Win lots of shiny kit!

[Pegasus]

WIN LOTS OF SHINY NEW KIT!!

The generosity of cavers towards the forum (and therefore their fellow caver) continues. 
Many thanks to the Buttered Badgers for donating the prize for our latest competition  :hug:

The prize includes the following: 2 x Beal Industry 10.5mm ropes, 3 x oval alloy screwgates, 2 x oscillante pulleys and a microtraxion.

The Badgers had in mind a competition about an ambitious hauling related clearing project, however with current lockdown entries might be limited, so....

For a chance to win the shiny kit but perhaps more importantly to help entertain your fellow caver, post on this thread:

Your tales of hauling underground - past or future - what have you got planned??

Or

When Lockdown is lifted what will be your first trip and why?

Max 3 entries per member, closing date 10pm Sunday 10th May

Shortlist will be selected by me with input from the Badgers and the winner chose by Random.org.

Adding photos always helps - it's easy, see here: https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=19799.0

Good luck!!
​

 

[Pegasus]

Remember this?  A great example of a hauling project!!

https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=21869.0

 

[slinkydan]

My first trip when lock down is lifted is probably going to be croeser rosyth as the first thing I will be doing is heading to the mountains and that trip will be on the list. I'm sure some hauling of my fat arse after lockdown over eating will be involved. 

 

[Keris82]

A trip to north wales is in order. Haven't been for 2 years and dying to go back. Our through trip from croesor to rhosydd was eventful! Traipsing up the hill to the entrance in horizontal rain, we got soaked. Then the first pitch in to the collapsed cavern on 13mm rope, we had to be very quiet to prevent more collapse of the ceiling. However I wasn't heavy enough to descend so spent quite a long time bouncing on the rope to get it to feed through my descender and trying not to laugh too loudly! When we got to the zip line, 2 of our party got a dunking as their techniques weren't enough to keep their bottom halves dry! I didn't give myself enough momentum and ground to a stop half way down the line at the lowest point. So huge amounts of effort to keep my feet out of the water while using all my upper body strength to haul my own body weight back up the other side! Les Williams showed us how it's done with his great technique of hooking his feet over the rope and hauling himself safely and easily to the other side keeping nice and dry! The rest of the trip was great fun and we were glad the rain had stopped when we made our way out

 

[cavemanmike]

Remember it well keris.
Good trip

 

[JoshW]

Whilst out in Vietnam last year working in Hang Son Doong - largest cave in the world(tm) - I had a customer slip, fall and break both the bones in his wrist.

He was walking in a totally innocuous bit of passage, but took his eye off of where he was walking for a split second to take in the view, and he slipped and heard two distinct cracks - ouch.

After dosing him up with drugs me and a guide assistant powered shared his kit out and powered on towards the exit of the cave - looking to cover the next day and a half before sunset to avoid walking in the jungle at night. We?d sent someone ahead with the satellite phone to call for a team from Phong Nha to come and assist with getting him out.

We managed to plow on towards ?the Great Wall of Vietnam?, a huge wall of calcite, with three separate belays set up. After discussion with the customer he thinks he can use his own strength to keep himself upright rather than need the stretcher to be used, so I whizz ahead and set up Z rigs to enable us to smoothly assist him up the wall.

Luckily the gent was an absolute animal, an ex military type, who was strong as an ox, and we got up the wall no problems and with no moaning despite being very uncomfortable.

We got to the exit of the cave and were greeted by Deb and a small rescue team who came to relieve us, and enabled us to return back to camp to meet the rest of the group.

The customer was rushed to the hospital for a scan, and ended up flying back to the states for surgery.

 

[blackshiver]

On a trip to Link Pot in Easegill many years ago, we found a fresh and very bloated dead sheep at the bottom of the entrance pitch.
On returning after our trip we decided to haul the body out, leaving Pete at the bottom of the pitch.
We tossed a rope down and after a few minutes up came the call ?ready to haul!?
Six of us organised ourselves on the rope like a tug of war team and after a 1, 2, 3, we ?Hauled?.
All six immediately fell backwards into the beck and myself, being at the front witnessed the quickest ascent of the entrance pitch anyone one is ever likely to see.
It was literally like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, no sooner had my arse hit the deck - Petes face had appeared at the top of the pitch with eyes as big as saucers.
In what had seemed like ?a good idea at the time? he had simply tied the rope to the sheeps horns and when we had ?hauled? they immediately pulled out of its head without the body moving an inch. This resulted in the contents of the festering body cavity being very quickly pressurised through the two horn holes in the scull - in a manner of quote ?like something out of a horror film?.
We all laughed so much at Pete?s expense it actually hurt......

