David (Dave) Heap (14 March 1941 to 23 February 1995) was largely responsible for the opening up and development of caving and potholing in Northern Norway in the 1960s and 1970s.
Whilst a pupil at Heversham Grammar school, in 1958 David Heap gathered together a group of friends to form The Kendal Caving Club.
Inspired by the research of Marjorie Sweeting (a leading expert in Karst landscapes), David Heap first visited Arctic Norway on a Cambridge University expedition in 1961.
He then led a total of nine caving expeditions to Norway, which culminated in 1968/69 with the discovery and descent of the Ragge Javre Raige pothole near Musken, well inside the Arctic Circle.
At the age of 23 Heap published Potholing Beneath the Northern Pennines (RKP 1964) which attempted to define the spirit of caving as well as vividly describing a number of underground trips.