Belfry Bulletin Number 284

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THE BELFRY BULLETIN ____________________________________ Volume 25

Numbers 5 and 6

May and June 1971 No. 284 ____________________________________ CONTENTS Caving The Fixed Tackle in St. Cuthbert’s Evening Symposium Letter from O.C.L. Carlsbad Cavern Monthly Notes 39

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Editorial ARTIFICIAL AIDS The recent Cuthbert’s Leader’s meeting came forward with the suggestion that many of the aids in Cuthbert’s – some of which may have come to be regarded as almost a part of the cave – should be removed for a trial period.

This has been ratified by the Committee. As well as the write up on the Leader’s Meeting, we are pleased to publish a special article on the removal of fixed tackle and the philosophy behind it. We think you will all agree that our present Caving Secretary has put forward a reasoned case. He has some very definite ideas on the subject which he states in an articulate manner, and this can do nothing but good. The removal is for a trial period, and the situation will be closely observed. Meanwhile, if any member has anything to say, either in support or against this policy, the B.B. will be pleased to give any sensible views an airing.

MAY AND JUNE

Climbing Letter from Steve Grimes

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Miscellaneous Monthly Crossword No. 11 32 ____________________________________

Once again, a single B.B. covering two months. Of late, articles have been coming in rapidly, but unfortunately too late to prevent this state of affairs.

Please keep up the flow, so that we can have a MONTHLY B.B. and make it bigger!

STEEL YOURSELF

THE BELFRY BULLETIN – Monthly Journal of the Bristol Exploration Club.

Hon. Sec. A.R. Thomas, Allens House, Nine Barrows Lane Priddy, Wells, Somerset. Hon. Editor, S.J. Collins, Lavender Cottage, Bishop Sutton, Nr. Bristol.

The mail box is working well, but we still get the odd anonymous letter. We were amused at the latest one, which accuses the B.E.C. of all sorts of bad behaviour including ‘steeling my most precious possessions’ – we well may be a rough lot, but at lest we can spell! We suggest that this bloke buys a dictionary. We prefer to be insulted grammatically.

“Alfie” _______________________________________________________________________________________ The Committee would like to record their thanks to Bill cooper for his gift of ropes and ladders to the club. Dare we hint that instead of leaving his tackle for ever, Bill could acquire a whole lot more by applying for a certain vacant position??? _______________________________________________________________________________________ Within the latest Wessex Journal Is written down, on page internal A list of blokes – Aye! Here’s the rub!

Who haven’t paid their annual sub.

The B.E.C. for many year, Appeal to member’s cloth-bound ears By shouting, so they can’t forget “HAVE YOU PAID BOB BAGSHAW YET?”

FIXED TACKLE IN CUTHBERTS

26 As Caving Secretary, I am responsible for the access arrangements for St. Cuthbert’s, and I feel very strongly about the way that the system of access and leaders should be organised.

Cuthbert’s is very much underrated by many people, particularly tourist parties. An average trip in the cave can be compared to a trip in Swildons to Sump IV and back – which is the longest straightforward trip on Mendip for non-diving cavers. As it says in the Mendip Bible ‘Caves is where you find them’. I should like to add my own ….by Tim Large extension to that saying; ‘Cave is like nature makes them’.

So why festoon them with unnecessary iron monsters? There are some items that are necessary – such as rawlbolts for secure belay points; but fixed iron ladders and chains are just too much! I’ve heard all the arguments for keeping tackle in Cuthbert’s, and I shall list them below, with my answers to them.

1. To help in the exploration; digging; surveying and scientific work being carried out in the cave.

ANSWER: Since the tackle was put in, caving standards have improved tremendously, and could have improved even more if cavers had not become lazy through relying on fixed tackle. Why should it be made too easy for us? Fixed tackle removes the sport, the challenge. Why bother to go caving at all? There are plenty of fire escapes to go up and down. If something is worth attaining, then it is worth working very hard for – whether it is digging or taking part in scientific work. All these tasks have been accomplished in other areas where there is no fixed tackle, so why can’t we do it? Is the B.E.C. going soft?

2. We have to consider tourist parties that enter the cave.

ANSWER: Since I have become Caving Secretary, I have tightened up on access to the cave. Cuthbert’s is hard work; especially on the way out from Everest Passage upwards and so requires a good standard of caving technique and fitness. This takes time to gain and until a person is capable of doing Cuthbert’s they should not go into the cave. Never mind whether they want to see the pretties – they can see them when they deserve to by attaining the experience and fitness necessary. I shall endeavour to restrict the tourist parties by questioning any group whom I have not heard of before. (I have done this in the past and works well).

