What makes an "Epic"?

[Langthwaite Pot]

A couple of years ago whilst supping beer shortly after 3am at Bull Pot Farm on bonfire night a lad turned up looking rather tired and muddy wearing an old tracksuit or similar and told us that three of his mates were stuck at the bottom of a hole and needed rescuing. Although he didn't know the name of said hole it was obvious from his description that it was Lancaster. Anyway 2 hours later the crack Bull Pot Farm rescue squad had them all safely out on the surface and there story was this:

They had hired lights from Bernies and had set off with the intention of doing a Lancs - Wretched Rabbit through trip. They entered the cave shortly before mid-day. Their leader thought it entirely reasonable that only he should have a proper SRT kit, the others just had climbing(?) harnesses and descenders. I don't think any of them had done the trip before, but this was OK because they had a copy of Northern Caves with them.

All went to plan until they got to Stop Pot, where disaster struck! They dropped their copy of Northern Caves down a hole between some boulders and couldn't get it back! Unable to navigate their way out of Wretched Rabbit they had no choice but to retrace their steps back to Lancs (slowly!) I think they were slowed down further due to partial light failure.

Anyhow upon reaching the entrance one lad was able to prussik out and get help.

They did have a call out though! Sadly i don't think they chose the brightest pixie in the forest for the job. Upon returning to his car their glorious leader had a message on his mobile phone form this dim-witted individual stating that as he hadn't heard anything from them he'd assumed they must be OK, so he'd gone to bed!

I think this fills most of Footleg's criteria for the making of an epic trip!

George.

[graham]

An epic is when you trudge over the moors to do Pwll Swnd and find that the pitches have been rigged and then discover that there's two guys right at the end of the cave who have been sat there for ages because they're too exhausted to get out under their own steam and never told anyone where they were going. 

That reminds me of the Meregill rescue, some time in the late '70s. Party heading up the hill met party coming down the hill & said "see you in the pub later". When no-one arrived, they went to look, found the car & called the rescue - there had been no other callout organised. Rescue goes up the hill, Meregill flooded so Aven Entrance was rigged & a party set off down. They eventually made contact with the party, trapped below a very wet pitch.

"Hello?"

"Hello!"

"Are you OK?"

"Yes, we're OK and the party stuck below us are also OK."

"What other party?"

...

[kate]

Did I miss anything?
[/quote]

Flash floods

[ditzy]

In my experience, the following make an epic:

• Lack of planning
• Overconfidence
• Inexperience
• Underestimating the capabilities of your group
• Not reading the guide book properly (or mistranslating it)
• Lack of fitness (both physical and mental)
• Ignoring the advice of others
• Not taking the weather forecast seriously

Did I miss anything?

Sheer bad luck!

Light going out and backups fail after a wile aswell

[footleg]

er, overestimating the capabilities of your group, surely; as well as any jinxing they happen to suffer from?

Yes that was a typo induced by severe fatigue. Maybe I should add that to the list 

[footleg]

• Not reading the guide book properly (or mistranslating it)

dont know what you mean footleg, although 1600 metres seems to ring a bell

Technically that was a case of 'not turning over the page to find out that the sentence you read on the previous page ends there with the words "after around 1600 metres" !'.

[psykx]

an epic trip is one that satisfies your need to go caving or mine exploring for a few days

[New Phil]

By the sounds of it then no trip is an epic for you

Have you ever spent two consecutive days above ground??