thehungrytroglobite
Well-known member
having done the esoteric squeeze in question myself, I noticed no notably esoteric features about it besides some mild angular awkwardness
what is an esoteric squeeze? and a capricious duck?
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Cantclimbtom
Well-known member
OK, so what's a "capricious duck"?
Is it one that can be wet or dry with no discernable pattern to the weather?
Is it one that can be wet or dry with no discernable pattern to the weather?
A_Northerner
Active member
Assuming the esoteric squeeze you're referring to is the one that's referred to as such in the NFTFH guide to Prov-Dow (there may be others, but I'll use this one as an example). Then I think esoteric is quite a good description of it - I did the trip with another caver, we reached the choke in question and knew we were looking for an "esoteric squeeze" but couldn't find it. We spotted a handline going up and knew this was a bypass to the squeeze, so we went that way instead. Unfortunately there wasn't a handline on the climb back down the other side, my partner deftly downclimbed the ~8m chimney, which flutes outwards towards the bottom, however I have much less confidence in free-climbs and prefer a good squeeze, so I went back and had another crack at finding the squeeze. We found it basically by having him return back along the passage and getting me to spot his light through the choke.
I think it's "esoteric" in the sense that it's quite obscure; the obvious way on through the choke is straight ahead but it's far too narrow to actually get through, with the actual squeeze being back and to the left, at head height so easy to miss. Because there is an option to bypass the squeeze with a free-climb up and over the choke, people can do the trip without locating the squeeze at all, which means the obscurity persists as it isn't the only way on, and maybe only 50% of the people that do the trip actually know where the squeeze is.
One thing you have to remember about route guides is that the language used to describe caves can be very repetitive, so when you're writing out a description you often reach out for synonyms that are only tenuously relevent to the information you're trying to convey. There's only so many times you can write "the way on is through an obscure squeeze" before you drive yourself insane.
I think it's "esoteric" in the sense that it's quite obscure; the obvious way on through the choke is straight ahead but it's far too narrow to actually get through, with the actual squeeze being back and to the left, at head height so easy to miss. Because there is an option to bypass the squeeze with a free-climb up and over the choke, people can do the trip without locating the squeeze at all, which means the obscurity persists as it isn't the only way on, and maybe only 50% of the people that do the trip actually know where the squeeze is.
One thing you have to remember about route guides is that the language used to describe caves can be very repetitive, so when you're writing out a description you often reach out for synonyms that are only tenuously relevent to the information you're trying to convey. There's only so many times you can write "the way on is through an obscure squeeze" before you drive yourself insane.
shotlighter
Active member
No, it's probably the "mallard with attitude" from the Giants thread.Laurie said:
