Sunday 11 May 2008 Rescue Practice Peak Cavern

Another warm sunny day and Karen decided to stay at home to do some work in the garden. I drove to Castleton and after getting changed at the Chapel walked to Peak Cavern car park to join some others by the DCRO van. A group headed for Speedwell and Colostomy Crawl while another group headed for Victoria Aven to support the divers who were diving Buxton Water Sump and were to simulate a rescue with communications and stretcher-carry and haul up Surprise View. I was assigned Control duty. I spent the time in my furry suit manning the main radio on the van and keeping the log on the grounds that as I was a new and therefore trainee leader, the experience would be good for me! Two others were on the other end of the radio with a Heyphone in order to communicate with the underground teams and position on the ridge above Peak Cavern.
After the debrief, I joined several others at the DCRO store behind Buxton fire station to sort out and clean the gear used during the exercise.

Saturday 10 May 2008 Karen's Birthday and DCRO Street Collection Matlock

Karen drove down to meet Jill and Lorraine at Bradgate Park for birthday celebrations while I joined Andy and Bill at Sainsburys in Matlock for a DCRO Street Collection. It was dry and warm and I was standing at Sainsburys door with Bill at the DCRO van nearby in the car park. Andy was in the town and was joined by another caver he knew but I hadn't seem before. Later on Chris also turned up and tool up a position in the town.
In the evening we were joined by Keith Slatcher and Pete Collins, who were at the OCC hut for the weekend, for a meal at the Bowling Green.

Saturday 26 April 2008 Rescue Practice P8

I was with a group in to rig the alternative 2nd pitch while a second group rigged the first pitch for hauling a stretcher. Afte this we swapped over. Afterwards was the DCRO AGM at Sparrowpit Village Hall which only took 1 and a half hours.

Sunday 20 April 2008 Caving Yorkshire

All except for Boyd, who had to be back home for early evening, planned on a pull-through trip down Swinsto Cavern. As I couldn't face the long entrance crawl, I volunteered to rig the short pitch at the Valley Entrance end. After rigging the pitch (there was a good in-situ rope on the more awkward alternative) I dropped down and had a mooch around upstream until it got to low crawling size. After exiting Valley Entrance and getting changed had a cake and coffee in Bernies then had a mooch around. When I got bored I drove over to Kingsdale to meet the others but we passed each other in Ingleton without knowing and I found they had gone. Returned to Bernies to find them there.

Saturday 19 April 2008 Caving Yorkshire

Drove up Friday night to meet Jim and Boyd in the New Inn, Clapham - we were staying at Greenclose. We met Andy there with his family. Jim knew him from work sessions at Bagshawe Cavern while Boyd had introduced his father to caving through the Orpheus!
Keith and Phil arrived in the morning while we were at Bernies. As Jim had not been down Alum Pot, and nor had Phil, we all had a trip down via the Dolly Tubs. I was finding the traverse part way down the Dolly Tubs pitch a pain due to my sore shoulder when carrying a tackle bag so I pulled the rope up and lowered the bag down. As it was then a lot easier, I continued on and met the others below the Greasy Slab. Karen wasn't feeling well so decided to head out and after getting to the top of the Bridge, I followed her out. Luckily we met a family group about to rig a rope on the short climb near the Cheese Press as I found it difficult to manage the climb with my sore shoulder.

Saturday 12th April 2008 Walking on Kinder Scout

Karen joined Keith and Chris Jackson for a trip down Nettle Pot and I planned on a walk on Kinder Scout. I parked near Nether Booth and noticed the hill tops were white with snow.
I walked up the road past the farm on the Pennine Way and then followed the path towards Crowden Brook. As I gained height I started to find the snow laying on the ground and reached the start of low cloud. The nice little scramble at the top if Crowden Brook was interesting with the snow covering the holds so I put on some light-weight gloves and swept the snow off.

When I reached the edge of the Kinder plateau, I followed the edge-side path and after a while sheltered behind a gritstone outcrop to have a sandwich and a bit of coffee from my flask. After the short break, I continued onwards following around the edge of the plateau with another short break for lunch, again sheltering by a gritstone outcrop.
Eventually I reached the path leading down towards Grindsbrook Booth below Ringing Roger. After finishing off my coffee while sitting on a bench opposite the primary school, I followed the path leading back to Upper Booth and the car park.

Sunday 6 April 2008 Caving South Wales

As my shoulder was a bit sore I decided to have a rest day and waited in the car as Karen, Keith, Waggy, Dave, Mike and Simon had a trip into Craig a Ffynnon as far as the Hall of the Mountain King.