entrance in the late 1970's, the Diau had been explored upwards, mainly by hand bolting, for about half of its now +/- 650m depth. I've done both the through trips quite a few times and it still ranks high on my list of favourite cave systems.

There are many caves that were explored from the bottom up before we had cordless drills.

I don't think modern drill or battery technology would have speeded up our Astrodome climb. Regardless of the Wh/kg energy density, drilling the hole takes less than 30 seconds. Having the right lanyard and etrier/footloop lengths, having appropriate drill and other tool attachments and good technique is what makes it efficient. Badlad and I must have done well over 1.5km of aid climbs for work in the previous 12 months so we were both pretty efficient at it.

The Astrodome had already been 'Ballooned' so we knew before the climb that it was going to be +/- 100m high. We took 4 x +/- 40m ropes, 30 x hangers, 30 x lightweight snap-gate carabiners (some people described them as key rings with a 1,200kg BL) and a couple of boxes of 8mm HKD's. The first climber self-lined with a Shunt to +/- 25m, rigged a 'Y' hang and then abseiled down and stripped the climb of all its hangers and carabiners. We would then load-up all the hangers with fresh anchors and the second climber would climb up to the 25m point and climb the next +/- 25m, stripping it again for the same routine on the second day. Apart from using through-bolts instead of HKD's, I was using the exact same technique when we were climbing a 60m aven at the end of Sakai's Cave in Mulu in 2020. Like a lot of big bolt climbs I've done in Mulu, it didn't go anywhere.

The discovery of Moon Cave on the massive Benarat cliff in Mulu in 2005 was totally by accident. With Robbie Shone and Pete O'Neill assisting, my plan was to bolt climb up to what is now known as the Hole of the Moon cave, +/- 300m up the cliff. We found the small drafting entrance to Moon Cave about 60m up. I carried on climbing the cliff while Robbie and Pete clocked up over 1km of big, open passage on that first trip. I eventually gave up on the big climb and over the rest of the expedition we added almost another 6km to its length. We abseiled down from the top of the cliff in 2009 and finally got into the +3km Hole of the Moon cave.

As for the mud band at the top of the Astrodome, we only had short (50mm flute) drill bits. It's about 10m in diameter at this point and I climbed horizontally to the opposite side in the hope of finding some good rock. Even bad rock would have been nice. The longest thing we had was a Petzl bolting hammer. The handle went all the way in. Even if it had held my weight, we only had 1.

The fully collapsible Maypole worked perfectly. It might still be in the equipment store in Matienzo?

We didn't have things like UKcaving 40 years ago so that has been a fundamental change. I don't know how we ever managed when we only had a landline or a letter to communicate with. You couldn't send a text at the last minute with some feeble excuse for why you wouldn't be able to make it to the dig. When a meet was planned for a certain time and place, you had to be there or there'd be hell to pay.

@Pitlamp and I were only talking about those drills last week! I still have a Bosch drill like that. Well, actually I have 3. They are pretty much given away on Facebook marketplace as obsolete and so can almost be treated as “disposable”. Decent drills but heavy one handed and the batteries weigh a ton compared to more modern tech

 

[Mark Wright]

@Pitlamp and I were only talking about those drills last week! I still have a Bosch drill like that. Well, actually I have 3. They are pretty much given away on Facebook marketplace as obsolete and so can almost be treated as “disposable”. Decent drills but heavy one handed and the batteries weigh a ton compared to more modern tech

They didn't feel particularly heavy in 1986 when I was only 22 but I wouldn't want to be drilling with one above my head, one handed these days.

I managed to negotiate an excellent sponsorship deal with Makita some years later for one of our Mulu trips. I've still got 3 x 14v machines that run as good as new. I can't remember the model number but it's the one in the attached photo of Mother of all Voids in Hurricane Hole, Mulu. This photo by Robbie was purely for the sponsors.