 

[badger]

on  a Mulu trip we had a small first incident, had a caver fall (no not Colin) down a 2 metre pitch situated at the bottom of a 40m pitch and dislocated his shoulder. As I was the first aider I went down to him, I was trying out the shoes that all the locals wear, whilst I was down seeing Ben, Les was turning the rigging into a z rig for a haul. Ben had managed to relocate his shoulder. the bottom of this 2m pitch was shin deep in a soft like clay mud. Had Ben stand on me to get him up to the bottom of the rope, whilst I tried extricate myself from the mud, well that was the end of the shoes, I then had to prussic up 40m in socks, mmm not recommended, then haul/assist Ben, it was then suggested obviously not by myself or Les that whilst we derig and bring out 4 people SRT kits, drill, 100m rope, digging implements, first aid kit, survey kit, lunch and anything else, ben would be assisted out by the 4th member of the team, Ben was like gone, probably the fastest exit of lower racer. I think Les and Myself even had to buy ourselves the beers in the bar that night. And luckily I also had a back up pair of seal skinz as apparently they are not recommended to be worn without foot wear.

 

[Ian Ball]

Many years ago we were on a quick evening trip down Jingling Pot when we arrived at the bottom to find a bird chilled and looking sorry for itself. We were on a one way exchange trip, the Lateral Cleft and the main hang we had rigged the day before for a more popular trip but turned out only 3 of us wanted the second trip so we hatched a plan. I'd stay at the bottom until one of my pals were out the top. I'd slot the bird into a tackle bag, tie to the main hang ripe and set off up the Lateral cleft. Then when the second of us got out  amd I was clear of the haulog path, they would start hauling bird bag up.

Pulling gingerly so the bag didn't clunk against the wall too much. It overtook me as I was in the cleft but as I arrived at the exit of the cleft I heard a shout, a loud squawk and this stupid bird went flapping past, only one working wing, straight back down the hole!

Attempt 2. With the fast route of the main hang available I passed the bags over, swapped rope and went down with the bag, but wish I hadn't, it's one wing wasn't too good and it had explosively bitten the dust, not too far from a sheep who had suffered the same fate.

 

[Fulk]

That tale, Ian, reminds me of the time we pulled a sheep up the (dry) entrance pitch of Sell Gill Holes; it appeared to be undamaged, and none the worse for its experience, but unfortuantely as soon as we released it from its make-shift harness, it scuttled off back to the hole and this time topped itself.

 

[christine]

[size=36pt][size=18pt]

"Has anyone seen my Eagle?"
by Richard Walker​

https://flic.kr/p/2iXdARr​

The Aven de Rouet looks like a goer on the survey. A straight down shaft to about 70m, and then ongoing horizontal passage. It?s right next to the road as well, so why the hell haven?t I heard of it before? Needs a look, I think to myself.

Christine and I headed over to the site on Monday night to confirm that the cave was where we expected, and to look at how we?d need to get the gear to the water. We?ve learned that nothing is easy here.

Sure enough, 30m from the road, across some flat ground, we find a bloody great hole in the ground. It?s about 10m in diameter, and dropped to depth of about 20m, where the water was.

There was a steel gantry jutting out over the top of it, and this looked a perfect point from which to lower the gear. Two steps away was a steel ladder down to a small gravel platform perfect to stand on while suiting up.

This was looking too good to be true, so how come I?ve never heard of this place before?

Weird. Needs a look.

https://flic.kr/p/2iXdyR4
by Christine Grosart, on Flickr​

We got up almost before lunchtime on Tuesday and started blending gas. 15/55 for me, Christine and Andras, and a couple of deco gasses for good measure. Tim and Jarvist were going to have a play with some trimix too on a short dive after ours.

Blending was creative, as ever, in these sorts of places but we all ended up with something useable in the end. We loaded the cars, and sent Tim and Jarvist to set up the pulleys and ropes while we ate lunch. Seemed reasonable to me. All the time I?m thinking ?why haven?t I heard of this place before??.

We arrive at the cave to see Tim stood on the gantry with an elaborate network of slings, carabiners, stops and pulleys dangling over the edge, and Jarvist at the bottom explaining how things will bang into the wall as they descend.



