Captain Caveman! 1st Battalion The Highlanders' army cadet from Alness braves underground mission in the dark depths below Lancaster
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
An army cadet from Alness ventured into the darkest depths of the earth on a special underground mission in England.
Cadet Lance Corporal Lucus Macrae, from 1st Battalion The Highlanders’ Alness Detachment, completed his caving foundation course at Halton Training Camp near Lancaster.
Exploring local caves, the 16-year-old enjoyed the challenging exercise as part of an adventure training experience with the cadets.
The five-day course, held between October 15 and 20, was run by Army Cadets Adventurous Training, introducing cadets and adults to general caving techniques and the skills required to operate in horizontal benign caves.
The course content covered clothing and equipment required for caving, weather, access and conservation, cave hazards, rope management and knots, life line skills, use of cave ladders, navigation, cave geology, formation, hydrology, safety and emergency procedures.
Before they went anywhere near a physical cave environment, the student cavers learnt all their techniques above the ground in a local quarry, putting into practice abseiling skills and learning different ways to lower and raise people with rope and knot tying.
Near the end of the week, they took the plunge into local caves, with LCpl Macrae saying: “The best cave was the alum pot where we did lots of crawling, sitting and sliding,
and plenty of abseiling, with the views just amazing.
“It was one of the best experiences of my life.”
Completion of the course gave LCpl Macrae the CCAT Cave Foundation Certificate and also covered the Adventurous Training section of his Cadet Syllabus Training.
1st Battalion the Highlanders ACF is a youth organisation which provides challenging adventure, sporting and community activities, with the stated aim of “inspiring young people to achieve success in life, while having fun at the same time.”
More information is available from Graeme Wells, 1st Battalion The Highlanders Army Cadet Force Battalion Media Officer, at PRO1hldrsacf@armymail.mod.uk or online at www.armycadets.com.
