Volunteering at CHECC's Annual Training in Yorkshire.
It's great to see our Volunteering Leave being put to great use - here's how our colleague Jamie got on supporting the Council for Higher Education Caving Club's annual training event in Yorkshire:
Last weekend I volunteered to help at one of CHECC’s
(Council of Higher Education Caving Clubs) annual training events in Yorkshire.
Yorkshire being famous for its vertical caves, requiring Single Rope Technique
(SRT) to explore. The event involves university caving clubs from all over the
country meeting up to network, share information, and learn more about how to
cave safely. As an experienced caver, I volunteered to help run the event and
teach cave specific SRT rigging techniques.
I arrived early on Friday to help set up the venue by
signposting to the venue; reorganising the venue to accommodate 150+ people;
organising the welfare zone (“zen den”) to be a welcoming space; and by being a
first point of contact when clubs arrived.
Due to the large volume of people, complexities of
organising a university trip and the potential for individuals to get
overwhelmed, I volunteered to be the welfare representative in our zen den.
This involved me looking after anyone who was feeling overstimulated or
stressed and ensuring they felt calm and comfortable, so they were able to
re-join the main event.
One of the biggest challenges faced by university clubs is
the high turnover of members causing brain drain of caving skills. This issue
is especially prevalent in caving due to the inherent risk of the activity and
difficulty in training opportunities and exacerbated by covid.
As a former training officer for the University of
Southampton caving club, I volunteered to rig multiple cave pitches on Saturday
so that other cavers could access more challenging caves and practise their SRT
skills. This rigging involves using multiple complicated knots, checking bolt
condition, checking rope quality and ensuring everyone is safely SRTing. With
the relatively inexperienced cavers, it also involved teaching best practices
and helping them overcome their fear of heights, while dangling 40m over the
ground!
On Sunday, I shadowed a more experienced caver, who had
learnt how to rig at one of the CHECC workshops the day before, with their
first ever cave rig. I ensured they were safe while rigging and monitored the
rest of the group so they could focus on rigging. This gave them the confidence
to apply their learnt skills and hopefully in the future to run SRT trips for
their university club.