They fiddle around a bit, make some more complications and we have a working 3:1 pulley system, with a releasable deviation, which makes it go round a corner.

https://flic.kr/p/2iX9iEw
by Christine Grosart, on Flickr​

It?s so easy, I still wonder why everyone doesn?t dive here, and why I haven?t heard of it.

We lowered the gear down (OK, Tim lowered the gear down) and Jarvist makes a neat pile of it in the pool, and we three head down to the water like professionals.

https://flic.kr/p/2iXbYTq  https://www.flickr.com/photos/cgrosart/​

[size=14pt]

Andras starts screaming when he sees the toad in the water.​

Apparently he doesn?t like them.

Christine wanted to kiss it, but I reminded her that it needed to be a frog for that to work...​

https://flic.kr/p/2iXc65i
by Christine Grosart, on Flickr​

We put on our gear and did our checks floating in the water, and remarked that the blue water had gone a bit mucky with our movements. I was sure it would clear out below us though, and said so like someone who knew what he was talking about.

https://flic.kr/p/2iXbXmN https://www.flickr.com/photos/cgrosart/​

So far so good. I still can?t believe I?ve never heard of this place - it?s such an easy site.

We descend, Christine in front, Andras and then me. Following the line through the surface muck, and sure enough, the water clears and we are treated to pale limestone walls and a vertical passage.

It?s not very big, I think.

No matter, I?m going to drop these decompression cylinders pretty soon and then the clanging will stop. The Oxygen gets dropped in a small (1.5m round passage), and hangs on the line that has a convenient loop in it.

Someone has clearly been here before and understands that you need to drop gear off. The line turns into 9mm climbing rope, and continues to drop vertically through the pretty, white, cave tunnel. Which is still no more than 1.5m across.

We are three divers, stacked vertically.​

There is some difference in approach to dropping down. I prefer the head down and swim, while the others seem to prefer some sort of feet down, reverse climbing strategy. The 9mm rope gets replaced by 5mm stainless steel cable. This is an odd choice, I think. I?d hate to have to cut that if I got tangled in it.

Still, visibility is good, and the line well laid. Still don?t understand why more people don?t dive here, even though it?s a bit tight.


More gear gets deposited and we start to descend. 30m, still nice clear water, pretty passageway, small. 40m, same. 50m - the rope ends.

Quelle horreur!​

There is some old thin cave line arranged into a not-so-neat birds nest, with ends trailing out of it. Christine decides that this is too deep to be arsing about laying line in a tight passage with potentially much more loose rubbish beyond, and we reverse our direction back towards the surface.
Shame, it?s a nice looking cave and I?d have liked to see more of it.
Can?t understand why I?ve not heard of it before.


Bubbles. Seemingly innocuous things. Children make them with soap and play with them for hours. They are in beer and champagne. They could be considered to be fun things in some quarters. In a cave, they tend to float up along the walls. If those walls are covered in a fine layer of silt, such as you might find in a cave that was not well travelled, then the bubbles dislodge the silt and rapidly reduce the visibility.

If that cave is vertical, then those bubbles do that all the way to the surface, getting bigger all the time. In fact, Jarvist and Tim were watching the pool while we dived and said that it turned into a ?muddy silty vortex? within minutes of our departure.

They elected to not dive...​

Meanwhile, back in the water, the visibility has dropped to something like tea with a splash of milk. Never mind, it?s a vertical cave, and we have a big 9mm rope to follow. We wriggle and turn our way back up the passage and soon arrive back at the 21m stop. We all managed to switch gas, not that it was really needed given the short dive, and continue out. Lots of gear plus steel wire. Nice. Fortunately only a few minor hang ups, and we?re soon at the oxygen pickup, and ready to head out.

At this point, Christine decided that she didn?t like it any more and managed to reverse the team order...​

Exactly how, I do not know, but she and Andras got past me in a 1m wide tunnel.
Andras claims that it had something to do with Chris grabbing his testicles in a modified ?touch contact signal? for ?move?.

He moved. Like a rat up a drainpipe.​

We surfaced exchanged a few ?pleasantries? and decided to get out. I?m starting to understand why I haven?t heard of this place.

Then the fun started...​

I looked up to see 2 locals stood on the gantry waving. Cave diving is often a spectator sport, in the same way people like to watch car crashes or why Romans went to watch criminals get eaten by lions. Turned out that he was a local caver and had been in there before.

