KENDAL Caving Club is going back to where it all began to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Among the attendees at an event to be held at Settle Rugby Club will be two members - Fred Underhill and David (Tom) Holden - who descended Sell Gill Holes, the location of the first official KCC meet, in 1957.

To mark the occasion the club will be re-staging its first meet, using rope ladders, over the bank holiday weekend. On the Saturday night there will also be a celebratory barbecue at the rugby club.

During the 1960s and 1970s the KCC was involved in major caving discoveries in Arctic Norway, under the leadership of Dave Heap.

Many of these were made in conjunction with pupils from Ermysted’s Grammar School in Skipton, where Mr Heap was headmaster.

One of their most significant discoveries was the now famous Raggejavreraige system, which was found and named by the KCC in 1968.

At a depth of around 600m this was, for a long time, the deepest cave in northern Europe and one of the deepest through-trips in the world.

During the 1970s and 1980s, KCC divers were instrumental in making great advances in the arena of cave diving within the Yorkshire Dales.

The most significant achievements were the discovery of the China Shop in Boreham Cave in 1974 by Geoff Yeadon and the first through-trip from Kingsdale Master Cave to Keld Head, Kingsdale, in January 1979 – a distance of almost 3.5 km – by Geoff Yeadon and Oliver ‘Bear’ Statham.

The club’s involvement in non-diving exploration, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, was also significant with the finding of Grey Wife Hole, Haytime Hole and extensions to Long Kin West and the Lost John’s Cave systems, alongside a re-surveying of the extensive Gaping Gill system.

The publication Kendal Caving Club: the first 50 years will be re-issued alongside the CD of old KCC publications.

Both items were originally released to mark the 50th milestone in 2007.

The book will be available through on-line, on-demand printing from Lulu.com.

More information from editor Elaine Hill on 01729 825765 or at www.kendalcaving.org.uk.