anfieldman said:
ian mckenzie said:
And in the Canadian Rockies, a 'hard pusher' is a force to be reckoned with...
Back to the thread.
I think the vast majority of us encourage newbies, not take the piss out of them but I had to draw the line at the bloke I mentioned wanting to come out of the Tradesmans Entrance without a rope. It's an awful slippy cave is Goatchurch as I found out myself that day!
anfieldman said:
ian mckenzie said:
And in the Canadian Rockies, a 'hard pusher' is a force to be reckoned with...
I think the vast majority of us encourage newbies, not take the piss out of them but I had to draw the line at the bloke I mentioned wanting to come out of the Tradesmans Entrance without a rope. It's an awful slippy cave is Goatchurch as I found out myself that day!
Last weekend, I took my to boys and their cousin into Goatchurch. My elder boy, aged 10, was very keen. There was nothing he didn't want to try. He had been to GC a few times in the past, and I was content to let him 'lead' us around, to try to find where to go. I had a line with me which I used to encourage his younger brother to get down and up the places that intimidated him. After the trip, elder son was extremely proud to have explored to the end, and climbed back up the whole cave to the Back Door (AKA Tradesman's) with no aids at all. It was his first attempt at the Coffin Lid, and although he took a long time at it, I watched him take great care on the climb out of Back Door, checking for holds and steps all the way. He got close to the top on the left side, decided it wasn't possible for him, so lowered himself back down and tried the right side, equally as carefully. At no time did I worry for his safety as he was doing all the right things. Now, he was dressed in old trousers, and an ill-fitting cagoule of mine from more than 20 years back, and was using a hired lamp and helmet, and to the casual onlooker would have looked like any one of the various 'numpty' groups one is supposed to find in Goatchurch on a regular basis.
Now, either I misjudged the situation and should have insisted that he at least used the handline which was there, or he is proving to be a confident and capable caver (for his age) and I should be proud of him for completing what was (for him) a great achievement.