Best to not do it with lots of people, he said.

Visibility gets bad apparently...

Well, they were nice and we chatted for a while. They left and enter local no. 2. His communication was less easy to follow. Basil Fawlty probably taught him how to talk to foreigners. Speak louder and faster when they don?t understand. Get more frustrated. Speak louder and faster.

He wasn?t angry, although he did look like a farmer, and therefore liable to say ?quitter ma terre? at any point. Probably loudly.

He mentioned that he had a similar hole on his land. Bottomless, apparently, and if we wanted to go and dive it, we?d be very welcome. ?Just like this one?? we asked - ?Oui? came the reply. ?Merci Messieur, mais nous partons demain?.
He wandered off to shoot something.

More gear came up the magical winch thing.
​

Then two girls get out of a car and start running over towards us. They are flapping their arms and waving at us.

?avez-vous vu mon aigle?, or ?Have you seen my eagle??

To help with translation, they were flapping their arms and cawing as well.

Seemed obvious to me. I was tempted to say that it had grabbed my pet toad and I was very upset, but my French isn?t good enough. They seemed very upset, and continued driving around, looking for their eagle.


We stopped for Pizza in Laroque on the way home, which is a lovely way to end a days diving, eating nice food watching the river run, and wondering why nobody dives in that cave.

 

[Ian Ball]

That tale, Ian, reminds me of the time we pulled a sheep up the (dry) entrance pitch of Sell Gill Holes; it appeared to be undamaged, and none the worse for its experience, but unfortuantely as soon as we released it from its make-shift harness, it scuttled off back to the hole and this time topped itself.

Significantly more effort than a bird!

 

[AlexSheppard]

I wasn?t hauling anything in this story, in fact I was the one being hauled! Hope it still counts.

Alex's Mostly-but-not-entirely Excellent Titan Trip

This tale is of how I became the haul-ee of DCRO?s UK record breaking longest single haul (Which is, I believe, a record that will stick for a while unless someone finds something taller than Titan!)

MUSC had set out for Castleton in December 2019 with grand dreams; a long awaited Titan to Peak Caverns through trip in the day, followed by the club?s annual meal that evening. It was a trip we?d been raring to do for months. I was particularly keen, as this was to be my first time seeing Titan.

Alas, it was also a trip cursed from the start. A joint MUSC and NUCC group had arrived at the farmers field one bitterly cold morning, suffered through getting changed, and were just about ready to set off when the news came through that there was too much water in the system and the exit to Peak wasn?t passable. After a round of cursing and grumbling we decided that we were determined to get something done that day and embarked on our backup trip; Titan to JH.  Not quite the full trip we wanted and a bit more prussiking than planed, but still a worthy trip.

Seeing Titan for the first time was amazing. The sheer spectacle of dangling out over that massive black pit and watching Todd?s light slowly become smaller and smaller almost made up for everything that happened afterwards.  We made it down to the bottom and set off on what was repeatedly shaping up to be a very good trip, until we turned a corner near Cow Arse Worms and were met by a sheet of still water where the passage on should be. What followed was a classic display of the 5 stages of the grief that we felt:

Denial: ?No, this can?t be the way on. We must?ve taken a wrong turn.?
Anger: ?Damn it, it is!?
Bargaining: ?Maybe if we bail it with these buckets for a while we?ll be able to get though.?
Depression: ?This is freezing and the water level is hardly moving.?
Acceptance: ?We?re going to have to go back out of Titan. ****!?

Trying to keep our spirits up we backtracked towards the entrance. To avoid huddling still at the bottom half the team made straight for Titan while my half went on a detour down to Major and Minor sumps, which was once again absolutely brilliant. Beautiful, rarely travelled cave, some cool sumps and some great fun sliding up and down a mud slope. 95% of this trip was great really, just a shame about the other 5%.

Finally though, it was time to brave the prusik up the Titan shaft. This was where things really went wrong. What I remembered as a trickle of water down the wall on the way down was now pretty much a waterfall flowing straight down the rope for as much as I could see. The water was freezing and it felt like somebody was playing the drums on my helmet the whole time I was prussiking. Try as I might, by the time I apparently got relatively close to the rebelay ? I was disorientated enough I had no concept of how high I was, but Todd later told me he had seen my light ? I completely ran out of energy. Not knowing how much more I had to go and feeling like I could barely go another metre, I had just enough energy left to do a changeover and retreat back down the pitch. Once back down I discovered I had been correct; I pretty much didn?t have the energy to move, and was told later that I had turned a rather fetching purple colour.