Also, I shall ask the leaders for reports on the tourist parties they have taken. In Yorkshire, every bod who has done Calf Holes – Browgill does not expect to bottom Penyghent, and neither does anyone consider putting fixed tackle into Penyghent Pot to make it easier. You do the cave for the natural challenge it offers.

Cuthbert’s is exactly the same case on Mendip – so stop underrating it, or you will become unstuck down below.

3. We would have to carry too much tackle down the cave.

ANSWER: As I have said previously, if something is worth having, it is worth working for – and that includes the carrying of tackle into the cave. The items that are to be removed do not mean the need for vast amounts of ladder. Let us consider the places where tackle is to be removed in more detail: LEDGE PITCHES: WIRE RIFT CHAIN:

4 RUNG LADDER: WATER SHUTE: :

There is a bypass to the pitches which comes down at the bottom of the second ladder at the end of the pitches.

It is common practice to traverse over Wet Pitch which means bypassing the chain.

If someone does need to go across the ladder, the leader can take a hand line. (All rawlbolts in all pitches will be left in). The practice of using the ladder should be discouraged. The ladder is there as a safeguard – not as fixed tackle.

This item is so ridiculous that I consider it does not need a reply. If you are not prepared to thrutch up this very short section, you don’t deserve to be in the cave.

The chain on this is unnecessary, since the Water Shute is climbable without any fixed tackle. It is by no means the only route down the cave, so why should be made easy? If bods are capable of climbing it, then they have earned the right to use that route. For parties that need help, a hand line can always be taken. On rescues, the Water Shute is not used for taking a victim up – the dry pitch to the right is used instead.

27 RABBIT WARREN:

GREAT GOUR:

MAYPOLE SERIES:

LOWER CHAIN PITCH: MAYPOLE LADDER PITCH:

UPPER CHAIN PITCH:

PULLEY PITCH:

The chain in the Rabbit Warren Extension can be removed, since this spot can be negotiated without tackle. And for the helictites in the roof – well, if there was any in the past, there are not there any more.

This is again free climbable either at the corner where the chain comes down or on the opposite side. There is also an alternative route underneath the gours which is passable in all but the worst weather conditions – when parties should not be in the cave anyway. Again, a hand line can always be used for parties which need one.

The leaders are still considering the fixed tackle problem in this part of the cave. I have been to the series recently on a few occasions, and consider the position to be as follows: The chain is completely unnecessary here. The pitch can be climbed with ease.

I would like to see replaced with a system like that on Pulley Pitch. This would give a very sporting wet pitch which would provide a challenge to everyone. Now that the bug studies have been discontinued, it is not essential to have easy routes into this series – nor was it ever really necessary before.

Believe it or not, this pitch is free climbable under normal water conditions, so that the chain could be dispensed with. If bods want to visit this section of the cave, then they should climb it.

This is alright except that the belay chain at the top needs replacing and the nylon rope could be replaced with a wire belay loop. One method for the pulley system which could be used is to have an eye ring at the end of each loop – one for the ladder belay and one for the bottom to belay the ladder once it is position – either to a natural belay if one is available or to a rawlbolt in the wall of the passage. This system could be adopted for all pitches and avens which need this treatment.

I agree that the removal of all this tackle will mean that trips will take longer – but so what? Caving is a leisure pastime of your choice so the chance to spend and extra hour underground should be welcomed!

It should be noted that abseiling is becoming more popular on Mendip as cavers improve their standards and are able to climb up pitches where they would have needed ladders and maypoles in the past. A good example of this is Cowsh Aven in Swildons. About five years ago, there were only a handful of people capable of climbing Cowsh. Today there must be at least 25 who have done the round trip of the series.

Prussiking too is being experimented with by various bods and I am certain that this will replace ladders before 1980, especially if we get any more mammoth pots like Rhino Rift. Climbing will also become more necessary as the easier sites for further exploration of existing caves become exhausted and one is only left with obscure holes high up in the sides of passages. This has already been done in the search for high level passages. There was probably as much climbing as there was use of ladder and maypole.

Cuthbert’s is not the only cave on Mendip which suffers from an excess of iron oxide. G.B. is another cave where there is an unnecessary amount of fixed tackle littering the scene. Perhaps we ought to approach the U.B.S.S. with a view of returning the cave to its virgin state.

