The Sunday the 6th May Mendip Cave Rescue will be holding a rescue workshop as part of the Mendip CaveFest 2018 weekend. The rescue workshop will be held underground in G.B. cave, where there will be four different workshops held in different locations in the cave. These will be:

  1. Communications - to be held at the entrance to Mud Passage from the Gorge.
  2. Stretcher packaging - to be held in the Gorge above the Bridge.
  3. Pitch hauling - to be held at the fixed ladder in the Devil's Elbow route.
  4. Casualty assessment ("what to do before rescue turns up") - to be held on the 1st climb in the Mud Passage route.

There will be at least two MCR rescue wardens plus all the relevant equipment at each location.

The rescue workshop is open to all interested cavers, but please note that following:

  • Valid Charterhouse Caving Company permits will be required for everyone who ventures underground.
  • Please park considerately at the farm (as usual), making a £1 donation per car, and respect any directions from the farmer. It is recommended that people share cars to minimise parking space.
  • MCR will have a 'checking in' tent close to the entrance. Everyone who goes underground will need to check in.

There will be two time slots for cavers who wish to go underground - 10:30 and 13:00. Each slot can have up to 20 cavers (4 teams of 5 people, entering the cave at 5 minute intervals). Please can anyone who wants to attend register in advance with the CaveFest website, or with the CaveFest organisers over the weekend.

A rescue practice to be held in Goatchurch Cavern is to be held on Sunday 28th January 2018. Meet at the carpark by the toilets ready to go underground at 14:00. This training event is open to all cavers, and will concentrate on stretcher packaging and hauling, with an additional communications element (depending on numbers).

A communications training evening in Eastwater Cavern has been planned for Monday the 30th October. All are welcome to come along and experiment with the Cave-Link and Nicola 3 radio units that the MCR has available to us. Meet at the Belfry at 19:00 to walk across to Eastwater Cavern, and it would be helpful if you inform Estelle, our comms officer if you are planning on attending so that she can gauge numbers and plan the evening accordingly.

A MCR training event was held on Monks Park mine on Saturday 16th September 2017. The training scenario involved having an overdue party lost in the mine, which included one person who had suffered multiple injuries requiring the use of a stretcher to extricate them and one person who had suffered minor injuries and was able to walk out when assisted by rescue team members. This rescue practice also included the successful use of the Cave Link underground communication system, demonstrating that this underground communication system works well in these stone mines when a good earth connection is found (or created using a bucket of water to damp the terminals!). During the course of the rescue scenario, a SARCALL log was created and the surface control team ensured that this was regularly updated. Some more photographs from this rescue practice can be found on our Facebook page. Our thanks to all at Hansons, and in particular the mine manager Gary Sales, for allowing us to use the mine for this training scenario.

Monks Park mine
MCR rescue pracice in Monks Park mine

A training evening centred on Goatchurch Cavern in Burrington Combe. Meet at the carpark by the toilets at 19:00. This training event is open to all.

  1. Stretcher packaging, 28th February 2017
  2. CO2 training, 17th January 2017
  3. Rescue Practice, 20th November 2016
  4. Comms training, 12th September 2016
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