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When going caving the main concerns that one should worry
about is the likely hood of getting cold, wet or overheated.
Getting lost is pretty bad as well and maybe the most important
thing would be finding the exit.
Caves can either be wet or dry but most of them have one
thing in common - they stay more or less the same temperature
all year round, and they are usually around 13-15 degrees.
Most people can go caving - it really does dependent entirely
on the chosen cave whether you would be fit for it or not.
Obviously some caves have to small passages for more heavily
build people to get through so here it is good to be slim
and small. On the other hand in wet (and therefore usually
cold) caves it could pay of having a bit of natural insulation
although proper choice of clothing should eliminate the
need of layers of fat.
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Basic Requirements
Let's say you wanted to go into a Guatemalan
cave - then your needs would be fairly minimal. What you
will need is a torch and a helmet. The old Mayans supposedly
did go caving without any pieces of gear whatsoever (okay
maybe except for a few pots and stuff) but they never managed
to get much further in than a couple of hundred meters which
is pretty impressive anyway, but they often couldn't find
the exit which wasn't so good.
So if you want to explore further than most people go and
get back again the two basic pieces of gear would be
- The Torch. Essential for lighting
up this total dark environment - the most useful is the
headtorch which can attach to your helmet allowing your
free arm movement which is fairly critical in the more
serious caving. There are two main companies who do caving
lights one is a company called Speleo and the other one
is Petzl. We both use Petzl's "Explorer" system
which has been really great so far. More on this later.
- The Helmet. Again - you could
easily go caving without a helmet but it would take you
2 nano seconds before you bang your skull up in a big
piece of rock and the fun would be over. It's not like
in climbing where the helmet can be somewhat of a nuisance
- in caving it quickly become your best friend. When we
went caving the first couple of times we just used our
climbing helmets and they work just fine - but as you
get more into the sport it's nice to get some proper stuff.
So - again Petzl is a major helmet manufacturer - and
the Explorer system mentioned in above is a complete helmet/light
system which is superb. Read below for details.
These are the two basic pieces of kit and for many caves
this could probably be sufficient. But most of the time
the caves present you with factors that makes it neccessary
to add a few more items to the list. Most of this comes
down to clothing.
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Clothing
Inner Layer. Let's assume your are going
down into an wet English cave. First thing you need is ideally
a pair of swimming pants of buffolo skids to take good care
of your lower regions. Secondly a layer of thin wool (Helly
Hansen, Patagonia Polypro). Then you need a thick layer of
fleece - ideally a one piece fleecesuit. The advantage of
these materials is that they will keep you realatively warm
even though it is wet. If you are planning a trip which would
involve a lot of swimming and fully submersibel activities
then forget the wool/fleece combination and put on an old
wetsuit. I have my thin old windsurfer longjohn suit which
works really well. Too thick and you'll have difficulty moving
around, and it will probably be two hot when not in water.
Outer Shell. Your best option as your outer shell
is the Warmbag Oversuit. It is durable, waterproof and it
is cut so you have plenty of freedom of movement in the
legs and arms. This is usually the problem with a standard
oversuit - it will restrict your movements quite a bit.
I have used a standard oversuit for quite some time and
it is a good cheap option, but it does make a big difference
wearing a Warmbag that fits you. A hood is nice if you are
planning to hang around in waterfalls a lot.
Footwear. The accepted standard for caving is wellington
boots (
gummistoevler). Mostly because of durablility. Inside the
wellington you should fit yourself with some wetsocks -
I forgot mine once up in Yorkshire and instead I wore a
thin pair of polypro socks and a think pair of woolen. Mid
way through the cave I started getting seriously cold and
the trip for me was then just a struggle to keep going and
wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been. You loose a lot
of heat from the feat and a pair of wet socks will keep
your little toes nice and warm.
Kneepads. Kneepads are nice. They tend to restrict
you walking a bit but if you are planning a lot of crawling,
specially on pebbles and small sharp rocks they are definately
recommendable.
Gloves. We have said it many times before and we
will say it again: "Vikings don't wear gloves".
You see many people wearing gloves - these are just soft
deskjob workers who care too much about there nails and
manicures and too little about the pleasures of the underworld.
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Additional
Gear
Sometimes the cave can pose some obstacles that
neccesitates a bit - or sometimes a lot - of extra gear.
The most common of problems is that of shafts deeper that
one finds it safe to climb (called a pitch). Encountering
one or more of these vertical challenges one should bring
a ladder.
Ladder. The caving ladder is made of lightweight
alluminum which look similiar to a ropeladder thus making
it easy to roll and pack for convenient transportation underground.They
vary in size and can be connected to eachother for really
long pitches. For caves where several pitches might be experienced
and where a small two person team want to travel ultralightweight,
fast and with optimum safety the Single Rope Techniques
(SRT) has been developed.
SRT
- Single Rope Technique. This is somewhat of a beauiful
skill that has been developed and perfected in fairly recent
years. For SRT'ing you need
- Harness - get a special caving harness, the tie-in point
is lower than on normal harneses and the are more durable.
- Rope - allthough climbing ropes can be used static ropes
are the best. Preferably between 10.5 and 12 mm diameter.
Length depends on the cave.
- Descender - this is a gadget to will allow you to get
down the rope. The one I use is the Petzl "Stop".
- Ascender - this allows you to get up the rope again
and you need two. I use the Petzl hand ascender for the
top and the "Croll" for the body.
- Cowstails - these are just a piece of rope with a carabiner
in the end allowing you to clip yourself into bolts on
re-belays and deviation point.
- Various carabiners, maillons, spanners and bolts. I
won't go into details.
The whole universe of techniques and the tricks would be
too much to go into here but just buy the kit and find somebody
who knows what they are doing, become their friend and go
SRT'ing. It is excellent fun.
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Where to go
caving?
England is a pretty good place to start. France has loads
and loads of caves as well. So does Spain, Greece, Germany,
Eastern Europe, Ireland, America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand
and Africa.
Actually just about the only country which does have any
cave potential whatsoever is probably our home country Denmark.
So whatever you do, try and avoid this otherwise nice little
country.
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Foot notes |
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The
Petzl Explorer system
Although rather tedious to keep in nice and clean
condition the Petzl Explorer system is pretty much the sexiest
bit of caving gear available on the shelf today. Just look
at the photo on the left - it oozes coolness right? It features
a carbide/electrical lamp, a Ecrin Roc Helmet, an Aceto
plastic (very lightweight) acetylene generator, and a watertight
battery pack on the back for the Duo headtorch on the front.
What I found trying carbide lighting for the first time
was that the ambient warm light that a flame gives you made
the cave look much more inviting and less claustrophobic
that when using electrical light thus making you more adventurous
and less affected by the scariness of the scary environment.
The difference in experience is really significant as I
have tried to illustrate at the diagram below.
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