Maypole Inlet Rescue

[lil.dent]

Glad to hear you all got out ok, sounds like a very scary experience! We very cautiously did a through trip there last saturday and have found Oli's lost wellie part way down main stream. Its in exeter now if you want it ... 

 

[Marc]

You cant go giving away our souvenirs like that, Denty! Finders Keepers. Another relic claimed for the EUSS Tackle Shed!!!  :ang:
Sorry Oli!

Cracking write up Rich! Glad everything turned out alright!!!
xxx

 

[lil.dent]

Souvenirs? 
Believe I was part of the wellie finding party & so I can choose whether or not we give it back

 

[DARBY]

No Critisism Brill write up. As said after a famous rescue "WITHOUT RISK ADVENTURE WOULD BECOME MAKE BELIEVE"
Well done chaps glad your all ok, Rescue guys would have loved the practice anyway.

 

[robjones]

Rich,

Well written and thought provoking account. Impressed at how much survival gear and tat you took for a trivial trip; most folk don't - I think - take so much routinely, but you might not be here if you hadn't = food for thought re: minimum amounts of tackle that ought to be taken regardless of how trivial the trip seems.

ACC had a numbe rof close calls in my day (81-85 + 85-89 as a 'wrinklie') - mainly in the mid to late 80s, though retrospectively we could identify most of them as being due to poor decision makiong and pushing beyond the limits of current members. Your experience was on a much more innocuous trip.

Send your write up to Descent - it merits submission I feel, as there are lessons re: weather forecasts, minmial levels of survival gear  and tat carried, and decision making in stressful circumstances - as well as being well written.

Cheers,

Rob Jones     

 

[oli]

Glad to hear you all got out ok, sounds like a very scary experience! We very cautiously did a through trip there last saturday and have found Oli's lost wellie part way down main stream. Its in exeter now if you want it ... 

chears, but you guys can keep it. i've just got back from glastonbry with a kit sheads worth of wellys other people had left. marc, or your tackle wanker, might be intrested in having it friend though?

 

[exsumper]

Rich,

Impressed at how much survival gear and tat you took for a trivial trip; most folk don't - I think - take so much routinely, but you might not be here if you hadn't = food for thought re: minimum amounts of tackle that ought to be taken regardless of how trivial the trip seems.

Always carried a survival bag taped permanently in my helmet. Never used it but only by chance.(rigging party  1/2hr behind me on the hades 92 berger trip were trapped for 24 hrs and were v glad of theirs) weighs nothing takes up no noticable space. (one of the heavy duty poly ones though not the flimsy silver type).
good account glad you were ok. bugger the critics.

 

[rich]

OK, back from Canada and finally got a chance to read all the thread -- thanks for all your comments! Interesting stuff.

Checking the survey, I don't think there was any possibility of getting to the upstream pitches given how fast the water was rising. I'll have to go back and have a look.

Rich,

Well written and thought provoking account. Impressed at how much survival gear and tat you took for a trivial trip; most folk don't - I think - take so much routinely, but you might not be here if you hadn't = food for thought re: minimum amounts of tackle that ought to be taken regardless of how trivial the trip seems.

Well we didn't really have much tackle. We had four or five slings and donkey dick between us.

Any decent caver always takes a survival bag and balaclava underground don't they? The balaclava as much for warmth when waiting around as survival.

I did have my survival pack -- I've always been a bit anal about carrying some basic survival gear since an incident when someone got dangerously cold on one of my first caving trips, though I don't take it on every trip and this was the sort of trip I might have ditched it. I am a bit surprised how few people take anything, even on long trips.

Send your write up to Descent - it merits submission I feel, as there are lessons re: weather forecasts, minmial levels of survival gear  and tat carried, and decision making in stressful circumstances - as well as being well written.

Well, I suppose I could do. BTW, assuming you're Rob Protheroe Jones, could you pm me your email address? Cheers.

 

[rich]

Always carried a survival bag taped permanently in my helmet. Never used it but only by chance.(rigging party  1/2hr behind me on the hades 92 berger trip were trapped for 24 hrs and were v glad of theirs) weighs nothing takes up no noticable space. (one of the heavy duty poly ones though not the flimsy silver type).
good account glad you were ok. bugger the critics.

I was a bit surprised by how good ours were. They were only the cheapy plastic ones not much bigger than a pack of cards you get in caving shops but they definitely added some warmth. I thought they'd only be effective in conjunction with a candle but they seemed to work reasonably well on their own. Certainly better than nothing. We tried making a sort of tent for us all out of them but they seemed to work best just getting inside them.

 

[mikem]

Pant Mawr is easy to find compared to Pwll Dwfn...

Mike

 

[russporter]

Great write up Rich, scary stuff!

I bought one of those survival bags about a year ago, but haven't taken it on a trip yet. After reading your account of events I will make it
a standard part of my kit from now on.

 

[HenryP]

  Rich, Chris and myself went back to Maypole Inlet yesterday to revisit the scene of our rescue, and see if there were other places we could have sat out the flood pulse. This picture, taken just a few corners round upstream of the inlet in the main streamway, is where I had traversed to in search of a ledge before we decided to climb up to the boulder. The water during the pulse was lapping just below the wellies, so at least a 3ft rise in < 1 hour.