The accident that killed Parker Turner

[Mr T.]

I seem to remember the 'Dead Man's Handshake' from a TV programme in the early 80s - they had to use a blue dye in the water to prove the direction of the water-course so they could confirm which (out of a choice of a few) was the egress point.

Yes Scoff, could you please give us a read on this site as, with such an emotive title, it's bound to draw readers in and add quality content to the site?

Cheers in advance,
Bren.

[Mr T.]

Just found this on Google:

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Eiger Underground
From: Duncan Price
Date: 1/13/03
Time: 1:47:03 PM
Remote Name: 208.63.68.249


Comments:

On Friday January 10th 2003 John Volanthen and myself did the through dive from Keld Head to West Kingsdale Master Cave. Until a connection with King Pot was established in 1991 this held the UK record as the longest underwater traverse* between to caves (King Pot-Keld Head is 10,230 ft). John and I both attended the NSS-CDS workshop in May 2002 so it may be of interest to post this trip report as an illustration of the sort of cave diving we do.

Keld Head is a major spring with a large catchment area. At least three major cave systems discharge water here: Marble Steps Pot, the West Kingdale system (Simpson's Pot, Swinsto Pot and Rowten Pot plus others) and the East Kingsdale System (King Pot and others). The resurgence is a site with easy access, near to the road which runs up the valley bottom. It is an impressive side being in the floors of an abandoned glaciated valley in the heart of the majestic Yorkshire Dales. The land around the entrance is privately owned and we were able to secure permission from the local farmer who can be a bit unpredictable at times but evidently we caught him at a good time. The weather was typical for this part of the country - freezing conditions with a clear moonlit sky illuminating a light covering of snow. There had been practically no rain for a week and we hoped that by diving late on a Friday night we'd avoid any deterioration in water quality caused by the hordes of cavers tramping around the feeders that occurs at a weekend. Even so, Keld Head is notorious for having poor visibility so we expected the worst.

The equipment we used was fairly standard for us. I diving on open circuit with 2x120 sidemounts of air at 4000 psi plus a couple of chest mounted 100's of Nitrox-30% that I'd mixed up for a different purpose but would be useful as bailouts for this dive. John used his modified C-96 Pro rebreather (designed for O2 use but with added KISS O2 addition, diluent and an oxyguage). In addition to the chestmounted rebreather he wore two 100's sidemounts as diluent and bailout. Both of us used drysuits (John was wearing neoprene one and I was wearing my trilaminate - with new neoprene seals which worked perfectly). Our underwear comprised of Weasel suits with an extra layer of thermal vest/long johns to combat the long swim in 40°F water. We set off at about 6:30 pm with John in the lead. Both of us had written
directions for the dive on our slates, John had dived part of the route from both ends whereas I had previously been to the same point (years ago) from each end. The visibility was poor, less than 6 ft but conditions that we were well-used to diving in. The plan was for John to lead all the way but wait for me at junctions where he would mark the "out" direction. The line markers were to stay in place being biodegradable ones especially sourced for the dive (wooden clothes pins). In the event of one of us having to call the dive then it was agreed that we could split up from one another leaving the other to carry on with the dive.

Things went wrong at the second junction (150ft in) - John followed the main line to the right whereas I took the longer and bigger passage ahead to the next junction and then left to rejoin the main line at the 330 ft airbell (this is an easier route and one which I thought that John would prefer). Effectively this is a five way junction with the main line, the "Crossover" I'd just come in on, a line up to the airbell and another line which leads back to an alternative entrance by the main spring. I followed the latter line for a short distance before realizing my mistake. Back at the five way junction I located the main line and established the correct direction of travel (opposite to someone's "out" marker) and met John who had come the shorter but smaller route and taken more time. Giving John the lead again we continued on our way upstream. There was no further confusion at the next few junctions and we eventually reached the notorious restriction known as "Dead Man's Handshake" (see Farr's book). Following John, I had to turn on one side to fit all the cylinders through - the wall was covered in scratches and flecks of paint from diver's cylinders (in the UK nearly all cylinders are painted). There was a recognizable wire coat hanger to one side which had been used to recover one of Jochen Hasenmeyer's dive lights which he' lost in the famous incident which gave the place its name. We became separated by the maneuvers required to traverse this section and once in the larger passage beyond I swam up and down the line to convince myself that I was heading upstream. I caught up with John at the next line junction with its distinctive makers pointing down a parallel oxbow route (the Dark Side) which bypasses Dead Man's Handshake and rejoins the main line at one of the junctions that we'd already passed.