Having dealt with the question of fixed tackle in Cuthbert’s, perhaps is might be in order to conclude this article with a look as the Leader System. As I see it, this system needs reviewing. At present, bods wishing to become leaders only have to know five routes down the cave and, providing they can show a reasonable standard of caving, they are accepted as Cuthbert’s Leaders. This is not enough. I consider that the system should be modelled on the requirements demanded by mountaineering leader’s courses. Below, I have set out some of the requirements I consider necessary for Cuthbert’s Leaders.

1. A knowledge of first aid, sufficient to be capable of dealing with an emergency until a doctor can be reached.

28 2. A knowledge of the climbing techniques necessary in caving. Abseiling, prussiking etc. The leader should be able to climb to a reasonable good standard, and should be able to free climb such pitches as maypole, Great Gour, Water Shute, etc.

3. A knowledge of rescue methods and procedures.

4. Maintenance of a high standard of fitness and familiarity with Cuthbert’s This would entail the leader caving regularly besides doing his one or two tourist trips. I consider this essential, as when it comes tom the crunch, the leader may be the only person who has knowledge of Cuthbert’s and therefore must act quickly to safeguard his party. The party may, after all, be all experienced cavers who are in Cuthbert’s for the first time. _______________________________________________________________________________________ As Tim says, caving techniques continually alter and improve. As always, the B.B. tries to keep up to date and, below you will find advance notice of the first of a number of sessions on caving techniques which promise to provide an interesting forum for the ideas. For those who are unable to attend, the B.B. will be there and the main points will be brought to member’s notice. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Although, as we have just read, prussiking may well render caving ladder obsolete by 1980, we are still at the moment in 1971 and need caving ladder. Norman (Pretty Polly Perkins) Petty has just retired after many years of supplying the club with all its ladder AND WE NEED A NEW TACKLEMASTER. IF YOU think you could help in any way, get in touch with any member of the Committee or phone Alan Thomas. Just think, you too could be presented with an engraved tankard from a grateful club in about 1985 or so! _______________________________________________________________________________________

SYMPOSIUM ON PRUSSIKING ….by John Letheren.

By the time I discovered that a number of individuals and clubs on Mendip were working on research projects and new techniques which, for one reason or another, were not reaching the eyes and ears of other cavers, some of whom were engaged on similar activities.

Even with the widespread exchange of club publications, few cavers have the time or opportunity to browse through all the publications of all the other clubs, and the generally available literature, like ‘Descent’ must needs be very sketchy if it is not to grow into many volumes of expensive print.

The answer may well be a series of reasonably serious inter-club meetings, organised along the lines of symposia but occupying one evening somewhere on licensed premises. The Wookey Hole Inn seems a good starting point. It has limited seating (for about fifty persons) but it will do for a start.

The programme will consist of a series of SHORT talks on one subject. The first will be on prussiking, with slides, diagrams etc. Different approaches will be presented with plenty of time for discussion (and drinking) afterwards.

The Council of Southern Caving Clubs has very kindly offered to include details with outgoing post to seventy clubs for inclusion in their own publications. Due to the fact that the hall and speakers must be arranged, details run off and sent out, and then published by individual clubs (some of whom only publish quarterly) the date has not yet been fixed, but will probably be SOME TIME IN SEPTEMBER. Final arrangements will appear in due course in this publication. In the meantime, if you have anything to say about prussiking, or a suggestion for the next topic, please write to: John Letheren, 25 Southstoke Road, Combe Down, BATH BA2 5SN I look forward to seeing you at the first session.

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Just in case readers may have thought that this B.B. was not going to contain anything from Steve Grime, who is now well on the way to becoming our Writer of the Year, here is a letter from his new address and an invitation to club members….

To the Editor, Belfry Bulletin.

After one and half years or dragging unwilling youths around in the hills, and eating the stock school lunch of two cheese sandwiches for the same period. I got pretty puked off with it, and in February headed for Aberdeenshire to do a bit of game keeping. However, as there was no time to spare to go climbing or canoeing, I got puked off with that too.

On Thursday, the 3rd of June this year, I arrived in Letterewe. It’s yer actual Utopia. My house, at N.G.R. 958708 is ideally situated in a three acre park fronting the loch. A burn runs down the east side of the house and provides me with a roofless cave and a swimming pool. I have a hundred and fifty foot high practice crag five minutes from the house and within an hour and a half’s walk there are a mile and a half of cliffs with about two dozen routes on them.

