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(96 votes) Published: Mar 03, 2008 10:49 p.m. In 4 Favorites Lists Viewed 469 times
From this egg you will learn the basics of caving and you will also get to see some of the caves I have been to. I have been caving for almost a year now and have been to about 20 different caves, all varying sizes. In that time I have learned a lot about caving from personal experience, internet resources, books, and other cavers.
If you are going caving yourself, these are the basics of what you need to know and what you need to bring. Keep in mind that this guide is for beginner cavers and I’m assuming that the potential cave you are exploring is a beginner cave.
Safety
Caves can be dangerous in more ways than you would ever imagine.
- Always let somebody know where you are going and when you expect to be back. This is the most important rule and should be common sense.
- Caves can flood very easily. Don’t enter caves during or right after a rain storm unless you know for sure that the cave does not flood.
- Hypothermia. When you are wet in a cave you will get cold, which can lead to hypothermia. Dress appropriately when entering a wet cave.
- Paramedics are not good cavers. If you get hurt in a cave and cannot walk, it could take days before they get you out, so don’t act stupid. When climbing or traversing through a dangerous area, always keep three points of contact to ensure your safety.
- Know your cave. Do not enter a large cave without a person to guide you who is familiar with the cave, or at least without a cave-map and compass.
- Bring the right equipment.
Equipment
- Lights: As a general rule, each caver should bring three lights and three changes of backup batteries.
- Helmet: Always wear a helmet. You are guaranteed to have many light head bumps, but you will most appreciate the helmet when you have a hard one.
- Kneepads: Pads will increase your speed and capabilities, and are a ’must’ in any cave.
- Boots: You need something with good grip. I use jungle boots that drain water.
- Clothing: For dry caves I personally just wear jeans and a t-shirt. For wet caves you want to wear clothes without cotton in them, since cotton will not retain any body heat if you are wet. Thick wool socks will keep your feet warm.
- Extras: It’s a good idea to bring a little pack or bag to carry some water, snacks, your extra lights/batteries, and a camera.
"Leave Nothing but Footprints, Take Nothing but Pictures, Kill Nothing but Time."
People who break these rules ruin caving for the rest of us. Please don’t enter a cave unless you are leaving it the exact same way you found it. Save your tagging, carving, and trash for the railroad bridge; cavers don’t want to see it
- Do not enter caves on private land without getting permission from the owner. If the cave is on park property, find out if caving is allowed before going in.
- Respect the bat hibernation. Some caves are closed during the cold months due to bat hibernation. Disturbing hibernating bats can kill them, and that is very bad since many bat species are endangered.
- Do not enter closed caves. Caves can be closed for a variety of reasons; entering them is illegal. To find a list of closed caves for your area, Google closed+cave+list+(your state)
Most cavers are extremely secretive about cave locations and will not reveal them unless you are attending a cave trip. The reason for this is due mainly to the people who don’t follow the rules I have laid out above.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from various caves that I have explored in the past year.
This cave had the biggest entrance I have ever seen.
For scale, look at the person on the right side.
Into the entrance
Coming out of a tunnel
There was a sandcastle in the stream bed
After getting lost for an hour we crawled out of another entrance into a dry creek bed
This cave is really cool and has a lot of formations.
This cave was in a similar area to the above cave. It was much larger inside.
Doing some climbing
Slow exposure
This cave had a very large entrance and an even larger passage.
Standing in the first big room
A waterfall in the cave
Looking up at the top of a 125 foot ceiling. The bright white dot is a small opening to the surface, which gives this room the name "skylight dome".
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3446/p6280084pc9.jpg
This entrance was down in a big hole.
There was a lot of graffiti in this one room
This is me climbing up into a hole
We did some surveying
This was a really cool cave with crystals in it.
Descending down in
Climbing up a rope/ladder
Stalactites
Crystals
I don’t have a picture of this cave entrance because it was a commercial cave. But here is the hole we had to crawl through to get out of the commercial part and into the wild passage.
Cave formation called flowstones
Waterfall in the cave
Climbing to the top of the breakdown
stalactites
stalactites up close
This was just a little cave we went through. The ice at the entrance was cool though.
Everything in this egg is original content, including the pictures
Mar 04, 2008 5:30 am - Wow very nice where was this at i’m thinking about goin down south cuz i live in missouri and they have lots of caves down around branson here. btw 5*
Mar 04, 2008 1:19 pm - 5 stars. very nice. it’s the best exploration egg i’ve ever seen! where is this cave system? or did you go around to a bunch of different ones?
Mar 04, 2008 2:16 pm - 0*
jklol 5* for the spelunker!
Mar 04, 2008 3:23 pm - This is absolutely incredible, some of these pictures are awesome. I love the one of the waterfall, that’s so neat. All those huge open chambers underground, it’s so neat! Those are some of the world’s rare, mystical places to be.
5***** and favs, and 5 on profile. Excellent stuff, I love it. Great to see someone your level still contributing to the site.
Mar 07, 2008 2:42 pm - Just WOW, i looove the pics, id like to get into a cave like that, but there are no ones nearby me, only commercial ones, where you must follow a path, bordered with rope.
Mar 08, 2008 11:17 am - Most people don’t realize that a lot of commercial caves do offer wild cave tours. You probably just haven’t checked to see if they do.
Mar 14, 2008 9:18 pm - Years ago, a friend of mine went onto private property for spelunking and was trapped. He was rescued a day later, after the local media got wind of the story. They pulled him out of the cave, and he could barely walk, being weakend by hunger and exposure. A photographer snapped his picture. Immediately after that, his mother came up to him and slapped his face. The post-rescue picture was on the front page of the newspaper.
We bought every copy of the newspaper we could find and scattered them all over his job site to remind him. We wanted to make T-shirts with that picture, but couldn’t get permission from the newspaper.
I mostly have abandoned coal and iron ore mines here. Sounds dangerous if you ask me.
Mar 18, 2008 9:46 pm - keiser...you is teh buttsmexingz....(in the good sense) i used to go spelunking and when ever i saw a stalagmite i would scream "STALAGMITES FTW!!!"....not sure why...found it funny at the time....5* 5* on pro. and favorites and friend request =] bravo
Mar 28, 2008 4:07 pm - i think ill make one on caves by my place the ver small you have to crawll into them and some u can stand up in but the indians used them for shit so yea and this summer if i go and stay with my brother for a new job ill get some sweet pics of these caves that are all interlocking and tunnels there kinda weird tho last time i was there there was hunreds of bats all over the ground dead
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