Caving Hazards

Caving Hazards
By:  Cave Spelunking

Caving isn't the safest way to spend your day off.  If you want "safe," you could make like a couch potato and take up origami.  It won't be as much fun, but the biggest hazard in origami is a paper cut.


Caving does have hazards, but most caving accidents and injuries are preventable.  The most common caving injuries are caused by trips and falls and falling rocks.  Injuries can also occur when cavers get lost, or suffer from dehydration or hypothermia.  Here's how to avoid accidents and injuries:

Tripping & Falling:  Most tripping and falling cave accidents happen near the end of the caving trip rather than at the beginning.  At the beginning of a caving adventure, the cavers are very aware of their surroundings and they are fresh therefore they are sure-footed.  As the caving expedition goes on,
cavers begin to lose focus and get tired. That's when tripping and falling most often occurs. The trick is frequent rest periods and eating high-energy foods as well as drinking plenty of fluids.

Falling Rocks:  Rockfall is the second-leading cause of caving injuries. Caves aren't solid rock. If you look around, you will see loose rocks lying around everywhere. They're there because they fell from above. First, a good helmet is essential, and then awareness of your surroundings is vital.  If there are loose rocks in the area where you are, there's a very good chance that rocks are going to fall.  Avoiding rockfall zones is the surest way to prevent falling rock injuries.
Lost:  A cavers' worst fear is getting lost, and it can happen even to the best of them.  First, stay with your group.  Second, pick out landmarks at each intersection.  If you get lost, stay put and wait to be found. 

Dehydration:  Dehydration happens more frequently than you might imagine. Drink plenty of water and do so frequently.

Hypothermia:  It's a lot easier to prevent hypothermia than it is to treat it.  Wear layered clothing that is of the proper weight for the temperature of the cave that you are exploring.

Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.

Underwater Caves

Underwater Caves
By:  Cave Spelunking



Caves exist all over the world.  They exist in mountains and in valleys.  They exist in frozen regions of the earth and in the hottest deserts.  Caves also exist underwater, either totally or partially.  Underwater caves are some of the most fascinating places on the planet.  They are also some of the most dangerous caves on the planet for cavers to explore.

Cave diving became very popular in the 1970s in the United States — and during that decade, about 100 cavers were killed attempting it.  The problem was that interest was high, but information and training opportunities were nearly nonexistent.
Sheck Exley was the first and best-known cave diver in the United States.  He began his cave-diving career in Florida when he was only 16 years old.  He would continue his cave diving career for the next 29 years.  He made over 4,000 dives and is one of only seven divers in history to successfully make a cave dive below 800 feet.  Sheck Exley died doing what he loved to do when he was only 45 years old.  He was trying to dive to a depth of 1,000 feet.

Cave diving is a dangerous sport, but it is one that draws cavers like honey draws flies.  Today there are strict and enforced rules concerning cave diving.  Divers must have proof of their level of training in order to be allowed to cave dive in the United States.
Much of the focus of cave diving clubs and organizations today is focused more on training, exploration, public awareness, and cave conservation than on simple adventure and pushing the envelope for the thrill of it.

There are cave diving venues all over the world. Northern Florida is the most popular venue in the United States, but cave diving can be done in the Bahamas, the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Brazil.

Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.

What's Under Alaska?

What's Under Alaska?
 By:  Cave Spelunking

Alaska is a land of extremes.  Most often when people think of Alaska, they think of extreme cold and the extremes of daylight in the summer months and dark in the winter months.  But there's another Alaska extreme that's less well known.  That extreme is the number of caves that lay beneath it.

Volunteer cavers, attached to the Forest Service, are working hard to map the amazing cave systems that have been found.  In the Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in America, visitors are invited to feast their eyes on some of the wonders of nature that abound, like eagles, bears, and spawning salmon.  The vistas of this wild land are breathtaking.  But, as they say, "you ain't seen nuttin' yet!" That's just what's on top of the ground.  Wait until you see what's UNDER the ground!
So far, more than 600 caves have been found and charted in the Tongass National Forest.  That is probably only a very small fraction of the number that are actually there.
The temperature in Alaska can be a pleasant 80 in midsummer (or even higher), but the temperature dips well below zero during the winter months.  But underneath Alaska, the temperature remains a constant 40 degrees. That might not sound like a really comfortable temperature, but as compared to the temperatures above the ground, it's wonderful!