My job is merely to drive people across the loch and maintain the boats. One of the gillies is a keen climber, and already we have had one day on the hill. Letterewe forest is really fantastic. There are literally dozens of unclimbed crags in the area, so the possibility of new routes is reasonably high.

Club members will be welcome all the year round, but I must stipulate that those wishing to climb will be out of luck from the 12th of August to the 20th of October inclusive, as this is the stalking season and I have no spare time then, but any other time will be O.K. Access to Letterewe is gained by driving down Loch Maree side to a private jetty and then operating the signal, whereupon yours truly will ghug across in a forty foot launch and take ‘ee across.

Yours, Steve Grime.

Climbers, please note! Meanwhile, on the caving front, and about that removal of tackle business, Oliver Lloyd has something to say. _______________________________________________________________________________________ To the Editor, Belfry Bulletin, May I take this opportunity of airing my views on the subject of fixed tackle? I don’t know what the recent meeting of St. Cuthbert’s Leaders decided about this, as I had to send my apologised for absence.

What I think is that the less you do; the better. Cavers like to find caves as they are used to finding them.

They don’t like change and they mostly don’t like innovations. I think that most cavers, for example, still prefer ladders to abseiling down and prussiking up. So, bearing in mind the outcry when Willie Stanton put fixed aids into the Twenty in Swildons, I would suggest that we put no more fixed aids into Cuthbert’s and take none out.

I would be particularly sorry if the three rung ladder just beyond Pillar Chamber were removed. At present, my cave-guide spiel goes something like this…’Ladies and Gentlemen. We are now approaching the most desperate pitch on Mendip. I think that perhaps that I had better go first. Then as I descend, my voice tails off into a distant echo, while I whisper form the bottom ‘Next man down.’

Yours, Oliver.

Well, there we are. No less a thing than Oliver’s reputation as an amusing cave guide is at stake!

Perhaps we could hide the three rung ladder somewhere convenient, so that Oliver could nip down first and put it into position for his party, then come back last on the way back and go and hide it again!

CARLSBAD CAVERNS …A flying visit.

30 During Thanksgiving weekend last November, having four days to kick about, I decided now or never, to visit the famous show cave in New Mexico – Carlsbad Caverns. A distance of eleven hundred miles from Los Angeles meant that there would be many hours of driving involved to get there and back. The route lay along the interstate highway 10 through Palm Springs and Indio; across the desert to the town of Blythe and into Arizona; through phoenix and Tucson; across the hills and plains of New Mexico and finally to the small town of Carlsbad.

….by Dave Irwin From the road, the entrance to Carlsbad National Monument, which lies along the top of a thousand foot plateau overlooking the Delaware Plain is approached though one of the many valleys which have cut into the plateau. Near the cave entrance is the park headquarters where, apart from the usual souvenir shops, arte to be found the ranger offices and an exhibition hall illustrating the development of the cave. Exhibition halls and lecture rooms are to be found at most of the national monuments and parks. The admission charge to enter the cavern is three dollars, but to those fortunate to have foreign passport, admission is free, as it is to all the parks. A short trail leads to the well known Bat Entrance – a high natural arch, some hundred feet wide by eighty feet high. A steep path leads down under the entrance and along a wide shelf on the left. The present entrance has interpenetrated a large passage below that drops rapidly for the greater part of the cave.

At the end of the shelf, the concrete pathway veers to the right and then follows a zig-zag route down into the cave whose upper reaches near the entrance have been subjected to considerable cavern breakdown. The roof here is horizontal and some hundred feet above the floor. Following the down section of the pathway and under the Main Entrance, the passage takes on a distinctly phreatic form, although even here, great blocks of limestone have peeled away from the walls – due mainly to past earthquakes. As the path descends, so the number of formations increases, the most notable being the Veiled Pillar, a beautiful fluted column some forty feet high.

After a descent of about five hundred feet, a branch leads to two really magnificent chambers, so lavishly decorated that little of the rocks walls and roof can be seen. These are the Queen and King Chambers – the two being separated by the Papoose Room, a low (fifteen feet) but wide room of a very light limestone which gives a wonderful sense of spaciousness. From the centre of the roof, hangs a well known group of curtains.

