Oh What a Night

Thursday 6th April’s 'easy' evening trip was set up for Crackpot, Swaledale. As people were travelling from different dales, we arranged to meet at 7pm at the moor gate. Alison and I were priding ourselves on looking as if we would only be about 5 minutes late when we encountered John turning the car round high on the Whitaside road. Just a short distance round the corner the road was completely blocked by 3' snow drifts. This road is apparently too narrow to plough, so just gets left to its own devices.

A rethink on tactics and we drove round to Summer Lodge, hoping to be able to make contact with the other part of the group before they went home. As we had all the club and spare gear, a lot of head scratching was needed deciding how we could best get everyone underground. As I dashed off up the hill with my own gear to change into, I met Carol and Kirsti who had walked down from the top gate as they had realised we couldn't get through. They didn't have their beginners, so we dropped down to Summer Lodge to get ready. Soon 7 of us were ready for action.

We made it through the Kneewrecker series without much trouble (assuring John that it was worth it) to arrive at the large main stream passage. A quick look down the abandoned gallery and we decided to split into 2 groups. Alison & I fancied the opportunity to investigate the Intestines - a section of the cave neither of us had been in before. Carol offered to take John, his daughter Chloe and her friend Hannah upstream on the 'normal' trip. Kirsti decided to go with them to try out her camera (although the 'waterproof' bag wasn't living up to its name).

The Intestines were thoroughly investigated - every opening being probed - until we found ourselves in enlarging passage with the beckoning sound of a stream. This was completely unexpected - we both thought we had a fair idea of what was down Crackpot & didn't realise there was large passage beyond the Intestines. This was followed with great excitement until we reached the inside of the original entrance collapse. We returned to meet the others well chuffed - isn't caving brilliant?

The timing had worked very well and the other group had just arrived at the start of Kneewrecker and began to head out. After a short while, worrying sounds were coming back from the front of the group. Hannah was very cold and beginning to get lethargic. Carol and Kirsti quickly realised she was becoming hypothermic after perhaps rather too enthusiastic immersion in the snow melt chilled water. They took her into a small dry chamber in the passage. Kirsti headed out to gather some spare dry clothes we had fortuitously left near the entrance, whilst Carol set about with the survival bag.

I chivalrously offered my knee as insulation and Hannah was soon starting to improve. The dry clothes arrived and a quick change ensued. Hannah's condition continued to improve and we decided that we could get her out and back to the car under her own steam. We had thought of sitting tight and putting out a shout if her recovery had been less convincing. She managed to get out and up the hill, but was beginning to suffer again on the walk down. We were committed by this point, so Alison dashed off to get the car running and Kirsti and I managed to carry Hannah the rest of the way and kept her talking.

Once in the car and wrapped up in lots more clothing, Hannah began to warm up slowly. When we moved off she improved quite quickly and became talkative. By the time we got back to her house she was much better - she'd gone back through shivering and now felt cold hands and feet. Her Mum put her some soup on and she was soon back to normal. Not put off, I think she'll be trying caving again and her Mum is keen to have a go too!

Well after midnight, we drove back home, with a brief stop to be stunned by Aurora Borealis. What a trip!

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Oh What a Night

Paul Brooks