Progress beyond this point was hampered by the fact that the line was way over to one side in a low bedding plane. We had to swim along well to one side with our heads turned to spot the line. The depth had gradually deepened to 60 ft or so when we arrived at the base of an impressive shaft. Rising slowly up this I had to be careful to dump air from my suit through the auto-dump on my wrist. I did not help that I was wearing a slate on this arm which trapped air. John had to be careful to add more oxygen to his rebreather has he ascended whilst dumping gas through his nose to counteract the drop in pressure. Another awkward area again with the line over to one side followed, but eventually we reached "Yorrurt Revised" airbell where we could pop our heads out of the water and chat. At this point I'd just about reached thirds on my sidemounts and had not touched on my chest mounts.

Doubling back on ourselves we followed a thicker line towards Kingsdale Master Cave. A little beyond the airbell the route split and we took the longer, but easier Mainstream Route towards our destination. Even so, there were several low sections which we had to pass - low arches beneath cross-rifts - with John ahead that meant that sometimes I was following in zero visibility. At least it was a good guide for the direction to take at junctions since John had run out of clothes pins. Apart from one confusing junction we soon regained the thicker main line for the final slog to surface in the downstream sump in Kingsdale Master Cave after a 6270 ft dive taking 107 minutes. I had joked that I might just turn around and swim out - I had used a little less than half the air in my sidemounts whereas my chestmounts were still full. Somehow I decided against it (one person has actually done this) especially when John revealed that he'd drive me to the pub.

Whilst dumping our gear we met a couple of cavers en route from one of the cave entrances high above the resurgence that connects with the Master Cave and its dry, fossil resurgence, "Valley Entrance". Unfortunately they were also more interested in getting to the pub than helping us so John and I stashed our cylinders, stuffed our regulators inside a cave pack that I'd brought in strapped to one of my cylinders and exited via Valley Entrance behind them. (This wasn't actually as straightforward as the last sentence suggests because there is a 20 ft rope climb directly above the sump pool into the high level dry passage to the surface. It is not easy to rock climb in a drysuit (even with the benefit of a permanent hand line left in place) but eventually John's height advantage got him up and I followed). Surfacing at 10 pm there was ample time to get to the pub in time for a few beers to celebrate.

The next day, two of John's friends helped us recover the remaining gear and I even went dry caving with them afterwards. Everyone was very tired afterwards so we decided to come home that night rather than do anymore caving/diving. Even under the poor conditions that we dived in, this traverse is one of the classic British sump dives and has only been completed by a dozen or so divers.

* first done by Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham in the downstream direction on the 16th January 1979 and televised as the programme "Underground Eiger" - hence the title of this trip. For more details of the history of exploration of this site see "The Darkness Beckon's" by Martyn Farr.


Photograph: John (sitting, left) and Duncan (standing, right) by the oil drum entrance to Kingsdale Matster Cave after recovering their cylinders used for the through dive from Keld Head.


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[Scoff]

Hobby/ Bren,

As requested.... below an accound of how Dead Man's Handshake got its name.

But, first off re: Duncan's dive account - bear in mind this was written for a American audience who are unlikely to ever visit the Dales. The landowner is very wary of allowing anyone in the place (and that includes CDG members), and has closed access on several occasions (partly in view of previous fatalities in there). Please can we all remember that 'pirate/ unauthorised' trips will get the place closed to everyone. Duncan is a CDG member, and hence can arrange access to Keld Head. It is well to also note that the cave is extremely complex (with approximately 20 line choices before you get to Dead Man's Handshake) and noriously bad viz more than 95% of the time.

Anyway, the best place to read the proper account of Dead Man's Handshake tale is either in "The Darkness Beckons" by Martyn Farr, or in "Quest for Adventure" edited by Chris Bonnington.

In brief, Geoff Yeadon & Oliver 'Bear' Statham (both Northern Section of CDG) had been gradually pushing Keld Head in the mid-seventies, as well as the downstream sump in West Kingsdale Master Cave. They had re-introduced the drysuit to cave diving in the UK in the process, and were devising new or adapted gear and techniques as explorations progressed. It became apparent that the two ends of the same underwater passage were gradually heading towards a link. At that point the pair were joined by the record-breaking German cave diver, Jochen Hassenmayer. On one dive, the three were to dive with an interval separating their departures, so that they would not hamper each other's progress - the normal CDG solo methodology. Jochen had more air so dived first, followed by Bear and then finally Geoff.

