Three Counties Grand Traverse

[Ian P]

A truly fantastic achievement.
The physical efforts of everyone involved (obviously the two divers had a ?big day out !), but the task of getting the kit in and out was a impressive sight.

The camp kitchen bags getting to waterfall chamber
12L bottles out from waterfall chamber
Chris?s rebreather out from waterfall chamber by George

Witnessing these made the Burkey photography bags seem like nothing 

The organisation was spot on. The only moment of ?doubt? we personally encountered was when the divers dry kit was not in waterfall chamber.
We discussed various options (including Adel offering to donate her kit and cave out naked as long as she had her cigs ). Our debates of who was going to tell the divers the ?issue? was interrupted by the arrival of the divers, just as the divers were sitting down, the kit arrived delivered by a crack team of cavers who had brought it from Deaths head.

It was a true privilege to play a tiny part in this.

Some photos and video clips here: (Notts Pot and waterfall chamber)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-PE0D21ERDLpM9bLHhXhAcJyxSGutJTP

 

[alexchien]

Understand it was about a 4:30am exit for the guys. Felt absolutely privileged to have been able to contribute in some sort of ways (Go Burkey's Bitches!).

Massive effort from Jason and Chris, and everyone else involved in the logistics of it.

My only negative point (and I potentially understand the reasons for it), is that I only heard about this going ahead by chance. It could have been a great bit of publicity for caving, and I'm not sure it'll get the same level of coverage after the matter. Also would have massively increased the number of volunteers willing to come and help and carry, and would have been great experience for university cavers (something Russell actually pointed out to me at the start of the thinking for this).

My understanding of this, is that unfortunately, CNCC and BCA both refused to support the project, hence it was run and financed privately, and little promoted in advance to the wider caving community.
This was not the original concept.

 

[Badlad]

To be fair Jason CNCC felt it had already supported the traverse and all other caving trips in the area. 

It had drastically improved access permissions so that the traverse didn't have to rely on the limited written permits which used to be the norm.  A grand traverse like this could just make use of the booking system for any and all the entrances year round and not have to negotiate special permissions which it might have done in the past. 

It also oversees and supports the anchor placement and maintenance programme which everyone uses.

The conservation volunteers organised by CNCC help repair degrading entrances, stiles, stock-proofing etc to try to keep everyone sweet.

CNCC as an organisation didn't think their role was to be involved directly with the grand traverse event and clearly it wasn't needed anyway 

Well done on a great trip BTW.

 

[Goydenman]

MASSIVE well done to the divers, support teams...and not forgetting all the diggers that over the years have made the connections. The traverse as well as a great challenge was a great way to celebrate the links being made. Lovely to see some of the photos thanks for the link

 

[A_Northerner]

In my opinion inviting student clubs [...] would have been a mistake.

As a caver who assisted with the traverse, alongside one of the two support divers, and (from my count) at least 4 additional support cavers who all consider student clubs to be their primary clubs, I'm not sure that this comment is particularly fair!

 

[CNCC]

Badlad is spot on with his above comment.

We were initially approached by BCA (not those actually doing/supporting the dive) with the concept of organising a ?jamboree/festival? event in the Dales to accompany the traverse. The intended scope of our involvement was unclear so we were cautious.

Our core roles are Access, Conservation, Training and Anchors. We really hope that our efforts over recent years have made an event as this traverse much simpler. Organising festivals however is a little outside our usual remit and beyond our resources especially when we had so many unfulfilled vacancies.

Therefore, we were unsure about whether we could really benefit the project when this was first presented as a festival.

Maybe this initial hesitancy was judged as ?refusing to support the project? outright. This was not the message and is an unfortunate misunderstanding.

If anyone organising the traverse had contacted us to request specific assistance (e.g. with any access matter, volunteer recruitment, post-event PR, or perhaps remediation of the fells if any damage had been caused), we would have been well-placed to help. We see it as a positive that the event was so well organised, and access to caves is so open these days that our involvement was not needed!

Anyway, this aside, the focus of this thread is a well-earned celebration of an awesome achievement. This has been a testimony to the efforts of generations of diggers who have brought the Three Counties together, volunteers who have been working for months to re-line sumps, plan teams and equipment, and of course the divers and support teams involved on the day. It shows what the caving community can do when minds are put to a task. Congratulations to everyone involved!

 

[Badlad]

In my opinion inviting student clubs [...] would have been a mistake.

As a caver who assisted with the traverse, alongside one of the two support divers, and (from my count) at least 4 additional support cavers who all consider student clubs to be their primary clubs, I'm not sure that this comment is particularly fair!

Apologies if this has come across unintentionally.  I fully appreciate that a number of those involved were from university clubs and you all did a great job, but this is very different to the point I was responding to from Josh which said, "..... and would have been great experience for university cavers".  Those of you who were involved were the experienced, competent cavers who were familiar with the system and not just there as a university club caver to gain a great experience.  That would have made the organisation and logistics much more difficult IMO.  Hope that is clearer.

 

[David Rose]

Good news: there will be an article in tomorrow's Daily Mail. It will also be available online.

