Marooned in Gaping Gill

[footleg]

I've seen a couple of comments with respect to this incident raising the question of permits as a basis for making a decision about whether anyone is down a cave or not. Regardless of the questions around whether it is acceptable to go down certain caves without a permit, I do not think it is a good assumption to make that if you have the only permit then noone else will be in that cave system. I have encountered other parties in many cave systems when caving on a permit, so clearly it is quite likely you will not have the system to yourself on many weekends. Particularly in all weather caves like GG and Lancaster hole where many groups end up when their planned trips to wetter caves are rained off.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Yes, when it comes to deciding what's what in respect to who is actually in the cave etc etc, permits are bottom of the list of considerations.

 

[seddon]

Given a choice between a few all weather systems getting a bit crowded at some times; and trips going ahead down active stream caves in borderline conditions because there's nowhere else to go (except the cafe), I know which I'd favour, unofficially. I suspect that most CR teams would feel much the same...

On a different note...in a similar situation some years ago, when cold forced me away from the bottom of the pitch where I was waiting, I left a spare light strobing up the pitch to alert potential rescuers that it was worth rigging the drop. Worked a treat. No doubt our hero did the same...

 

[MatthiasM]

One thing struck me - you went for a wander down some side passages off the crawl from SE Pot. Would have been unfortunate to have missed passing rescuers whilst off down here.

I assume the rescuers had found the empty survival bag and thus they knew somebody must be in there.

BTW, maybe it is useful even alone to have some pieces of paper and a pencil at hand. You can leave a message at a good place and last not least you can write down your last will 

 

[darkplaces]

A good read, decent for sure! Plenty more people should read that to get 'some' idea of what its like to be stranded for what ever reason. Also to remind people to carry a survival bag at least for wet/deep trips.

 

[mak]

A good read - I guess they may have been confused by the two ropes as it is so rare to come across this situation these days - I know when I started caving it was a regular occurence to either rig over if you were late getting to the cave or find someone else doing it to your ropes if your hangover wasn't too bad and you got in early!

Still doesn't excuse them though - and even if the SRT kit was in the bag - surely someone would have spotted it at the top of the last pitch when stuffing the rope in the bag!

As an aside - I was gobsmacked last summer when on returning to Lancaster hole (across the top after RR through trip as a guest on a CPC meet - so we had the permit!) to find another four ropes down the pitch - took quite some time hauling up our gear and rope with all that spaghetti.

 

[ryanwarwick]

Fantastic trip report. Thanks Cave Mapper.

I do have a question though: Was there more than one SUSS group leaving through Flood Entrance? If not, why did they de-rig both their rope and yours? :-\

 

[Cave_Troll]

on the assumption that the group who did the derigging are not evil and deliberately derigged they must have thought about what to do.
Criticise them all you like but they made a decission that,presumably, at the time seemed reasonable to them.

Its a bit like the "how did  you miss that junction - its obvious" question. Answer "its not obvious. obvious would mean 6 people spending 1 hour looking for it would find it."

What is obviously the correct thing to do(or way to go) to you , may not be obvious to someone else.

 

[ryanwarwick]

on the assumption that the group who did the derigging are not evil and deliberately derigged they must have thought about what to do.
Criticise them all you like but they made a decission that,presumably, at the time seemed reasonable to them.

I'm certainly not implying that they did it deliberately at all. Indeed, I know a SUSS member, who has spoken to the people involved, and they have been very apologetic about the incident. :doubt:
I was simply wondering if there was a particular reason why they had de-rigged both ropes that anybody knew about?

 

[Stupot]

So did you have a permit Mr Mapper

PS. Very good writeup ..............

 

[bubba]

I've moved all the survival bag discussion to a separate topic.

 

[ChrisB]

I was simply wondering if there was a particular reason why they had de-rigged both ropes that anybody knew about?

According to to http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php/topic,5803.0.html there was a 5 group 4 entrance multiple exchange...

Chris

 

[Les W]

Cave Mapper - I have pm'd you refrence Descent

 

[Subterranean]

Great write up, with not too bad an outcome. It certainly could have been worse.

 

[Hammy]

I was reading Mike Woodings obituary in a copy of 'Speleology' yesterday. It mentioned an incident in which he was also marooned in Gaping Ghyll but he free climbed out of Bar Pot - pretty impressive I'd say! It didn't say if he climbed out all the way from the bottom though - perhaps it was merely (!) the entrance pitch? I'd be very impressed at anyone free climbing the 90!

Does anybody have any further anecdotes regarding this feat of derring-do?

 

[langcliffe]

I was reading Mike Woodings obituary in a copy of 'Speleology' yesterday. It mentioned an incident in which he was also marooned in Gaping Ghyll but he free climbed out of Bar Pot - pretty impressive I'd say! It didn't say if he climbed out all the way from the bottom though - perhaps it was merely (!) the entrance pitch? I'd be very impressed at anyone free climbing the 90!

Does anybody have any further anecdotes regarding this feat of derring-do?

The ladder to the entrance pitch was withdrawn in retribution for Mike not having sought the permission of the club in control of the cave before he descended (although after descending Bar, he did wander across to the Main Chamber to let them know he was down).

When Mike got back from his solo trip to the end of Far Waters he free-climbed out, fuelled, he says, by anger. He then went back home, and rang Jack Pickup, the then controller of the CRO, to tell him what had happened. Eventually Jack received a call from the club, to say that Mike was missing, at which point Jack let them stew for a bit.

I would like to point out that this is history (1971), and there is no way that the club in question would adopt such an attitude today.

Apparently, he was not the first to free-climb it.