Our colleagues at Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association (UWFRA) asked the team to assist with investigating a report of three cavers overdue in Dowbergill Passage, a demanding through trip between Providence Pot and Dow Cave in upper Wharfedale. An all-night search by cavers from the two teams and Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team (SMRT) eventually located the missing cavers around 09.15 on Friday morning well into the system, tired but uninjured. Deteriorating weather conditions from Storm Amy meant that the Dow Cave exit was impassable due to water levels, so the missing cavers had to be taken back out via Providence Pot. Cavers from the three teams and the Cavers List (a group of experienced cavers trained to assist with major underground rescues) as well as members from Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team and Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation (DCRO) helped the increasingly tired cavers back through the cave. Throughout the incident, members from UWFRA, CRO, SMRT, the Cavers List, DCRO, and RAF Leeming Mountain Rescue Team, as well as Hag Dyke Hostel staff, assisted on the surface in increasingly difficult weather conditions with control, communications, logistics, and transport, as well as damming Dowber Gill Beck to prevent the Providence Pot entrance flooding. The first missing caver surfaced at 15.28 on Friday afternoon, the second at 02.27 on Saturday morning, and the third at 04.31 on Saturday morning. In total, around 120 members of various rescue teams worked together on an arduous but ultimately successful rescue.
Volunteer hours (CRO and Cavers List only): 972