If you ever have the opportunity to visit the caves of Alaska, you'll never regret going.  You'll see moon milk — a lot of it.  You'll also crawl through openings so narrow they look impossible to get through and then you suddenly see a 15-foot drop right in front of you that drops into a silo-shaped room — and the wonders just keep coming!

Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.

Troglobites

Troglobites
By:  Cave Spelunking

Can you imagine living in a totally dark environment your entire life?  That is exactly what troglobites do.  Troglobite is an all-inclusive name that defines a group of insects, animals, and fish that live deep within the bowels of the earth in caves that no ray of sunlight ever has ever penetrated or ever will penetrate.

Many troglobites are completely unique to only one cave. These little creatures exist nowhere else on (or in) the Earth.  They've evolved and developed the attributes necessary to not only live but thrive and multiply in the very specific and entirely unique environment of ONE cave.
Troglobites have highly developed senses of smell, taste, and vibration detection.  Those are the senses that are needed to live in a world of total darkness.

While the senses of smell, taste, and vibration detection have gotten stronger, sight has disappeared entirely.  There's not much point of eyesight in total darkness.  There isn't even any point of having eyes that can't be used to see.  So Mother Nature developed the senses that would allow troglobites to exist in darkness and removed totally useless sight.  Most troglobites don't just have blind eyes; they have no eyes at all.
In the animal kingdom, coloring has a purpose.  Sometimes the coloring of animals is used to make them less easily seen by other animals that would have them for lunch.  However, in the depths of a cave, where there is no light, color has no use at all.  So Mother Nature deemed color unnecessary.  Most troglobites are albino — that is, they have no skin pigment and thus no color at all.

The fish, salamanders, crayfish, insects, and spiders that have adapted and live out their entire lives in total darkness are of particular interest to biologists as they provide insights into biological processes and evolution.

Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.

Ropes For Caving

Ropes For Caving
By:  Cave Spelunking

Caving ropes don't live an easy life.  They are punished relentlessly by being stretched, knotted, squeezed in metal devices, soaked in water, dragged through the mud, and hauled over rough rocks.  And still the cavers will entrust their very existence to a rope that's been seriously abused.  When a caver is hanging above an abyss and a single rope is all that stands between him and certain death, he will certainly question the condition of the rope.  It's really a good idea to question the condition of the rope before being in that precarious position.

It starts with choosing the right rope to begin with.  You want a 10-10.5mm diameter, low-stretch nylon rope designed for SRT ( Single Rope Technique ).  There are big advantages to this rope.  It's strong enough to provide for a reasonable safety, yet it is lightweight and won't exhaust cavers who are carrying it.  Not only that but this kind of rope can also be used for traverse lines, hand lines, lifelining ladder climbs, and more.
Yes, this is the most expensive caving rope, but saving a few dollars on your caving rope really isn't the place to start cutting corners.  After all, your life is going to depend upon that rope on each pitch.

Eleven-mm ropes should be used for intensive use by caving clubs or by cave rescue teams.   The principle is that the more use and the greater weight the rope will have to hold, the bigger the rope should be.  While a 9mm rope might be just fine for short drops and light weights, and it is certainly lighter and easier to carry, you wouldn't want to have to depend on a 9mm, overly used, and worn rope if a life hung in the balance...


Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.

Cave Spelunking - Cave Weather

Cave Weather
By:  Cave Spelunking  

You probably wouldn't think of a cave as having "weather."  It obviously isn't going to rain inside a cave, is it?  Seasonal changes aren't going to affect the temperature, are they?  Caves don't have seasonal changes like the sunlit world that we live in, do they?  Not exactly, but that doesn't mean that caves don't have weather. Caves do have weather.

