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WIN 1 of 2 copies of OGOF FFYNNON DDU in our latest caption competition!
Featuring 176 pages of lavish photography, a history of this classic Welsh system's exploration and first hand accounts of that dramatic rescue - from both sides of the stretcher!
Tunnel inspector, Mad Phil Rowsell, thought he had all the safety gear for the China Rail roof inspection. But as he posed, mesmerised, for photographs he failed to notice the 9.15 from Chongqing was bearing down on him.
After close scrutiny of the small print in the Hidden Earth competition rules he was quietly confident that the Warmbac socks and tacklesack would easily be his as the prize for the fastest ladder climb.
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
- Thomas Huxley
Madphil was such a famous caver that Madame Tussaud's commissioned a waxwork of him. To make it atmospheric, they asked the sculptor to make a tableau with him and a ladder. The likeness was amazing, but some carping critics still claimed the scene wasn't quite right.