Rescue training

It had been a while for me! But I could make the January rescue training. It would be a hauling training in Cwmorthin. And I got home from my Birmingham adventure on time. Sort of.

When I parked up I saw everybody else set off towards the entrance. Oh dear! Luckily I didn’t have to change into full caving kit. Just my boots, harness, and underground jacket. And my helmet! This would be its first outing in months. Miles had repaired it (well, the light on it) for me after I damaged it last spring. I had got it back just before the new year started when Miles came over for dinner.

Jonty, the training officer, waited for me, and we walked up together. We caught up with everybody else by the entrance. We had a good female representation! Four women on a not-so-big training event; in total we’d have 7 men. And Sharon was one of them.

Inside we found Gethin, who would lead the training. He first talked us through the theory of what he wanted us to do, and let us do some dry practice on solid ground. And then we moved to the actual pitch we’d use: the usual one, by the catwalk. There is an anchor in the ceiling but it is quite far out and quite high, and not popular with short people.

Gethin demonstrating something

Jonty rigged the first rope. We’d need three for this exercise. One of the women (none of us are tall) wanted to try to put in another one. She had to do a few attempts, but she managed it! And we did hear a little crash below her.

We got all ropes in, and one of the guys was going to be the pretend casualty. He walked around to the bottom of the pitch. One of the other guys then asked him to check whether there was anything there that shouldn't be there; what had the crash been? It hadn't quite sounded like a rock. And our casualty found the phone of the lady who had put one of the ropes in. Oops! But it was cased in something incredibly sturdy, and seemed to still work. Very impressive!

We got on with our haul. And it went well! We got him up without problems, and around the corner as well. Success.

Then we were going to bolt on an extra activity. A bloke had lent the Go Below folks a snazzy device that allows you to use a drill as a winch. So one of the guys went down again, so he could be winched up. And it worked! Not flawlessly; the person operating the drill should have used a rather slow setting (for use as a screwdriver et cetera), which he didn't, which meant that the drill started to overheat. But the concept clearly works!

Pretend casualty being winched up

Then it was time to pack up. So we took down all the rigging and walked out. That was it for the day! Late enough for me, to be honest. My alarm has gone off that morning at 5:45, so I could get the train to Birmingham. It had been a long day!