Rock Fall Injures Two Cavers Beneath Cheddar Gorge

Nigel Cox makes the first decent of the passage known as “Hard Times”. Photo by Nick Chipchase

Two cavers we injured during a Sunday visit to the Frozen Deep, Britain’s largest chamber beneath Cheddar Gorge.

The cavers, part of a group of five exploring the cave, were on their way out when a rock fell and glanced Naomi Sharp, 34, on the head before coming to rest on 65-year-old Nick Chipchase’s left hand.

Naomi continued to the surface where she raised the alarm before being tended to by staff at Cheddar Caves & Gorge.

Meanwhile, back in the Frozen Deep, the other cavers had managed to free Chipchase’s hand from the boulder and helped him out of the cave.

On the surface a swarm of emergency crews had gathered from the South Western Ambulance Service, Avon & Somerset Search & Rescue, Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue, Avon & Somerset Police as well as both the Devon and Bristol Hazardous Area Response Teams.

Sharp was treated for cuts on her face and taken to Weston General Hospital, while Mr. Chipchase was taken to Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital suffering from broken fingers.

First discovered in last fall, the Frozen Deep was found in Reservoir Hole, a gated cave in Cheddar Gorge, by a group known as the Tuesday Diggers who had been working at the diligently at the site since 2008.

On this trip, the group were exploring Dingly Dell, a small, muddy passage at the furthest extremity of the cave where a stream vanishes into a pit. Connected to the Frozen Deep by Pickwick Passage, the group were returning trough this passage when the rock fall occurred.

Cavers injured and trapped in giant Cheddar Gorge cavern [This is Somerset]