Bear eventually arrived at a restriction, through which a line had been laid, at a point 3000 ft from the entrance. In backmounts and sidemounts, he decided against attempting to pass the squeeze, and headed for home. On meeting Geoff back down the main line he wrote a note on his slate "3000. Small with back + sides. No Jochen! Trouble?" Geoff wrote that he would go and take a look.

The squeeze itself is (and here we go again trying to describe 3-D shapes) like a letter 'P' rotated 90 degrees to the left. The 'D' bit is on the left (but taller and narrower) with the 'tail' running off horizontally to the right. Before the squeeze, the 'D' part is bigger, and the tail bit is just a low slot under the right hand wall. Passing through the squeeze, and you are in a bigger passage, but looking over your right shoulder, the passage gradually lowers as it goes to form the slot you have previously seen under the right wall before the squeeze.

Geoff arrived at the squeeze and there was still no sign of Jochen. Then the line twitched - and Geoff & Jochen's version of events conflicts a little. The original story was that the line ran into the low slot on the right, and it was here that Jochen's lights appeared. However, because the slot was too small to pass, Jochen was searching around for a possible way out. As his hand appeared on the line through the slot, Geoff saw it and took hold of it to let Jochen know that he was there to give moral support if nothing else. Geoff tried to move the line towards the bigger bit and the means of escape, but Jochen found himself still trapped. Eventually, another hand contact and Jochen patted Geoff's hand as if to say 'goodbye' or ' bye' for now, I'm backing off to try something else - leave me to it'.

Jochen did back off, and did find a way out, though declined to show anyone how much air he had left back at the surface. Geoff wrily commented "I thought I was shaking a dead man's hand in there!"

Later Jochen played down the incident, presumably as he thought it showed some sort of flaw in an otherwise stunning cave diving career. The rest of us, however, think more of 'He stayed calm, and got himself out of the mire. What a cool dude!'

Whatever the actual events (and knowing Geoff, I can't believe he would make anything up) it just shows, even the best can have problems, but they overcome them. And when you see the place with your own eyes, and you think they pushed this over a quarter of a century ago... well, they have my ultimate respect.

Keld was later linked to Kingsdale Master Cave by Yeadon & Statham. Some years later the East Kingsdale Master Cave was pushed towards Keld Head by Rupert Skorupka, while a combined team of Geoff Yeadon with Geoff Crossley and John Cordingley with Russell Carter made alternate pushes from West Kingsdale. Eventually in 1991 they connected the two sides of the valley to give a through dive of around 3.5km (one way) to depths around -35m on a dive taking around five and a half hours. This was at the time the longest through dive in the world.

Hope this is all of some interest.

Cheers

Scoff

(Cave Diving Group - Northern Section)

[malcolm smith]

Wild and extreme stuff Scoff, I have read and been mindblown by this before.
This is cutting edge Everest type stuff, for those who aspire only to a stroll on the Lakeland fells, there is purely enjoyable tourist cave diving around if you want it.
CDG the way to go UK, options available for easy foreign dives.
Cheers, Malcolm.

[Hobby]

Cheers Scoff for that.
Just to follow up on a point you made.
For all those who fancy having a look etc.at any of the cave systems in the Dales etc,please ,please contact the CDG or local caving club first.Not so much to do with the diving(altough if you do intend to have a wet look then this is paramount)but,as Scoff mentions,it has taken years of dedicated PR work by these lads for access to reach the still somewhat fragile state it is today.
I'd hate to see anybody jeopardise that,but knowing human nature someone may well and I'd hate it even more if it came about as a result of reading about it here.
If you want to go,contact those in the know first,they're not hard to find.
Thanks,Hobby.

[Duncan Price]

I'd just like to reiterate what Scoff said and what I mentioned in passing:

0. The article was written for an American audience.

1. We followed established access proceedures.  If the landowner had refused us we'd have gone elsewhere.  I have been turned away in the past for no apparent reason.  We happened to catch the farmer in a good mood.

2.  John and I have both dived there before and had overlapped our route from both ends.  Both of us carried written instructions regarding the line layout kindly provided by a local cave diver.  Despite this, we got "lost" twice en route, realised our mistake and corrected them.

3.  We both had overkill on air and lighting.  In fact either one of us could have reversed the route from where we surfaced.

4.  We were both extremely "dive fit" for this tourist trip - it was a lot easier than what we normally get up to! (Scoff will appreciate this)

5.  Mind how you go.

Duncan