The King and Queen Rooms could never be described to convey to the reader the wonders to be seen there. Initially decorated with straws, curtains, stalactites and stalagmites, both chambers were flooded and the whole covered with nodular pool deposits. The floors are covered with great clusters of crystals. A climb back out of these three chambers regains the main passage and to a convergence of three huge passages creating a chamber of enormous dimensions. A branch passage covered with pool deposits lead to the restaurant capable of handling several hundred people in a few minutes. To get to this point has taken nearly two hours. After a half an hour’s break, the party – normally of three to four hundred people – makes the move to the Big Room. This chamber is claimed to be the largest in the world and is twelve by eighteen hundred feet. Actually, it is a huge phreatic tube intersecting with another to form a huge ‘T’. The entrance to the big room is at the foot of this ‘T’ and the path follows the walls, past many magnificent columns and stalagmites. The best known of these are the three huge stalagmites, up to sixty feet high and ten feet in diameter but scattered here and there are many other formations, the best of these being Totem Pole – a forty five feet high slender column and to me the finest example in the whole show cave. At the top right hand limb of the ‘T’ an eighty foot pitch through the boulder floor of the chamber leads to further extensions that were discovered in the 1925 National Geographical Society’s explorations. The left hand top limb ends abruptly, but a thirty foot diameter shaft (Bottomless Pit – a hundred and twenty feet deep) can be seen and its counterpart in the roof continues upwards to unknown heights.

Since the cave is largely inactive, its few pools form a novelty and so all the gimmicks of lighting and reflection are used. The only one active formation is covered with algae due to the lighting system and so rather spoils the whole effect. The floor of the Big Room is covered with a four foot layer of bat guano, and in the late nineteenth century, great amounts were excavated and taken from the cave.

The Indians of the area used only the entrance of the cave and there is no evidence that they penetrated any further than the twilight zone. A few pictoglyphs can be seen on one of the shelves of the entrance.

They, the Indians, lived mainly as did Stone Age man in England – in rock shelters and shallow caves along the river beds. Various plants were the staple diet of these people, and with animal life in the area, life was reasonably tolerable.

31 From the Big Room, the return was the easiest of the lot! In the Restaurant Chamber, elevators returned the parties to the surface, the ascent taking about a minute. The total length of the trip is round about four and a half hours, and the rangers stop parties at various points in the system to explain how caves form and why formations should not be damaged. The content, from a weegee point of view, is of a high standard and not the tripe so often heard in other show caves of the area and this country too. None of them can compare in any way with Carslbad, however much they think of their arrangements. If you are ever lucky enough to be plunged into the states, do not miss a visit to Carlsbad – and remember – its buckshee! _______________________________________________________________________________________

St. Cuthbert’s

MONTHLY NOTES

The Tuesday evening digging team have at last re-opened Sump I by bailing it to a low duck and then lowering the stream bed on the other side to give a permanent airspace through it. In three later trips, the stream way has been extensively widened and further deepened, so that there is now eight or nine inches of airspace when the stream is flowing, and Cuthbert’s II should now be accessible under all conditions except perhaps extreme flood.

….by ‘Ben’

Work is now about to start on Sump II and anyone interested in joining this promising project is invited to come along any Tuesday evening, meeting at the Belfry at about 6.45 – 7.00 pm.

Wookey Hole Another long dive by John Barker last month resulted in the discovery of a further chamber which is quite sizeable and has an ascending passage leading off. On a later dive with Tim Reynolds and Brian Woodward, about four hundred feet of passage was followed. The trip includes about a quarter of a mile of underwater passage descending to between sixty and ninety feet and is near the limit of what divers can do without a direct entrance to Wookey XX. A further attempt to locate XX by radio methods has failed to work.

Swildons Hole Some chemical persuasion in Sump XII has revealed a possible by-pass.

Rhino Rift Work continues at the bottom, which now has about fifty feet of passage.

Hunters Hole This dig also required more support from members, so that the PROMISING DRAUGHT recently lost by collapse may be rediscovered and followed. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Solution To Last Month’s Crossword T

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MONTHLY CROSSWORD – Number 11.

Across: 1

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3

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5. Blood characteristic I understood with lute characteristics (5,4) 6. Seaman plus possible course with myself and fish descending. (9) 7. Do this when 6 ac. (5,4) 8. They see caves! (5,4)

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Down:

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1. Home on the hill. (3,6) 2. Cerberus members? (9) 3. This, if not happy with 6 across. (5,4) 4. Limited succession of good caving days.

(1,4,4)

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