Veteran British cave-diver Geoff Yeadon, president of the Cave Diving Group (CDG), has died at the age of 73. He was regarded as a pioneering force in the UK cave-diving community for his exploits from the late 1960s onwards and his contribution to developing diving techniques.
Yeadon was best known for his explorations beneath the Yorkshire Dales, the region where he was born and brought up. He was central to some of the biggest breakthroughs in its underground systems, determined to find the links between those of Yorkshire and others beneath Cumbria and Lancashire, and was also known for championing solo-diving in specific British sump conditions.
Born in 1953, Yeadon became involved in caving and cave-diving in the late 1960s, when the discipline was still at an experimental stage that required divers to develop their own equipment configurations and safety procedures. Yeadon would contribute to refinements in line-laying and navigation techniques that later became standard safety practice.
In 1974 he discovered the 40m-high Aquamole Aven and was the first to pass the 168m sump upstream from Rowten Pot. In 1978, after four years of work on the project, he and fellow-diver Oliver ‘Bear’ Statham connected Kingsdale Master Cave to Keld Head.
This ground-breaking 1,829m traverse was a world record at the time, monitored by a surface team using a speleophone to communicate with the divers and tracking their route with lights.
The dive was immortalised in the Yorkshire TV documentary The Underground Eiger. A must-see for cave-divers, the 50-minute film attracted an estimated 20 million viewers at the the time, and inspired a new generation of divers such as Rick Stanton. It can be watched today on YouTube.
In terms of dry-caving, linking Gaping Gill with Ingleborough Cave in 1983 was another breakthrough achieved by Yeadon and others, following more than a century of exploration of the caves.
Overseas, Yeadon was associated with expeditions in the Matienzo cave system in northern Spain, a project with which British divers were involved from the late 1960s on.
Later UK achievements included linking King Pot with Keld Head in a 3km traverse in 1991. Yeadon retired from diving six years later, though he continued to be active in the caving community. He died on 29 March from a heart attack while attending a rally.
Also on Divernet: 60 years in a cave
Vale Geoff!
I only sherpaed for Geoff a few times on an exploration up near Brackenbottom, which would have been pretty late in his career, in search of the mythical (?!) Ribbledale Master Cave, but he was always appreciative of his sherpas. Well, you would be if you’d ever dived without a team to sherpa for you. Nice guy. Always good for a fill if things weren’t too busy in the shop.
(And also in the news today, Doug Allen, the underwater/ wildlife photographer.)