Remember your 1st time?

[Sewer Rat]

Monday I had my first caving trip. Awesome!.


6 Hours in Ogof Draenen.
To the end of Gilwern Passage I think!
The bit past the mud where the stream is all gravel
and the passage turns back on itself.
Im hooked.
I was always worried about my flabbby bits. in tight squeeses.
but as my guide said flab compresses bones dont

All I need now is some really powerfull lights so i can see the roof of the caverns.
I know some of you are electronic boffs
Can sombody explain how to work out burn times.
mah, watts ect . I was using just my 7 led set ,i didnt have a center lamp due to some clumbsyness on my part .I thought this was quite bright
Untill the chap that was with me looked away with his 24 led set..
Hmm who blew out the candles.
For example if I had 1 watt lamp, run by 3x 1.2 v @2300mah
how would i work out the time i should have.

 

[bubba]

Well done - 6 hours is a good first trip

Some of the more technical people on here may be able to help with your battery questions, I've got no idea.

 

[Dave H]

Try Ohms law

 

[Stu]

Monday I had my first caving trip. Awesome!.


6 Hours in Ogof Draenen.
To the end of Gilwern Passage I think!
The bit past the mud where the stream is all gravel
and the passage turns back on itself.
Im hooked.
I was always worried about my flabbby bits. in tight squeeses.
but as my guide said flab compresses bones dont

All I need now is some really powerfull lights so i can see the roof of the caverns.
I know some of you are electronic boffs
Can sombody explain how to work out burn times.
mah, watts ect . I was using just my 7 led set ,i didnt have a center lamp due to some clumbsyness on my part .I thought this was quite bright
Untill the chap that was with me looked away with his 24 led set..
Hmm who blew out the candles.
For example if I had 1 watt lamp, run by 3x 1.2 v @2300mah
how would i work out the time i should have.

Very roughly speaking 2.3aH / 1 watt = 2.3 hours use. 2.3aH / 2 watt = 1.15 hours etc. IIRC

Thats why, at the moment, the big aven busting main beams don't often get run on things like Headlite style battery packs and why LED's are. The LED's run at about 20maH so 7 would be 140maH which is why they last upwards of 10+ of good light of small battery packs.

I've got a 7 LED set up and now never feel the need to switch to main beam (I'm short sighted anyway and don't cave with glasses). Never thought the 14 LED's were that much brighter IMO for the extra drain.

There are some threads on this elsewhere in the tecnical section.

 

[JB]

Sounds like a quality trip.

My first few times - Fleece and Trainer-caving assisting with groups of disafected yoof. There weren't enough wellies and cave suits for the group so me and a couple of others were just wearing fleeces and cotton trousers (which is nice). Carlswark gin entrance to hell and back it seemed at the time.

Hated it and spent a summer avoiding caving at all costs. It wasn't until I got taken down Giants with a proper caver that I realised that caving wasn't all about crawling through squalor in unsuitable kit.

 

[Dave H]

I'm short sighted anyway and don't cave with glasses

Stu : I suppose that way you don't see the falling rocks. (Sorry, but I couldn't resist it!)

Carlswark gin entrance to hell and back

Very good for polarising the victims (Sorry, beginners) ideas as to whether they like caving or not. If they come back again then you know they are hooked. If they hate it then at least they know quickly, before they spend too much money.

 

[Stu]

I'm short sighted anyway and don't cave with glasses

Stu : I suppose that way you don't see the falling rocks. (Sorry, but I couldn't resist it!)

8) perhaps these would have helped in a Hitchhikers Guide type way!

Carlswark gin entrance to hell and back

Very good for polarising the victims (Sorry, beginners) ideas as to whether they like caving or not. If they come back again then you know they are hooked. If they hate it then at least they know quickly, before they spend too much money.

Think either Carlswark or some hole at Alderley Edge was my first trip with scouts aged about 11 or so. We definitely did Carlswark at some point as it was pointed out to me by the guy who took us that two or three of us squirmed into Dynamite series! I'd get stuck now, glasses or no!!

 

[SamT]

I think carlswalk is great for taking begginers (there are other caves t o - and not just giants).

I think JB hit the nail with the phrase 'unsuitable kit'.
I think its very important that begginers are loaned the proper kit as it does have a serious impact on your enjoyment.

Would you take kids walking in the yorkshire dales without waterproofs, or camping - but instead of tents you gave em leaky bivvy bags.

This has reminded me to start a new thread about the group that were in Giants the other day, do it when I've got a bit more time.

 

[underground]

Sounds like a quality trip.