 

[lumenchild]

A Huge Well done to all involved in this, I'm still shocked that it has been done, this must have been the trip of a lifetime, I love caving but cave diving is something else, scares the hell outta me, This is the most exciting thing to happen in British caving, I remember joking with a friend about it being done, he's a cave diver and he laughed and said yeah you'd need to grow gills, but the fact this has been done, i cannot wait to read all about it,

are there any plans to publish what has ben done,?
where you went and how you where doing, what was going through your mind, I seriously would buy that book, I am genuinely really looking forward to reading all the details.

Will you be doing a talk on this at next years hidden earth?

but very well done to all involved, sounds like amazing teamwork, Stay Safe 

 

[A_Northerner]

A Huge Well done to all involved in this, I'm still shocked that it has been done, this must have been the trip of a lifetime, I love caving but cave diving is something else, scares the hell outta me, This is the most exciting thing to happen in British caving, I remember joking with a friend about it being done, he's a cave diver and he laughed and said yeah you'd need to grow gills, but the fact this has been done, i cannot wait to read all about it,

are there any plans to publish what has ben done,?
where you went and how you where doing, what was going through your mind, I seriously would buy that book, I am genuinely really looking forward to reading all the details.

Will you be doing a talk on this at next years hidden earth?

but very well done to all involved, sounds like amazing teamwork, Stay Safe 

There were videos, photos, and interviews conducted at the event - so plenty of material out there. I'd say keep your eyes peeled for something professional in the future, but in the meantime your best option is probably to collar one of the divers or support cavers in a pub/caving hut!

 

[chunky]

A Huge Well done to all involved in this, I'm still shocked that it has been done, this must have been the trip of a lifetime, I love caving but cave diving is something else, scares the hell outta me, This is the most exciting thing to happen in British caving, I remember joking with a friend about it being done, he's a cave diver and he laughed and said yeah you'd need to grow gills, but the fact this has been done, i cannot wait to read all about it,

are there any plans to publish what has ben done,?
where you went and how you where doing, what was going through your mind, I seriously would buy that book, I am genuinely really looking forward to reading all the details.

Will you be doing a talk on this at next years hidden earth?

but very well done to all involved, sounds like amazing teamwork, Stay Safe 

hidd

There were videos, photos, and interviews conducted at the event - so plenty of material out there. I'd say keep your eyes peeled for something professional in the future, but in the meantime your best option is probably to collar one of the divers or support cavers in a pub/caving hut!

As A_Northerner says there is a shed load material to play with. Video footage needs collecting together and editing, something I think Chris will be interested in doing. I know some of the footage, though not the entire story, is being played with already. Almost certainly there will be an article in Descent in the coming months and certainly I'd be amazed if there weren't something at Hidden Earth. There were so many people involved and each will have a unique story of their experience to tell over a pint no doubt.

 

[Badlad]

I'm fairly sure Chris has agreed to do a presentation at this years Kendal Mountain Festival Underground Session.  The session is live in Kendal Town Hall but this is also one of two venues where presentations are being filmed and shown on line over the following month.

We'll also hear from Olivier Testa and Keith Edwards

The underground session is Friday night 19th November - more to follow as things get firmed up.

 

[David Rose]

My article is in today?s paper and online

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10034993/The-heroes-helped-rescue-trapped-Thai-boys-conquered-Britains-heart-darkness.html

 

[s_allshorn]

Suggested Film Title:
"Jason and the Aquanauts"
The following needs to be scripted somewhere with Jason or Chris speaking to a non diving caver.
"If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."

 

[Badlad]

I loved this quote Dave,

?On the other hand, not having the responsibility of trying to swim while carrying an anaesthetised child does make a difference.?

However, I also noted that the Daily Mail reader prefers their measurements in the imperial - a 900 yard sump! 

 

[David Rose]

Ach, what can you do? I discussed this with the features editor and we agreed we'd do everything in metres. Then at the last minute last night the deputy editor changed it to imperial!

 

[Judi Durber]

Just off to buy a Daily Mail 

Very well done chaps 

Wish I had been there. 

Did anyone actually walk the surface from start to finish? 
Where they tagged & tracked?

 

[A_Northerner]

Did anyone actually walk the surface from start to finish? 
Where they tagged & tracked?

Nobody planned to walk the surface route, the divers were tracked by teams entering various entrances along the way.

However (correct me if I'm wrong Chunky) I'm fairly sure the photography teams will have done it - as they saw them off at the start, then met them in Notts Pott along the way, then walked over to Shuttleworth to meet them, then Mistral, then walked up to Top Sink for the grand exit.

In fact, Team Burkey's Bitches probably walked further than the length of the system as, in the 4am darkness, they missed Top Sink and ended up a few hundred metres further up the beck than they were supposed to! The welcoming party had to flash lights at them across the fell to try and get them back so they didn't miss the divers' exit.

 

[MJenkinson]

It was a great weekend and lovely to get to cave with a load of new people.  Amazing to see such a big team effort and seeing so many folk on Leck Fell had a great vibe.

My weekend highlight was being given a free pie. I mean, yeah the guys made it safely blah blah, but free pie! And also Ireby. How have I not done that cave before?

The lowlight was a Brummie giving me s**t about my Lancashire accent. A Brummie.

Well done to Chris and Jason and also General Gannon, sat in his VW Command Bus overseeing the action.

 

[JoshW]

However, I also noted that the Daily Mail reader prefers their measurements in the imperial - a 900 yard sump! 

All that wonderful brexit sovereignty coming into play!

Nice article Dave. Was any consideration made to pointing people in a direction towards learning more about caving?