“On our first visit we thought the water was coming up through boulders and the cave ended, but on a second dive, we realised that the water actually came up through a gap under the left-hand side of the chamber. They returned once again, this time with lump hammers, crowbars and a lifting bag (a large bag which can be filled with air from a cylinder, making it buoyant so it can lift whatever is attached to it). Part of the cave had collapsed causing a very localised blockage.
It was completely blocked.įeeling dejected Rick and John returned for a second look. Rick Stanton was joined by fellow cave explorer John Volanthen, a Bristol-based engineer, together they set out to discover the next air chamber – Chamber 26.Īfter the gravel squeeze, the passage continued for seventy meters and then stopped. Rick had passed the mythical end of the cave thus beginning a new wave of exploration in Wookey Hole. I went for a look and explored another forty or fifty meters.” So we knew there would be a big space at the bottom. Gravel blockages usually occur where the tunnel continues upwards, as gravel will collect at the deepest point. “I popped out the bottom and found a big tunnel ahead. I could have got pinned, it’s all moving so I had to be quite careful. I pushed my way through by doing a kind of breast-stroke. Imagine a steep slope filled with gravel, which you can’t even crawl through, the fluid floor falling in behind you and as you push it out of the way it moulds itself all around you. “There was a tunnel running down a gravel slope that went to the side of the blockage, it was almost a separate tunnel. He squeezed through pushing himself through four meters of gravel. On the right was a low arch and a small gap beyond, filled with gravel. In June 2004, Rick Stanton, a firefighter from Coventry, dived straight to the end of the cave.
Gavin had solo dived to the end of Wookey Hole Cave and filmed his journey. The line continued to a depth of sixty-eight meters where the cave ended. With difficulty he twisted the camera round into the small gap before him and through the undisturbed, clear water ahead could see the guideline laid by cave diver Rob Parker in 1985. The glare from his lights and the greenie brown silt, stirred up by his movements reduced the visibility to a few inches. Buried in gravel, underwater at a depth of sixty-four meters Gavin could go no further. He could feel the gravel falling in behind him, threatening to trap him as he fought the narcotic effects caused by breathing air at depth. The cave roof closed down to just a few inches above his head, digging into the shifting gravel, he pulled himself along. At a depth of forty meters the passage descended more steeply and to one side was a deep void where his powerful lights could not penetrate the blackness. He was careful to keep a firm grip on the guideline because silt can reduce the visibility to zero he could get lost and run out of air before finding his way out.
Result of being trapped in confined space.Diving through a narrow rocky passage, often no more than just half a meter wide, Gavin headed for the end of the cave. Possibly hit by a rock deliberately thrown down the shaft įell from near top of Dolly Tubs pitch when unlifelined The cause of death was foul air building up around him. The only case of a caver dying in the UK as the result of becoming stuck was Neil Moss in Peak Cavern in 1959. Ease Gill Caverns and its associated entrances accounts for ten deaths Alum Pot and its associated entrances account for six, as does Mossdale Caverns (all from the 1967 incident). Porth yr Ogof, in South Wales, accounts for eleven fatalities, nine of which were the result of people drowning when negotiating the exit pool. Three cavers were killed by a rock fall in Ease Gill Caverns in 1988, and three cavers were drowned in the Marble Arch system in 1995.
The first was when three cavers drowned in Langstroth Pot in 1976 when free-diving short sections of underwater passage as the result of the air in an air bell becoming foul. There have been three incidents when three people have died. The worst incident in UK caving history was the Mossdale Caverns incident in 1967 when six cavers were drowned following an unexpected cloud burst. In ten cases the bodies have not been recovered. The main causes of death have been drowning when cave diving, drowning as the result of flooding or negotiating deep water, injuries incurred from falling from a height, and injuries incurred as the result of rock falls. The following is a list of the 136 identified recorded fatalities associated with recreational caving in the UK. Porth yr Ogof - the scene of 11 fatalities