White Scar Cave

[Cavedrone]

Off down there on a caving (not tourist) trip on Sunday.

I've been told it is a wetsuit job and have just squeezed into my old one.
Touch uncomfortable though.

Can anyone tell me is it necessary/advised as opposed to fibrepile undersuit
and oversuit.

Cheers

 

[SamT]

surely in this weather - there's not much water about at the moment - unless your struck one of these big thunderstorms hanging around at the moment.

 

[SamT]

see previous discussion too

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php/topic,793.0.html

 

[dunc]

surely in this weather - there's not much water about at the moment

At a guess the streamway would not have a lot of water flowing in it at present, although I would imagine the Lakes would still be present and of course chilly!

Can anyone tell me is it necessary/advised as opposed to fibrepile undersuit and oversuit.

It can be done in fleece/oversuit but you would probably end up cold (think I mentioned that in the old topic that SamT supplied) so a wetsuit would be advisable.

 

[cap n chris]

I did it in fleece/oversuit and it seemed fine. You wouldn't want to wear that in the winter though but I imagine this time of year is fine. 

 

[nickwilliams]

I did it in fleece/oversuit and it seemed fine. You wouldn't want to wear that in the winter though but I imagine this time of year is fine. 

I did it in a furry and oversuit _before_ they filled in some of the lakes with the spoil out of the tunnel to the Battlefield, and it's definitely survivable. In fact, I'd have said it was preferable for the sections upstream of Big Bertha (which is the bit beyond where you used to climb up into The Battlefield before the tunnel was dug).

[What actually happened was that we did it one evening after work, and not knowing which was best to use, I threw both my furry gear and my wetsuit into the van. When I turned up in the car park, everyone else was already changed and waiting for me, in oversuits. In the rush to get changed, what I did not realise until we got to the first lake was that they were all wearing North Sea exposure suits underneath their oversuits, so in fact I was the only one who got wet on the whole trip!]

Nick.

 

[Ian S]

I've been in a furry with no problem...

You can traverse round the lakes, there are ledges just below water level and hand holds at head height.

 

[paul]

But towards the sump it does get more wet - and not easy to avoid.

It is a bit subjective anyway - what for some might be a wetsuit job may be for others OK with a furry suit - and no doubt some nutter(s) might find being naked no problem!

 

[Stu]

It's definitely more pleasant in a wetsuit. Did it last year and those in wetsuits got further than those without, we swam quite far up what would normally have been sumped. Pays your money etc. though.