Thankfully I was second last up the pitch rather than last, and I still had company in the form of my fellow Alex (Stirling). We set up the emergency shelter and settled in for the long haul, and several hours later a group of Derbyshire?s finest descended down to get us out. They hauled me up with an impressive haul right up the main chamber, using a removable deviation from across the chamber to avoid splitting the haul at the even horizon. Another, shorter haul up the entrance pitch and at 2am, about 15 hours after heading down, I was delivered safely to the surface.

I?ve said it before but many, many thanks to all the DCRO volunteers who came to help me. The goal is always to plan and be self-sufficient, but knowing that people like that have your back when things do go disastrously wrong is incredibly comforting.

 

[Keris82]

Remember it well keris.
Good trip

I have videos on my old phone. I'll have to see if I can find them and upload it

 

[mikem]

On a trip to Penyghent Pot last year, we got down 7 or 8 pitches before realising that we didn't have enough time or energy to go further, so I turned around & headed back up 4 pitches to top of the biggest one, where I waited for the others. They came up the smaller 3, then one of them (who shall remain nameless) started on the big pitch, but could make no progress, the third team member joined her, but neither of them could work out what was wrong. So, I set up a haul & dragged her up to the top - only to realise she had clipped the wrong bit of her footloop cord to the harness - the lower pitches had been pretty much free climbs, so she had only been using the jammers for protection, rather than ascent, but being in front I didn't know how she had got up with the footloop attached to her harness & the cord then going up to the ascender - if you're not quite sure what I mean, give it a try (& it had been quite a while since she'd last used the kit)!

 

[Pegasus]

Bump - with the forum being so busy at the moment, topics soon get overtaken by new ones - however this comp is still very much live - closing date this Sunday 

 

[aricooperdavis]

Whilst it's not exactly "underground" it's definitely UKCaving worthy:

A couple of years ago Exeter University couldn't quite scrabble the members together to go abroad for our summer trip, so instead we went to Yorkshire. We had an absolutely fantastic time, and got some great caving under our belts, but we also spent some time getting our heads around hauling setups which might come in handy. All this stuff is easier done than said, so we grabbed our kit bags and headed into the garden to have a play.

The video below (taken from a longer video here) shows what we got up to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4DbPf6e9v0

 

[StarburstCLA]

Having been stuck in lockdown and the jonesing for some underground torture really taking hold, plus a couple of rescues and near misses recently (Including the glorious Titan haul Alex mentioned above) I decided that I really need to up my hauling game, learn to use the clobber in our stores and make sure Nottingham (NUCC) are self sufficient when we get back out of isolation. After a ninja like mission back onto campus into stores to retrieve some rope and metalwork I got cracking. What started as a 1:2 hauling a bag up the stairs, became a 1:4 hauling my partner up the stairs, became a 1:4 hauling myself up my loft hatch. Progress is being made!

Now planning a haul only, no prusicking SRT trip with the club leaders when we get back to freedom to make sure we have got practice in and really cracked it. P8 is my chosen cave at the moment, 2 pitches nothing too crazy length wise. However all ears for other suggestions maybe something with a deviation or rebelay to be properly prepared for all eventualities!

 

[Tseralo]

Having been stuck in lockdown and the jonesing for some underground torture really taking hold, plus a couple of rescues and near misses recently (Including the glorious Titan haul Alex mentioned above) I decided that I really need to up my hauling game, learn to use the clobber in our stores and make sure Nottingham (NUCC) are self sufficient when we get back out of isolation. After a ninja like mission back onto campus into stores to retrieve some rope and metalwork I got cracking. What started as a 1:2 hauling a bag up the stairs, became a 1:4 hauling my partner up the stairs, became a 1:4 hauling myself up my loft hatch. Progress is being made!

Now planning a haul only, no prusicking SRT trip with the club leaders when we get back to freedom to make sure we have got practice in and really cracked it. P8 is my chosen cave at the moment, 2 pitches nothing too crazy length wise. However all ears for other suggestions maybe something with a deviation or rebelay to be properly prepared for all eventualities!

Having recently had to haul someone out of P8, pick a dry day or you may waterboard your casualty on pitch 1.

 

[Pegasus]

Ok you lot, this is a competition!