We were planning on doing a big climb above where we entered the side of the 80m deep choked shaft but heavy rain caused a large river to start crashing down on us from where we were planning to climb so we quickly exited. The upward continuation of the shaft is still unexplored.

 

[JAA]

@Mark Wright strangely I also have a retired 14v Makita. The problem now is that (if you can call it a problem) it’s cheaper to buy a new better drill with new batteries than to find replacement batteries for the old ones!

 

[tony from suffolk]

I used to go caving in Yugoslavia in the late 60's to mid-70's. We were friendly with the guides for the Postonja caves, many of whom were fellow cavers and jolly fine blokes (although they did stitch us up a couple of times, to their great amusement...). When guiding, they used very large carbide lamps that appeared to be made from old shell casings. These weighed a ton, & they were very taken with our lovely little Premier carbides. So we did a swap, one for one. I've still got mine -

 

[wellyjen]

There are FAR fewer people caving on Mendip nowadays than there were in the 70s-90s. Therefore it would be entirely understandable that there are far fewer rescues.

And many of those that are caving survived the rescues of the 70s-90s and are now a lot older and a little wiser.

I used to go caving in Yugoslavia in the late 60's to mid-70's. We were friendly with the guides for the Postonja caves, many of whom were fellow cavers and jolly fine blokes (although they did stitch us up a couple of times, to their great amusement...). When guiding, they used very large carbide lamps that appeared to be made from old shell casings. These weighed a ton, & they were very taken with our lovely little Premier carbides. So we did a swap, one for one. I've still got mine -
View attachment 25199

Perhaps originally made for lighting in homes, shephard huts etc and repurposed for caving?

 

[Lankyman]

I used to go caving in Yugoslavia in the late 60's to mid-70's. We were friendly with the guides for the Postonja caves, many of whom were fellow cavers and jolly fine blokes (although they did stitch us up a couple of times, to their great amusement...). When guiding, they used very large carbide lamps that appeared to be made from old shell casings. These weighed a ton, & they were very taken with our lovely little Premier carbides. So we did a swap, one for one. I've still got mine -
View attachment 25199

How did they carry (wear?!!) those lights? On the end of a very long pole? I had a tourist trip in Postojna in about 1974 and don't recall seeing those. I do remember being told that soot in parts of the cave were from exploding Nazi ammunition dumps destroyed by partisans. Perhaps it was exploding carbide lamps from later cave guides .... ?

 

[davel]

Perhaps originally made for lighting in homes, shephard huts etc and repurposed for caving?

I think similar carbide lights in one form or another were common in rural Europe. The one below was bought in a hardware shop in northern Spain in 1975.

Note the name Candil de Mina (Mine Lamp) on the label.

 

[mrodoc]

When asked about developments in caving when giving talks I always give the cordless drill as an example that has given the biggest boost to cave exploration in the last twenty or thirty years. Pete Hall is even using an amphibious cordless drill for shot hole drilling underwater - video on line somewhere. Here is the OR posing with one.

 

[tony from suffolk]

How did they carry (wear?!!) those lights? On the end of a very long pole? I had a tourist trip in Postojna in about 1974 and don't recall seeing those. I do remember being told that soot in parts of the cave were from exploding Nazi ammunition dumps destroyed by partisans. Perhaps it was exploding carbide lamps from later cave guides .... ?

No, they used to carry them by the hook on the top. You wouldn't have seen them on normal tourist trips; I think they used them when servicing, cleaning up, etc. By 1974, I suspect they'd got shot of the blessed things. We got taken to some distant reaches of Postojna; it's a very large system with other entrances up on the hill.

We were told the tale about the partisans getting into the system via one of these "secret" entrances & blowing up the German ammunition dump in the cave. The other part of the story is that whilst the partisans were exiting from one of the vertical entrances, the Germans were waiting for them & pushed them back down. There were some very bad things that went on in the war years.

 

[Lankyman]

There were some very bad things that went on in the war years.

