r/caving

Hi there! I'm not a caver; I'm a writer whose book takes place in a haunted cave. I have a few questions, which I'm hoping some actual cavers could answer.

1. Can you make money from caving?

2. Would you, realistically, allow three thirteen-year-old boys to tag along with you, after they've agreed to be careful? (There are total four adults too)

3. How long does one stay in a cave? How far would you go?

4. The cave I'm writing about used to be famous, but after the haunting allegations, it's mostly abandoned, so very few maps are available. Is that a realistic adventure?

5. The cave was also formed after a volcano went extinct and eroded, so would there be air pockets inside that will have dried-up lava?

6. Lastly, could you please read the following paragraphs from my book and give feedback and suggestions?

- "Dad handed the three of us undersuits, oversuits, and helmets with head torches attached. We put on a chest harness on top, to fix the ascenders and descenders on to. Dad said that they suspected there might be areas in the cave where we would have to drop down."

- "Where Matthew had stopped, the cave floor ended abruptly and it was a steep drop down. The ground was lost in darkness.

“That’s weird,” Matthew said. “According to the map, there is supposed to be a very narrow tunnel here that turns right.”  

“Perhaps there was a landslide sort of thing,” William suggested.  

“I doubt it. There are absolutely no signs of a passage to the right, and no rocks piled up anywhere,” Matthew said. 

“What about erosion?” Jacob suggested. 

Matthew shook his head. “That’s not how erosion works. There’s no wind to erode, and the other option is water, but there’s no sign of water anywhere. Also, erosion does not make a steep drop like this.”  

Something was definitely off. Matthew’s forehead was wrinkled in tension. I started to regret my decision of coming here.  

“Couldn’t this have happened another way?” Dad asked.

“It could be because of carbonic acid as well,” Matthew frowned.  

“What’s that?” Noah asked.  

“A type of acid. It’s a mixture of water and carbon dioxide and it breaks away rocks,” Matthew explained. “But it doesn’t really look like it happened here.”

- "Matthew decided to go first. He threw down two ropes, and attached himself to the ropes using the chest harness. He then rounded one of the ropes around the descender, pulled down the handle, and slid down slowly."

While cycling through Southeast Asia and in Laos, I took a detour to a remote village in the nothern part of the country and did a guided, two day trip through the biggest cave in the area, the third longest/biggest in entire country.

Chom Ong was only recently further explored and developed with the goal of increasing tourism and incomes for the area in 2010. The first kilometer or so is develped with lighting, cement pathways, etc but after that it is ~15km of a primary fossil passageway then the active river pathway.

I found my guide, Thongkhan, on facebook and with the help of another guide the three of us made this two day trip through the cave. As someone who had very little experience in caves before, this was simply incredible.

I’m curious about the different survey apps folks are using. I’ve recently had an introduction to Topodroid, and there seems to be several other Android apps out there, but does anyone use iOS-based apps for survey work, like Topokit for example?

Overall, I’m curious about the range of apps and how they compare.

I've been to numerous SRT caves, etc. In the south but the gate keeping in the Midwest is insane. How do they expect to protect more systems if they don't make it attractive for members like organizations in TAG.

I was recently on a long pull-through trip with my friend when, standing on a ledge over the last pitch, they clipped their karabiner into the loop and rigged their descender on the wrong side.

They then swung out as usual only they had just thrown themselves down a pitch. I saw them fall back and bounce headfirst off a rock before landing on a lower ledge. They were all physically okay but had it been any of the previous pitches, they would've died.

It was just very scary to watch. I've since had a nightmare about falling off a pitch. This sport mostly feels safe, but this has been a brutal reminder of the fact that it only takes two consecutive mistakes and it's all over.

Suddenly the lectures from my elder cavers about having my kit be perfect and doing everything totally right is less picky and more appreciated.

Edit: they swung out to test their descender because they clipped their cowstails into the knot. They were trying to test their descender when they fell. The wrong rope was going straight into a bag.

Hi there,

I’m a caver based in North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, but I am going to visit my grandfather in Virginia next spring, I’ll be staying near Petersburg but will be able (and willing) to travel some distance for caving.

I was wondering if there were any clubs/grottos in the area who could point me in the direction of caves?

So I admit it’s been a very long time since I’ve gone spelunking but I miss it and really want to get back into it but honestly it’s been so long I don’t know where to start.

I’m in NSW in australia and google has been no help as either it’s just giving me walking cave tours, tours where there isn’t a description then tells me if it’s proper caving or it’s associated with a uni so it seems you need to be a student to go (honestly considering signing up for uni just to go cause I’m getting frustrated ha ha)

If anyone is in Australia ideally NSW would love any help or advice on how I can get back into this

Thanks

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