Weather changes don't occur nearly as quickly in the dark, dank underground world of a cave, but changes do occur.  The cycles are slower — a lot slower than they are up here on the surface of the earth.

All caves don't have identical weather patterns.  As a matter of fact, each cave has its own completely unique weather patterns.

The temperature inside a cave can vary slightly according to the movement of air near the mouth of the cave.  The temperature of the water entering the cave can also affect the air temperature in the cave.  The location of the cave (whether it is in a mountainous region or in a valley) also affects the air temperature inside the cave.
There is even a wind chill factor deep underground in a cave.  The difference in the temperature between the entrance temperature and the temperature of the inner passageways causes a kind of "chimney effect" and creates wind.

This chimney effect can also cause "rain" inside a cave.  It won't be rain as we know it here on the surface, of course, but there will still be water falling in drops when the chimney effect changes the dew point inside the cave.
Changes in the barometric pressure can also affect the weather in a cave.  Air movement, humidity levels, and dew points are all affected by barometric pressure, and an experienced spelunker can discern weather changes on the surface even if he's hundreds of feet below the surface.

Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.

The Old Woman In The Cave

The Old Woman In The Cave
By:  Cave Spelunking


According to Sioux legend, as told by Chief Lost Feather, there is a secret and mysterious cave that is located on the West Mountain (near Hot Springs, Arkansas).  There's an old woman and a dog that have been living in this cave for many generations.

The old woman never grows any older.  The dog never ages, either.  They both stay exactly the same, and they have since anybody can remember.

The old woman spends her days weaving a rug.  She is using pine needles that she has collected in the nearby pine forest.  The old woman has been weaving now for many centuries, and yet the rug never gets any bigger. The dog watches his mistress weave through narrow slits in his eyes as he appears to just nap in the corner.

Occasionally the old woman puts the rug down and leaves it while she goes to stir the pot of soup that she has cooking on a fire at the mouth of the cave.  The soup has probably been cooking for several centuries, as well.  The minute the old woman leaves, the dog rises slowly and sneaks over to the rug.  He grabs the rug and shakes it as hard as he can until part of the rug unravels.

The old woman returns after stirring the pot of soup. She picks up the rug and patiently begins to restore the damage.  But, the soup must be stirred.  So,she must put the rug down again and again to go and stir the soup.  Each time the old woman leaves, the dog unravels part of the rug.

So, through the centuries, the old woman and the dog have continued the cycle of weaving, unraveling, and reweaving.  The rug never gets any bigger.

This is, of course, a good thing according to Chief Lost Feather — because should the rug ever be completed, the world, as we know it, would end...

Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.

Looking For Life On Mars In A Cave

Looking For Life On Mars In A Cave
By: Cave Spelunking

You probably aren't ever going to see the inside of Lechuguilla Cave. A special permit is needed to enter the cave, and those special permits are given only to researchers. Lechuguilla Cave is located inside the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, but it is not open to visitors and the entrance to the cave is well hidden and well guarded.

If you could go, you'd have to rappel down a 90-foot rock face to a ledge and then squeeze down a narrow crevice into a small chamber. Inside this chamber is a 30-foot metal culvert. The culvert was installed after the wonders of the cave were discovered more than a decade ago. There's a airtight, sealed hatch to keep out surface contamination. Behind the culvert is the deepest cave in the United States. It's also where scientists and researchers are looking for life on Mars and the cure for cancer.

Lechuguilla Cave was not formed by water like most caves. This cave was formed from below, rather than from above. No bats or other animals live in the cave, so nothing is brought into it from the outside world.

Some amazing things have already been discovered. One such thing, for example, is bacteria that oxidizes minerals. Scientists say that the evidence "strongly suggests" that organisms derive energy from the rocks, and it also strongly suggests that similar life might well exist on Mars.

Mars and Earth were at one time very similar about four billion years ago. The atmosphere on Mars changed, and life on the surface of the planet (if there was life) was killed. But what about underground? The research being done in Lechuguilla Cave might prove that life can and even does still exist on Mars — underground, in caves!


Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.