My first few times - Fleece and Trainer-caving assisting with groups of disafected yoof. There weren't enough wellies and cave suits for the group so me and a couple of others were just wearing fleeces and cotton trousers (which is nice). Carlswark gin entrance to hell and back it seemed at the time.

Hated it and spent a summer avoiding caving at all costs. It wasn't until I got taken down Giants with a proper caver that I realised that caving wasn't all about crawling through squalor in unsuitable kit.

Blimey that sounds exactly like my experience- I hated Bagshawe in jeans and hiking boots as a scout, then as a venture scout did the same 'Gin entrance to hell and back' in boots and a wooly jumper- those shells are murder without kneepads, especially when having to crawl one handed brandishing an ever ready torch in the other :roll:

I was put off for life till SamT forced me down Giant's one night against my wishes :wink: Kit was marginally better- me in normal overalls over Buffalo, wearing my climbing harness, and Bubba in a fetching white overall from Fletcher's bakery

Thanks Sam, changed my life that did (for the better I should add)

 

[jasonbirder]

My brother and I had our first proper caving trip a couple of weeks back with the guy from the OCC (a big thanks guys!)

This was how I remembered it sfter the trip...

First time down a natural cave system (unless you count Wooky Hole - not quite the same eh!!!) up in the Peak District hills above Castleton - after stripping down and kitting up in a handy layby we had an initial scramble down a cave called P1 - the upstream end of a sequence of caves (called imaginatively P1 through P10) crawling through the stream of fast flowing (and cold!) water soon woke us up - we enjoyed plenty of ducking, crawling and scrabbling over boulders as we followed the stream to a downstream sump which marked the end of the road! Plenty of fossils in the limestone were the main point of interest here...

Then onto P8, a square concrete shaft down - where the stream disapeared underground was our point of entry - climbing down involved the stream dumping its entire contents down the back of your neck! a sequence of very tight twisting and turning passageways lead us to the top of a chamber where a handline was rigged to help with a climb down - then the stream bed was about 15 feet below us then as we traversed above it - with my legs spread out on either side of the rift I was concerned I was going to end up singing like the Beegees before too long!
Then a crawl through a nice arch before reaching the top of the first pitch - a 25 foot electron ladder climb down into a chamber with a pool at the bottom (that pool was to prove most handy later on!) where naturally enough the electron ladder was rigged directly under the falling water! A climb up and out of the chamber and across Idiots Leap - a gap over a deep rift before another traverse above the stream and onto the second (shorter) pitch - another electron ladder climb down taking us back to the level of the stream - some crawling and squuezing taking us through some fantastic chambers - plenty of calcite flow, some huge ripple like curtains of Stalagmites and Stalagtites and every now and again - the gleam of Iron pyrites formations in the walls - we eventually reached the end of the system (for the non diver at least!) where a deep pool drops away to a sump...After enjoying what remained of my Snickers bar (in future don`t put your snickers in top of your wellie - particularly if the wellie is full of water!) we headed back out.
Unfortunately, like a great big girl (apologies to any lady readers) I really struggled on the electron ladders coming out - I don`t think my big fat fur-lined moon boots helped - they barely fitted between the rungs! On the lowest pitch I struggled to get my fingers under the rungs where the ladder was over a boulder - worse was to come on the second pitch my first attempt resulted in my dropping off the ladder halfway up and falling backwards into the pool - thankfully it was there to break my fall - in the end I climbed up and around the side of the chamber so I only had to use the electron ladder for the final half of the climb - even so without some vigorous verbal encouragement! I`m not sure i`d have made it up!!! Big thanks to Boyd and pete who waited in the cold for my strength (and bottle!) to return... Having hurt my ankle dropping off the ladder it was a bit of a slog getting out of the final section of the cave and daylight was greeted with more than the usual relief!!

All in all it was a top day out - thanks to the lads from the OCC and can`t wait to try it again - but with proper wellies next time - not my big fat monstrosities...

 

[Sewer Rat]

Oh my god, there was me thinking i was a brave little soilder slipping down a few cracks with a little stream.and 1 (crap i think im stuck ) bit.
Baptisim of fire
or sombody didnt like you.

Well done!..........and i cant wait for it to happen to me

 

[Stu]

- worse was to come on the second pitch my first attempt resulted in my dropping off the ladder halfway up and falling backwards into the pool - thankfully it was there to break my fall - in the end I climbed up and around the side of the chamber so I only had to use the electron ladder for the final half of the climb -

Why didn't your lifeline stop you decking?

 

[jasonbirder]

Lifeline slowed my fall but still ended up on back in pool...
Oops!

 

[Stu]

I bet the air was blue!! :crazy: