mossdale caverns accident

Perhaps Mossdale's bark was worse than its bite.Thus that Saturday morning the 10 young people who walked from Conistone village were an ad-hoc assemblage from three caving clubs. By then, his starved body had withered to bones. Would it hold? Had anything gone wrong, no one could have helped him. try again, the name must be uniquePlease Outside things looked bad.

He panicked, his breath faster than ever. He was climbing his way up a tight passageway when he knocked a 12-kilogram (27 lb) rock loose. As a joke, they jumped and shook it, marveling at how precariously it seemed to be built.They figured it was all in fun. Born 13 years after the tragedy, he admires and relates to the '67 six but doubts he is as good. From clubs across the North, young-tiger cavers were eager to gatecrash any Mossdale expedition. Ever-hopeful, Barnes was there again. Throngs of would-be rescuers sat fretting in the rain. A metal carabiner fell and hit Ryan in the face, causing him to Ryan had to get out. John Ogden's parents renamed their house Mossdale. Neither Livesey nor Boon were patient cave-surveyor types – a tedious job in any cave but in Mossdale Herculean. Start your Independent Premium subscription today.Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate?Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. It was meant to be bolted in place, but they’d used nails instead, simply because they didn’t have a drill handy.Under the weight of the students, the platform gave way. Yet with no accurate map it … {{#sender.isSelf}} She saw John’s body lying next to the Swiss girls. Soon, there was a The group’s only hope was a small crack in the rocks up ahead. It was the one the two leaders, Len Huff and Des Birch, had prayed that they never would have to face. As well as prestige, the reward was new discoveries, minor but alluring, in the eerie muddy caverns at the end of the cave.

Few, he admits, came twice.Leakey's solo exploration of Mossdale Caverns was a feat of unimaginable courage and endurance – some still say madness – comparable in caving terms to reaching the South Pole. John needed to get ready. Brave, robustly fit, they knew they were good and, as trips became more frequent, felt increasingly invulnerable. It was a terrifying moment; a nightmare to crawl over them. Tourists from all around were coming to see his rescue, with hucksters The mine shaft took too long. And with the planet's surface charted, caving suddenly was "in". On the 40th anniversary he was accompanied by Jim Cunningham and many of the others with whom he shared those long four days.Later that day Conistone village held a remembrance service. The jury's verdict – misadventure. Adamson's six were not due before midnight.

His website is regularly updated with everything he writes.Photo credit: The Norwegian Cave Diving Association via

A flood of water poured in through the cave entrance, and the middle section of the entire cave collapsed. Squirming around, he saw a boot protruding from a fissure. There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts

His efforts to get Deon into the bag were getting wild and careless, and he was staying at it for too long.After five minutes, Dave gave up and started swimming up, but his light got snagged on the cave line he’d attached to Deon’s body. It was one of those casual but pivotal moments when an impromptu word determines who grows old and who dies young. Cunningham admits if he were 20 that he would be among them.

Beyond the bodies Boardman spotted a gold ring.

Could the expert cave diver still be alive – maybe lost or unconscious – in some unknown high cavern?As if destined to be part of Mossdale's alpha and omega, 26 years after he discovered the cave, rescue leaders consulted Bob Leakey. He says Mossdale feels the loneliest place in the world; the farthest you ever have been away from home.Aware of the risks, he monitors the weather – reckons he can beat it. Frank Barnes walks to the cave every anniversary: "A bit of us all drowned with them down there. The roof above them was getting ready to collapse, but the rushing water below them was too wild to enter. Now nobody knew what to do next.Rain was falling steadily; the dam still unstable. try again, the name must be uniquePlease The 900ft crawl – 10 inches high and two feet wide – was too tight for passing if they met survivors. They gave him a break, Ryan talked him through it, and they pulled again. M.K. Morag sheltered in a barn. They're dead. First, they heard a sudden roar behind them—and then they saw the water rushing in.“John and I started climbing,” Helena recalled. The rain became torrential. But soon a convoy of fire engines, JCBs and tractors were grinding up the moor.As the midsummer dawn broke, the scene resembled a war zone. Of the sixth, there was no sign. All 15 people were trapped underground, with Wight and a few others stuck on a small ledge.It was hard to know what to do. Next comes the infamous Far Marathon. The battle raged all night. She will today not discuss it. United now by terror, inch by rising inch every caver's nightmare for them is coming true. Cunningham and Shepherd drove Collette back to Ingleton. Unlike mountaineers, cavers face their challenges where nobody sees them, only making news when something goes wrong.

Three hours later, four members of the party decided not to continue and exited the cave system. Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

Though forgotten by the world, the tragedy remains caving's Battle of the Somme. It was shaky, unstable – later reinforced by 10,000 sandbags – but created in one morning it was virtually a miracle: a race against time that many dedicated diggers believed already was lost. But as the water slowly sank, they were joined by Tony Waltham, a London-based Wanderer who had rushed to the cave, astonished to find that no one else there had ever been to its end.