Caves are great fun, especially wild ones. Just be sure to tell someone where you're going. You know, in case you don't come back.

Posted by 2Xplorations Caves are great fun, especially wild ones. Just be sure to tell someone where you're going. You know, in case you don't come back.

I'd say that's a safe rule for pretty much any exploration. Doubly so if you're going solo.

Cavers have their own large community with their own conventions, and many local "grottos". See if you can find one in your area. Us explorers can learn a LOT from cavers!

Cavers do have there own community. I like UE stuff and also did some caving in my time. I'm an explorer as simple as that. Cavers have a motto - take nothing but photo's and leave nothing but foot prints. If your deep in a cave with one light and it goes out and no one knows where you are your chances of getting out alive are slim.

Couple of pics on my last cave explore. I also find cavers do allot more training and need more gear. There is allot of vertical work to be done in caves but you can use those skills with UE as well.

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Posted by Darkzero <snip> Couple of pics on my last cave explore. I also find cavers do allot more training and need more gear. There is allot of vertical work to be done in caves but you can use those skills with UE as well. <snip>

Right. Caving rope techniques are more in line with UE needs than would be rock climbing gear and methods. Ropes are used to ascend or descend into the next area of exploration. In mine exploring we draw primarily from caving techniques where 100+ rappels and climbs are the norm. Might be a bit overkill for most UE, but without a doubt there are situations where it's exactly what is needed. The pics of UE explorers descending into missile silos on rope would a prime example.

Being competent in vertical technique can only expand your UE potential.

Abby Normal

It's been years since I last set foot in a cave. I believe it was somewhere in West Virginia, and we literally just pulled off on a shoulder, and made our way to this hole in the side of a hill. Beautiful place inside, but I just had a super cheap camera phone without a flash on it at the time, so no pictures from it.

Posted by Abby Normal Right. Caving rope techniques are more in line with UE needs than would be rock climbing gear and methods. Ropes are used to ascend or descend into the next area of exploration. In mine exploring we draw primarily from caving techniques where 100+ rappels and climbs are the norm. Might be a bit overkill for most UE, but without a doubt there are situations where it's exactly what is needed. The pics of UE explorers descending into missile silos on rope would a prime example. Being competent in vertical technique can only expand your UE potential. Abby Normal

And if you want to learn more about this, a great place to start is the Vertical Ropework private board!
http://www.uer.ca/...id=1&catid=1000660

(I'm really trying to revive this board)

Posted by Abby Normal Right. Caving rope techniques are more in line with UE needs than would be rock climbing gear and methods. Ropes are used to ascend or descend into the next area of exploration. In mine exploring we draw primarily from caving techniques where 100+ rappels and climbs are the norm. Might be a bit overkill for most UE, but without a doubt there are situations where it's exactly what is needed. The pics of UE explorers descending into missile silos on rope would a prime example. Being competent in vertical technique can only expand your UE potential. Abby Normal

Very true. I never took any courses and got by repelling and climbing rope. I got into caving a little more and took some courses. Great stuff and well worth the money. Makes climbing rope more efficient with the right gear and training. We have used this skills in Mines. We dropped 3 pitches in a mine (250 feet per) and then had to pull our selves out. Fun times but we stepped foot where no one has in 60 years so well worth the effort.

would love to try more caving, especially in larger more interesting systems. Inventor77 and I tagged along with the Toronto Caving Club to Warsaw Caves two years ago had a blast. Being Ontario however the system was not terribly "roomy" and involved a ton of squeezing through impossibly tight spaces. I'm sure that most caves have tight squeezes, but you need to be pretty hardcore to enjoy crawling around on your stomach for hours on end. And although I'd hardly consider myself claustrophobic, there were a few areas that I refused to explore because I was legitimately terrified of getting stuck. Perhaps if I lost 20 or 30lbs that wouldnt be such an issue ;D

inventor77 in warsaw cave


inventor77 again




caverns this size are a bit more up my alley (bellamar caves, Cuba)

actually what I'd say impressed me the most about my brief experience with the warsaw caves was that anyone would be crazy enough to thoroughly explore them in the first place. I distinctly remember being 20 or 30ft into our entrance and being greeted by what seemed to be a dead end. I was prepared to turn around and was thinking "well that was a waste of a 3hr drive!"

If it weren't for our ultra-experienced tour guide from the TCC I would have turned around disappointed, assuming that it went no further. It wasn't until he pointed at an impossibly small little crack in the rocks that it dawned on me that there could be more. In fact, there was a LOT more. It would take someone a lot braver and with much less sense (and a smaller waistline) than me to squeeze into that dark abyss for the first time, unsure if it actually went anywhere. I'm still mega paranoid about being stuck down there, unable to turn around. Real cavers get nothing but my undying respect and admiration - they're about as hardcore and batshit crazy as it comes.

Posted by Darkzero Very true. I never took any courses and got by repelling and climbing rope. I got into caving a little more and took some courses. Great stuff and well worth the money. Makes climbing rope more efficient with the right gear and training. We have used this skills in Mines. We dropped 3 pitches in a mine (250 feet per) and then had to pull our selves out. Fun times but we stepped foot where no one has in 60 years so well worth the effort.

That's one of the huge attractions for me. I love to walk in places where no one has been for a half century or more. Out here in the west there are lots of abandoned mines, many of which haven't been explored in a very long time.

Trying to be a good UER citizen I don't normally post links to my mine exploring website, but.... http://www.mine-explorer.com

Abby Miner

Posted by Abby Normal That's one of the huge attractions for me. I love to walk in places where no one has been for a half century or more. Out here in the west there are lots of abandoned mines, many of which haven't been explored in a very long time. Trying to be a good UER citizen I don't normally post links to my mine exploring website, but.... http://www.mine-explorer.com Abby Miner

awesome. Some great stuff on the site. I tagged it and will spend some time looking at it. I will post some more mine pics, just need to find sometime to post them. Glade to see there are others love those mines.

I wish I had checked back sooner. I didn't expect so many fellow cavers! You guys have some excellent pics.

Caves are one of the few perks to living in my neck of the woods, and one of the few things I have in common with all the old folks around. It's weird, I will be talking to some ancient Fox news spewing racist and have absolutely nothing in common but as soon as I bring up caving it's "Ohh I haven't been since I was bout your age I used to go to all sorts of caves." Then I get some directions to some caves I don't already have the location to, and I come away from the conversation with a little extra knowledge when I would have just came away disgusted otherwise.

Anyway, thanks for the links, pics, and anecdotes.