People who do potholing for fun

[StrychnineIntheSandwiches]

I just watched this extremely distressing video of a fully grown man squeezing his fully grown self into a letter box sized hole. He probably doesn't even know where that hole leads. Pennywise might be down there waiting for him. He might never comes back.

'Ah' his friends will say 'but he died doing what he loved most, squeezing himself into creepy little caves'.

I'd rather walk across broken glass to embrace a naked Nigel Farage than go potholing.

twitter.com/jeremiahjw/status/1488607102452912129

@ItsJustTheOneSwanActually

Keeerrist no, not for me, tx

Closest i'll ever get, is once on our hols in Colorado we visited Mesa Verde which includes a very small tunnel you crawl through at the end (you can see daylight )
A few of our guided party were really quite overweight. not me oh no

The guide was very matter of fact. Said he wasn't worried about fat tummies coz you could 'suck 'em in'. It was shoulders that were the issue' He looked at DH and said 'you'll want to go through diagonally'

He did too - had to go in one shoulder at a time. Gave me the heebie jeebies watching

I came on to mention exactly this tunnel! I've done it twice and it is the closest I will ever come to potholing. I hate the sensation of being surrounded by rock.

When I was 17, I did artificial pot holing. As in, it was a man made series of wet, dark tunnels under ground. It was probably the single most terrifying thing I have ever done in my life. I burst into tears before we'd even got there. I cried all the way through. Horrible. Horrible. Horrible.

It was my birthday as well 😭

Came to say watch The Rescue on Disney+ but I've been beaten to it. Quite a particular type that enjoys this sort of thing, they all looked more like accountants than action heros.

What's the difference between caving and potholing anyway?

What's the difference between caving and potholing anyway?

None to my knowledge. Is it a regional thing? All the cavers I know call it caving (North Yorks).

@pinkbuttercups

Brilliant

Some of the replies on this are comedy genius

I will never do caving or try shapewear in m and s 👍

It doesn't matter how the money is raised, through donations, or taxes, it's still a lot of money for which I believe people involved in the most extreme of extreme sports should be prepared to take a modicum of personal responsibility.

Who the fuck do you think donates cash and fundraises for mountain/cave rescue teams? Climbers and cavers, that's who.

And who do you think runs them and volunteers their time and effort? Climbers and cavers again.

Claiming that the exact people who fund and run rescues need to take "a modicum of personal responsibility" makes you sound pretty stupid tbh.

I used to enjoy it when I was younger. My favourite was going through the cheese press in Long Churn, and then out into the sun and light.

@Ostryga

I once got stuck in a full body shapewear thing in M&S, my arms were above my head and the shapewear pinning them up whilst strangling me. I had to be cut out. The panic was horrendous.

Exactly what I imagine pot holing to be like. But worse because a nice sales assistant can’t chop you out between laughing. Hideous.

Oh my word.

Did you have to pogo out of the changing room with the shapewear covering your head or did the assistant hear your yelping and rush in?

You may have invented a new extreme sport.

Mr Ballen (YouTube channel) did an episode on I think 3 caving/pot holing stories like this. He's a great storyteller but the caving episode is the one I that really lingers in the mind (in case any of you are not wanting to sleep for a while).

Caving is a hard nope from me.

@BigValue

I used to enjoy it when I was younger. My favourite was going through the cheese press in Long Churn, and then out into the sun and light.

I loved doing the Cheesepress! When I did it I was one of the smallest people in the group & had to talk all these big blokes through it as they were all (understandably) getting stuck & having panic attacks!

I would not be able to do this for all the money in the world.

I can't even get into a small lift without panicking.

Long Churn was the first cave I did, many years ago.

Reminded me of the Nutty Putty caving incident, but also .

@ducksurprise I remember the 999 programme! It was addictive viewing at our uni halls in the early 90’s. It was Michael Buerk who did the commentary. The one you mentioned, it was a school party and one of the young teens didn’t not come up from an underwater ‘sump’ I believe it’s called. The leaders had done a headcount and realised they were one short, eventually found him in a side cave alone. I recall he was so scared to have to put his head under the water again to get out they said ‘If you want to see your mum again you have to do this’. Truly terrifying. He got out ok, by the way.

Also I remember a programme about caving with Kate Humble, probably around 2007 ish. She was in some caves in South Wales, and had to crawl commando style along this tunnel. Steve Backshall was also in it, and he did a piece to camera mid tunnel, saying it was hard to breathe due to all the people ahead of him blocking the airflow!

Lol Penny wise

I did long chummas a student - our leader couldn't fit through the cheese press and we had to continue alone. We got lost -3 hours underground. Went in as an adventurous person , came out deeply claustrophobic. Still am 30'years later . One of the worst experiences of my life .

Eww I’d never want to do pot holing or caving. No thanks!

I can’t imagine going in so far you get stuck, I just can’t! I wouldn’t even go down the entrance to the nutty putty thing!

For the record- every time I’ve competed with my horses the event has always provided St. John’s first aid cover. Most riding clubs I know do a fund raiser for the Air Ambulance too.

I started doing this at school back in the day, I miss it now, as I've gotten older I'm far more creaky and have the flexibility of a brick, I'd get stuck

One of our bedrooms is really cold all the time, like it feels 10 degrees below the rest of the house. After I watched a program on sinkholes (another fear of mine) I was convinced there was one under the floorboards. Still am and hate going in there! Something about falling into the ground freaks me out...

But caving isn’t just about tight places.
It’s also going down ropes, looking at calcite deposits, getting wet and muddy (well at least in the U.K. in France, you have the opposite problem lol), team work.

I can think of many places where you can go caving and never see a tight place.

I’m reading all those posts and thinking of a good friend of mine who is still caving, aged 75yo…..

He’d ve laughing his head off at the descriptions.

@Carriemac

I did long chummas a student - our leader couldn't fit through the cheese press and we had to continue alone. We got lost -3 hours underground. Went in as an adventurous person , came out deeply claustrophobic. Still am 30'years later . One of the worst experiences of my life .

Sounds absolutely horrific. I wouldn't do this for a million pounds, seriously!

Mike on YouTube has an entire series dedicated to revealing the horror of people who died splunking (term for people who do pot holing!). Horrific!

I did a bit of potholing in my 20s with some friends of friends (they were all in mountain rescue teams and knew the cave systems well having learned at Uni. Some of it was great fun eg scrambling down a chimney and abseiling through a cavern bigger than St Paul's dome, but as I've got older it's like softplay - no thanks, it's pretty horrid really.