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We are raising money to make our student caving club safer and more accessible for everyone!
To improve our safety underground, we are hoping to buy safety bags which will contain first-aid kits and SRT rescue kits. Further donations will go towards buying additional sizes in personal caving gear so that ill-fitting equipment is never a factor stopping people caving with YUCPC, and we can continue to foster the safe and inclusive environment we are so proud of.
York University Cave and Pothole Club (YUCPC) was founded in 1981 as “a stupid idea in the pub”. This year it celebrates its 45th anniversary with over 50 caving members!
YUCPC provides the gateway to the caving community for students and other young people in York. We train our members in a variety of caving skills so they can enjoy trips underground in the Yorkshire Dales and beyond. Most of our new members have never experienced caving before, but in a few short weeks they can become very competent in Single Rope Techniques (SRT) and within a year often become seconds or even trip leaders!
Caving is an extreme sport, and so naturally it encourages the development of invaluable skills such as resilience, confidence and critical thinking. Our members learn to overcome fears and achieve things they may not have thought possible before caving with us. Our club allows students to build lasting friendships with other students at York and also other universities, as well as among the wider caving community.
We are very proud of the fact that we do not charge for any of our training sessions or any equipment hire costs. This is largely due to the generosity of the wider caving community in repairing our caving training wall. Funding from challenge week will go towards purchasing replacement rope for the wall, and additional sizes of both harnesses and oversuits/undersuits so that none of our members are limited by a lack of appropriate gear.
Any donation you are able to give will help ensure our trips remain accessible and safe for all students who want to try caving with us!
We are fundraising to make all levels of caving safer and equally accessible. This includes SRT, trip leading and rescue training.
To improve safety for everyone in caves we are putting together two small rescue bags to be taken underground on trips. One of these rescue bags and all of its contents costs about £484. So we will put the first £1000 we fundraise into buying this essential equipment. A full breakdown is below:
We also want to purchase additional sizes of all personal caving gear to help us remain inclusive:
We recently carried out a routine inspection of our caving training wall and 60m of rope needs replacing. Any additional funds we raise will be put towards buying this rope, and for future maintenance of the training wall.
An approximate cost for all of this additional gear and rope will be £500. So our goal for challenge week is to raise £1500!
As a non-competitive sports club, we cater to all abilities. Since we are non-selective and do not require anyone to have previous caving experience to join us, our new members are often put out of their comfort zones on their early trips. Abseiling into the darkness of a cave for the first time can be very intimidating!
When our current members are able to handle all situations appropriately, and with the correct gear, we are able to ensure that new members are not put off by a difficult experience early on, and have time to grow their skills and confidence whilst knowing they are in safe hands.
YUCPC owns no cave-adapted first aid kits and our survival equipment is limited. We rely heavily on committee members and alumni purchasing their own gear. Having more club-owned rescue kits would ensure that our members who cannot afford their own are not restricted, and can still develop their skills by taking on more responsibility on trips. Without this essential equipment, we risk having to be more selective when trip-planning to ensure we have enough people with the correct rescue gear, which goes against the inclusive values of our club.
Currently the club owns only two types of caving harnesses and one type of chest harness. With everyone's bodies being different, and no harness being perfect for everyone, this has been restrictive for some new members in the past.
We hate for people to feel discouraged by this, and luckily our members often step in to volunteer their own gear when this occurs, but this is not a permanent solution. We urgently want to remedy this issue by purchasing a greater range of harness sizes and other personal gear that will be safer and more comfortable for a wider range of people, which will help us to maintain our inclusive environment.
We have various forms of social media through which you can keep up to date with the challenges taking place, we would love for you to follow us…
We would love you to donate as much or as little as you are able and any donations are hugely appreciated. Your donation could also help us unlock fundraising challenges which will help us reach our goal even faster (you can see these on the challenges page).
Alternatively, if you are unable to donate then please do spread the word by sharing our social media posts to your own socials so as many people as possible can read about our efforts!
Thank you for reading and showing interest in YUCPC!