Oxlow Caverns Explore

• We arrive at the cave’s meeting/parking location (often at slightly different times)
• We get kitted up
• Everyone is really friendly
• We go caving!
• We chat, laugh and share picnics together

The Messenger group chat is there to help answer questions before and during the evening. Don’t forget to bring a cave snack, water, and your enthusiasm!

People typically gather from 6pm onwards, though some arrive earlier and others later.

We discuss specific arrival times in the group chat on Monday evening, so everyone knows when to expect each other.

We often can help people get to the caves with a combination of driving and public transport.

On our signup form, we’ll ask where you’re traveling from and whether you need or can offer a lift.

It helps greatly if you can make your way to central Manchester or train stations like Chapel-en-le-Frith, Glossop, Hope, or Buxton – from these places, we can almost certainly arrange the final part of your journey.

If you’re not sure – just sign up! We won’t be able to sort out transport until we know you’re actually committed to coming.

UK weather is notoriously unpredictable, and checking forecasts far in advance isn’t always helpful – unless you’re looking for an excuse to stay home!

We’re likely to adapt our routes within the cave based on conditions. During rainy periods, for example, we might avoid sections with active water flow.

Rest assured we always prioritize safety when making decisions about routes.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to join us caving this week.

We need enough time to figure out the gear and logistics, ensuring the right balance of leaders, seconders, and transport options.

Once we’ve finalized the groups, we can’t accommodate late joiners – regardless of your skills or transport situation – as it can unbalance the carefully organized groups and undermine the process where everyone else respects the deadline.

It’s best if you can avoid canceling after midday on Monday.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you can’t make it. The best way to tell us is by messaging us directly.

Last-minute cancellations can prevent others from caving, so please give us as much notice as possible, ideally before we finalize the groups.

For every trip, we need someone to take their turn supporting the Crew by collecting the Crew’s tackle from Glossop beforehand. This is needed even for trips where everyone has their own personal gear.

If no one in the group is willing or able to divert via Glossop to collect and drop off the gear, the trip will be cancelled.

Everyone does their part to support these trips happening, and if you can collect/return the tackle – make this known early on in the chat – you’ll quickly make yourself popular!

Unlike some trips, there’s not usually a break where everyone stops caving.

The best approach is to bring treats to share after we return to the cars – just put the cakes/snacks in an obvious place and let everyone know.

Your fellow cavers will be very grateful and think you’re wonderful!

Pro tip: Don’t take cake into the cave unless you know the cave very well.

Photos & videos are a great way of remembering our adventures. People often take video and photos in accordance with our Photography and Video Policy.

The minimum requirement is to have caved with us at least once before.

If you’re new to caving with us, you can join one of our Extra-Welcoming Giggletrips that we regularly run for newcomers.

For our regular Tuesday sessions, people need to have been on at least one session with us before.

Your friend is welcome to join one of our Extra-Welcoming “Giggle Trips” first, which are specifically designed for newcomers.

After that, they’ll be all set to join the regular Tuesday evenings!

These are primarily social caving evenings rather than formal training sessions.

While fellow cavers may share tips and techniques, the main focus is enjoying a fun evening of caving together.

The more you volunteer with the Crew, the more training opportunities we’ll offer to support your caving development.

While we love well-behaved cave dogs, caving isn’t usually ideal for our four-legged friends. We generally recommend leaving them at home or safely in your car during the caving portion of the trip.

We do our best to support cavers with diverse mobility and accessibility needs.

If you have specific requirements, please note them in the comments section when you sign up.

If you’d like to discuss your needs beforehand, please feel free to message us.

While we’re continuously improving our knowledge of venue accessibility, we genuinely want to help everyone enjoy caving safely. We’ve successfully supported pregnant cavers and people with various requirements in the past.

We are keen to support as much caving activity as we can.

We know that not all cavers have a good understanding of what caves are best for them or what’s nearby.

By organizing our events this way, we can support more cavers of different skill levels than we otherwise would be able to.

Our approach isn’t for everyone, but fortunately, we’re in an area with many caving groups that have different approaches to organizing events.

These evenings take considerable behind-the-scenes effort to run smoothly, so everyone plays a role at some point.

While a core team of volunteers manages the overall process, everyone contributes to make these evenings successful.

For each cave location each week, we have:

• A Cave Coordinator who manages the evening
• A Kit Coordinator who ensures everyone has proper equipment
• A Cave Reporter who shares highlights with the Crew

There are other roles too, and the more you volunteer, the more opportunities you’ll have to develop your skills within our community.

Membership is required for our standard events to ensure everyone has third-party BCA insurance, which is required by the British Caving Association.

This protects both you and the Crew during all caving activities.

As a club, we add 10-30% to the base cost of each event to cover our overheads. Any surplus goes back into the club — maintaining and improving our safety-critical equipment (which is regularly inspected and recorded), paying cave access and trespass fees, and covering the cost of group gear.

The Caving Crew is fully run by volunteers. No one is paid for sharing their caving and rope skills with the group — in fact, our trip leaders pay their own trip fees just like everyone else. This is set out in our constitution: no member may accept payment for sharing skills within the club.

Nobody is using or assumed to be trained to professional qualifications unless they tell you otherwise in writing.

Everyone who joins our trips acknowledges “that caving, cave diving and mine exploration are activities with a danger of personal injury or death, and by taking part acknowledge they are aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement.”

We send out feedback forms each week and genuinely value your input.

Every piece of feedback is read and considered carefully. While casual messages and conversations are easily forgotten, your feedback form responses directly influence how we improve our events.

Both positive comments and constructive suggestions are extremely helpful – even a simple “it was ok” can provide valuable insight.

Here’s what you should bring:

• Some warm older/less nice clothes to wear as a base layer underneath the caving-specific clothes we will provide. Some examples
  • Fleece jumpers
  • Leggings
  • Thermal base layers
  • Outdoorsy t-shirts

Avoid anything made from cotton or untreated wool (such as t-shirts or wooly jumpers); synthetic fabrics that keep their warmth when wet work best here. You will be provided with a thick fleece layer and a protective outer layer to wear over this, so if all you have is cotton you’re better going without.

• Change of socks/underwear/replacement clothing. Anything you wear into the cave will likely be too wet and dirty to wear afterwards in the car, so make sure you have spare clothes for the drive home.
• Wellies (we do have spares if necessary, but the sizes and stock are limited). These aren’t special wellies – £12 wellies from go-outdoors or sparkling pink wellies with fur linings are great for caving.
• Towel
• Any important medicines you take
• Contact lenses or string for your glasses.
• A full sealed snack you enjoy eating (eg a mars bar)

What will I be borrowing?

If you don’t already have them:

• Caving Oversuit to go over your undersuit
• Caving Undersuit to go underneath your oversuit
• Caving Helmet with Caving Headtorch and fully charged Batteries
• Gloves
• Kneepads
• Wellies
• SRT Kit

We’ll also be carrying the appropriate group equipment.

This is what we’d expect from experienced cavers:

• Undersuit
• Oversuit
• Helmet + Light
• Wellies
• Kneepads
• Gloves

SRT Kit:

• Descender
• Ascender + security link
• SRT Harness
• Chest Harness
• Cowstails

• At 12:00, signup will close and we will review the skills and locations of everyone who has signed up.
• Before 7pm, you’ll receive a Facebook Messenger Message confirming the location you’re headed to.

• We arrive at the cave meeting point – often at slightly different times.
• We get kitted up and head to the cave
• We have a fun trip together

• The Cave Reporter will share a post from your cave about what happened