On my first proper caving trip to Slovenia (1983 I think) my friend and I definitely got the cold shoulder treatment on first arrival in the Laze area. We were both tall and had fair hair (Colin in particular). It was explained that local people thought we might have been German. Once people realised we were English everyone was fine. It's sobering to think that 1983 was closer in time to the horrors of the war (which to me felt like history) than the present day.

 

[wellyjen]

I think similar carbide lights in one form or another were common in rural Europe. The one below was bought in a hardware shop in northern Spain in 1975.

Note the name Candil de Mina (Mine Lamp) on the label.

View attachment 25202 View attachment 25203

Fisma also made generators for the caving market at some point. Where reckoned at the time by my caving contemporaries in the late 80s to be better than the Petzl Ariane and on a par with Premier Malham waist generators.

 

[tony from suffolk]

On my first proper caving trip to Slovenia (1983 I think) my friend and I definitely got the cold shoulder treatment on first arrival in the Laze area. We were both tall and had fair hair (Colin in particular). It was explained that local people thought we might have been German. Once people realised we were English everyone was fine. It's sobering to think that 1983 was closer in time to the horrors of the war (which to me felt like history) than the present day.

We first went to Slovenia caving in 1968, & there was a definite coldness towards us until they discovered we were British. Then they couldn't have been more hospitable. We let them know we were coming over again the following year, and this was mentioned in the local paper. When we returned, several of the locals were waiting to greet us with gifts, which were mostly bottles of their home-made slivovitz....

 

[Mark Wright]

I'm pretty sure the early Petzl carbide lamps came with a Fizma generator. I don't remember buying mine separately, though it was a long time ago. They were far superior to the Ariane and the Premier versions. I used to wear mine on a bandolier so it was always easy to pop it inside your oversuit for a quick warm up.

We were given old fashioned carbide lamps when I visited the Eisriesenwelt and Skocjan show caves in 1980.

 

[andrewmcleod]

They were still using old-fashioned hand-held carbide lights (and the guides burning magnesium ribbon) when we visited Eisriesenwelt in 2018 (many of which blew out in the draught when the doors were opened; big draught in summer!).

 

[wormster]

Caving per day hasn't changed much, the 'oles are still there! What has changed is the equipment, suits, lights, ladders etc have advanced over time that's a given. What has changed is how we use technology and the data it garnishes: virtual call out boards, but and permit bookings, trip organization, survey data etc. it's all out there to be used by everyone!

 

[Lankyman]

We were given old fashioned carbide lamps when I visited the Eisriesenwelt and Skocjan show caves in 1980.

When I first visited Ingleborough Cave as a boy there was no electric lighting and we were given hurricane lamps. It was brilliant (but not literally).

 

[Pitlamp]

That would have been before 1967, when the first electric lighting was installed. You must have been really young!

 

[kay]

On my first proper caving trip to Slovenia (1983 I think) my friend and I definitely got the cold shoulder treatment on first arrival in the Laze area. We were both tall and had fair hair (Colin in particular). It was explained that local people thought we might have been German. Once people realised we were English everyone was fine. It's sobering to think that 1983 was closer in time to the horrors of the war (which to me felt like history) than the present day.

I tried subtracting my age from my date of birth and found myself well back in Victorian times. No wonder I feel out of touch

 

[Cantclimbtom]

I can remember a fragment of the 70's Gloddfa Ganol. For some reason we couldn't go on a tour of the middle (Canol/Ganol) level but my dad, my brother and I could go up in a land rover to the top level tour. We went up rattling about in the back of the land rover and they presented us with what was probably Oldham lamps. The problem was I was only 3 years old and the leather strap for the lead acid battery was cutting in to my shoulders (t shirt no jumper) and I struggled to carry it so we weren't allowed on the tour and sent back down on the land rover for a refund. That's my only memory of the holiday!
Nice to have lighter weight lamps these days!